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Recovered fines – new exemptions
What are recovered fines?
Recovered fines are defined as "a soil or sand substitute with a typical particle size of less than 9.5 mm that is derived from the processing of mixed construction and demolition waste, including residues from the processing of skip bin waste." That is, they are a waste-derived product that is recovered by separation at recycling centres. Much of the material comes from skip bin waste and is therefore highly variable. Typical components include concrete, brick dust, roof tiles, cement, brickies’ sand and lime.
They are blended to produce manufactured soils with names such as:
- Fill Soil
- Recycled Topsoil
- No. 2 Topsoil
- Recovered Topsoil
- Turf Underlay
- Recycled Turf Underlay
- Filling Soil
- Everyday Soil
- Organic Turf Underlay.
Recovered fines are characteristically alkaline on account of their lime content: the pH often exceeds 8, and the material is highly calcic. This chemistry thus makes many of these manufactured soils unsuitable for use in landscaping other than to adjust levels (i.e. bulk filling). This restriction on suitability explains the large price difference between these soils (lower cost) and specialist landscaping soils (higher cost).
New exemptions
If you produce recovered fines from construction or demolition waste or use them to make soils for land application, you need to know that the Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) has replaced the previously contentious General Exemption with two new exemptions.
The use of all waste materials as soil amendments or components is governed in NSW by the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (the POEO Act). All wastes so used must comply with the associated Protection of the Environment Operations (Waste) Regulation 2005 – they must either be individually licensed or be specifically exempted. Recovered fines are exempted. The exemption (downloadable from the link below) specifies the conditions that you are legally required to follow if you produce recovered fines or use them in soil. These conditions relate to maximum contaminant concentrations, a written statement of compliance, permitted uses, testing and record keeping.
The previous exemption did not take account of the difference between continuous production and batch production. Consequently, batch producers were required to sample far more frequently (on a per-tonne basis) than continuous producers, and thus had to spend far more on testing.
Under the new exemptions, batch producers must sample (and test) on a per-tonne basis (specifically, 10 samples per 400 t), and continuous producers must sample (and test) weekly (some contaminants) and fortnightly (most contaminants).
The new exemptions also introduce maximum average concentrations, whereas the old exemption specified only absolute maximum concentrations.
Exemptions are continually reviewed and revised as necessary. These new exemptions will remain in force until 1 April 2010 unless they need to be updated again.
Keep all records
If you produce recovered fines for sale as a soil ingredient, then you must keep all records of testing for 3 years, along with the details of your customers who bought the product. You must also supply the testing results to the customers.
If you process recovered fines into soil, the same requirements apply.
If you buy soil made from recovered fines for land application, then you must ask for the testing results and keep them for 3 years, along with the details of the supplier.
Your responsibilities
The exemptions place responsibilities on suppliers and users. The most important of these are sampling, testing, maximum concentrations, record keeping, notification of results to DECC and allowable uses of the product (effectively only land application).
Further details
To download copies of the new exemptions, click here.