Victoria’s new waste framework
Webinar 8th June 2021 transcript

Dan Hunt: Hello. My name's Dan Hunt, and I'm the Director of Regulatory Programs at EPA Victoria. Thank you for joining us today to learn more about Victoria's New Waste Framework. EPA acknowledges traditional people as the first peoples and traditional custodians of the land and water on which we live, work and depend. We pay respect to Aboriginal Elders, past and present.
As Victoria's environmental regulator, we pay respect to how country has been protected and cared for by Aboriginal people over many tens of thousands of years. We recognise the unique, spiritual, and cultural significance of land, water, and all that is in the environment and the continuing connection and aspirations for country of Aboriginal people and traditional custodians.
In this session, we'll focus on some of the key responsibilities and requirements if you produce, transport or save industrial waste in Victoria. Today we'll talk more about Victoria's new waste duties and waste classifications, how to classify and manage waste, requirements for business that generate transport and receive waste, the waste tracker system, accredited consigners, waste permissions, where to find more information and where to access applications and reporting tools. You'll note that for this session, we've changed our approach to make sure that we're in compliance with the current working restrictions.
Before we begin, I want to go over how the session will be run and the information that you will receive afterwards. We encourage you all to submit your questions throughout the webinar in the chat box on your screen. We'll be answering some questions about the waste framework within the chat and we'll direct some to a panel during question time at the end of the session.
Unfortunately, we won't be able to reply to everyone's questions, but we will incorporate them into future EPA communications and into our website content. Throughout the webinar, at times we'll be referencing the act and regulations. We'll also reference several pages of EPA website, content and publications we've produced as guidance to support your understanding of these new laws.
After this webinar, you will receive an email which will have the slides, and that'll allow you to click for every link and document that we'll talk about today. We encourage you to read this information to get more detail on each of the topics we're covering during the session. And we appreciate it if you can share this information back through your business and through the people in your supply chain.
Victoria's new environmental protection laws commence on the 1st of July this year. The new laws focus on preventing environmental harm from occurring. Your responsibilities exist for anyone who conducts an activity that might have an impact on the environment and human health. This includes production transportation and the receival of waste.
The new laws are based on what's called the General Environmental Duty, or the GED. Under the new laws, the General Environmental Duty, you're responsible for understanding and assessing the risks of your activities and the risks that they may pose and to eliminate or reduce those risks as far as reasonably practical.
With the new duties, there are strong penalties for those who breach them, which includes in some instances, imprisonment, penalties for body corporates, and now much higher with an upper penalty level of $1.6 to $3.2 million. Individuals who commit aggravated offences can receive a jail time of up to five years. These increased penalties recognise the seriousness of harm caused to human health and the environment. On EPA Victoria's website, we have webinars and information on the new laws, regulations and the GED, which we encourage you to view.
The aim of today's session is to point out the key principles and the requirements of Waste Management Victoria, under the new act and regulations. We'll leave you with a road map of the concepts and how to access further information, support, and guidance to help you take the required steps to ensure that you're in compliance with the new law. The new laws change how EPA operates, shifting to a preventative focus.
We will work with business to help everyone build their knowledge and ability to implement business practises that reduce risk. We'll do this by providing information for all businesses that includes sector specific how to guides, information about the new laws and regulations and guidance. In turn, we expect business owners and all authorities to learn what their obligations are and then comply with them.
We expect you to understand your duties as a producer, transporter or a saver of waste. So your business must assess the risks of harm to human health and the environment, put processes and controls in place to minimise the risks, respond quickly and seriously to EPA advice and suggestions when making changes, work to minimise environmental impact and repair any damage, be able to answer any questions and provide any information EPA might request.
We expect you to be open and honest in your dealings with EPA. We will take on an escalating approach to enforcement, depending on the circumstances surrounding any breach of the law. There is a wealth of information and resources for the waste and recycling industry available through EPA's website and through industry associations. The waste and recycling sector guide can help you identify which of your activities could cause harm for pollution and waste.
This guide includes information about your legal obligations, starting with the general environmental duty, EPA's approach to compliance and enforcement and common hazards in the waste and recycling sector. If you haven't done so already, now's the time to take action to prepare for the commencement of the new laws on the 1st of July this year.
What you need to do to comply depends on the scale of your activities and how complex they are. It also depends on the nature of the risks you need to manage. The new laws introduce new responsibilities called the waste duties. The duties apply to all parties within the waste chain of responsibility, including waste producers, waste transporters and waste receivers.
The regulations set out how duty holders must comply with the duties. These duties apply when you're in the management or control of industrial waste as it moves through the waist chain of responsibility. All parties in the waste framework have a responsibility when they are in management or control of waste to ensure it's taken to a lawful place.
Victoria's New Waste Framework ensures that industrial waste is properly classified and managed in a way that will prevent or reduce risk from occurring. When the waste passes for the framework, it creates significant risks of mismanagement and opportunities for criminal activity to occur. This includes little dumping or stockpiling of waste, risk of fire and inappropriate handling of hazardous materials.
The GED requires the businesses in management or control of waste, identify and implement controls to eliminate or minimise the risks associated with waste management. They're all size specific duties that relate to industrial waste called the waste duties. The waste duties help ensure that the resource value of the waste has the best chance of being recovered and that the waste does not become a problem for others to manage. There are three key elements of the waste duties, one, properly identify and classify the waste.
This makes it clear which duties apply to the waste, how to manage and where to send it. Two, ensure that it is transported appropriately. This includes providing sufficient information to the transportation company you're working with. And three, ensure that the waste is sent to a lawful place. We'll discuss each of these in more detail in today's session.
It's important for everyone with the waste management responsibility in the framework to understand the concept of lawful place. A lawful place is some authorised by EPA, through permission to receive specific types of industrial waste under law. If you create transport or receive waste, you must make sure that it ends up at a lawful place for reuse, recycling, treatment, storage or disposal. On EPA's website, there's more information and guidance about the different types of lawful place. Our presenters this morning will also talk about the types of lawful place.
It's important and there are penalties if your waste doesn't go to a lawful place of approximately $82,000 for individuals and $413,000 for companies. Someone convicted of an industrial waste duty offence twice in five years could face up to two years in prison. I'll now hand over to my colleague, Mark Bannister, talk us through the responsibilities of a waste producer. Over to you Mark.

