Asphalt and planings for road construction

What you must do

Storing and reusing planings

If you dispose of asphalt planings or other materials from your works, you must comply with your duty of care responsibilities.

Duty of care - your waste responsibilities

To store and use road planings and excavated sub-base, you will need a waste management licence or exemption.

If what you need is an exemption, it will be a paragraph 19 exemption.

If you have an exemption, you must comply with the exemption conditions.

You must register this exemption with your environmental regulator.

You must still ensure that your activity does not:

• endanger human health or cause pollution to water, air or soil
• constitute a risk to plants or animals
• cause a nuisance in terms of noise and odour
• adversely affect the countryside or places of special interest.

Waste management licensing

NIEA: Paragraph 19 exemption – Use of waste for construction

SEPA: Waste management licensing exemptions

Asphalt planings can contain a high level of contaminants. These contaminants can be picked up by rainwater passing through a stockpile or can seep out into the ground.

You must prevent contaminants from planings leaching into the ground or into watercourses. Planings should be covered and stored on an impermeable surface. Rainwater that runs through the planings can pick up contaminants and transport them into the groundwater or nearby watercourses. Water run-off should be collected and tested for contamination before you decide how it should be disposed of.

Plan your site so that you can safely store planings for use as part of your works.

Roadstone coating plants

The implementation of the Waste Incineration Directive has placed tighter controls on roadstone coating plants that use waste oil in the process. All roadstone coating plants that use waste oil must have a pollution prevention and control permit to operate.

NIEA: Statutory Guidance for Roadstone Coating

Pollution prevention and control permits

Good practice

Scotland

SEPA has produced guidance on the production of fully recovered asphalt road planings.

SEPA: Guidance on the production of fully recovered asphalt road planings (Adobe PDF - 262KB)

Northern Ireland

NIEA: Regulatory Position Statement – Production of Asphalt Road Planings

Quality Protocol: Aggregates from Inert Waste

 SEE ALSO: Construction sector guidance