R v Environment Agency, ex parte Dockgrange Ltd and Another
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 22 May 1997 |
| Date | 22 May 1997 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
Queen's Bench Division
Before Mr Justice Carnwath
Environmental protection - waste materials - assigning categories
On the proper interpretation of EC Regulation 259/93 (OJ 1993 L30/1), which regulated the shipment of waste for recovery, a mixture of imported waste materials, all of which were individually assigned to the green list of the least harmless material, was not by reason of the fact of mixture alone to be treated as unassigned waste which was subject to the more restrictive red list procedures.
Mr Justice Carnwath sitting as an additional judge of the Queen's Bench Division so ruled allowing an application by Dockgrange Ltd and Mayer Parry Ltd for judicial review by way of a declaration in respect of the decisions/policy of the Environment Agency to take enforcement action against them from October 1996.
Mr Michael Fordham and Mr Richard Macrory for the applicants; Mr James Findlay for the agency.
MR JUSTICE CARNWATH said that the applicants were concerned in the importation of specific types of waste for the purpose of metal recovery. The recovered metal was sold to scrap dealers and the unwanted material was sent to landfills. The imported waste had been through various processes at plants in Holland and Germany and the activities in the United Kingdom were the last stage in the cycle.
Council Directive 75/442/EEC (OJ 1975 L194/39) of July 15, 1975 laid down the requirement for an integrated system of control of waste disposal installations in member states. Its preamble emphasised the need to protect human health and the environment against the harmful effects of the collection, transport and treatment of waste but it also emphasised that "the recovery of waste and the use of recovered materials should be encouraged in order to conserve natural resources".
The preamble to Regulation 259/93 explained that its purpose was the need to "organise the supervision and control of shipments of waste (so as to) preserve, protect and improve the quality of the environment".
The shipments of waste for recovery were regulated by listing three categories of assigned waste, green, amber and red, which attracted differing degrees of regulatory control. The green wastes were were regarded as posing the least environmental problems and attracted the least restrictive regime.
The annexes contained detailed lists respectively of green, amber and red...
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