Mark Banister: Thanks Dan. Hi, my name's Mark Bannister, I'm the team leader of waste and contaminated land policy at EPA. So this section is going to focus on the requirements and responsibilities of businesses that generate waste. Any business that produces waste is required to take all reasonable steps to ensure the waste you produced will be received at a place that is authorised to receive it, also known as lawful place.
By following the waste duties and sending your waste to a lawful place, you will help reduce risks from your waste. Producers of industrial waste must properly identify and classify it. This lets you identify which duties apply to the waste and what management is required.
The act defines waste broadly. The key element in understanding whether you have generated a waste is whether it's discarded, rejected, abandoned, unwanted, or surplus. This applies regardless of whether the waste has any use or value. Waste duties apply to industrial waste, which is waste arising from commerce, industry, trade or laboratories.
Waste duties encourage and facilitate lawful disposal and resource recovery. A lawful place is somewhere authorised to receive industrial waste under the law. If you create transport or receive waste, you have a duty to take all reasonable steps to ensure it ends up at lawful place. There are several ways for a site to qualify as a lawful place as seen on this slide. Ask the waste receiver, which one applies to their site to identify it's a lawful place.
A waste producer and transporter will be able to check the public register on EPA's website to make sure the waste receiver has a permission, authorising their facility to accept your waste. Tim, we'll speak about permissions later on in this webinar. Some sites may have an exemption granted by EPA, which you can also check on the public register. Lawful place pathways are described in detail in the EPA publication, how to establish your lawful place, which you can access on the EPA website. If you're a producer of waste, remember to ask them questions about where your waste is going and ask for proof that the waste would reach the destination.
So I'll explain declarations of use and designation at a little more detail here. Declarations of use, or DOU, is a self-assessed agreement that supports the safe reuse and recovery of materials that are derived from low risk wastes. You can make a DOU where you intend to use your industrial waste immediately at the site you're sending it to, without needing to process it further or store.
The DOU is a short two-page form that does not require EPA approval, notification or tracking. The DOU includes a declaration from both the producer and receiver. The producer makes a declaration that describes the waste, identifies legitimate uses for it, assesses its risks to human health and the environment, provides details about how to minimise those risks.
The receiver declares that the place or premises which the waste is to be received is suitable to use the waste. Both producer and receiver must sign the DOU. You cannot make a DOU if your waste is reportable priority waste that requires a transport permission. You cannot make a DOU for an activity that requires a permission or for material which is applied to land other than natural fibrous materials such as husks and untreated timber. You do not need to make a DOU if a determination applies. The declarations of use will be valid for up to 12 months, or if there's a significant change to the type of waste. So determinations are illegal instrument that allows EPA to set standards for industrial ways to be lawfully received. Determinations work to reduce regulatory barriers for safe and effective use and recovery of certain waste streams, particularly those are used at higher volumes. They are made by EPA and so it require specifications for the lawful deposit, transport and/or receipt of industrial waste subject to conditions of imitations.
This means the person, place or premises will be authorised to receive the industrial waste, provided the material matches what is described in a determination. A determination will allow waste to be deposited and received without the need for a written declaration. Our waste receiver must check that any material received meets the determination specifications.
The determinations generally contain relatively few specifications, but remember the general environmental duty will always continue to apply. Determinations can be revoked or amended over time by EPA. The EPA is starting out with four waste determinations for processed organic livestock when you are an effluent fill material and recycled aggregates. These will be published on EPA's website prior to one July, 2021. So this is a straightforward pathway to meeting the waste duties. It doesn't require any acknowledgement, paperwork or application to EPA.
Waste duties are tied to the type of waste which is referred to as the waste classification. If you're in management or control the industrial waste, it must be properly identified and classified. It is the first step that gives you the information you need to understand what your waste duties are and how to manage your waste. You will need to provide your classification information to the transporter that is collecting your waste.
Classifying waste also helps you understand the hazards and the containment and isolation requirements for its transport to a lawful place. It will also help you meet your obligations under the in general environmental duty. The classification process helps you identify appropriate controls to put in place to manage that waste legally and safely.
So Victoria's three new industrial waste classifications are shown in the images you see here. We've seen examples of each. Industrial waste includes commercial industrial or trade activities or from laboratories. Household waste, once it is gathered at a waste facility, for example, a transfer station, landfill materials, recovery facility, common examples are Aluminium, cardboard, cement shading, glass, textiles, paper, plastic, solid food waste and steel.
Priority waste is an industrial waste that carries additional obligations and can include solid or liquid waste. This can be due to its hazardous properties or its potential to facilitate resource recovery. Some examples are e-waste, liquid food and beverage processing waste, some industrial waste waters, septic tanks and treated timber. Septic tank waste rather and treated timber. Reportable priority waste carries the most stringent controls. It is reserved for some of the types of waste with the highest hazards if the waste is mismanaged. Some examples include paint and resins, heavy metal such as copper, mercury, or strong acids, alkalines and pesticides.
If you're a business generating or dealing with waste, you have duties. You need to manage your risk on site and when you dispose of the waste. Depending on the type of waste your business produces, you may have to make more than one duty to comply. The duties and controls associated with these waste types accumulate as you move into higher level classifications. For example, reportable priority waste must be managed in accordance with the industrial waste, priority waste and reportable priority waste duty.
In many circumstances, classifying your waste is very simple and you only need to do it once. You should maintain a record of your waste classification types for all the waste you produce. Classification would tell you if your waste is industrial waste, priority waste, or reportable priority waste. Most industrial waste are pre classified in schedule five of the regulations, including waste coats to enable transportation to occur to a lawful place.
Schedule five will also tell you if the industrial waste other than soil is classified as priority waste or reportable priority waste. If it is reportable priority waste, you will need to use waste tracker to report on the waste as it moves through the waste framework and transport it in a permission vehicle. The publication for classifying waste you see here, is available on the EPA website.
Designations. Sometimes you can't classify new waste with the usual process for classifying waste. In these cases, we can issue a designation. So the regulations allow EPA to issue a designation that sets out the waste classification and a disposal category for that waste. When you apply for a designation, that designation applies only to you and will be recorded on EPA's public register. EPA can also make a designation of general application that applies to anyone managing waste under the circumstances covered by the designation. If you manage or control priority waste, contact us to discuss if you need a designation. If you do need one, you can apply through the EPA portal.
The mismanagement of industrial waste is a serious issue. And one of EPA's top priorities. If your business generates industrial waste, you have a responsibility under the GED and waste duties requiring you to manage that waste and where it goes to. Your reasonable steps may be different depending on the classification and type of waste. Higher risk waste requires more attention and verification, but all industrial waste, you need to do three things. Classify the waste, providing information about the waste to the transporter and verify that your waste is transported to a lawful place.
If you generate priority waste, you must make the industrial waste duties as well as the priority waste duties shown on the slide. You need to make sure that people transporting your waste understand the classifications and disclose any risks of harm to your transporter. This gives the transporter enough information to ensure your waste is transported safely to a lawful place.
Ask questions of your waste transport provider to make sure you know where they're taking the waste. If the waste is a priority waste, there is an additional duty to investigate alternatives to waste disposal, including avoiding reducing the waste, reusing or recycling the waste and resource recovery. You also need to isolate your waste in a way to ensure as resource recovery is still possible.
If you are disposing your priority waste to landfill, we need to determine the disposal category. This applies to soils as well as other types of priority waste. Disposal categories determine which landfill can lawfully receive the waste and determines what kind of waste levy will apply. For priority waste, the categories are A, B and C and packaged waste asbestos.
There are two additional categories for soils, category D and soils containing asbestos only. The characteristics and thresholds for determining the priority waste categories are in the EPA publication, 1828 waste disposal categories, kind of characteristics and thresholds.
When testing for contaminants, tests for those that you would reasonably expect to be in a waste. There are labs screening processes that cover common contaminants, and we encourage you to continue to use those where no additional contaminants of concern are present. Reportable priority waste is the most hazardous type of waste and carries the highest level of controls.
If you produce reportable priority waste, you will need to follow the specific duties for reportable priority waste and the requirements for priority and any industrial waste duties. The additional duties reportable priority waste are that you must use a permission vehicle if you deposit, transport or receive reportable priority waste. This does not waste tyres. You must use waste tracker to inform EPA each time your waste changes hands.
If you produce reportable priority waste, and a critic consigner can help you to create waste records on your behalf in waste tracker. You can register for your own account in the EPA portal to use waste tracker. This gives you direct visibility of information about where your waste is and who is transporting it. It takes only two minutes to sign up. Heather will talk to you shortly about how to do that.
You can also ask your waste transporter to create the record on your behalf using the information that you provide them about the waste. If the waste transporter creates a record on your behalf, you should require that they provide you a copy of the waste record so you can demonstrate to EPA that your waste has reached a lawful place.
Okay. So an accredited consigner is a person that appoints, that EPA for points to support waste producers to meet their duties. Waste producers can engage an accredited consigner to give you advice about classifying and managing the waste. Working with an accredited consigner is optional. It is one way to show us you're taking all reasonable practical steps to ensure that you've made yours those waste duties. While when accredited consigner can help you, but don't take on all of your waste responsibilities and duties for you.
Both you and accredited consigner must meet the obligations under the law. A list of accredited consigners will be available from the EPA public register from one July. If you have the knowledge, technical skills and capabilities in classifying and managing waste and are interested in this role, send an email to us or visit the EPA website for more information. Applications are now open. So I'll now hand over to Heather Hawkins to talk about the new responsibilities of a waste transporter.

