Find out if you can achieve end of waste status for your waste or product.
End of waste can normally be determined using one of three methods:
- compliance with end of waste regulations
- meeting a quality protocol
- through an end of waste submission
End of waste regulations
Go to our end of waste regulations webpage to find information about when the European Commission’s regulations came into force and what they require:
Quality protocols
Quality protocols set out end of waste criteria for the production and use of a product from a specific waste type. Compliance with these criteria is considered sufficient to ensure that the fully recovered product may be used without undermining the effectiveness of the Waste Framework Directive and therefore without the need for waste management controls.
Quality protocols aim to provide increased market confidence in the quality of products made from waste and so encourage greater recovery and recycling.
Quality protocols being considered
We are considering whether it is possible to develop quality protocols for the following wastes:
There are currently no plans to consider the development of quality protocols for any other waste streams.
We have produced a regulatory position statement which sets out our regulatory approach for use of some of these materials while quality protocols are being considered. Separate regulatory position statements have been produced for the use of treated asphalt waste containing coal tar in construction operations and the use of PAS 108 tyre bales in civil engineering works. These can be found by following this link.
Quality protocol not produced
It was decided that quality protocols could not be developed for the following materials because it has not been possible to demonstrate that end of waste criteria can be met:
- cathode ray tube (CRT) glass
- contaminated soils
- marine dredged materials
- pulverised fuel ash and furnace bottom ash - unbound applications
- uncontaminated soils
Current consultations
We've developed a quality protocol setting out proposed criteria for the use of biomethane, produced from biogas generated at landfills and anaerobic digestion treatment plants. This will apply where it is used as fuel for vehicles or supplied through the gas grid. The quality protocol will help ease the regulatory burden on businesses by defining when the material ceases to be waste and no longer subject to waste management controls as well as making a contribution to renewable energy.
We have carried out an online public consultation for 12 weeks which closed on 12 September 2012. The responses received are now being used to decide whether changes are required to the Quality Protocol. A summary report of the consultation responses and our response to them shall be available from the consultation website in early November 2012. You can access it using the link below.
Further information
For further information on quality protocols, please contact contact your local Environment Agency office or call our National Customer Contact Centre on 03708 506 506.
End of waste submissions
We want to reduce bureaucracy by removing regulatory control from end of waste products. At the same time we will make sure we protect the environment and human health.
We will give you our view on whether your product meets the end of waste test.
We want to facilitate the recovery or recycling of waste for use as a resource to directly replace use of raw materials.
Our aim is to reduce pollution, fossil fuel use and the demand for raw material.
Do you process waste to produce a product?
Does it meet the end of waste test?
Find out how to complete an end of waste submission for our consideration:
What do we base our view on?
We assess all submissions on a case by case basis and apply:
- waste law principles
- waste framework directive
- OSS test [the case of R (on the application of OSS Group Ltd) v Environment Agency and others ([2007] EWCA Civ 611) (“OSS”) where Lord Justice Carnwath established a test to determine when waste lubricating oil ceased to be waste, having been subject to a waste recovery operation].
The Environment Agency can only take a view based on the information provided in a submission, because whether something is waste or not is ultimately a matter for the courts to decide.
The OSS test
Our view is that the test set out in the OSS case is directly applicable to any waste-derived fuels, not just waste lubricating oil, and indeed to any waste-derived product which meets the ‘test’. So we will assess whether:
- the waste has been converted into a distinct and marketable product
- the processed substance can be used in exactly the same way as a non-waste, and
- the processed substance can be stored and used with no worse environmental effects when compared to the raw material it is intended to replace
