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

3. General obligations

This section applies to any MF operator with input sampling requirements under section 4, and/or output sampling requirements under section 5, and/or next and end destination reporting requirements under section 6.

3.1. Recording and reporting obligations

10. Authorised MF operators with sampling obligations under this Code must report the results of material sampling to SEPA every three months.

11. Under the Code the first reporting period will start on 1 October 2024, and testing should commence from this date. In any year, there will be four reporting periods. Reports must be submitted in electronic format in a form specified by SEPA and within one month of the end of the reporting period as set out below:

a) 1 April to 30 June with reports to SEPA due by 31 July.

b) 1 July to 30 September with reports to SEPA due by 31 October.

c) 1 October to 31 December with reports to SEPA due by 31 January.

d) 1 January to 31 March with reports to SEPA due by 30 April.

12. All information obtained and recorded under this Code must be kept for a minimum of seven years from the date it was recorded and must be made available to SEPA upon request.

3.2. Sampling

13. This subsection sets out some general rules applying to both input sampling under section 4 and output sampling under section 5 of this Code.

14. If the sample contains material fragments, they will be deemed to contain the same proportions of material grades as those making up the non-fragment section of the input sample. It is therefore not expected that operators separate fragments into their relevant category, but simply record and report the total fragments, which will be apportioned automatically.

15. Glass does not need to be separately identified as packaging, unless SEPA directs the authorised MF operator to do so, specifies the minimum number of samples required for each supplier, and gives at least four weeks’ notice prior to commencement of the reporting period during which the samples are to be taken.

16. The authorised MF operator must ensure that the sampling methodology used to analyse the composition results in samples that are representative of the materials comprising the waste material from which they are taken. This is to ensure that samples accurately reflect the composition of the overall waste material. The sampling methodology must be recorded and made available to SEPA upon request.