Traceability of excavated soil: how does it work?

A regulatory procedure: a validated DAP for each excavation site

For each project, our customers must submit a Request for Prior Acceptance (RPA) to ECT’s Quality department. This is mandatory prior to evacuation on an ECT site.

The DAP states:

• Geographical origin: site location;
• Producer’s contact details ;
• Carrier details ;
• Type and quantity of backfill.
• The information is then compared with the data contained in the database of potentially contaminated sites in the Ile de France region (BASOL).

Contact details and PAD templates 

• Requests for prior acceptance (RPA) must be sent at least 48 hours before the first deliveries,
• to the following email address
   
  dap@groupe-ect.com
  

Download the different ECT DAPs 

Due diligence, DAP

As a first step, each customer company wishing to bring in soil and materials from an identified site must submit a Request for Prior Acceptance (RPA) to ECT’s Quality Department.

This document specifies :

• Geographical origin, site location ;
• Producer’s contact details ;
• Carrier details ;
• Type and quantity of backfill.

This information is then compared with the data contained in the database of potentially contaminated sites in the Ile de France region (BASOL). If pollution is suspected, prior analysis of the materials is required. This request (DAP) is sent for each ECT customer site. No material is accepted without the prior agreement of the Quality department, which ensures compliance with the classes of materials selected for the site concerned.

Download the different ECT DAPs 

Controls on the ECT site

These controls meet the obligations resulting from the provisions of Article 19 of the Ministry of Ecology’s Order of December 12, 2014 on inert waste storage facilities, which stipulates:
“Unloading waste directly into the final storage area is prohibited. A waste control area is set up to allow waste to be checked after it has been discharged from the skips carrying it.
This zone can be moved according to the phasing of site operations. This zone is specially signposted and clearly marked.
A skip cannot be emptied in the absence of the operator or his representative”.

On receipt of a load on site, a waste tracking slip for building and civil engineering sites, containing information from the DAP as well as details of the transporter and its registration, will be given to the receiving agent, who is also responsible for checking the quality of the materials. This tracking slip will be entered in a computerized admission register, and sent daily to ECT’s administrative headquarters.

For each load presented, the following information is recorded:

• Date and time of receipt ;
• Origin and nature of materials;
• Volume of materials ;
• Verification of accompanying documents and DAP;
• Where applicable, video control recording ;
• Vehicle registration and company name;
• If applicable, the reason for refusal of admission. In the event of pollution or unauthorized materials being found on site, the load will be returned, after being recorded in a special register (date and time of refusal, vehicle registration number, name of producer and transporter, exact address of worksite, nature and quantity of material, reason for refusal). These refusals will be regularly reported to the supervisory authority.

The materials are then dumped close to the area being backfilled, where they are picked up by a bulldozer to place the inert materials. A second waste inspection is carried out during unloading by the machine operator. A third and final check is carried out when spreading materials before backfilling by the machine operator.
If pollution is suspected, the materials are recharged. In this case, a note is made in the admissions refusal register.

From the computerized admission register, it is possible to keep precise track of all customers and worksites that have dumped materials on the site, and to issue a monthly report. Bordereau de Suivi de Traçabilité by customer and/or worksite.

Last but not least, keeping and updating a topographical plan to locate the areas and levels of fill corresponding to the data in the register.

External controls

The local authorities concerned will be invited to all site meetings and will be able to carry out any checks they wish.
As part of the ISO 14001 certification process (in place since December 2011), ECT sites are regularly inspected at random by an independent auditor, who checks that all regulatory requirements applicable to these facilities are being met.

ECT is also subject to regular checks at all its sites by inspectors from the supervisory authorities (DRIEE and DDT) in charge of sustainable development, who visit sites unannounced to verify compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Find out more about the traceability of excavated soil

What is the purpose of these registers?
The AGEC law and its decrees have strengthened the traceability provisions for excavated soil, given its legal status as “waste”. The aim is threefold: 
– Improve knowledge of these deposits,
– better take them into account in the circular economy,
– prevent environmental damage.

What are the new obligations?
As of January 1, 2022, the companies concerned  are required to keep a chronological register.
Chronological registers must be kept for a period of 3 years.
Data from the chronological register must be fed into the National Register of Waste, Excavated Soil and Sediment.

