Review of the Waste Incineration Directive (2000/76/EC): Assessment of the application and possible development of Community legislation for the control of waste incineration and co-incineration
Background and tasks
Council Directive 2000/76/EC on the incineration of waste (the WI Directive)makes waste incineration and co-incineration plants subject to a permittingprocedure and sets minimum requirements in a number of areas includingoperational conditions and monitoring.
The standards of the Directive are not uniformly fixed for all plants. Forexample, while Article 11(2) generally requires continuous measurements,Article 11(6) allows periodic measurements instead, if emissions of the pollutants in question cannot exceed the prescribed emission limit values. Additionally the Directive envisages only certain flexibility in the sense that acertain pollutant could not be excluded from a permit even though it is notpresent in the waste flow being incinerated, as may be the case with, forinstance, heavy metals in certain wastes. At the same time, according toArticle 11(13) of the Directive the Commission shall set a date from whichcontinuous measurement of the air ELVs for heavy metals, dioxins and furanmust be carried out.
Many of the plants that are covered by the WI Directive are also covered byDirective 96/61/EC concerning integrated pollution prevention and control(the IPPC Directive). This Directive requires that installations operate inaccordance with the requirements of permits containing conditions based onthe “Best Available Techniques” (BAT). For plants falling under the IPPCDirective, the WI Directive only sets minimum obligations which are notnecessarily sufficient to comply with the IPPC Directive. The Commission ispresently conducting a review of the IPPC Directive, including its interactionwith other legislation, including the WI Directive.
Article 14 of the WI Directive requires the European Commission to reviewthe WI Directive and to report to the European Parliament and the Councilbefore 31 December 2008.
Objectives and expected results
The main objective of this contract is to provide an assessment of the implementation of the Waste Incineration Directive and make proposals for istpossible amendment. This is to provide the basis of the review foreseen byArticle 14 of the Directive, and to facilitate possible further development ofthe Directive as foreseen in ist Articles 11 (13) and 16. The contract is alsoto provide an input in the broader context of the review of the IPPC Directiveand related legislation.
Within this overall objective, specific objectives are:
- to collect, analyse and present data on the implementation of theWI Directive within the EÚ25 and the Accession Countries (BG andRO) , including ist inter-relationship with the IPPC Directive and anyproblematic areas
- to make a cost-benefit analysis of the implementation through selectedcases (Member States);
- to assess and present data on the development of the state oftechnology and the progress achieved in emission control techniquesin order to enable the Commission to define future provisionsfor amendment of the WI Directive
- to define, assess and present possible options for amendment ofthe WI Directive
- to provide an impact assessment of the amendment of the Directivebased on the presented options.
This is intended to allow the Commission Services to have a better view onthe implementation of the WI Directive, based on an independent and objective assessment, so as to be in a reasonable position to determine possible future amendments of the provisions of the Directive.
Contact: