The Waste Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2011

Interpretation of Part 3

9.—(1) In this Part the following definitions apply:-

“best available techniques” means best available techniques as defined in Article 2(12) of Directive 2008/1/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning integrated pollution prevention and control;

“bio-waste” means biodegradable garden and park waste, food and kitchen waste from households, restaurants, caterers and retail premises and comparable waste from food processing plants;

“broker” means any undertaking arranging the recovery or disposal of waste on behalf of others, including such brokers who do not take physical possession of the waste;

“collection” means the gathering of waste, including the preliminary sorting and preliminary storage of waste for the purposes of transport to a waste treatment facility;

“co-mingled collection” means the collection of waste streams intended for recycling together with each other but separately from other waste;

“dealer” means any undertaking which acts in the role of principal to purchase and subsequently sell waste, including such dealers who do not take physical possession of the waste;

“disposal” means any operation which is not recovery even where the operation has as a secondary consequence the reclamation of substances or energy (and Annex I to the Waste Framework Directive sets out a non-exhaustive list of disposal operations);

“hazardous waste” has the same meaning as given in regulation 6 of the Hazardous Waste Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 (waste which displays one or more of the hazardous properties listed in Annex III of the Waste Framework Directive);

“holder” means the producer of the waste or the natural or legal person who is in possession of it;

“household waste” means waste generated by households;

“material recovery” means any recovery operation, excluding energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials which are used as fuel;

“municipal waste” means household waste and similar waste;

“pollution of the environment” means pollution of the environment due to the release or escape (into any environmental medium) from—

(a)

the land on which waste is treated;

(b)

the land on which waste is kept;

(c)

the land in or on which waste is deposited;

(d)

fixed plant by means of which waste is treated, kept or disposed of,

of substances or articles constituting or resulting from the waste and capable (by reason of the quantity or concentrations involved) of causing harm to humans or to any other living organisms supported by the environment; and this definition applies in relation to mobile plant by means of which waste is treated or disposed of as it applies to fixed plant on land by means of which waste is treated or disposed of;

“preparing for re-use” means checking, cleaning or repairing recovery operations, by which products or components of products that have become waste are prepared so that they can be re-used without any other pre-processing;

“prevention” means measures taken before a substance, material or product has become waste, that reduce—

(e)

the quantity of waste, including through the re-use of products or the extension of the life span of products;

(f)

the adverse impacts of the generated waste on the environment and human health; or

(g)

the content of harmful substances in materials and products;

“producer” means any person whose activities produce waste (original waste producer) or any person who carries out pre-processing, mixing or other operations resulting in a change in the nature or composition of this waste;

“public consultees” means the persons to whose attention proposals for the waste prevention programme are brought by the Department pursuant to regulation 15(1)(b);

“recovery” means any operation the principal result of which is waste serving a useful purpose by replacing other materials which would otherwise have been used to fulfil a particular function, or waste being prepared to fulfil that function, in the plant or in the wider economy. Annex II to the Waste Framework Directive sets out a non-exhaustive list of recovery operations;

“recycling” means any recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or other purposes. It includes the reprocessing of organic material but does not include energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling operations;

“regeneration of waste oils” means any recycling operation whereby base oils can be produced by refining waste oils, in particular by removing the contaminants, the oxidation products and the additives contained in such oils;

“re-use” means any operation by which products or components that are not waste are used again for the same purpose for which they were conceived;

“separate collection” means the collection where a waste stream is kept separately by type and nature so as to facilitate a specific treatment;

“the Industrial Pollution Control Order” means the Industrial Pollution Control (Northern Ireland) Order 1997;

“the Waste Framework Directive” means Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste;

“the Waste Hierarchy” means the priority order which shall apply to the prevention and management of waste as follows—

(a)

prevention;

(b)

preparing for re-use;

(c)

recycling;

(d)

other recovery, e.g. energy recovery; and

(e)

disposal;

“treatment” means recovery or disposal operations, including preparation prior to recovery or disposal;

“waste” means any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard;

“waste management” means the collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste, including the supervision of such operations, the after-care of disposal sites, and actions taken as a dealer or broker;

“waste prevention programme” means one or more programmes of waste prevention measures established in accordance with regulation 10;

“waste producer” means any person whose activities produce waste (original waste producer) or any person who carries out pre-processing, mixing or other operations resulting in a change in the nature or composition of this waste.

(2) Subject to regulation 25, these regulations do not apply in relation to waste which is excluded from the scope of the waste framework directive by Articles 2(1), (2) or (3) of that Directive.