PFO Supplier Conformance
The ORA /Oil Care Campaign Code of Practice and Licensed Quality Scheme
Section 3 of the Processed Fuel Oil Quality Protocol sets out the detailed requirements that suppliers of these materials into England, Wales and Northern Ireland must meet in order to conform to regulatory standards. Similar requirements exist in Scotland. It is deemed a Duty of Care for users to ensure that products claimed to meet the Quality Protocol actually do so. The Oil Recycling Association and the Oil Care Campaign have jointly established a licensed audited scheme for PFO production. Holders of a current licence will have been subjected to an audit designed not only to ensure compliance with the Quality Protocol but to a wider standard encompassing their capabilities of managing incoming oil wastes, their storage and processing, as well as the supply and transportation of output fuel. The Oil Care Campaign was set up by the Environment Agency in association with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Northern Ireland Environment Agency and industry associations to reduce oil pollution by providing guidance on and facilities for the safe disposal and management of oil. It comprises a wide number of cross party interests from Government, Regulators, Local Authorities and a number of Oil Industry Trade Associations representing suppliers and users of petroleum products. Current Registered members are listed below with registration expiry dates:
Legislation Overview
Important Hazardous Waste and Recycling Information can be found on the UK Government (DEFRA) Website.
Hazardous Waste Legislation
This is a complex matter involving detailed permitting/licensing procedures and usually the concept of audit trails. ORA recommend to those wishing to understand the policies and framework of UK legislation to search the DEFRA web pages.
End of Waste
An important concept of European waste legislation is that once something is a waste it remains controlled within waste legislation until it stops being a waste. A recovery/recycling operation or waste treatment procedure alone does not necessarily confer End of Waste status on the substances or materials being treated.
This area is fraught with legal complexity but is truly pertinent to the case for the reuse of previously used oils. ORA members can offer to guide enquirers on this topic and its relevance to certain classes of fuels that can be given official end of waste status and thus used essentially uncontrolled from the requirements of waste legislation. These are generically called Processed Fuel Oils.
UK Hazardous Waste Regulations
Hazardous Waste Regulations are appropriate to England, Scotland and Northern Ireland being derived from EU ΓÇÿumbrellaΓÇÖ waste Directives. There are however different interpretations within the UKΓÇÖs regions and its devolved governments / associated regulatory regimes, so please check accordingly.
This important information for across the United Kingdom can be found at:
- England and Wales
- Northern Ireland
- Scotland
ORA members of course will be pleased to help waste producers to manage their waste both legally and responsibly.
Processed Fuel Oil (PFO) Quality Protocol
For a complete list of members registered for the voluntary ORA Audit scheme please visit the PFO Supplier Conformance Page.
Applicability
England, Wales and Northern Ireland and Scotland*
This article is an extract from the Environment Agency /Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) Quality Protocol dated February 2011. The background to this and details of the full Quality Protocol is available at End of waste criteria for the production and use of processed fuel oil from waste lubricating oils.
Background
Uncertainty over the point at which waste has been fully recovered and ceases to be waste within the meaning of Article 3(1) of the EU Waste Framework Directive now (2008/98/EC) has inhibited the development and marketing of materials produced from waste which could be used beneficially without damaging human health and the environment. In some cases, this uncertainty has also inhibited the recovery and recycling of waste and its diversion from landfill.
Interpretation of EU legislation is ultimately a matter for the courts and there is now a substantial body of case law on the interpretation of the definition of waste in Article 3(1) of the Waste Framework Directive. Drawing on the principles established in this case law, it is possible to identify the point at which certain wastes cease to be waste and thus when the Waste Framework DirectiveΓÇÖs waste management controls no longer apply. This identification is the purpose of the Waste Protocols Project.
More specifically, depending on the circumstances of the waste concerned, the project seeks to achieve the following outcomes:
- To produce a Quality Protocol identifying the point at which waste, having been fully recovered, may be regarded as a non-waste product that can be either reused by business or industry, or supplied into other markets, enabling it to be used without the need for waste management controls.
- And/or to produce a statement that confirms to the business community what waste management controls they must comply with.
- Following the Court of Appeal judgement in OSS Group Ltd v Environment Agency (2007) the Court suggested that DEFRA and the Environment Agency should provide practical guidance for those affected on what it referred to as ΓÇ£the end of waste testΓÇ¥.
The Environment Agency decided that this guidance should take the form of a Quality Protocol, and established a Technical Advisory Group comprising relevant industry specialists and Government departments to examine this issue fully and provide the basis for such guidance.
The methodology used was to be analogous to that applied to previous Quality Protocols produced by the Waste Protocols Project.
What is a Quality Protocol?
A Quality Protocol sets out end of waste criteria for the production and use of a product from a specific waste type. Compliance with these criteria is considered sufficient to ensure that the fully recovered product may be used without undermining the effectiveness of the Waste Framework Directive and therefore without the need for waste management controls. In addition, a Quality Protocol indicates how compliance may be demonstrated and points to good practice for the use of the fully recovered product.
The Quality Protocol further aims to provide increased market confidence in the quality of products made from waste and so encourage greater recovery and recycling.
The Purpose of this Quality Protocol
This Quality Protocol for Processed Fuel Oil has three main purposes:
- To clarify the point at which PFO ceases to be waste and waste management controls, including the Waste Incineration DirectiveΓÇÖs controls, are no longer required.
- To provide users with confidence that the PFO they purchase conforms to an approved standard.
- To protect human health and the environment.
Further Detail
It is very important to understand both the context of and the detail, including technical requirements, contained within the Quality Protocol. The official Regulatory position on this can be found at: PFO Protocol and readers are accordingly directed to this information.
Scotland
There is a similar position applicable to Scotland and readers are directed to the Scottish Environment Protection AgencyΓÇÖs (SEPA) web pages.
The appeal concerned the limited question “…whether a lubricating oil, thus not originally used as a fuel, which becomes waste can thereafter be burnt other than as waste”. The conclusion was that, in order for a waste to cease to be waste “it should be enough that the holder has converted the waste material into a distinct, marketable product, which can be used in exactly the same way as an ordinary fuel, and with no worse environmental effects.”