Heather: Thanks, Mark. Hello. My name is Heather Hawkins and in my role at EPA is leading the delivery of waste tracker. This next section of our webinar is going to focus on the requirements and responsibilities of the businesses and individuals that transport waste. Transport of waste can be risky if it's not managed and controlled safely. Is also a key step in the waste framework to ensure that waste reaches its local place.
A business that produces waste has a duty to ensure that the work with the transporter who can woefully transport that type of waste. Once a load of industrial waste is collected by waste transporter, they will have management and control of the waste. A transporter waste must comply with GED along the specific transport duties, depending on what the classification of the waste is.
Complying with the General Environmental Duty, the GED, means taking reasonable practical steps to minimise the risks of harm to human health and the environment. If you are a management or control of the waste, you must take all reasonable steps to ensure that industrial waste is transported and received at a local place or premises that is authorised by EPA to receive it.
Section 135 of the act outlines the duties of persons involved in transporting industrial waste. This section of the act applies to both producers and transporters who pose to relinquish management or control of the industrial waste to another person for the purposes of transporting an industrial waste. The waste producer needs to show that the transporter is authorised to transport that type of waste.
The transporter must ensure that they are authorised to transport that type of waste and then the driver has been appropriately trained to do so. Always ensure the location you're taking waste to is authorised as a local place to receive that type of waste. Never deposit waste without consent from the person receiving it. Transporting priority waste has the same requirements as transporting industrial waste with a few additions are seen on this screen.
Section 139 of the act outlines the additional GEDs of a person managing and transporting priority waste. Due to the higher hazard of priority waste, the extra requirements are about safe handling and containment of that material. It must also be isolated in a manner that allows for resource recovery to occur. Information must be provided to the transporter about the nature and type of priority waste and any risks of harm to human health or the environment. If transporting multiple loads of waste, you must not mix, blend or dilute priority waste in a way that changes the waste classification.
What transporting reportable priority waste, you must comply with industrial and priority waste transport requirements. Sections 142 and 143 of the act outline the additional duties for portable priority waste transport. You must inform EPA each time reportable priority waste changes hands as exchanged through the waste framework. You must also transport it in an EPA primitive vehicle. The exception for this requirement is the transportation of waste tyres.
The new system to report movement of reportable priority waste is called waste tracker, which I'll talk more about in a minute. When you're transporting reportable priority waste, you must have a permission. Permits under the 1970 act will transition into permits and registrations under the new act. Permits will only be required for transporting waste codes, B100 into acids, A100, oxidising agents, G100, flammable hydrocarbons and R100, clinical waste. And this is found in the A10a schedule category and regulations.
The majority of permits will transition into registrations. This is the A10b category. The new permits and registrations, you will apply through the EPA portal after one July. This allows applicants to self-serve for conditions they require. Registrations will be automatically issued to applicant within 24 hours. The waste codes that the applicant inserts into the application will allow waste tracker to be used immediately upon issue of the permit or registration.
A key change is that permits and registrations will be valid for five years. This results in lower fees, less administration. The five-year period commences after your next renewal. Let's look at waste tracker.
Under the new laws, anyone who handles report or priority waste must let EPA know every time it changes hands through the waste framework. Waste tracker is the system to do this and replaces the current electronic waste transport certificate system from one July. Waste tracker operates through EPA's portal and the waste tracking mobile app, which is available for download soon. Waste tracker will monitor the movement of waste more quickly and accurately than the current waste transports certificate system. It also provides users with more control and functionality to amend, change and cancel records than the system currently does.
Producers, accredited consigners or transporters can create a waste record in waste tracker through the EPA portal. The new laws require quite information about waste movements to be provided before the waste is picked up and at the time of delivery. Only the waste... Once the waste record is created, the transporter signs the waste load to a driver. The driver will only see records that they're assigned to them.
The driver must enter information about the vehicle into the waste tracker. The driver confirms the amount of and type of waste at the time of waste is picked up. The driver then confirms the waste is delivered when it has dropped off. The location of the waste pickup and drop off is automatically captured. Receivers confirm they have received the waste at the time of delivery.
They can still do this even if the waste driver has made an error or hasn't completed their section of the waste record yet. Or if the waste was consigned by the producer to a different receiver. The waste tracker mobile app has offline functionality and allows you to search through active records. The search bar also works with the finest offline. The waste records you will see will depend on when the app was last seen.
To learn about waste tracker in more detail, we encourage you to watch a webinar on the system EPA held on the 23rd of February this year. We also encourage you to watch the videos on the EPA's website for more information, and to share them with your business if you or they will be using waste tracker. The short demonstration videos we have show the common tasks available to be completed in waste tracker.
The waste tracker has been designed for easier waste record management, allowing your waste records to be set up and kept in draught. The new system also allows cloning of waste records. These cloned records can be used to quickly set up a new consignment for repeat customers.
Cloned records or draughts that have the same details of the original. Information is cloned, records can be changed such as the pickup date. You can report waste record discrepancies directly within waste tracker and not rely on calling EPA to make changes to the waste record. You can email a PDF for the waste record for printing or forwarding to other parties for their records. The new laws will bring some changes to how multiple collections will work. Currently, accredited agents create a single record for multiple collection loads. From one July, the accredited agent role will no longer exist.
From 1 July, any transporter can pick up multiple collections in a single load provided they did not mix the waste in a way that would change because of the location of the waste. The new rules require that a separate waste record is created for each waste collection. Waste tracker then allows the transporter to group multiple collections of the same waste code into a single group record and allocate it to a driver.
The driver then enters their vehicle details once per group load and then confirms the amount of each waste at pick up. The driver then delivers the of load waste and confirms drop-off using a single route record. The waste receiver confirms receipt of the single route record. Individual records within the group load can be rejected by the driver if a pick up was unavailable.
This task can be found in waste tracker through the steps you see on the screen. We have a how to guide that goes into detail of how transporter can add a waste record to a group using waste tracker. Let's go into the detail, I have a driver picks up multiple collections.
Drivers can use the waste tracking mobile app or the EPA portal for group loads. The driver signs a vehicle for the job by following the step by step instructions in the guide. How to drive. Our driver can assign a vehicle to pick up group waste. The driver enters their vehicle details once per group load. Once you've assigned your vehicle, look in your group records menu to find the group waste record ID.
Once you have selected the group record, you need to review and confirm the details and tick a declaration that you understand how to locally and safely transport waste. Each waste collection within the group waste record must be confirmed individually in waste tracker by reviewing and confirming the amount of waste you have picked up.
If the waste you collect is different from the details of the waste record, you can input that info into the discrepancy bots, or call the Depot or office for instructions if you're not confident that you can lawfully transport the waste. Individual records with the group load can be rejected by the driver if the collection was unavailable, or if you refused to pick up.
When the driver arrives at the waste receiver, delivery of the group load is confirmed once using single group records. The waste receiver also confirms receipt of the single group record and can do this either waste tracker mobile app or in the portal. It's time to get set up to use waste tracker. You will first need an account in the EPA portal. To sign up, visit the EPA website and click on the portal button in the top right of screen. Once the portal screen opens, click on the sign up button on the top right of that screen. You'll need to use your own unique email address to do this. Your log in details won't be moved across from the old waste transports ticket system to waste tracker.
Businesses will also need to sign up using the business itself form. This can give your business the ability to link together all your ministry employees who will be using or viewing waste tracker.
Once your record formed... So once your business forms process by EPA and your staff has sign up, they will be linked to your account and can start inviting drivers and all your site receiving staff, depending on your company. The drivers at site receivers will receive an email when invited, prompting them to sign up to the waste tracker. And they can accept your invitation from within waste tracker. You can then assign waste records in the waste tracker to drivers. On EPA's website, there is further information on how to sign up and use waste tracker. We have a suite of how to guides and instruction videos. We've also got a team of staff standing by ready to help you. So please call if you have any difficulties getting set up. The suite of how to guys give specific instructions for you based on your role in waste tracker.
The waste tracker app will be available to download later this week. Waste tracker will be fully activated in the EPA portal, stop creating records and link to waste tracker app from the 22nd of June. On the EPA waste tracker web page, there are many useful guides for waste tracker. We have these groups by the three main roles, producers, the drivers and transporters and for receivers.
These instructional guides show in a step by step process how to perform the most common tasks in waste tracker depending on the role you have in the waste framework. We encourage any business that is in management or control over portable priority waste to download or bookmark and use these guides.
Drives of portable priority waste that hold current certificates for EPA approved training, will continue to hold a valid certificate of training as of 1 July. The new laws and the new wave tracker system are changes that waste transporters need to be aware of. Waste transporters have a duty under the GED to mitigate risks, including the risks of drivers being unaware of waste GEDs.
To assist waste transporters, this slide lists some key areas of minimum knowledge for waste drivers that are required by 1 July. In some authorisations to transport controlled waste in Victoria will automatically transition to an A11 permit. An approval to transport prescribed industrial waste out of Victoria under regulation 26 of the Environment Protection Regulations, 2009, will automatically transition to an A12 permit in a new act.
A12 permits apply to solid reportable priority waste only. Transport out of the state must have the authorisation of the receding state. You are required to use waste tracker for all reportable priority waste leaving Victoria. The transport trucks must also have the appropriate A10a permit or A10b registration or equivalent transport approval from interstate.
You can email yourself a PDF copy of the waste record directly from waste tracker and print it out to comply with a [inaudible 00:41:56] requirement to carry a printed copy of the information about the waste. You can also email a copy of the waste record directly to the receiver from within waste tracker.
To meet the waste duties of ensuring the waste reaches a lawful place, you need to seek confirmation from the destination site that the waste is received. Interstate waste receivers are not yet able to sign up to use waste tracker until we have further enhancements to the waste tracking system. I'll now hand it back to Tim Faragher, who will talk about the responsibilities of a waste receiver.

