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Legislation Information
With the huge amount of legislation information available it can often be confusing for companies to know the best way to handle their lamp disposal needs. Within this page J&G Lampcare have compiled all the relevant legislations into one quick and easy guide. Simply use any of the shortcut links beneath to jump directly to the desired topic.
 Why are lamps classified as hazardous waste?
Fluorescent tubes, gas discharge and end of life lamps containing mercury are now classified as hazardous waste. There is enough mercury in one single fluorescent tube to contaminate up to 30,000 litres of drinking water. Consider how many lamps and tubes you use and imagine how much damage they could cause to the environment when disposed of incorrectly. A quick call to J&G Lampcare will solve this problem instantly!
| | Environmental Protection Act 1990
Section 34: Duty of Care |
The Environmental Duty of Care places a legal obligation on the producers of Controlled Waste. This aims to prevent another person committing an offence by depositing, disposing or recovery of controlled waste without a waste management license. This means that controlled waste must be transferred only to authorised bodies such as licensed waste carriers, holders of waste management licenses, etc. A written description called a Controlled Waste Transfer Note is transferred between the two parties when waste is transferred and this must be retained by both parties for 3 years.
The Control of Pollution (Amendment) Regulations 1989
Requires that anyone transporting waste, which is not their own waste, must register with the Environment Agency which you will be aware costs approx £117 for three years. The advice from the Environment Agency is that:
Electrical contractors, wholesalers or manufacturers who have contracts in place with their clients for the supply of new lamps and the removal lamps from the client's sites could argue that the ownership of the lamps is retained by the electrical lamp supplier. Under this situation the electrical contractor, wholesaler or manufacturer is legally allowed to transport his own waste without being a licensed waste carrier.
Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994
Any site where waste is deposited or stored other than the site where it is produced should be licensed under these regulations. However there are exemptions available under certain situations. Schedule 3 - Exemption 40- (1) allows:
• The storage of non-liquid waste at any place other than the premises where it is produced if: (a) it is stored in a secure container or containers, (b) Does not at any time exceed 50 cubic metres in total and is not kept for a period longer than 3 months.
• The person storing the waste is the owner of the container or has the consent of the owner;
• The place where it is being stored is not a site designed or adapted for the reception of waste with a view to its being disposed of or recovered elsewhere; and
• Such storage is incidental to the collection or transportation of the waste.
The Landfill Directive
Currently in the UK, under the Landfill Directive, we now have three categories, (1) Being Inert; (2) Non Hazardous; and the most serious (3) Being Hazardous. Lamps and tubes containing mercury can only be taken to hazardous sites of which there are approximately 10 with this categorisation, the majority of these sites are situated in the North of England.
The number of landfill sites licensed to take special waste was reduced from 250 to 10 in the summer of 2004 thus reducing the dumping of lamps in the current method. These sites have been placed under much more strict guidelines in order to massively reduce the amount of hazardous waste being placed in landfill. The sites that are still able to handle lamps will undoubtedly charge more and insist on the lamp waste being crushed to reduce the volume, which in itself is as expensive as recycling and not seen as "Best Practise".
The WEEE Directive
The Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) Directive was passed in February 2003 and came into effect in 2004. It sets a target of 80% recycling of all UK lamps containing mercury. Currently in the UK only 5% of lamps are being recycled and the remaining 95 million are now to be tackled.
The directive insists that the mercury content in a lamp is treated and therefore can only be done by distilling the phosphor for 14-16 hours, which means recycling, is the only option for end of life lamps.
There may be an introduction of a "visible fee" from the producers who are now responsible for providing a solution for lamps. The producers current proposals are to charge a small fee when lamps are purchased so that domestic waste from households can take the lamp to a Civic Amenity site at their council (who generally only permit householders to deposit waste) and for no extra fee they will take this waste stream and pass it on to the recycling companies.
In the case of businesses this "visible fee" will only offer a contribution towards the recycling costs and will not for example pay anything towards the collection of lamps from your sites or the containers, which the lamps are stored in. Additional arrangements or existing arrangements will provide this service.
The RoHS Directive
The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (effective from August 04) has already been passed and it bans the substance that makes our competitors cringe, the mercury. Lampcare's in house distiller was purposely bought and installed to comfortably control this problem for our clients. All of the phosphor in lamps collected by Lampcare will be distilled in-house (so you can visit and carry out a waste trail audit for your duty of care inspection) and the mercury is returned to industry for reuse.
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