Agricultural Waste - More Detail

Agricultural waste is defined as ‘waste from premises used for agriculture within the meaning of the Agriculture Act 1947, the Agriculture (Scotland) Act 1948 or the Agriculture Act (Northern Ireland) 1949'. Agriculture may therefore include some activities undertaken by the HFE sector such as:

Horticulture
Fruit growing
Seed growing
Dairy farming and livestock breeding and keeping
Use of land as grazing land, meadow land, market gardens and nursery grounds
Use of land for woodlands where that use is ancillary to the farming of land for other agricultural purposes

Agricultural practice covers all activities that can occur on a farm or croft and includes activities such as slurry spreading, chemical and waste storage, silage making and waste pesticide disposal. The waste stream may include a range of items and materials that are not specific to agriculture such as packaging waste, tyres, batteries, scrap machinery and oil. In addition there will be waste that is more specific to the sector such as pesticide containers, silage wrap etc.

In Scotland, the introduction of the Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2005 has brought agricultural waste within the definition of controlled waste. Although this legislation contains exemptions for some agricultural waste management activities it has brought the majority of agricultural waste generated by the HFE sector in Scotland within the legislative framework for waste management and duty of care and means that waste disposal or recovery on farms will require a waste management licence or exemption and that agricultural waste will have to be disposed of, or recycled in ways that are not harmful to human health or to the environment.

Under current legislation the controls do not apply to any waste that is outside the scope of the Waste Framework Directive and is covered by other legislation e.g. animal carcasses and faecal matter.

The legislation requires that farmers must:

Send or take their waste for disposal off-farm at licensed sites
Register a licensing exemption with the Environment Agency to recycle waste on-farm; or
Apply to the enforcing authority for a Licence to continue on-farm disposal

In Scotland, any institution that operates an agricultural waste landfill should note that these are subject to the Landfill Directive requirements as a result of the Landfill (Scotland) Regulations 2003.

Unregulated burying and burning of agricultural waste on farms is prohibited.

It should be noted that agricultural waste may also be special/hazardous waste and that the Hazardous Waste Regulations in England and Wales apply from 1 September 2006.

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Agricultural Waste - More Detail

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