Andusia welcomes the recent announcement by Defra on reforms to the waste carriers, brokers and dealers (CBD) registration system in England, and we look forward to seeing the proposals taken forward.
We believe the reforms, which seek to tighten existing regulation to help combat illegal activities such as fly-tipping, are much-needed as the current system makes it hard for regulators like the Environment Agency to target high risk waste operators properly.
As a reputable waste broker, we felt it was important take part in the consultation process around the reforms and have our say. It’s good to see that our concerns, and those of others we respect and work with in the industry, have been taken on-board by Defra.
In particular, we support the move to bring the CBD registration regime into the environmental permitting regulations. This will ensure that any company who is registered will be fully vetted and approved to ensure they are operating legitimately.
Issuing permits will also improve transparency for suppliers and customers, as these permit numbers will need to be displayed by CBD operators on their advertising and made readily available for inspection during any enforcement activity.
We are fully supportive that waste exporters will be covered as Controllers within these regulations and that further training/accreditation will be required above and beyond UK controllers of waste in the UK. We also hope these regulations will close existing loopholes to help tackle illegal waste shipments of waste.
Given that any UK movement of waste to ports for overseas shipping will still likely be captured by the CBD reforms, it would make sense to extend and strengthen the regulation when it comes to the export process too. We look forward to engaging with Defra’s proposals with regards to waste shipments when they come out.
In the meantime, we hope the CBD reforms are robust enough, and go far enough, in tackling the criminal elements that continue to blight our sector and undermine its reputation – they are long overdue.