12.—(1) An establishment or undertaking which imports, produces, collects, transports, recovers or disposes of waste, or which as a dealer or broker has control of waste must, on the transfer of waste, take all such measures available to it as are reasonable in the circumstances to apply the following waste hierarchy as a priority order—
(a)prevention;
(b)preparing for re-use;
(c)recycling;
(d)other recovery (for example energy recovery);
(e)disposal.
(2) But an establishment or undertaking may depart from the priority order in paragraph (1) so as to achieve the best overall environmental outcome where this is justified by life-cycle thinking on the overall impacts of the generation and management of the waste.
(3) When considering the overall impacts mentioned in paragraph (2), the following considerations must be taken into account—
(a)the general environmental protection principles of precaution and sustainability;
(b)technical feasibility and economic viability;
(c)protection of resources;
(d)the overall environmental, human health, economic and social impacts.