The Landfill (Scotland) Regulations 2003

PART ISPRELIMINARY

Citation, commencement and extentS

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Landfill (Scotland) Regulations 2003 and shall come into force on the day after the day on which they are made (hereinafter referred to as “the relevant date”).

(2) These Regulations extend to Scotland only.

InterpretationS

2.—(1) In these Regulations–

[F1“the 2012 Regulations” means the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2012;]

[F2“Batteries Directive” means Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on batteries and accumulators[F3, as last amended by [F4Directive (EU) 2018/849]F5 of the European Parliament and of the Council];]

[F6“ battery” means any source of electrical energy generated by direct conversion of chemical energy and consisting of one or more primary battery cells (non-rechargeable) or one or more secondary battery cells (rechargeable; an accumulator), but does not include—

“biodegradable waste” means any waste that is capable of undergoing anaerobic or aerobic decomposition, such as food, garden waste, paper and cardboard.

[F7“European Waste Catalogue” means the list of wastes set out in Commission Decision 2000/532/EC establishing a list of wastes, [F8as last amended by Commission Decision 2014/995/EU,]]

[F9“hazardous waste” means any waste which is special waste in terms of regulation 2 of the Special Waste Regulations 1996 F10,]

“holder” means the producer of waste or the person who is in possession of it;

[F11“industrial battery” means any battery or battery pack which is—

“inert waste” means waste which–

• – does not undergo any significant physical, chemical or biological transformations;

• – does not dissolve, burn or otherwise physically or chemically react, biodegrade or adversely affect other matter with which it comes into contact in a way likely to give rise to environmental pollution or harm to human health; and

• – has insignificant total leachability and pollutant content and ecotoxicity of its leachate are insignificant and, in particular, does not endanger the quality of any surface water or groundwater;

“isolated settlement” means a settlement –

“landfill” means a landfill to which these Regulations apply (see regulations 3 and 4);

[F12“Landfill Directive” means Council Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste[F13, as last amended by [F14Directive (EU) 2018/850 of the European Parliament and of the Council]F15, as read with Council Decision 2003/33/EC establishing criteria and procedures for the acceptance of waste at landfills pursuant to Article 16 of and Annex II to that Directive;]

“landfill gas” means any gas generated from landfilled waste;

“landfill permit” means the permit which is required by [F16the 2012 Regulations] for the carrying out of the disposal of waste in a landfill;

“leachate” means any liquid percolating through deposited waste and emitted from or contained within a landfill;

F17. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

[F18“municipal waste” means—

but does not include waste from production, agriculture, forestry, fishing, septic tanks and sewage network and treatment, including sewage sludge, end-of-life vehicles or waste generated by construction and demolition activities,]

“non-hazardous waste” means waste which is not hazardous waste;

“operator” has the meaning given by regulation 2(1) of [F16the 2012 Regulations];

[F19“portable battery” means any battery or battery pack which—

“relevant authorisation” means, in relation to a landfill, the landfill permit or waste management licence for the time being in force in relation to the landfill;

“relevant waste acceptance criteria” means, in relation to a landfill, the waste acceptance criteria set out in Schedule 2 which apply to the class of landfill to which that landfill belongs;

“treatment”[F20, except in relation to waste batteries,] means physical, thermal, chemical or biological processes (including sorting) that change the characteristics of waste in order to reduce its volume or hazardous nature, facilitate its handling or enhance recovery;

[F21“waste” has the same meaning as in section 75(2)(a) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 F22 as read with section 75A of that Act,]

[F23“Waste Directive” means Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste and repealing certain Directives, as last amended by [F24Directive (EU) 2018/851 of the European Parliament and of the Council]F25,]

“waste management licence” means a waste management licence within the meaning of Part II of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 F26...

[F27(1A) In relation to batteries and subject to regulation 2(1), expressions defined in Article 3 of the Batteries Directive have the same meanings in these Regulations as in that Directive.]

[F28(1B) Expressions not defined in paragraph (1) and used in these Regulations and in the Landfill Directive have the same meaning as in that Directive.]

(2) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires, any reference to–

(a)a numbered regulation or Schedule is a reference to the regulation in, or Schedule to, these Regulations bearing that number; and

(b)a numbered paragraph is a reference to the paragraph in that regulation or Schedule bearing that number in the regulation or Schedule of which that paragraph forms part.]]

Application of regulationsS

3.—(1) Subject to regulation 4, these Regulations apply to landfills.

(2) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (4), for the purposes of this regulation a landfill is a waste disposal site for the deposit of the waste onto or into land.

(3) Landfills include–

(a)subject to paragraph (4), any site which is used for more than a year for the temporary storage of waste; and

(b)any internal waste disposal site, that is to say a site where a producer of waste is carrying out its own waste disposal at the place of production.

(4) Landfills do not include–

(a)any facility where waste is unloaded in order to permit its preparation for further transport for recovery, treatment or disposal elsewhere;

(b)any site where waste is stored as a general rule for a period of less than three years prior to recovery or treatment; or

(c)any site where waste is stored prior to disposal for a period of less than one year.

Cases where regulations do not applyS

4.  These Regulations do not apply to–

(a)the spreading of sludges (including sewage sludges and sludges resulting from dredging operations) and similar matter on the soil for the purposes of fertilisation or improvement;

(b)the use of suitable inert waste for redevelopment, restoration and filling-in work or for construction purposes;

[F29(ba) waste which falls within the scope of the Management of Extractive Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2010;]

(c)the deposit of–

(i)non-hazardous dredging sludges alongside the bank or towpath of a small waterway from which they have been dredged where that activity falls within the exemption from waste management licensing in paragraph 25 of [F30Schedule 1 to the Waste Management Licensing (Scotland) Regulations 2011];

(ii)non-hazardous sludges in surface waters, including the bed and its sub-soil;

(d)any landfill which finally ceased to accept waste for deposit before 16th July 2001.

LocationS

5.  A planning permission under the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 M1 may be granted for a landfill only if the requirements of paragraph 1(1) of Schedule 3 to these Regulations have been taken into consideration.

Exemptions from certain provisions of regulationsS

6.  The provisions of these Regulations specified in Schedule 1 shall not apply to–

(a)a landfill site on an island which on the date these Regulations come into force has remaining landfill capacity, and which–

(i)is the only landfill on the island;

(ii)is used exclusively for the disposal of waste generated on that island; and

(iii)is for non-hazardous or inert wastes with a total capacity not exceeding 15,000 tonnes or with an annual intake not exceeding 1,000 tonnes,

until the total capacity of that landfill site has been used; and

(b)a landfill site for non-hazardous or inert waste in isolated settlements provided that site is used for the disposal of waste generated only by that isolated settlement.

List of sitesS

7.  SEPA shall–

(a)prepare a list of all sites that fall within Regulation 6, no later than 16th April 2003 and send that list to Scottish Ministers; and

(b)for each site, by 16th July 2003 and thereafter at least annually, carry out visual inspections of waste at the point of deposit to ensure that only non-hazardous waste from the relevant island or isolated settlement is accepted at it.

Extension of categories of landfill subject to the 2000 Regulations etc.S

F318.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .