No, unless it is for specific hard engineering works with a relevant planning permission and does not involve land raising or land re-profiling on land which is to be used for crop growth or livestock grazing. Read on for further context and explanation.
A number of sites have been brought to CL:AIRE’s attention by the Environment Agency where the Definition of Waste: Code of Practice (DoW CoP) has been mis-used to deposit materials in an agricultural setting. These projects are generally outside the DoW CoP scheme. This is made clear in the questions asked of the Qualified Person (QP) in the Declaration, where the QP has to specifically tick a check box that states the intended materials use does not include land-spreading / agricultural re-profiling.
Issues with Agricultural Reuse
There are reasons for these activities being out of scope, which are linked to holder intentions, current permitting requirements and the relevant tests in the Waste Framework Directive (WFD). Agricultural settings require very specific materials for land improvement, re-profiling or land raising. The agricultural setting, where assessment for materials suitability as an amendment to agricultural soils is needed, requires a particular skill set. This must include understanding of soil health and soil function in that specific rural setting. The specification of soils imports for such uses would need to include: field drainage characteristics, soil structure, biological activity, soil carbon, soil stability assessments and the potential for crop and livestock uptake as a minimum. None of these are part of the current DoW CoP materials suitability assessment process, which in the main is linked to reuse of materials on hard development sites or brownfield / infrastructure land. Nor do they lie within the current CL:AIRE QP’s area of specialism.
In addition, in cases brought to CL:AIRE’s attention, farmland has been used for projects where there is no substitution. This means the farmer has never had a business model or the finances available to show they can uplift or re-profile land, without the import of waste spoil where gate fees are charged to cover the activity costs. The Environment Agency has provided clear evidence of this activity in some cases in their investigations. These projects therefore cannot fit under DoW CoP, where gate fees could be taken as an indicator of a waste disposal activity.
These projects would fit better under land spreading permits or recovery permits, where proper, site-specific materials specification and soil assessment, linked to the permit requirements, can ensure the right materials are used for the activity in question. Importing multiple different loads of spoil, even if clean naturally occurring soils, from different sites, with different soil characteristics to the existing land and with different drainage and soil health characteristics cannot be suitable for the environment or even achieve the project goal if a different regime to the currently accepted permitting one is used in these settings.
DoW CoP can only be used in rural settings where there are specific development / engineering works being undertaken, such as building a slurry lagoon or a level platform for agricultural structures to be erected. It is not for re-profiling land with an arable or livestock end-use.
Updated 19 March 2025
