Good news! After four years of intense lobbying by AVRO, the Environment Agency (EA) has finally relented to common sense and finer judgement. You may recall that back in 2005 the words were, ‘If it looks waste it is waste.’
This sentence and the meaning if policed to the letter of the description would have surely spelt a very difficult and costly future for all vehicle recovery operators in England and Wales and would doubtless have affected those based in other countries.
We reflect upon the situation and the EA standpoint when AVRO first met to discuss the guidance being distributed by their department on the subject. It suggested that a VRO would be required to decide if a vehicle was waste (soon to be categorized as hazardous waste) whilst still at the roadside. They would then be required to have a waste carriers licence, transporting the vehicle/waste to a property holding a hazardous waste management/site licence. Finally a decision by the owner/insurer or police would allow release of the vehicle most likely to an authorised vehicle dismantler.
There were a number of issues identified by AVRO that would need to be discussed in far greater detail as the current EA interpretation was unacceptable and was yet another example of what happens when the industry is not consulted. At this point it was clear the VRO had not been identified in the formation of legislation and the final interpretation.
Firstly, there was no way a vehicle recovery operative or operator could make a decision about another person’s property being waste, nor could it be said that police evidence should be declared waste as the dictionary definition of the word means ‘useless’. AVRO were naturally strongly supported by ACPO in this instance.
There was a case for VRO’s to hold a waste carriers licence without any admittance the vehicle they were to carry was at that time at the roadside identified as waste, but conceiving there was the potential for the vehicle becoming waste.
After declaring ‘If it looks waste it is waste’, there would then be a requirement for a VRO to hold a waste management/site licence costing around £5,000 with an annual renewal but far worse than this would be the fact that the property would now be classed as a hazardous waste site. AVRO were aware that a good number of members leased their property and it would be a certainty that many of their landlords/ladies would not accept their property becoming a hazardous site and there was potentially other implications associated with the property being labelled in this way in some locations. But even worse than all this was the cost of clearing up a hazardous waste site should the VRO decide to leave the industry. One member who had closely monitored the EA situation, took the time out to obtain a quotation for a site clean up should they decide to get out of the business, they were quoted £450,000 but that was priced at today’s rates.
So what exactly have AVRO managed to achieve?
Decisions on what becomes hazardous waste will not be considered at the roadside by anyone.
VRO’s will not be required to have a waste management/site licence and their property will not become a hazardous waste site.
There are some requirements the EA still insist upon but AVRO had no justifiable reason to defend a suitable alternative.
Therefore a VRO should consider holding a waste carriers licence. A VRO should not dismantle vehicles on their site. They should have an impermeable surface and interceptors to cater for the amount of vehicles they would expect to hold at any one time that have the potential to leak pollutants.
This is a good result for all independent vehicle recovery operators but more importantly it is a great result for AVRO members. Merry Christmas!
