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In this edition we update on the work of our expanding team as we start to tackle hazardous waste consignments  

Project update

Over the last couple of months we have increased our agile team resources and now have two teams working side by side developing the waste tracking service. The original team continues to enhance our prototype for recording an export of green list waste to address the problem ‘Where is waste going to?’ and a new team has started work on the problem ‘Who is handling the waste?’, focussing on completing and agreeing a three-party transaction for a hazardous waste consignment in the first instance. 
 
For the green list waste prototype we have been working with a range of users to help us make the user journey for reporting an export as effective and efficient as possible. Soon we will be talking to businesses that import green list waste to better understand the import process as there is currently no requirement in any of the UK nations for Annex VII forms for imports to be submitted to the agencies.   
 
We began a discovery for hazardous waste in October 2021 and started by reviewing the information we gathered during previous phases of the project on hazardous waste processes, users and their needs. A gap analysis identified the areas where we need to do more research to better understand the needs of our users and that research is now underway.  
 
One of the cross-cutting topics we are also investigating is technology choices. Our solution architect is looking at how common government platforms that identify users and manage their accounts might integrate with agency platforms that hold information on regulated activities relevant for waste tracking such as permits, carrier registrations etc. Work is also on-going to look at service login and access, including user authentication and account management. 
 
Work continues to progress under the Agency Readiness work stream. The  four environment agencies are currently tackling key topics that will identify requirements for the system build and help each agency to prepare its people, processes and technology for the implementation of waste tracking. Working groups have been set up to look at charging, service support, data standards, data sharing, data retention and data protection and privacy standards. As part of the data sharing work a workshop was held in November with data protection experts in the four agencies and Defra to explore the options for sharing data and data protection and privacy standards for waste movements across the four nations. 

Call for help from importers of green list waste

As explained in the project update above we have limited knowledge about green list waste importers and would like to engage with these businesses to understand more about their issues, needs and business processes. 

If you 
are interested to help us then please contact our user researcher Jeff Plant at jeff.plant@defra.gov.uk.
 

Environment Act 2021

The Environment Act 2021 received Royal Assent on 9 November 2021.  

 

It sets new environmental targets for air and water quality, biodiversity, waste reduction and resource efficiency. A new independent Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) was created under the Act to enforce the targets and hold government and public bodies in England to account on their environmental obligations. 

 

The Act provides the powers for mandatory digital waste tracking to be introduced.  

 

Section 58 amends the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to create powers to introduce electronic (digital) waste tracking in England, Wales and Scotland and to establish an electronic system for that purpose. 

 

Section 59 amends the Waste and Contaminated Land (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 to create powers to introduce electronic (digital) waste tracking in Northern Ireland and to establish an electronic system for that purpose.  

Waste tracking consultation

We expect to publish the waste tracking consultation early in 2022. We will issue a short newsletter to alert you once it is published. 

The responses we receive will be fed back to the digital development team as service requirements which need to be further iterated and tested through service design and usability testing.
 

User panel activities

In December as part of our discovery for the problem ‘Who is handling the waste?’ we issued a survey to around 650 members of our user panel who indicated that they produce or handle hazardous waste. The survey was to understand more about the problems users face when arranging, tracking or reporting the movement or transfer of hazardous waste. It will also gather information on the potential benefits for users of recording hazardous waste movements and transfers in the proposed new online digital waste tracking service. 


We are continuing to carry out usability testing of the green list waste prototype with exporters to test new functionality as it is developed.  

 

In January and February we will be contacting a number of local authorities to do further user research with them to gain a more detailed understanding of their needs from the waste tracking service. We will ensure we contact a broad range of authorities, of different sizes and responsibilities, from across the four UK nations. 

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If you have any questions or comments you can contact me at wastetracking@sepa.org.uk

Cindy Lee
Newsletter Editor

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