Tim: Thanks Heather. Hello everyone. My name is Tim Faragher and I'm the director of development and infrastructure at EPA. In this next section of the webinar, we're going to focus on the requirements and responsibilities of a business that is authorised by EPA to receive industrial waste with a permission. So as is already been explained by Mark and Heather, waste producers and transporters are responsible for ensuring the site accepting their waste is a lawful place.
And as Mark touched on earlier, permissions are one type of lawful place for waste. The permission scheme is a really important part of EPA's broader approach to setting standards that support environmental outcomes, compliance and achievement of high performance. Under the new EPA laws, existing waste receivers that will now require permissions from EPA to be able to operate, include transfer stations and waste and resource recovery facilities. Victoria's new permission scheme works alongside the general environmental duty to provide greater assurance that high-level risks are being effectively managed. The permission scheme being in place is essentially a recognition that some activities are of a significant enough risk that additional controls and requirements beyond just the general environmental duty and other duties spelled out in the legislation are actually required.
The activities that require a permission and the type of permission that those activities require are set out as prescribed permission activities in schedule one of the new environment protection regulations. And when it comes to waste, if your site has a permission to receive a certain type of waste, then that site is a lawful place for that waste.
It's important to understand that the requirement to hold a permission must be obtained before undertaking the prescribed activity. So you have to have the permission in place first. EPA will typically attach conditions to permissions and these conditions are designed to ensure that environment protection standards are met in a way that's cost effective and that the aspects of the environment that Victorians value are appropriately protected.
The type of conditions attached to a permission include a range of standard or specific conditions that must be adhered to. And these are in addition to your obligations to adhere to the general environmental duty and other waste duties that the legislation spells out. They stand in conditions that are attached to permissions, include requirements around risk management and monitoring programs. Also reporting obligations, as well as notification requirements.
On our website, you'll find a number of resources that I'm going to touch on a few of those in this session today. But one in particular I want to point out is EPA's permission scheme draught policy, which will soon be released as a final policy with some small updates to it.
So this document sets out the context for permissions within the new legislative framework and the roles of the different permission tiers, which I'll touch on a little bit further. It also outlines at a high level the factors we will consider in assessing permissions, and it highlights the interactions between the permission scheme and the regulatory framework for the management of waste.
To give you a little bit more detail about EPA's permission scheme and the different types of permissions that it covers. There are three tiers in EPA's new permission scheme. And as you can see from this diagram, risking complexity and thus the level of control required increases as you go up the three tiers. So at the top of the triangle, licences. Licences are required for the highest risk and highest complexity activities. And we'll typically entail customised EPA assessment and also customised conditions.
There's a few different types of licences that this game sets up. Development licences are issued for development activities. So this could be new activities or it could be changes to existing licenced activities. Operating licences enable operations of activities for the life of that activity and will be subject to EPA review approximately every five years.
The middle tier of the permissions game covers permits and permits are targeted at moderate risk activities or activities which are high risk but low complexity. These are lower costs and lower burden tools compared to licences. And typically are made up of mostly standardised conditions, but at times will contain specific conditions also.
And then the bottom tier is registrations. And registrations are new, simple type of permission. They are automatically granted and targeted to the lowest risk activities within the framework. And these have standardised conditions across the different activity types that require registration. There are really two main reasons as to why registrations are used for some activities and why this new instrument exists.
One, and particularly in the waste space is to enable lawful place. So such as for small waste and resource recovery facilities. The other reason is to better understand an emerging sector to determine if that activity needs to move up in the permissions framework and to help EPA understand where that activity is occurring across the state.
Registrations will apply to some other new activities. So these coming into the permissions framework for the first time, and that includes dry cleaning. It will also cover some rehoused, existing approvals and exemptions such as waste transport. So a lot of waste transport vehicles will only require a registration and also temporary asbestos storage, as well as a few other instances.
Our new legislation brings waste and resource recovery facilities into the permissioning scheme. Excluding the transport of reportable priority waste, if you receiving storing or processing waste generated at another site for the purpose of resource recovery or offsite transfer or disposal, you will require an EPA permission.
The A13 schedule category will apply if your waste facility is not captured by another prescribed permission activity such as IO9 waste tyre storage, IO7 organic waste processing or IO2A waste treatment, as a couple of examples.
As you can say in the table on this slide, this activity sits across all three permission tiers. There are different thresholds based on the types of waste and the volumes received and stored that will trigger the different permission types.
Licences will be required for largest sites involved in the recovery transfer, reprocessing or storage of waste generated in other site. Permits will be required for moderate risk sites. For both licences and permits, the conditions will include having a risk management plan and also an environment emergency management plan. That will also cover monthly reporting on waste throughput and storage. And we'll designate areas on the premises that waste might be stored.
Also for licences and permits, financial assurances may also be required to cover the cost of any cleanup if the waste were to be stranded or abandoned in the event of a fire. EPA is consulted on its calculation method for the financial assurances for these types of facilities and it is due for publication shortly. We've posted a report on EPA's response to submissions on our website.
The registrations for this tier for low risk sites and the type of sites that this would cover, intended to cover include skip in Depots, smaller transfer stations and specialists waste re-processing facilities handling small volumes.
On our website you can find the standard conditions for permits and registrations for A13 waste and resource recovery activity, as well as other activities that require a permit and registration. And in the coming days, operating licence conditions will be available on the website too.
For sites that are already operating in the large to medium waste and resource recovery facility thresholds, there is a temporary exemption included in the regulations that allows a three month period in which you have to apply for a licence or permit. So you need to have those applications in by 1st of October to be able to continue the operation of that site.
For those that fit into the registration team and are already existing sites that are operating, there's a temporary exemption that allows six months to apply for that registration.
If you're seeking to set up a new waste and resource recovery facility, then you must apply for the necessary permissions from 1 July. Existing permissions under the current legislation have been transitioned to the new relevant permission type in a three-step process to make sure they're compatible with the new legislation. And I just want to outline those three steps for you so you're clear on how the transition will work.
