Regulatory efforts include identifying and categorizing waste types and mandating transport, treatment, storage, and disposal practices.
[1] The question can become quite complicated, as for example determining whether a some material is "hazardous waste" under the U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
[4][5] The UK government provides technical guidance on how to assess and classify waste in the form of a reference manual, known as WM3.
[8] These rules restrict the land disposal (placement in landfills, primarily) of hazardous waste without prior approved programs.
The "dilution prohibition" proscribes adding large amounts of water, soil, or non-hazardous waste in order to avoid specified treatment.
The 2011 regulations were amended in 2012 following legal claims raised by the Campaign for Real Recycling, who argued that they did not correctly transpose the directive into the law of England and Wales.
On 6 March 2013, Mr Justice Hickinbottom ruled that the 2012 amended regulations did now fulfil the requirements of the European Commission's revised Waste Framework Directive.