7. Waste storage, segregation, transfer and handling

Appropriate measures for waste storage, segregation, transfer and handling.

The following measures apply to all processes and operations.

1. Your facility must have enough physical and permitted capacity for the wastes, raw materials and 鈥榚nd of waste鈥� materials that you store on site.

2. You must comply with the limits set in your environmental permit and with any additional regulatory requirements that may apply, for example, the:

  • Animal By-Products (Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013
  • COMAH regulations

3. You must store all waste on an impermeable surface with contained drainage that meets the recommendations of CIRIA 736.

4. Storage area drainage must:

  • contain all possible contaminated run off
  • prevent incompatible wastes coming into contact with each other
  • make sure that fire cannot spread
  • be designed to allow access for inspection and cleaning

5. Where possible you must keep clean rainwater separate from wastes and waste waters to limit storage requirements.

6. You must store waste in locations that minimise handling waste and have handling procedures in place.

Only competent staff must handle waste. They must use appropriate equipment.

7. Where possible, you must locate storage areas away from watercourses and sensitive perimeters (for example those close to public rights of way, housing or schools).

8. You must store all waste within the security protected area of your facility to prevent unauthorised access and vandalism.

9. Your management system and odour management plan must clearly state the maximum storage capacity of the site and the designated storage areas.

10. You must provide signage that clearly states the maximum quantity and types of waste that can be stored in an area. You must communicate these maximum capacities to site operatives.

11. You must define capacity in clear terms, for example:

  • maximum tank or vessel capacities
  • tonnage
  • number of pallets or containers

12. You must regularly monitor the quantity of waste stored on the site and in designated areas to check you do not exceed the maximum storage capacities.

13. For in vessel composting and AD, available storage capacity and throughput will be influenced by the period of time the waste is in the treatment vessels. You must make sure you have sufficient capacity to store waste inputs and outputs, taking account of the loading rate and capacity for treatment. Information on determining capacity is available in Regulatory Guidance Note 2.

14. You must store highly putrescible wastes, including odorous and ammonia-rich wastes and wastes containing animal by-products, in a contained or enclosed building.

The building should be fitted with an appropriately engineered extraction and ventilation system, with the air extracted and directed to a suitable abatement system. You can install localised point source air extraction in buildings to minimise a source emission from that locality.

For liquid wastes this is either:

  • a sealed tank fitted with an air control system which may include air circulation
  • local extraction to a gas recovery plant or engineered abatement system

15. Your storage areas must be large enough to manage foreseeable changes in feedstock supply and your ability to despatch outputs without causing pollution. For example, during:

  • public holidays
  • periods of adverse weather
  • seasonal peak volumes of waste acceptance

16. You must not over accumulate wastes. You must treat wastes or remove them from the site as soon as possible. You must prioritise the treatment or off-site transfer of waste based on:

  • its type
  • its age on arrival
  • date of arrival
  • duration of storage on site

17. Storage area surfaces used for putrescible waste must be of a type and quality suitable for effective cleaning and or disinfection. You must put procedures in place and use them to make sure that surfaces are regularly cleaned or disinfected (or both).

18. You must design your storage facilities and procedures to make sure there is no cross-contamination between inputs and outputs of the process, and during the treatment cycle (where applicable). For example, during the sanitisation and stabilisation of composting waste.

19. For waste in storage you must follow the first-in, first-out principle. You must also identify and prioritise dealing with wastes with a higher risk of causing odour, litter or pest problems. You can do this by filling and emptying bays alternately or operating an all-in, all-out approach.

20. You must make your on-site waste inventory readily available.

21. You site must have safe pedestrian and vehicular access (for example, for forklifts) (at all times) to storage areas so that you can retrieve waste safely.

22. You must design bunkers, bays and pits so that waste and debris does not build-up in inaccessible areas such as corners. You must regularly clean bunkers, bays and pits.