Legislation

This section provides guidance on legislation relevant to collections and management of HH type waste. It does not cover all aspects of the legislation, therefore for comprehensive advice; users are encouraged to visit the appropriate Government department or regulatory agency website. Links are provided here. The intention here is to summarise general requirements and as conditions may vary, specific guidance will need to be sought for individual sites.
Further guidance on the practical implications that recent and forthcoming changes to legislation will have for the management of household hazardous (HH) type waste can be found in the good practice section.
Within this guide, there are references to regulations, legislation and European Union directives. As a member of the European Union, the UK is bound by European directives. The relationship between them is explained below.


European Union Directive: a directive is a legislative act from the European Union which requires member states to achieve a particular result without dictating the means of achieving that result. Directives allow member states some leeway as to the exact rules to be adopted. A list of European environmental legislation is available here. 

Legislation: this is the act of making laws, in the UK by the Government. Before legislation becomes law it is known as a Bill, and after enactment, it is known as an Act of Parliament.

Regulation: this is a law or rule laid down by the Government and it is secondary legislation which is used to implement a primary piece of legislation.

An example is the Batteries Directive, Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators. This was published in the Official Journal on 26 September 2006. The UK and all other Member States have a deadline of 26 September 2008 to transpose the provisions into national law. As a result, in December 2007, the Government held a stakeholder consultation on the implementation of the Batteries Directive to help develop the regulations.

 

 

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