As you can see on this diagram, in the first step, most existing permissions such as licences, works approvals and vehicle permits to name a few, will automatically transition to the equivalent permission under the new framework at 1st of July. You don't need to do anything for that to happen. So for example, if Judy holders have a current licence, this will automatically transition to an operating licence under the new act. There's no need for existing licence holders to reapply.
For those permissions that have waste codes that too is applicable. Because the current Weiss cards need to be amended to translate from the current state into the new waste codes that are established under the new legislation. This is essentially a mapping exercise and is to ensure waste tracker is appropriately enabled at 1 July.
Propose notices of amendment have already been sent out to these permission holders that have waste codes. It's really important that you check these proposed notices of amendment to ensure the cards have been mapped appropriately. In the instance, perhaps that you've recently obtained a vehicle permit, a new one since the start of May, your proposed notice of amendment will be sent out in a few days time.
The actual formal amendment will then occur on the 1st of July, at which time you'll be issued with a notice of amendment. This notice will formally amend your current permission to apply the new waste codes, all other conditions in your current licence or your vehicle permit or registration as it might transition to, will remain the same on the 1st of July, and you will not receive an updated version of your licence or permit or registration on the 1st of July. So the notice of amendment is what will explain the new waste codes.
Step three, after the 1st of July, EPA will commence the process of updating operating licences to align the conditions to the new act. This process will take up to 12 months and will be done on a sector by sector basis. It is intended that waste related operating licences will be amended in quarter one of next financial year.
The process for these updates will involve removing conditions that are no longer required as they are covered by the general environmental duty. So for example, general amenity conditions in relation to odour, dust and noise will no longer be specified in licences as they are covered by the duty.
We'll also be amending some existing conditions to align them with a new framework. And some new conditions will be added such as standard requirements around notifications and reporting and risk management and monitoring program, as I've already mentioned.
Just as is the case with step two, for step three, when these amendments occur, you'll be issued with a proposed notice of amendment that you can comment on before a final amendment is issued. And it will be at these point of the final amendment being issued that you will be issued with a new updated statutory document.
It's also important to understand that you will be able to request six months to comply with new or amended conditions. And we will make this clear in that amendment process. Some other changes to note, that while licence is issued under the current act do not have an expiry date, new operating licences issued under the new act will have an expiry date. Those licences that transition it is not EPA's intention to put expire dates on those, it's just for new operating licences.
The new act also provides for periodic review of operating licences to ensure they are kept up to date with changing science, environmental conditions and community standards. And it is intended that these will occur approximately every five years.
So as has been indicated, a number of times from the 1st of July, 2021, you will have obligations under the General Environmental Duty, as well as other duties that are part of the new legislation. It's EPA's expectation that until your permission is amended, that you will continue to comply with the existing conditions.
There's a range of additional information available on our website to support permission holders. This includes guidance for operating licences on the link that you can see on this screen. All licences and all new permissions in fact will be issued on new templates and the operating licence template will contain a standard preamble on the provisions of the act under which the licence is being issued. We will also cover the broader legal context in which that licence exists, as well as the description of the licence.
This preamble will detail the context, key information, including compliance requirements and duties under the act and where to go to for further information, as well as the operating licence structure. So that's another resource of additional information that will be available to you.
As I've already indicated, from the 1st of July, there were some activities that didn't need that our authorisation currently that will now need a permission. For example, you will need a registration if your activity involves smaller landfills, small-scale waste prior storage and dry cleaning. Some temporary activities like outdoor concerts and use of some waste now need a payment as well. Most of the waste industry will need an EPA permission. And as I described in detail earlier, this includes waste transporters, most waste receivers and processes including resource recovery facilities. The regulations are the definitive requirement of what activities require permission and what type of permission that activity requires. And you can visit the EPA website to find out more about if some of the activities that have come into the permission scheme and what permission is required and how to obtain one.
And so for these new activities coming into the permission scheme, our website contains useful information that is specific to these activities, including when you need a development licence, when you need an operating licence, when you need a pilot project licence, when you need a permit for medium risk activities, when you need a registration for low risk activities. This page also lays out directions on what to do if you currently have an EPA exemption. The EPA portal is where you can apply for the entire range of EPA permissions. To access and create an EPA portal account, first, visit the EPA website and click on the portal button on the top right of the screen as Heather explained earlier. This will take you to the portal where you can sign up to create an account. The portal is where you will be able to apply for EPA permissions.
Applications for licences and permits will require a range of information with those. And some of the details of this type of information can be seen on this screen. Guidance on how to apply for permission will also be available on the EPA portal application area. Currently, the portal is open to enable users to sign up and obtain their account access. And from the 1st of July, it will be able to be used to lodge permission applications.
Finally, for waste that is deposited to landfill, there are some key changes to Victoria's waste levy. From the 1st of July waste levies replaced landfill levies and waste levy is payable for every tonne of waste that is received at a landfill. To incentivise Victorians, to reduce waste and recycle more, Victoria's waste Levies will increase from 1 July, 2021.
In response to challenges faced during COVID-19, the Victorian government did not proceed with the 2020 increases, instead providing counsellors and businesses with more time to prepare for increases starting from the 1st of July, 2021. Currently Victoria's levies for municipal and industrial waste are lower than all the other mainland states. And the new levies will more closely align the amounts with other states and as such will deter waste being sent to Victoria from interstate.
More information about the current landfill levy and future waste levy rights and the specific details of those is available on our website. There will still be a waste recovery rebate available for waste transferred from landfills for resource recovery within three months of waste receipt. However, there will no longer be a rebate for contaminated soil or recycled waste that is removed more than three months after being deposited at the premises. I'll now hand back over to Dan, who is going to talk you through EPA's compliance expectations of the waste and resource recovery sector.

