Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Environment – Waste – Incineration – Directive 2000/76

(European Parliament and Council Directive 2000/76, Art. 3(1))

2. Environment – Waste – Incineration – Directive 2000/76

(European Parliament and Council Directive 2000/76, Art. 3(4))

3. Environment – Waste – Incineration – Directive 2000/76

(European Parliament and Council Directive 2000/76, Art. 3(4) and (5))

Summary

1. The definition of ‘waste’ in Article 3(1) of Directive 2000/76 on the incineration of waste does not cover gaseous substances.

(see para. 17, operative part 1)

2. The definition of ‘incineration plant’ in Article 3(4) of Directive 2000/76 on the incineration of waste relates to any technical unit and equipment in which waste is thermally treated, on condition that the substances resulting from the use of the thermal treatment process are subsequently incinerated. In that connection, the presence of an incineration line is not a necessary condition for the purposes of such classification.

(see para. 22, operative part 2)

3. As regards a power-generating complex in which a gas plant, sited next to a power plant, provides the latter with purified gas which is obtained by the gasification of waste and used in the power plant as a fuel alongside fossil fuels, a separate examination of the gas plant and the power plant should in principle be carried out for the purposes of applying Directive 2000/76 on the incineration of waste.

A gas plant whose objective is to obtain products in gaseous form, in this case purified gas, by thermally treating waste must be classified as a ‘co-incineration plant’ within the meaning of Article 3(5) of Directive 2000/76; a power plant which uses as an additional fuel, in substitution for fossil fuels used for the most part in its production activities, a purified gas obtained by the co-incineration of waste in a gas plant does not fall within the scope of that directive. In that connection, for the purposes of classifying a unit as an incineration or co-incineration plant, there is no need to take account of which classification would enable the level of emissions most favourable to the environment to be achieved.

(see paras 25, 41-43, operative part 3)