Waste management - sampling and reporting at materials facilities: draft code of practice

2. Monitoring and Enforcement

2.1. Notification to SEPA

6. Authorised MF operators receiving, or likely to receive, 1,000 tonnes or more of dry recyclable waste in any reporting year, and who have obligations under the code in line with Table 1, are required to notify SEPA immediately that they are in scope. SEPA should also be advised if circumstances change such that the facility is no longer in scope.

7. Where an MF has not previously received 1,000 tonnes or more of dry recyclable waste in any reporting year and, during the course of a reporting year, proceeds to receive 1,000 tonnes or more of dry recyclable waste for the first time, the authorised MF operator must notify SEPA immediately that they are in scope. At the time of notification, the authorised MF operator must seek agreement from SEPA on a timescale for commencement of sampling and reporting. However, sampling must commence no later than the second reporting period after the date on which the cumulative total of dry recyclable waste received in that reporting year reaches 1,000 tonnes.

2.2. Enforcement

8. Compliance with the requirements of this Code is a condition of the authorised MF operator’s waste-management licence and/or PPC permit or, as the case may be, exemption from the requirement to have a waste-management licence. Compliance will be enforced by SEPA.

9. All those subject to the conditions of the Code should be aware that section 34(10) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 makes provision for any Code issued under section 34(7) to be admissible as evidence in any legal proceedings, for example in determining whether an authorised MF operator has failed to comply with the duty of care in section 34 of the 1990 Act or their authorisation conditions by failing to comply with the terms of the Code.