Dan Hunt: Thanks very much, Tim. So protection of human health and the environment is a responsibility shared at all levels of government, industry, businesses, communities, and the people of Victoria. Everyone operating in the waste framework has certain responsibilities when waste moves from one part of the supply chain to the next.
To recap, the key messages about waste duties, classify the waste, transport the waste appropriately and send it to a lawful place. If the waste is priority industrial waste, you also need to investigate alternatives to disposal and isolate it to promote resource recovery. If the waste is reportable priority waste, you also need to use waste tracker and a permission vehicle.
Understanding your responsibilities if you operate within the waste framework is the first step to operating in compliance with the new laws. At EPA, we prioritise our efforts based on risk and where we can make the biggest difference to the health and livability of Victoria.
We use science and intelligence to assess risk in terms of the likelihood of the risk of caring and its impact. EPAs enforcement action aims to stop unlawful activity and remedy any harm caused by non-compliance, including using restorative justice, ensure future compliance is achieved and is sustainable, rise awareness of the new laws and consequences of non-compliance and punish offenders and remove any commercial advantage gained through non-compliance.
In determining the appropriate enforcement response, we consider the nature and seriousness of the non-compliance, the risk of harm that has arisen from the non-compliance, the culpability of the offender. So for example, was the law intentionally broken and the characteristics of the person engaging in the activity. You must report pollution incidents as they occur and respond quickly when EPA rises issues. You must also report any breach of your EPA licence.
In operating with a notion of transparency, fairness, and a shade responsibility, EPA's compliance and enforcement approach is available on our website. We expect you to be open and honest in your dealings with us and understand that we'll take an escalating approach to enforcement based on the circumstances surrounding any breach. This means we respond more harshly if a business is resistant, evasive or it doesn't account for its risks.
The changes that the new laws bring to the Victorian waste industry is significant. The new requirements will enable enhanced compliance and improved environmental risk management outcomes. Equally, the changes will support sustainability of the waste and resource for every sector by facilitating a level playing field for industry participants. EPA acknowledges that the change management practises for technology processes, procedures will vary across different businesses and sectors of the waste industry. The increased technology requirements will present human factors and minor variances that are likely to take a period of transition to stabilise, that the knowledge will be necessary to enable day one activities and will require continuous improvement.
Industry management practises are focusing on ensuring full compliance with their obligations and collective engagement with waste producers is difficult, and this is an ongoing challenge. EPA maintains its prescribed responsibility to ensure compliance with Victoria's environment protection framework.
For the industry, particularly for those that are required to use waste tracker, businesses are required to have technology processes and knowledge competencies in place to enable compliance with the required waste duties. Where initial variants from those requirements occurs, EPA will focus regulatory effort where it is deemed to be in the public interest.
Over the course of the session, we've referenced several sections from the EPA website. We'll be sending you these links after the session is over so you have them for reference. We encourage you to read each of these to get more detail in depth on each of the topics we've covered today. And we appreciate it if you can share this information back through your business and the people in your supply chain. We've also referenced several sections of the Environment Protection Act and regulations relating to waste. These are captured on the screen for your reference and use.
We'll now move into questions on and I'll work with my other fellow presenters to try and answer some of the questions that you've provided for us today. So the first question relates to training in the new laws. So what is EPA doing to provide business with training on the new waste laws? Will a delegate be sent out to provide training? We have drop-in sessions.
So we're not sending any staff out to train businesses. However, we are continuing to work through EPA reference groups and various associations to support and prepare all Victorian businesses. We've got lots of sector-based guidance and publications available on EPA's website. We have given a series of webinars like this one on the new laws, waste tracker and the general environmental duty.
This webinar will be sent to you soon with many of the links to all the information and guidance that we've talked about today. And we encourage you to sign up for the EPA business bulletin for further updates. That'll make sure you're kept up to date with everything happening within EPA.
The next question I have is regarding category D soils. So how will category D classified soils be managed? Will they be accepted by landfills as a separate category and reported to EPA? Mark, can I throw it to you to answer that one, please?

