Environmental Update

Vicki Cooper16th July 2015

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360 Environmental

• Established in 2007 following extensive careers in waste industry

• Focus primarily on providing environmental and waste legislation support – Environmental Management Systems (ISO14001 and CMS)– Waste optimisation and compliance audits– Permitting and planning – preparation, submission and

management through to successful conclusion– Management support for collection and treatment operations– Training – conduct regular waste legislation training days– Packaging compliance support

• Office in Leicester but operate nationally• 4 staff + associates

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What is ISO14001?• Introduced in 1996, the ISO 14000 family of

standards for environmental management was launched. It provides practical tools for companies and organizations looking to identify and control their environmental impact and constantly improve their environmental performance.

• The ISO 14001 standard is a framework for environmental management systems (EMS). It sets out criteria for an EMS that an organization can be certified to.

• The current version of ISO 14001 was published in 2004. The next revision of is scheduled for publication in 2015.

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ISO14001: 2015 Transition

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ISO 14001 : 2015 – Annex SL

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Key ChangesThe revision of ISO 14001 aims to integrate the organisation’s EMS into the core organisational strategy. To this end the following changes have been made:

• Increased accountability of leadership. Top management has been more closely defined, to make the EMS more strategic and integrated into the organisation’s decision-making.

• Life cycle approach. There is a requirement to consider environmental impacts throughout the value chain and consideration of life cycle issues (although no requirement for formal Life Cycle Analysis).

• Rethinking impact. This aim is to getting organisations thinking about the environment’s impact on them, rather than the impact they have on the environment, which is considered a significant weakness of the current version of ISO 14001.

• Risks and opportunities. There is a specific requirement to demonstrate how significant environmental risks and opportunities are managed within the supply chain. The organisation will need to show that it has made the link between environmentally driven issues and how they relate to the business, and how the interfaces with the business are managed.

• Pro-active reporting. The revision will require the organisation to more pro-actively consider the need for external reporting on environmental issues and to demonstrate much greater control on how it uses and manages environmental data

• Strengthened compliance. The clause on evaluation of compliance has been strengthened – previously there was a requirement to evaluate compliance, but in the proposed new standard, the requirement is to specify exactly how compliance is evaluated and recorded.

• Continual improvement. There is a stronger emphasis on the requirement for continual improvement, with a specific clause in place, in line with the policy set by top management, so there should be less room for misinterpretation

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Environmental Damage Regulations

• The Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) (England) Regulations 2015 will come into force on 19th July 2015

What is environmental damage

Environmental damage is damage to:• a protected species or natural habitat that has a significant adverse

effect on reaching or maintaining the favourable conservation status of the species or habitat

• a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) that has an adverse effect on the integrity of the site

• surface water or groundwater that triggers a drop in the status of the water body

• land that results in a significant risk of adverse effects on human health

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Environmental Damage Regulations

Environmental damage regime – at a glance Applies to serious cases of environmental damage to land, surface water, groundwater, marine waters, protected species and habitats.

Twin-track liability regime• strict liability for damage caused by environmental industry activities –

environmental permits, storage of chemicals, waste management, discharges to water;

• extra protection for damage to species, SSSIs and habitats – damage can be caused by “any activities” provided there was fault.

Legal duty to immediately notify regulators and to prevent damage If there is environmental damage or an imminent threat of environmental damage, operators must:

• immediately notify regulators, and• immediately take all practicable steps to prevent the damage and further

damage.

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Environmental Damage Regulations

• EDR does not apply to historic pollution before April 2007 EDR will never be a replacement for the contaminated land regime which is retrospective and applies to historic contamination.

The regulations do not apply to damage that occurred before the following dates:

• England - 1st March 2009• Wales – 6 May 2009• Scotland – 24 June 2009• N.Ireland – 24 July 2009

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Environmental sentencing—R v Thames Water Utilities

• On 3 June 2015, the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) handed down its decision in R v Thames Water Utilities[2015] All ER (D) 31 (Jun), which considered the Sentencing Council's Definitive Guidelines on environmental sentencing.

• The Court dismissed Thames Water's appeal against a fine of £250,000 for a pollution offence arising from escape of sewage from Thames Water’s pumping station in an area of outstanding natural beauty, contrary to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations, SI 2010/675, reg 38.

• The decision is a very clear indication from the Court of Appeal that the tariff for such offences, and similar regulatory offences, has very substantially increased.

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Circular Economy• EU Circular Economy Package is the key

resource driver• What is the Circular Economy?

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Circular Economy• Proposals for:

– 70% household waste recycling by 2030 (currently 50% by 2020 with UK on ~45%)

– 80% packaging recycling by 2030– Selective material landfill bans leading to total ban

on landfill by 2030 other than haz waste– Product design constraints to prolong life and

support reuse– Extended producer responsibility for wider range of

products– Full EU proposal to be revealed towards end of 2015

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Waste legislation• Separate collection requirements from 1 Jan 2015

like to be extended to businesses to put out waste separately (already in Scotland, Wales intends to apply from 2017)

• Packaging Waste Regulations targets will continue to rise to 2020

• WEEE targets will increase towards 2019 requirement for 60% recycling (now around 45%)

• Batteries regulations will see a change in portable battery definition in 2016 that will increase costs

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Waste legislation• Recent waste crime consultation indicates

tightening of enforcement to stamp out illegal sites

• Do you know where your waste is going?• Responsibility of the waste producer to

ensure their waste is:– Collected by a registered waste carrier– Has the appropriate documentation– Is being taken to a licensed site approved to

take their waste