October 2025 marked a major turning point for the UK’s Street Works sector, as the new Street Works UK Material Classification Protocol came into force. In this Spotlight, Joe Papworth, Senior Environmental Specialist, shares how JSM has navigated our first month under these transformative rules – highlighting the immediate impact on our operations, the steps we’ve taken to ensure compliance, and how these changes are driving better environmental outcomes and operational excellence across our teams.
The new protocol replaces the previous Environment Agency Regulatory Position Statements (RPS 298 and 299), introducing a risk-based methodology for classifying excavated waste. This shift is designed to improve environmental protection, reduce regulatory ambiguity, and promote responsible waste management across the utility sector. Now, all qualifying works, including emergency, minor, and major projects, must follow a structured process to determine whether waste is hazardous or non-hazardous.
Ahead of the October deadline, JSM rolled out comprehensive training and updated our internal processes. Our teams have been equipped with clear guidance on the new requirements, including desktop and site-specific risk assessments, material segregation, and sampling procedures. A training guide has been central to this effort, ensuring every site team knows which process to follow for each permit.
Key changes in practice
- Desktop Risk Assessments: Qualifying permits now require a desktop risk assessment, completed by our Street Works team. These evaluate potential sources of contamination such as historic landfill, historic industry, and petrol stations. The results are shared with our on-site operatives, who remain vigilant for contaminants.
- Site Risk Assessments & Segregation: Once excavation begins, spoil is now segregated into distinct stockpiles, one for the bituminous layer, and one for the subbase. Each stockpile is then classified by the five key indicators of contamination, using our field service management software tool. We reuse or recycle our “Green” waste where appropriate, and take our “red” waste to nearby, licensed facilities.
- Waste Documentation: We’ve improved our waste transfer documents to be more accurate, now traceable back to each excavation within a street works permit.
- Sampling & Reporting: We are supporting our clients in their responsibilities to undertake sampling and quarterly reporting, who are required to sample 1% of excavations, to validate classification accuracy. We’ve developed procedures and provided training in taking these samples, cataloguing the data, and presenting to our clients, ready for submission to Street Works UK and the Environment Agency.
Conclusion
The new waste classification rules, supported by technology and clear processes, are helping JSM’s site teams work efficiently and more accurately. This means we’re already meeting the new requirements, giving our clients confidence in our compliance and service.