Mark Banister: Yeah. Thanks Dan. So category D is a new category of contaminated soil under the EPA regulations. But Glen, it is a speeding up of the current category C. So landfills that are currently licenced to receive category C will also have category D added to their licence. The primary driver for separating category D is really around enabling reuse on quite large science and infrastructure projects where the contamination may continue to occur.
So you may be able to apply for a permit in some cases where you need to use category D soil on a project site. All of that is outlined in the regulations, and there'll be more information on the EPA website under the classifying waste and managing soils area.

Dan Hunt: Thanks very much, Mark. So the next question I have is regarding the change for drivers. Heather, I might throw this one to you. The waste drivers now have a liability that they didn't previously have.

Heather: Thank you, Dan. Sorry. It's an important distinction to look at. So drivers are in management or control of waste when they're transporting the waste. They have duties, not a liability. So it's an important distinction to make but we recognise this is a big change, waste tracker is a change for drivers in the process that they deliver.
They will need to take all reasonable steps to ensure the waste gets to lawful place and that they know where the waste is going. If the waste is portable priority waste, they need to know that they are transporting it using the correct transport permit or registration. And that more information is available at EPA's website if they have any questions.

Dan Hunt: Thanks, Heather. Next one is relating to tiers. So are there any particular issues the tyre recyclers need to look after? Tim, can I throw that to you to answer please?

Tim: Yeah. Thanks Dan. There is a new permission tier for tyre storage. So if you're storing less than 5,000 EPU, so Equivalent Passenger Units, or greater than five metres cubed of waste tyres, then you will need to apply for an EPA registration via the EPA portal. The current requirement that exists for duty holders storing more than 5,000 EPU to have a permission has been carried over into the new framework, so that doesn't change. It's also important to know the tyre pieces or shredded tyres would fall under the A13 schedule category, which I covered earlier, which also requires a permission.
And I think finally, just on this question, Dan, waste tyres and tyre pieces are reportable priority waste for the transactions. So this means that any transport or waste tyres must be reported to EPA using waste tracker.

Dan Hunt: Thanks for that Tim. Next question is related to unlicensed businesses and risk. Might have a bit of a go at this one. So the question is, is monitoring and risk assessment mandatory if my business does not hold an EPA licence?
So essentially every Victorian has duties under the general environmental duty to minimise the risk of harm to human health and the environment from pollution and waste. So I'd encourage you to look at EPA publication 1695, titled assessing and controlling risk. That's a really great resource for business that outlines of risk management framework to help prevent harm. Our recent EPA webinar called the role of industry in business in protecting the environment is also a great resource for business to learn how to comply with the general environmental duty.
Okay. I've got a couple of questions relating to fill material. Fill material need to be tested, is the first one or will a site assessment, or that determination be talked about to be sufficient to transport fill material? Mark, I'll throw to you to answer that one, please.

Mark Banister: Yeah. Look, thanks Dan. Yes. The fill material determination I think will cover a lot of your questions. So when there comes out, which I hope will be very shortly, you'll notice that as a site assessment if you're really sure that this site is clean as there's no history of industrial use or any kind of usage might contaminate it, then you can consider that fill potentially without testing because I think if there's any reasonable suspicion that it might be contaminated, or it is in an area where the history of contamination, of course we would ask you to test it before moving it on.
The determination will require you to give your test results to the person who's receiving it. And we know that that's current best industry practise to pass on that information. But by and large, it doesn't change the current state a whole lot. Instead of referring to, OWRG621 for your fill material contamination thresholds, there'll be table three or publication 1828, where you'll see those stepped out for you. Thanks Dan.

Dan Hunt: Thanks very much, Mark. So Heather, I'll throw this one to you. This is all about waste tracker. So if the origin site doesn't have access to a computer to generate waste records on the new waste tracking platform, how can they complete it?

Heather: Thanks Dan. So there's a really important distinction to our current and our new systems in that the waste generators can set up to use a new system waste tracker by signing up for the EPA portal account using a browser on their smartphone or device. And we're no longer limited to using the system on a desktop computer as the current system is. So it's a very important improvement and distinction. Once you have your EPA portal account, you can use your mobile phone or smart device to log into waste tracker and create your waste records there. Wasting rates can also engage accredited consigners to create their records in their behalf. And they will also maintain visibility of that in the system.
Another option is to usher waste transport quite records on your behalf using the information that you provide them about the waste record. But remember that you won't get the direct visibility of the waste record in waste tracker that way. You need to ask your transport to provide you with a copy of the completed waste record.

Dan Hunt: Thanks very much, Heather. Next one relates to municipal waste codes. So what waste code or municipal wastes and FOGO be under? Tim, can you have a go at that one please.

