Find out if your waste falls into one of the hazardous waste categories.
April 2011 update
Our technical guidance document WM2 has been updated. Version 2.3 includes:
- guidance on the new hazardous property H13 sensitizing
- the original H13 that is amended and moved to H15 addressing ongoing change to chemical legislation
- an amended assessment framework
The new hazardous properties are to be used for assessing waste from 28 March 2011.
Is your waste hazardous?
Some types of waste are harmful to human health, or to the environment, either immediately or over an extended period of time. These are called hazardous wastes.
Wastes will fall into one of three categories, those that are:
- Always hazardous
for example, lead acid batteries or fluorescent tubes.
- Never hazardous
for example edible oil
- May, or may not, be hazardous and need to be assessed
for example, ink or paint
We have put together two documents to help you determine if your waste is hazardous or not:
Additional guidance on assessing specific waste types is provided on our website:
Changes to Table 3.2 of the European CLP Regulation (updated December 2010 for the 1st ATP)
The European CLP Regulation (CLP) covers the classification, labelling and packaging of substances and mixtures. Table 3.2 of the CLP will now be updated periodically as a result of the adaptions to technical progress (ATPs). You should ensure that you are using the most recent version of Table 3.2 for hazardous waste classification.
The 1st ATP, a major revision of Table 3.2, was introduced on 1 December 2010 and must be used for hazardous waste classification and assessment from that date. The revision amended or added a large number of entries in this table, including nickel and many of its compounds.
The revised classifications are already incorporated into the European Chemical Substances Information System (ESIS):
The second ATP focuses on the CLP assessment methodology that has not been adopted by waste legislation at this time.
The CLP regulation containing Table 3.2 and information on ATPs that contain the new and amended entries only, can be found at:
Amendments to WM2 (updated for April 2011 changes)
Technical guidance WM2 is amended periodically to reflect changes in legislation. The last update to version 2.3 was in April 2011.
This version provides guidance on the assessment of the new hazardous property H13 Ssensitizing and the renumbered and amended H15 ‘waste capable by any means, after disposal, of yielding another substance, e.g. a leachate, which possesses any of the characteristics (H1 to H14)'.
In addition, the assessment framework was updated to reflect changes in waste legislation and the introduction of Table 3.2 of the CLP, in April 2009.
A full list of changes can be found in the WM2 change log:
The changes to WM2 from version 2.2 to 2.3 are updates required primarily due to the deletion of the Approved Supply List (ASL) and the introduction of the new hazardous property 'Sensitization' by the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011. There are other items that have not yet been addressed so a further revision has been planned for later this year.
This revision will, for example, update and reintroduce some of the examples that were previously in Appendix B of the document, revise references to test methods in Appendix C and bring Appendix D (Data Sources) up to date.
As these are required by changes in legislation and data sources we will not be formally consulting on this further revision. However, if you would like to comment on specific items that have been affected by such changes please contact Robert McIntyre:
