PPS 11 Planning and Waste Management·Page 14·1.28
Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO)
BPEO is a systematic decision-making procedure that identifies the option providing the most environmental benefits or least damage across land, air and water at acceptable cost, balancing technology, financial costs and pollution impacts. It is a key principle for pursuing greater sustainability in waste management planning.
The concept of Best Practicable Environmental Option (BPEO) was first outlined in the Fifth Report of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) in 1976. The concept was elaborated in their Twelfth Report, "The Best Practicable Environmental Option" (1988) which showed that it involved a balancing of criteria, including technology, financial costs and pollution impacts. The concept was introduced into UK Legislation through Part I of the Environmental Protection Act, specifically for those prescribed processes regulated under Integrated Pollution Control (IPC), and is now at the heart of waste management decision making in the UK. The RCEP's Twelfth Report defines BPEO as "the outcome of a systematic consultative and decision making procedure which emphasises the protection and conservation of the environment across land, air and water. The BPEO procedure establishes, for a given set of objectives, the option that provides the most benefits or the least damage to the environment, as a whole, at acceptable cost, in the long term as well as the short term."
Source — /Users/richardhill/Documents/planning-arch-project/data/documents/regional/PPS 11 - Planning and Waste Management.pdf