Tim: I can. So municipal code for waste and FOGO do not have prescribed waste code set out in the regulations. And this is because these wastes are not classified as industrial waste until it crosses into management at a facility such as a transfer station. However, there will be permissioning codes for these wastes included in permissions at receiving sites where needed. So for example, making it clear which landfills can accept each top of waste. So it will be clear in the permission what types of waste ultimately can be received there.

Dan Hunt: Thanks Tim. So we've had quite a few questions come through the various scenarios relating to having contracts or subcontracts in place for waste management. So essentially to try and provide a generic answer to those questions, all businesses have to comply with the General Environmental Duty and the waste duties under the act.
One way to ensure that you're taking reasonable steps to know what's going on with your waste when you sub contract that out is to request receipts, as Heather just mentioned of that waste. That way you can make sure that it's been sent to a lawful place.
So wherever you have contracts in place, I'd suggest that you obtain independent legal advice about contract law including compliance clauses and responsibilities of each party under the various laws and that contract. Application to land of organics. Mark, I'll probably throw this one to you.
So some local farmers take mulched organic garden waste, compostings not managed and apply it to laneways and feedpads, which is legitimate and a useful use of the material. So would a DOU, Declaration of Use be suitable for this or would this breach the regs section 64, 1AI, very specific question, application of waste to land? Hopefully you can answer that one.

Mark Banister: I'll give it a go. I mean, I think I have to answer these very general terms. I mean, specific scenarios, always hard to answer in these forums. But look, I would say that the DOU is appropriate for application to land where it's commercial garden or landscaping organics. And by that we really mean no foods, no animal waste, things that could cause harm or risk and that they don't contain physical or chemical contamination. So that's of course, things like plastics and so on.
Untreated timber including saw dust, you can use a DOU for and also the fibrous way such as husks and things like that. So at face value, you would look like a DOU would be open to that provided it was free of anything that isn't listed I guess, in that list I just read out. There are a few other options, of course, and depending on what state the material in, how well it's being processed, it's possible that the organics, the processed organics, the termination might apply that's very much more focused on physical contamination and pasteurisation than what we put out in the discussion paper. And so look out for that. It may make that determination as well. So I think you've got a couple of choices there depending on the grade of processing that is being undertaken.

Dan Hunt: Thanks for that, Mark. Well done answering that question. It's a tricky one. So transport permissions, Tim, I'll throw this one to you. Will all vehicles EPA stickers be replaced before the transfer dates so they align with all the new waste codes? 

Tim: The EPA will no longer issue stickers for vehicle transport permissions. And so as I explained earlier in the webinar, what you will be issued at 1 July is a notice of amendment that sets out the waste codes that can be transported under the permission and how they've been mapped from the current waste codes to the new waste codes. So that will be what you get on 1 July.

Dan Hunt: All right. Thanks Tim. So I've got a question he related to the GED to investigate alternatives to waste disposal for priority waste. So how does EPA intend to enforce the duty, to investigate alternative to waste disposal and resource recovery talked about earlier during the waste duties of reportable party waste?
Okay. So there's no direct penalty associated with failing to investigate an alternative to waste disposal. You may be issued with compliance advice or with an improvement notice by an authorised officer if you haven't investigated those alternatives. If you then don't comply with the improvement notice, penalties may, or I will say, will apply. EPA will further develop guidelines to explain more about this duty and sustainability. Victoria also have some good guidance on ways to avoid sending waste to landfill. So I'd encourage you to have a look there. Animal manure. So why is animal manure now being considered as an industrial waste? Mark, are you able to have it go at that one?

Mark Banister: Yeah, sure Dan, I'll give that a go. Look, I guess animal manure has also historically been defined as an industrial waste under the current act. And I think what's important here is despite the label we are trying to give a pathway that gives you the least resistance without having to call it a waste, without having to label it with that term.
So the manures, the livestock manures and effluent, our determination will be out shortly and it's really going to be based around ensuring that it's used for soil amendments or for irrigation in the case of effluent. But really we're trying to give it the most direct way out. It has been caught the new laws, the new duties, everything we've just explained has meant we've had to deal with this. And we dealing with it in the most straight forward way possible.
We certainly got a lot of feedback on engage week about the determination and we're hopeful that you'll see once that comes out, that we'll continue with business as usual using manures to apply to your land for benefit.

Dan Hunt: Thanks very much for that Mark. Look, I think there are a tonne more questions here. I'm going to just allow time for just one last question because I think it's quite a good one. So this is about transfer stations. Tim, I'll throw this over to you. So how are transfer stations that we're not required to hold a permission under the previous regulations supposed to demonstrate that they are a lawful place from the 1st of July?

Tim: Yeah. Great question to finish on Dan. So as I explained in the webinar, there is a temporary exemption period for currently operating transfer stations. So if you're in the category that require a licence or a permit, you've got until the 1st of October to apply, or if you're in the lower category requiring registration, you have until the 1st of January, 2022.
So I basically transfer stations are deemed to be a lawful place during this temporary exemption period. And so I think for our purposes, it's just about being able to demonstrate that you were in operation prior to 1 July. And we make it clear to everyone that that's the expectation for those sites. And this is just one of those pieces that is part of the transition and we need to give people time to put those applications in.

Dan Hunt: Thanks very much, Tim. Okay. I think that we're going to have to draw questions time to a close there. Thank you to my fellow panellists. So as the new laws and duties of the environment protection act take effect on the 1st of July, 2021, our focus over the next five years will be on establishing the new legislative framework and supporting duty holders to understand and comply with the new laws whilst maintaining our effort on prevention of existing priority harms and improving our ability to address risks and emerging threats. So at EPA, we're directing our efforts to creating an environmental protection culture, embedding duties of environment protection, targeting deliberate and criminal non-compliance, strengthening the preventative control framework, equipping and working with our partners and enhancing our capabilities to be more effective at preventing harm from occurring. So I'd encourage all of you to visit EPA's website to learn more about your responsibilities if you own or manage a waste and recycling business. You'll also find a huge range of how to documents and guidance that we've prepared specifically for your industry. I'd encourage you to contact us if you have any questions about your responsibilities, industry guidance that's been developed or how to get involved. You can also contact us with general questions about the new laws. We encourage you to subscribe to the EPA business board and to hear more about any upcoming consultations, events and workshops that we hold, the how to information that we're producing, guidance that we're producing and compliance and enforcement approaches.
I'd just like to thank you all for your time here today. And for all of the questions that you've posed. Those that we weren't able to get to, as I said earlier, we will make sure that we feed those responses into our website content and into our guidance. Thank you everyone. Have a good day.