Classification of HHW as hazardous waste introduces levels of
complexity to collection and disposal management. As the HWD
and Landfill Directive exempt HHW co-disposed with residual
MSW from classification as hazardous and from meeting waste
acceptance criteria for disposal at non-hazardous waste landfills,
there are economic and practical incentives to maintain, possibly
even encourage, such disposal to landfills. However, the new Waste
Strategy for England demonstrates that the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) means to consider
measures to encourage separately collected HHW (Defra, 2007) and
there are increasing drives to separately collect HHW streams in the
UK, partly because of individual waste stream legislation exem-
plified by the WEEE Directive.