Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2023

From October 2024 these new regulations will bring more waste facilities under the scope of the Material Facility (MF) regulations than previously. The amended regulations bring into scope facilities which receive single waste streams and facilities whcih consolidate waste material into bulk quantities. the regulations place the onus on the operator of the site to self-assess whether their facility is a MF under the regulations.

Which material facilites are in scope

A facility (or part of a facility) may be classed as a MF if you:

• hold a permit under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016
• receive and handle waste classed as waste material
• consolidate waste material into bulk quantities from multiple suppliers - for example, bulking or transfer stations
• sort incoming waste material into specified output materials, such as aluminium cans or cardboard

A facility (or part of a facility) will not be considered a MF if:

• it only receives waste material from a single supplier and does not seperate the material into specified out put materials
• It is a HWRC
• it solely undertakes the processing or sorting of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), waste batteries or accumulators.
• it solely undertakes the processing and sorting of residual waste.

Examples of materials facilites

Facilities likely to be considered MFs include

• materials recovery facilities (MRFs) sorting household dry recyclables
• Commercial and Industrial Waste facilities that receive waste material to consolidate or sort into specified output materials
• Waste Transfer Stations (WTS) that receive waste material to consolidate or sort into specified output materials
• facilites receiving and sorting single streams such as paper and cardboard
• facilities consolidating waste material received from 2 or more suppliers into bulk outputs

Facilites not likely to be considered MFs include:

• commercial and industrial MRFs that consolidate and sort commercial and industrial wastes, unless the commercial waste meets the definition of waste material
• MRFs or parts of MRFs sorting only residual waste (‘dirty’ MRFs)
• mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facilities, unless they accept material that meets the definition of waste material and undertake MRF operations on part of the site
• refuse derived fuel (RDF) including solid recovered fuel (SRF) production facilities
• MRFs sorting materials from Construction and Demolition Waste