The Waste Regulations, 2000

PART I: PRELIMINARY

Citation and Commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Waste Regulations, 2000 and shall come into operation on the date of publication in the Gazette.

Application

2. These Regulations regulate the management of solid waste and liquid waste disposed of on land, and are binding on the State.

Interpretation

3. (1) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires -

"adverse effect" means any harmful or detrimental effect on the environment, whether actual or potential:
(a) that is, or may in future be, more than trivial or insignificant;
(b) that impairs, or may in future impair, human health; or
(c) that results in, or may in future result in, an impairment of the ability of people and communities to provide for their health, safety, and cultural and economic well-being, that is more than trivial or insignificant, and the risk of a potential adverse effect occurring shall be deemed to be significant if either it is reasonably likely that the adverse effect may occur, or if it is unlikely that the adverse effect will occur but if it did occur it would be serious and/or irreversible;

"approved waste disposal facility" means, in respect of any category of waste, a facility which has been licensed by the authority under these Regulations as a facility at which that type of waste may be permanently disposed of, and includes a landfill site and an incinerator;

"clinical waste" means any waste produced by hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, doctor's offices, medical laboratories, medical research facilities and veterinarians which is infectious or potentially infectious, and, without limitation, includes: microbial wastes such as cultures and stocks of infectious wastes; human blood and blood products; pathological wastes of human origin such as tissues, organs and body parts; contaminated animal wastes including animal carcasses, body parts and bedding which have been exposed to infectious agents; isolation wastes associated with animals or humans which have been isolated as a result of being infected with a disease; and contaminated and uncontaminated sharps including hypodermic needles, scalpels and broken glassware;

"commercial waste" means waste from premises used wholly or mainly for the purposes of a trade or business or for the purposes of sport, recreation or entertainment, but excluding: household waste; industrial waste; waste from any mine or quarry; and waste from premises used for agriculture;

"disposal" of waste includes deposit of waste into or onto land, and incineration of waste, but does not include temporary storage of waste, pending collection, in accordance with these Regulations;

"environmental compliance certificate" means an Environmental Compliance Certificate issued under and in accordance with the Environmental Audit, Assessment and Review Regulations 2000;

"hazardous waste" means any waste -
(a) which is listed in Part A of Schedule Three and to which a six digit waste code has been assigned in that Schedule, and which displays any of the properties specified in Part II of Schedule Three; or
(b) which displays any of the following hazardous properties as defined in Part II of Schedule Three: highly "flammable" (only liquid substances and preparations having a flash point below 21^oC), "irritant", "harmful", "toxic", "carcinogenic" or "corrosive", unless the waste does not exceed any of the threshold criteria for certain hazardous properties set out in Part C of Schedule Three;

"household waste" means waste from any of the following premises -
(a) a home, that is to say, a building or self-contained part of a building which is used wholly for the purposes of living accommodation, or a caravan or a mobile home;
(b) premises forming part of a university or school or other educational establishment;
(c) premises forming part of a residential home, hospital or nursing home, but does not include commercial, industrial or hazardous waste, sand, earth, effluent, or garden waste;

"industrial waste" means waste from a factory or from any premises used for the purposes of, or in connection with, the provision to the public of: transport services by land, water or air; gas, water, electricity or sewerage services; or postal or telecommunications services;

"litter" means any waste which is discarded in any public place or vacant land, other than in a waste receptacle;

"local authority" means a municipal council or a town council established under Part II of the Urban Government Act 1969, or a town board established under Part XIII of that Act, and in relation to a company town, means the company that controls the town;

"local waste disposal site" means a site designated for the disposal of waste in a waste control area in accordance with regulation 12;

"local waste collection site" means a site designated for the collection of waste in a waste control area in accordance with regulation 12;

"occupier" means, in relation to any land or premises, any person in actual occupation, in charge of, or responsible for managing, the land or premises, and includes a person occupying a portion of Swazi Nation Land with the permission of a Chief, and in respect of Swazi Nation Land which has not be allocated to a particular person, the Chief of that area;

"premises" means any building or part of a building and the land used or occupied in connection with it;

"recovery" in relation to waste, means the recycling, re-use or reclamation of waste or any other process which is applied to waste with a review to extracting secondary raw materials, or generating heat or any other form of energy, from the waste;

"special waste" means hazardous waste and clinical waste;

"statutory nuisance" means any state of affairs or matter which is defined in any legislation as constituting a nuisance or a public nuisance;

"urban area" means an area within the area or jurisdiction of a local authority;

"waste" means any substance or thing that the holder discards or disposes of, or intends or is required to discard or dispose of, irrespective of its value to anyone, and any substance or thing deemed by a regulation to be waste; and for the purposes of this definition: "holder" means a person in possession of the waste, or a person whose activities produced the waste, or a person who carried out pre-processing, mixing or other operations that changed the nature or composition of the waste;

"waste control area" means an area designated as such by the Minister in accordance with regulation 12(1);

"waste disposal facility" means a landfill site, incinerator or any other facility at which waste is permanently disposed of;

"waste regulation authority" means:
   (i) in respect of an urban area, the local authority responsible for that area;
   (ii) in respect of a waste control area, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; or the body to which responsibility for the management of waste in the waste control area has been delegated under regulation 12(2); and
   (iii) in any other area, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.