About this project
This page provides information on the Waste Protocols Project and the Consultation process. Please click one of the links in the list below to find out more.
Overview of the consultation process
Overview Waste Protocols Project Back to top of page
Uncertainty over the point at which ‘waste’ is fully recovered and ceases to be waste has meant that some materials have continued to be controlled under the EU Waste Framework Directive and, in some cases, disposed of to landfill. To provide more certainty, to stop materials being landfilled unnecessarily and to increase the use of waste as a resource, the Waste Protocols Project has been set up.
The Waste Protocols Project is a Business Resource Efficiency project funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). It is a joint Environment Agency and WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) initiative in collaboration with industry.
The project aims to achieve one of the following outcomes:
- to produce a Quality Protocol defining the point at which waste may become a non-waste product or material that can be either reused by business or industry, or supplied into other markets, enabling recovered products to be used without the need for waste regulation controls;
- to produce a statement that confirms to the business community what legal obligations they must comply with to use the treated waste material.
A Quality Protocol gives guidance on how to recover waste, remove it from the regulatory regime and cut through red tape. Businesses which comply with a Quality Protocol may benefit from:
- cost savings and increased sales for business
- more efficient use of resources
- carbon savings
- reduced waste to landfill
More information about the Waste Protocols Project can be found on the Environment Agency’s website (opens in a new window).
Waste materials being considered Back to top of page| Year One | Year Two | Year Three | Year Four |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compost | Boiler ash from combustion of paper sludge (PSA) | Marine Dredged Aggregates | Tyre Bales |
| Waste cooking oil | Uncontaminated topsoil | Wood | |
| Flat glass | Steel slag | Poultry Litter Ash | |
| Non-packaging Plastics | Incinerator bottom ash | CRT glass | |
| Tyre-derived rubber materials | Gypsum from waste plasterboard | ||
| Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA) | Anaerobic digestate | ||
| Blast Furnace Slag (BFS) | |||
| Contaminated soils (washed/stabilised) |
Overview of the consultation process Back to top of page
- This website hosts consultations on Quality Protocols for several materials.
- For each consultation, there is a consultation phase (in which participants submit their views on a series of questions), followed by a review phase (where the responses are displayed back, along with a summary report)
- When you register, you can select the materials you are interested in by ticking the relevant consultation name.
- You only need to register once for all the Quality Protocol consultations. If you wish you can add consultations on additional materials at any time by logging in and going to the ‘Profile’ section. This section also allows you to de-register for a consultation and to update your contact details.
- After registering or logging in to the consultation, you will come to a page listing all consultations for which you have registered. Select the consultation you wish to work on by clicking on the relevant consultation name in the list.
- On the consultation pages you will find sections of the draft Quality Protocol followed by one or more questions at the bottom of the page.
- Each question is followed by a text limited response box. The box will allow you to submit up to 2,000 characters (including blank spaces).
- If you have a modem connection or experience interruptions of your Internet connection, we suggest that you prepare your responses in a Word document (which you save on your computer), and then copy and paste the response into the response box. This will make sure that you do not lose any part of your response due to connection problems.
- You can return to the site using your user name and password as many times as you wish during the first consultation session and edit or add to your submission.
How long does it take to take part in the consultation? Back to top of page
The time spent on responding to the consultation question will vary from participant to participant. When you are in the consultation section, the vertical navigation menu on the left hand side allows you to go straight to any part of the consultation which is of primary interest to you. You can either work your way through all consultation questions or select one or more questions that you find most relevant for yourself.
A green bar in the vertical navigation menu appears next to those sections to which you have responded.