Last updated: (February 2005)

Introduction

This sheet provides brief guidance on key environmental legislation for the electronics industry. In this instance, the electronics industry is considered to include: bare board manufacture, PCB assembly and the manufacture and/or assembly of electronic items.

Liquid wastes

  • Discharges of trade effluent into the sewer usually require a consent.
  • In England and Wales, under the Water Industry Act 1991.

- In Scotland, under the Water (Scotland) Act 1980 as amended by the Water Act 1989.

- In Northern Ireland, under the Water Act (Northern Ireland) Act 1972. It is shortly to be repealed and replaced with the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999.

  • Discharges of effluent and stormwaters to controlled waters, such as streams and ditches, usually requires a consent from the environmental regulators.
  • In England and Wales, the Environment Agency issues consents under the relevant sections of the Water Resources Act 1991, as implemented by The Control of Pollution (Applications, Appeals and Registers) Regulations 1996.
  • In Scotland, consents to discharge are issued by SEPA according to regulations made under Part II of the Control of Pollution Act, S.34 – the Control of Pollution (consents for Discharges) Secretary of State Functions) Regulations 1984 and the Control of Pollution (Discharges by Islands Councils) (Scotland) Regulations 1993.
  • In Northern Ireland, Article 9(3) and Schedule 1 of the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 apply.
  • Where a site is considered to represent a threat to controlled waters, or has caused pollution, a works notice can be issued to require a site owner or occupier to take remedial action.
  • In England and Wales, this notice can be issued under the powers contained within the Water Resources Act 1991 and the Anti-Pollution Works Regulations 1999.
  • In Scotland, SEPA has these powers under the Control of Pollution Act 1974.

- In Northern Ireland, articles 16-19 of the Water (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 will have the same effect once these have been implemented.

Solid wastes

  • In England, Wales and Scotland, the Environmental Protection (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991 require you to keep all wastes safely on your site. When wastes are transferred to a waste carrier, a transfer note should be signed and this must be kept on your records for at least two years. In Northern Ireland, Article 5 of the Waste and Contaminated Land Order 1997 will bring the transfer note system into force.
  • Wastes must only be carried by licensed carriers unless the waste is your own and is also not construction and demolition wastes.
  • In England, Wales and Scotland, the relevant legislation is the Controlled Waste (Registration of Carriers and Seizure of Vehicles) Regulations 1991
  • Similar regulations now apply in Northern Ireland under the Waste and Contaminated Land Order 1997. Applications for registration were required by 11th March 2000.
  • Hazardous wastes, such as many of the waste chemicals produced by the PCB industry, are classified as ‘Special’. The regulations require that the regulatory authorities assign a unique number to each consignment. Most movements of special waste need to be pre-notified.
  • In England, Wales and Scotland, the relevant legislation is the Special Waste Regulations 1996.
  • In Northern Ireland, the relevant legislation is the Special Waste Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998.
  • The landfill tax was introduced in October 1996 under the Landfill Tax Regulations 1996 and applies to England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. It is currently charged at £10 per tonne for all wastes disposed by this route; this charge is anticipated to rise by £1 per tonne each year for the next few years. Certain waste categories are exempt from the tax, however none of these apply specifically to the PCB industry. The aim of the tax is to discourage landfilling and promote those waste management options which are further up the waste management hierarchy, such as waste reduction and recycling.

Packaging

  • In England, Wales and Scotland, the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 apply to all businesses which import, manufacture, fill or sell more than 50 tonnes of packaging in a year, and who have a turnover of more than £2 million. As with all sectors of UK industry, these regulations have a significant impact on large electronics companies at all points in the supply and packaging chain. In Northern Ireland, The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999 have the same requirements.
  • All businesses who pack, fill or import packaging in the UK have three obligations under the Packaging (Essential Requirements) Regulations 1998:

- you have to ensure that packaging is minimised, subject to safety, hygiene and consumer acceptance requirements
  • when packaging becomes waste, it must be recoverable through at least one of recycling, incineration with energy recovery, and composting or biodegradation
  • the amount of heavy metals in the packaging must not exceed 250ppm, dropping to 100ppm after 20th June 2001.

Atmospheric emissions

  • An Air Pollution Control authorisation is required from the local authority where a process uses and releases significant volumes of organic solvents to atmosphere. Of particular relevance to the electronics industry are solvent uses, such as degreasing units or the use of liquid photoresists, if the amount of solvent used is more than 5 tonnes in any 12 month period.
  • In England, Wales and Scotland, the relevant legislation is the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Environmental Protection (Prescribed Processes and Substances) Regulations 1991.
  • In Northern Ireland, the relevant legislation is the Industrial Pollution Control (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 and the Industrial Pollution Control (Prescribed Processes and Substances) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998.

