The contaminated land regime under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 is one of the main policy measures used to deal with this legacy. It provides a means of identifying and remediating land that poses a significant risk to health or the environment, where there is no alternative solution.

The “Duty of Care” states that all those subject to it must:- a) Prevent others from depositing, storing, treating or otherwise disposing of waste without a valid licence or contravening the licence conditions; or act in a manner likely to cause environmental pollution or harm to human health.

The Duty of Care is a legal requirement for those dealing with certain kinds of waste to take all reasonable steps to keep it safe and is set out in the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA). It applies to anyone who is a holder of household, industrial and commercial waste, known as controlled waste.

The ‘polluter pays’ principle is an environmental policy principle which requires that the costs of pollution be borne by those who cause it. Most of the time, the ‘polluter pays’ principle takes the form of a tax collected by government and levied per unit of pollution emitted into the air or water.

The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 authorizes the central government to protect and improve environmental quality, control and reduce pollution from all sources, and prohibit or restrict the setting and /or operation of any industrial facility on environmental grounds.

Title: Environmental Protection (Duty of Care) Regulations (as amended) General Description: Section 34(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 imposes a duty of care on any person who imports, produces, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of controlled waste or, as a broker, has control of such waste.

The Environmental Protection Act 1990 (initialism: EPA) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that as of 2008 defines, within England and Wales and Scotland, the fundamental structure and authority for waste management and control of emissions into the environment.

Parliament of the United Kingdom. Status: Amended. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 (initialism: EPA) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that as of 2008 defines, within England and Wales and Scotland, the fundamental structure and authority for waste management and control of emissions into the environment.

Part II sets out a regime for regulating and licensing the acceptable disposal of controlled waste on land. Controlled waste is any household, industrial and commercial waste. Unauthorised or harmful depositing, treatment or disposal of controlled waste is prohibited with prohibition enforced by criminal sanctions.

Section 45 requires waste collection authorities, usually local authorities, to collect household waste unless it is in an isolated location or arrangements can reasonably be expected to be made by the person who controls the waste. They may also collect commercial waste if requested to do so, but are not obliged to provide this service.

Under section 34 (2) an occupier of domestic property must, “as respects the household waste produced on the property, take reasonable steps to secure that any transfer of waste is only to an authorised person or to a person for authorised transport purposes” but has none of the other section 34 (1) duties.