Implementation: 2022 chronological registers will not have to be transmitted to RNDTS. Transmission to RNDTS is mandatory by May 1, 2023 at the latest, with data retroactive to January 1, 2023.

Find out more about the chronological register

Who’s concerned?

• Land producers
• Land brokers / traders
• Land shippers
• Land transporters
• Operators of soil treatment and reclamation facilities

Obligations related to keeping the chronological register 
Keeping the chronological register is mandatory under the terms of article R. 451-43 of the French Environment Code.
Data concerning excavation, transport and soil reception operations must be filled in on an ongoing basis.
Registers must be kept for 3 years.

Penalties for non-compliance
Failure to keep the register, or refusal to make it available, is a criminal offence. Each breach is punishable by a fine of up to €750 (article 111-13 of the French Penal Code), as provided for 4th-class offences. In the event of a repeat offence or failure to comply, the criminal penalty can extend to up to 2 years’ imprisonment and a €75,000 fine.

What information must be included in the chronological register?

• Nature of waste, waste codes,
• Dates of collection, transport and receipt,
• Origin, transport, destination and type of soil treatment

Find out more  about the National Register of Waste, Excavated Soil and Sediments (RNDTS)

Who’s concerned?

• Land producers
• Operators of soil treatment and reclamation facilities

Obligations relating to transmission to RNDTS
Declarations to the National Register of Waste, Excavated Soil and Sediment are made online.
online at
:

Electronic data transmission must take place no later than the last day of the month following dispatch, receipt or processing. Data must be updated systematically, whenever necessary.

Penalties for non-compliance
Producers and operators who fail to comply may be subject to criminal penalties. Each breach is punishable by a fine of up to €750 (article 111-13 of the French Penal Code), as provided for 4th-class offences.
In the event of a repeat offence or failure to comply, the criminal penalty can extend to up to 2 years’ imprisonment and a €75,000 fine.

Understand the benefits of waste status for excavated soil in 5 key points: 

1 / This is a legal and regulatory status, protecting the environment and public health. 

Inert excavated soil is a noble, unsullied material that can be reused as it is in undeveloped areas.

But they have the legal status of waste as soon as they leave the excavation site. In other words, as soon as they leave the construction or public works site.

Article L. 541-1-1 of the French Environment Code defines waste as “any substance or object, or more generally any movable asset, which the holder discards or intends or is obliged to discard”.

2/ The status of waste is protective because it establishes theresponsibility of the producer, the holder and the receiving site.

Article L541-2 of the French Environment Code confirms this responsibility: “Any producer or holder of waste is required to manage it, or have it managed, in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
Any producer or holder of waste is responsible for its management until final disposal or recovery, even when the waste is transferred to a third party for treatment.
Any producer or holder of waste must ensure that the person to whom it is handed over is authorized to take charge of it.

3/ Waste status imposes 3 major obligations:

• It requires the producer of excavated soil to characterize it: is it inert? Are they polluted?
• It obliges the producer to find an outlet for the soil, depending on the type of soil resulting from the characterization: inert, non-inert, non-hazardous, hazardous. In the case of inert soils, the sites authorized to receive them may be ICPE / ISDI (Installation de stockage de déchets inertes) sites or sites opened under Permis d’Aménager.
• It sets up a chain of traceability. obligations have been strengthened by the 2020 AGEC law.

Find out more about the traceability of excavated soil

4/ The waste status of excavated soil also implies a principle of recycling. The French Energy Transition Law for Green Growth (LTECV) of August 17, 2015 introduced a target of 70% recovery of construction waste, including excavated soil, by 2020.  On the other hand, the semantics specific to waste regulations (disposal/recovery) do not correspond well to the management of inert excavated soil. Reusing them on an ISDI-type site to create an urban park is legally considered as disposal and not recovery. On the other hand, the same operation to create an urban park under a Permis d’Aménager (planning permission) will be a development.

To find out more about the differences between ISDI / Permis d’Aménager

5/ The ministerial decree of June 4, 2021 authorizes the removal of excavated soil and sediment from waste status under certain very specific conditions, which are often complex to implement.