Statutory nuisance

  • In England and Wales, Part III of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 as amended by the Noise and Statutory Nuisance Act 1993 enables local authorities to take steps to control statutory nuisances in their district. A statutory nuisance includes a range of issues, but examples are the emissions of fumes, gases or smoke from a premises which is prejudicial to health or a nuisance. It also covers any accumulation or deposit, or animals or noise, which is prejudicial to health or a nuisance. The Environment Act 1995 extends these provisions to Scotland. There is no Statutory Nuisance legislation in force in Northern Ireland.
  • In addition, it should be noted that the concept of public and private nuisance is well established in Common Law within Great Britain.

Future legislation

Waste Electrical Equipment

Under the draft EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment, a proportion of all electrical and electronic equipment will have to be recycled. In addition, it is possible that the Directive will require the elimination of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium and halogenated flame retardents in most electronic equipment in EU member countries.

At present, the earliest date for phase-out of these materials in the UK will be 1st January 2004. However, there have been considerable delays in agreeing the draft Directive and as a result implementation is likely to be postponed to a later date. A formal draft of the Directive has yet to be published.

Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control

The UK is consulting on the implementation of the European Union Directive 96/61 on IPPC into national legislation. The fourth consultation paper on the Directive was issued by DETR and the Welsh Assembly in August 1999. It is anticipated that a further round of consultation will be necessary before the regulations are finalised. It is proposed that IPPC will apply to a wide range of sectors, including the following activities:

  • surface treating metals and plastic materials using an electrolytic or chemical activity where the aggregated volume of the treatment vats exceeds 30 m3
  • surface treatment substances, objects or processes using organic solvents, in particular for dressing, printing, coating, degreasing, waterproofing, etc, with a consumption capacity of more than 150kg per hour or more than 200 tonnes per year.

IPPC is similar in scope to the existing Integrated Pollution Control regime, but should place additional controls on resource consumption, noise emissions, and contaminated land. As with IPC, it will require operators to operate their processes using Best Available Techniques (with the ‘Not Entailing Excessive Cost’ provision implicit in the Directive. The Scottish Government is consulting on similar regulations for Scotland.

Contaminated Land and Water

The UK has been consulting on a new regime for contaminated land and groundwater for the past five years. The Environment Act 1995 enacts the framework across the UK.

  • In England, draft enabling legislation has been published under the Contaminated Land (England) Regulations
  • The Welsh and Scottish assemblies will be responsible for introduction of the legislation in their respective countries
  • In Northern Ireland, the Wastes and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 makes similar provisions for dealing with contaminated land.

It is anticipated that these regulations will be implemented in mid-2000, although this timescale has changed considerably over the past three years.

Contaminated land is defined within draft statutory guidance published for the English regulations as:

"any land which appears to the local authority in whose area it is situated to be in such a condition, by reasons of substances in, on or under the land, that

a)significant harm is being caused or there is a significant possibility of such harm being caused; or

b)pollution of controlled waters is being, or is likely to be, caused;"

Remediation

On the basis of the current draft statutory guidance, where there is considered to be a "significant risk...of significant harm" or the "pollution of controlled waters", a regulatory authority may require the remediation of contamination. In such cases, the regulatory authority must first consider whether it is possible to find the original polluter and hold that party liable for the contamination.

In certain circumstances (ie when the original polluter cannot be found "after reasonable enquiry") the current owner or occupier of the site may be held liable rather than the original polluter. However, it is unclear at the present what "reasonable enquiry" will amount to. The draft guidance indicates that the current owner or occupier may also have to bear liability where the site has been sold at a discount by the polluter, or if the polluter has disclosed all information about the contamination.

If the site owner or occupier is not considered to be the source of the pollution (ie is an "innocent owner"), the liability will extend only to the boundaries of his/her property, even if migration of the contamination has occurred outside this boundary.

In the event that remediation is required by the regulatory authorities, the national guide values (or a risk assessment methodology) will probably be used as an indication of the remediation standards required. The UK operates a policy of remediation to a ‘Suitable for Use’ standard, with clean-up being required to a level compatible with either the current or future use of a site.

However, under the current draft of the IPPC regulations, sites falling under IPPC would have to remediate sites at the end of their life to the same standard as when IPPC applied to the facility.

Relevant legislation

To see all relevant legislation go to NetRegs