Waste management

Advice on all waste management matters

Waste management and disposal activities can have significant and long-term impacts on the environment. Attempts to reduce such impacts have seen many legislative reforms seeking to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and to minimise the impact of landfilling of waste. EU legislation has also focused on attempts to reduce the amount of waste to be managed through imposing requirements to recycle and reuse existing products. This is a complex and rapidly changing legislative and regulatory area in which we have significant experience.

We provide advice on all waste management, disposal and recycling issues including:

• Necessary consents for waste projects, which often involve complex matters relating to providing financial guarantees for compliance with permit conditions
• Making applications for waste projects and co-ordinating the obtaining of environmental permits and associated planning/zoning consents
• Industrial operators waste operations including on-site landfills and "cradle-to-grave" obligations for waste control and responsibility
• Recycling, re-use and recovery obligations including, eg. for waste packaging and more recently on how clients can prepare for requirements of the new EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive
• The ongoing application of conditions on licences, compliance matters and transfer of permit issues, permit surrenders including works required to remedy environmental harm caused by waste operations
• Post-disposal liability issues including the inter-relationship between different regulatory controls
• Transportation including importing and exporting waste and the use of waste in agriculture
• Waste management/landfill tax and credit systems and on landfill allowance trading

For more information on how we can help, contact a member of the Environment Group.