EPA Issues Guidance on By-Products

Declaring residuals from a production process to be a by-product, as opposed to a waste, can reduce both cost and environmental impact.

The EPA has recently issued step-by-step guidance to assist notifiers on how to submit a by-product notification to the Agency via the EDEN online portal. It includes information on gaining access to the "By-Product Module" and completing the online notification form.

In general, both waste and by-product are considered “production residue”. When determining whether a production residue is a by-product or a waste, the four conditions of being a by-product as defined under Article 27 of the Waste Directive Regulations (2007) are required to be met. These four conditions are:

- the further use of the substance or object is certain; (Article 27(1)(a));

- the substance or object can be used directly without any further processing other than normal industrial practice; (Article 27(1)(b));

- the substance or object is produced as an integral part of a production process; (Article 27(1)(c)); and

- the further use is lawful in that the substance or object fulfils all relevant product, environmental and health protection requirements for the specific use and will not lead to overall adverse environmental or human health impacts (Article 27(1)(d)).

In order to be determined a by-product, the material must meet each of the four conditions above.

EPA guidance on making a notification on the on-line EDEN system can be found here https://www.epa.ie/publications/licensing--permitting/waste/by-product-n...

EPA draft guidance on by-product classification can be found here https://www.epa.ie/publications/licensing--permitting/waste/draft-by-pro...

April 2022