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Assessment of the application and possible
development of Community legislation for the
control of waste incineration and
co-incineration
 
Commissioned by:
European Commission, DG Environment
 

Carried out by:
Institute for Environmental Strategies, Germany
Knut Sander, Dirk Jepsen, Christian Tebert, Stephanie Schilling

 
In co-operation with:
Phillip Heinz, Lawyer, Germany
 

Duration:
2006 – 2007

 
 
 
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 permitting
procedure and sets minimum requirements in a number of areas including
operational conditions and monitoring.
 
The standards of the Directive are not uniformly fixed for all plants. For
example, 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 a
certain pollutant could not be excluded from a permit even though it is not
present in the waste flow being incinerated, as may be the case with, for
instance, heavy metals in certain wastes. At the same time, according to
Article 11(13) of the Directive the Commission shall set a date from which
continuous measurement of the air ELVs for heavy metals, dioxins and furan
must be carried out.
 
Many of the plants that are covered by the WI Directive are also covered by
Directive 96/61/EC concerning integrated pollution prevention and control
(the IPPC Directive). This Directive requires that installations operate in
accordance with the requirements of permits containing conditions based on
the "Best Available Techniques" (BAT). For plants falling under the IPPC
Directive, the WI Directive only sets minimum obligations which are not
necessarily sufficient to comply with the IPPC Directive. The Commission is
presently conducting a review of the IPPC Directive, including its interaction
with other legislation, including the WI Directive.
 
Article 14 of the WI Directive requires the European Commission to review
the WI Directive and to report to the European Parliament and the Council
before 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 its
possible amendment. This is to provide the basis of the review foreseen by
Article 14 of the Directive, and to facilitate possible further development of
the Directive as foreseen in its Articles 11 (13) and 16. The contract is also
to provide an input in the broader context of the review of the IPPC Directive
and related legislation.
 
Within this overall objective, specific objectives are:
 
  • to collect, analyse and present data on the implementation of the
    WI Directive within the EÚ25 and the Accession Countries (BG and
    RO) , including its inter-relationship with the IPPC Directive and any
    problematic areas
  • to make a cost-benefit analysis of the implementation through selected
    cases (Member States);
  • to assess and present data on the development of the state of
    technology and the progress achieved in emission control techniques
    in order to enable the Commission to define future provisions
    for amendment of the WI Directive
  • to define, assess and present possible options for amendment of
    the WI Directive
  • to provide an impact assessment of the amendment of the Directive
    based on the presented options.
 
This is intended to allow the Commission Services to have a better view on
the 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
 
Knut Sander
Christian Tebert
Stephanie Schilling