The Waste and Emissions Trading Act 2003 (“WET Act”) establishes a system of targets for reducing the amount of biodegradable municipal waste that is sent to landfill in each region in the UK and in the UK as a whole. This gives effect to the UK’s obligations under article 5(2) of Council Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste (OJ No L 182, 17.7.1999, p. 1).

Biodegradable municipal waste is collected and disposed of by local authorities and the private sector. The targets apply to both.

As part of ensuring that the targets are met, the WET Act requires the Welsh Ministers to allocate allowances to local authorities in their capacity as waste disposal authorities. Local authorities are allowed to landfill one tonne of biodegradable municipal waste for every allowance they hold. The detailed rules about how the system of allowances works are set out in The Landfill Allowances Scheme (Wales) Regulations 2004 (S.I.2004/1490 (W. 155)). That Scheme does not apply to waste disposed of by the private sector.

The term “biodegradable municipal waste” is used in the WET Act to refer to the waste covered by the Landfill Allowances Scheme and to refer to the wider category of waste covered by the targets. The WET Act is being amended to distinguish between the two. These amendments are being made by The Waste and Emissions Trading Act 2003 (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (S.I.2011/2499) which come into force at the same time that these Regulations come into force. The distinction is made by introducing the term “biodegradable local authority collected municipal waste” to refer to the waste covered by the Landfill Allowances Scheme. An associated amendment is made to introduce the term “local authority collected municipal waste” to distinguish municipal waste collected by local authorities from municipal waste that is not collected by local authorities.

These Regulations amend the Landfill Allowances Scheme (Wales) Regulations 2004 so that the new terms also apply in the 2004 Regulations. These are technical amendments that will have a neutral effect on local authorities and the business and voluntary sectors.

The amendments that these Regulations make to the 2004 Regulations were originally made by the Landfill Allowances Scheme (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (S.I.2011/2555 (W. 279)) which came into force on 21 November 2011. These Regulations revoke and remake those earlier Regulations to clarify the powers under which the amendments are made.

The Welsh Ministers' Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result it was not considered necessary to carry out a regulatory impact assessment as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations.