Waste Disposal & Recovery Codes
Waste related activities are classed as recovery (R) or disposal (D) as defined in the EU Waste Framework Directive 2008/98 and should be used for Consignment Notes.
For Operator Returns, the Environment Agency have produced a
Flowchart that breaks codes down to Level 3 and provides comprehensive explanations of what each code covers.
Disposal Operations
| Code | Description |
|---|
| D1 | Deposit into or onto land, e.g. landfill |
| D2 | Land treatment, e.g. biodegradation of liquid or sludgy discards in soils |
| D3 | Deep injection, e.g. injection of pumpable discards into wells, salt domes or naturally occurring repositories |
| D4 | Surface impoundment, e.g. placement of liquid or sludgy discards into pits, ponds or lagoons |
| D5 | Specially engineered landfill, e.g. placement into lined discrete cells which are capped and isolated from one another and the environment |
| D6 | Release into a water body, except seas/oceans |
| D7 | Release into seas/oceans, including sea-bed insertion |
| D8 | Biological treatment resulting in final compounds or mixtures which are discarded by any of the operations numbered D1 to D12 |
| D9 | Physico-chemical treatment resulting in final compounds or mixtures which are discarded by any of the operations numbered D1 to D12, e.g. evaporation, drying, calcination |
| D1 | Incineration on land |
| D1 | Incineration at sea |
| D1 | Permanent storage, e.g. emplacement of containers in a mine |
| D1 | Blending or mixing prior to submission to any of the operations numbered D1 to D12 |
| D1 | Repackaging prior to submission to any of the operations numbered D1 to D13 |
| D1 | Storage pending any of the operations numbered D1 to D14 (excluding temporary storage, pending collection, on the site where it is produced) |
Recovery Operations
| Code | Description |
|---|
| R1* | Use principally as a fuel or other means to generate energy |
| R2 | Solvent reclamation/regeneration |
| R3 | Recycling/reclamation of organic substances which are not used as solvents (including composting and other biological transformation processes) |
| R4 | Recycling/reclamation of metals and metal compounds |
| R5 | Recycling/reclamation of other inorganic materials |
| R6 | Regeneration of acids or bases |
| R7 | Recovery of components used for pollution abatement |
| R8 | Recovery of components from catalysts |
| R9 | Oil re-refining or other reuses of oil |
| R1 | Land treatment resulting in benefit to agriculture or ecological improvement |
| R1 | Use of wastes obtained from any of the operations numbered R1 to R10 |
| R12* | Exchange of wastes for submission to any of the operations numbered R1 to R11 |
| R13* | Storage of wastes pending any of the operations numbered R1 to R12 (excluding
temporary storage, pending collection, on the site where it is produced) |
* not considered recovery to a final product
