We have been waiting for the Commencement Orders for large parts of the Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022 since it went on the statute book last summer. After the second commencement order in January of this year, that tackled some areas of waste collection permit administration, there has been a period of almost six months where no further Commencement Orders have been made. At the beginning of July three new regulations were issued at the same time SI 343, 344, 345 bringing into force a number of major new areas relating to the Circular Economy Act legislation package.
Measures needed to introduce new environmental and recovery levies are now in place and the old Plastic Bag Levy Regulations of 2001 are replaced with new Circular Ecomony Plastic Bag Levy Regulations and S72 of the Wastew Management Act has been repealed. The Environment Fund which has received revenue from both landfill levy and plastic bag levy since 2001, has also been replaced by the new Circular Economy Fund. Further measures to deliver on mainstream European requirements on single use plastics and extended producer responsibility have also been implemented. Part of the swathe of measures designed to strengthen the use of CCTV schemes have been commenced, initially focusing on the codes of practice that will be required to be in place before CCTV use for enforcement can be re commenced by many local authorities. Similar measures on CCTV have been commenced with respect to the Litter Pollution Act legislation.
Additional measures linked to the incentivised payment for commercial waste collection introduced at the beginning of July by NWCPO, are also found in this latest amendment of Section 34C of the Waste Management Act. On the 10th August the waste recovery levy regulations were published bringing into play the new Section 73A of the Waste Management Act, that has now been commenced. The primary legislation allowing for the introduction of end of waste and byproduct application and notification processes has been commenced with the introduction of a new section 75A in the Waste Management Act. Regulations for byproducts and end of waste approvals are expected to follow in January 2024.
Looking forward, the remaining elements of the Circular Economy Act of 2022 that need to be commenced include further detail on the operation of CCTV systems, Food waste prevention, fixed payment notices for Tyres, other broader measures on waste authorisations and some other aspects of waste collection permitting regulation. All of these new additions require regulations to follow now the Waste Management Act has been upgraded and these should appear in the near future. To stay up-to-date with our courses, please be sure to look out for our waste legislation update courses as well as our main waste training programme which commences again in September 2023.
To keep up to date with all of our news and updates, please be sure to follow Environmental Training Solutions on LinkedIn & Facebook.
Large sections of the Circular Economy Act commenced in July 2023 | Environmental Training Solutions 2023
