Guidance

Shredding waste upholstered domestic seating containing POPs: RPS 264

Published 19 December 2022

Applies to England

This regulatory position statement (RPS) does not change your legal requirement to take all reasonable steps to avoid contaminating other waste with persistent organic pollutants (POPs) when you shred waste upholstered domestic seating at a waste treatment site.

To meet this requirement when you collect, store, handle or dispose of waste upholstered domestic seating you must minimise the generation of particulates.

You must also minimise the release of particulates when shredding by abating emissions:

• directly from the shredder
• from the area around the shredder
• emissions from the shredder building

Waste upholstered domestic seating may contain POPs. A specialist test using x-ray fluorescence (XRF) is required to confirm if it contains POPs. If you accept waste upholstered domestic seating, unless you have written evidence that it does not contain POPs, you must manage that waste upholstered domestic seating as if it contains POPs.

However, the Environment Agency will not normally take enforcement action against you if do not comply with these requirements provided:

• your activity meets the description set out in this RPS
• you comply with the conditions set out in this RPS

In addition, your activity must not cause (or be likely to cause) environmental pollution or harm human health, or:

• cause a risk to water, air, soil, plants or animals
• cause a nuisance through noise or odours
• adversely affect the countryside or places of special interest

When this RPS applies

This RPS applies to waste treatment sites that shred waste upholstered domestic seating where:

• their permit allows them to store and shred domestic seating that has the 20 03 07 list of waste code
• they will send the shredded waste upholstered domestic seating to an appropriately authorised Industrial Emissions Directive Chapter 4 compliant permitted incinerator

Conditions you must comply with

You must notify the Environment Agency by email before you use this RPS. You must give these details:

• permit holder name
• permit number
• site address

Email popsinsofas@environment-agency.gov.uk

You must:

• install and commission equipment to capture and abate emissions by 1 December 2024

• email your proposed methods and timescales for installation and commissioning by 1 July 2023 to popsinsofas@environment-agency.gov.uk

Waste containing POPs must be destroyed or irreversibly transformed. Therefore, you must not:

• send whole or shredded waste upholstered domestic seating to landfill
• send shredded waste upholstered domestic seating for screening, sieving or trommelling

You must:

• store and shred waste upholstered domestic seating on an impermeable surface
• prevent water contaminated with particulates from shredding waste upholstered domestic seating entering drainage systems
• shred waste upholstered domestic seating inside a building or within a temporary waste storage shelter which is enclosed on 3 sides with a roof

You must minimise fugitive dust emissions from shredding waste upholstered domestic seating. Examples of methods you can use include:

• mist and spray over the shredder hopper, conveyor system and within buildings
• hoods on shredder outlets
• reduce how far the shredder material drops from conveyor systems into the storage areas
• dust suppression canons to control point source emissions of particulates
• adding binders to stockpiles of shredded material and to floors, for example calcium magnesium acetate
• cleaning the shredder and areas around it regularly to prevent build-up of particulates
• wind reduction netting or lamella curtains in wide doorways

You must:

• store the shredded waste upholstered domestic seating inside a building, in a sealed container or bale and securely wrap it
• send the shredded waste upholstered domestic seating, and any fractions from the shredding process for destruction at an appropriately authorised incinerator
• send any recyclates separated from the whole item for destruction, for example metal to a smelter, wood to an incinerator, unless you can show that they do not contain dust, fabric or foam that contain POPs – not to another recovery operation or to landfill

You must:

• keep records for 2 years to show that you have complied with this RPS and make these records available to the Environment Agency on request

When you must check back

The Environment Agency will withdraw this RPS by 1 December 2024. You will need to check back to see if it still applies

The Environment Agency can withdraw or amend this enforcement position before it expires if they consider it necessary. This includes where the activity that this RPS relates to has not changed.

If you cannot comply with this RPS

If you operate under this RPS but think you may no longer be able to comply with its conditions, you must tell the Environment Agency immediately.

Email popsinsofas@environment-agency.gov.uk

Contact the Environment Agency

If you have any questions about this RPS, email popsinsofas@environment-agency.gov.uk