What is Waste?

There are two ways of defining waste, the first is the view of the individual or organisation involved in any activity from life itself to sophisticated technical manufacturing producing a product and an unwanted by-product, thereby defined as waste, it may be however, that this by-product is useful in another process.  This complication over individual or corporate interpretation of what is waste has led to strict legal definition to ensure that all wastes produced is handled according to the laws and regulations.

From the Environmental Protection Act 1990 waste includes any substance which constitutes a scrap material, an effluent or other unwanted surplus arising from the application of any process or any substance or article which requires to be disposed of which has been broken, worn out, contaminated or otherwise spoiled; this is supplemented with anything which is discarded otherwise dealt with as if it were waste shall be presumed to be waste unless the contrary is proved.  This definition was amended by the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994 defining waste as 'any substance or object which the producer or the person in possession of it, discards or intends or is required to discard but with exception of anything excluded from the scope of the Waste Directive.'

Therefore, the producer of a waste must ask themselves certain questions which will help identify it as a waste, such as, is it a scrap material? Is it an unwanted surplus substance? Broken or worn out? Anything discarded or otherwise dealt with as if it were a waste.

Types of Waste

Having defined the material was waste, various pieces of legislation including the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 and the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994 seek to further define the types of wastes as they are legally defined by the processes or premises from which they are produced. 

Controlled waste encompasses household, industrial and commercial waste. 

Household waste is that which arises from dwellings of various types including houses, caravans, houseboats, campsites, prisons and wastes from schools, colleges and universities. 

Commercial waste comes from premises used wholly or mainly for trade, business, sport, recreation or entertainment; excludes household and industrial waste. 

Industrial waste is waste from a factory or industrial process; it excludes wastes from mines and quarries and agricultural wastes. 

Wastes from agriculture (non natural wastes) and mining and quarrying recently came into the same controlled waste regime.

Some controlled wastes are further classified and subject to further regulation because of the nature of the waste and the need to handle them differently. 

Clinical waste comes from hospitals, nursing homes, dentists, surgeries etc. and can include wastes from the household. 

Similarly, hazardous/special wastes are hazardous for a variety of reasons including toxicity, explosiveness etc.  They also must be handled and dealt with differently to other wastes.