April 2011 update

EA technical guidance document WM2 has been updated. Version 2.3 includes:

• guidance on the new hazardous property H13 sensitizing
• the original H13 that is amended and moved to H15 addressing ongoing change to chemical legislation
• an amended assessment framework

The new hazardous properties are to be used for assessing waste from 28 March 2011.

Is your waste hazardous?

Some types of waste are harmful to human health, or to the environment, either immediately or over an extended period of time. These are called hazardous wastes.

Wastes will fall into one of three categories, those that are:

• Always hazardous
  for example, lead acid batteries or fluorescent tubes.
• Never hazardous
  for example edible oil
• May, or may not, be hazardous and need to be assessed
  for example, ink or paint

The Agency have put together two documents to help you determine if your waste is hazardous or not:

• What is hazardous waste? (version 5, updated April 2011) (PDF, 104KB) 
  A brief guide explaining the key principles of classification and assessment.

• Technical Guidance WM2 (version 2.3, updated April 2011) - Interpretation of the definition and classification of hazardous waste (PDF, 2.6MB)
  A more detailed technical guide for classification and assessment