Special Waste (Scotland)

Until 2004 the principal legislation for Special Waste throughout the whole of the UK was the Special Waste Regulations 1996 (as amended). However the introduction of the Special Waste Amendment (Scotland) Regulations 2004 introduced legislation that applies only to Scotland and provides a definition for special waste that aligns it with the term hazardous waste, otherwise the 2004 amendments make very few changes to the existing regulatory regime.

In Scotland "special waste" means any waste that is hazardous waste as defined by Article 1(4) of the Hazardous Waste Directive. This includes substances or categories of substances that are waste and are marked with an asterisk in the European Waste Catalogue (EWC)

The majority of wastes that will be special waste under the Scottish Amendment Regulations are likely to have been special waste under the 1996 Regulations. There will, however, be some new special wastes relevant to the FHE sector, such as end-of-life vehicles before they are de-polluted and fridges that contain CFC, HCFC or HFC. A recent revision of the list given in the EWC includes some waste streams that were not previously considered to be hazardous and that routinely arise in the HFE sector such as fluorescent tubes, TV sets, computer monitors and some batteries. These wastes are now therefore special waste in Scotland. Another significant difference is that not all prescription medicines will be special waste in Scotland.

Special waste is subject to the Duty of Care and the requirements of the Environmental Protection (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991. Compliance with the Duty of Care, however, does not in any way discharge the need to comply with the Special Waste Regulations.

Segregation of special waste is now required by law. In addition, if one item of special waste is mixed with a consignment of household waste, this will result in the whole consignment having to be disposed of as special waste.

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Special Waste (Scotland)

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