R (OSS Group Ltd) v Environment Agency
Waste lubricating oil which has been processed into fuel oil can cease to be waste when it is ready to be used as fuel in the same way as a virgin fuel, without special environmental precautions.
Facts
OSS Group collected waste lubricating oil from garages and other sources, processed it to remove contaminants, and sold it as fuel oil to be burned in industrial plants. The Environment Agency took the view that the processed oil remained waste until it was burned, so that its combustion was subject to the stricter regime for burning waste. OSS sought a declaration that the processed oil ceased to be waste once it had been processed.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal held that the Environment Agency had applied the wrong test. Carnwath LJ said that the question of when waste ceases to be waste depends on whether the material has been fully recovered, so that it can be used in the same way as a non waste product, with no worse environmental effects. The fact that the material is to be burned does not necessarily mean that it is being discarded. If the processed oil could be used as fuel in the same way and with the same environmental effects as virgin fuel, it would cease to be waste. The case was sent back to the Agency to reconsider.
Related cases on pollution offences, contaminated land and waste
- Alphacell Ltd v Woodward [1972] AC 824
- ARCO Chemie Nederland Ltd v Minister van Volkshuisvesting Joined Cases C-418/97 and C-419/97, [2000] ECR I-4475
- Criminal proceedings against Van de Walle Case C-1/03, [2004] ECR I-7613
- Empress Car Co (Abertillery) Ltd v National Rivers Authority [1999] 2 AC 22
- Inter-Environnement Wallonie ASBL v Région Wallonne Case C-129/96, [1997] ECR I-7411
- Palin Granit Oy Case C-9/00, [2002] ECR I-3533
- R (National Grid Gas plc) v Environment Agency [2007] UKHL 30, [2007] 1 WLR 1780
- R v Thames Water Utilities Ltd [2015] EWCA Crim 960
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