18.3.2008   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 71/1

(1)

Chemical pollution of surface water presents a threat to the aquatic environment with effects such as acute and chronic toxicity to aquatic organisms, accumulation in the ecosystem and losses of habitats and biodiversity, as well as threats to human health. As a matter of priority, causes of pollution should be identified and emissions should be dealt with at source, in the most economically and environmentally effective manner.

(2)

Decision No 1600/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 July 2002 laying down the Sixth Community Environment Action Programme (3) states that environment and health and quality of life are key environmental priorities of that Programme, highlighting in particular the need to establish more specific legislation in the field of water policy.

(3)

Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy (4) lays down a strategy against pollution of water and requires further specific measures for pollution control and environmental quality standards (EQS). This Directive lays down EQS in accordance with the provisions and objectives of Directive 2000/60/EC.

(4)

In accordance with Article 4 of Directive 2000/60/EC, and in particular paragraph 1, point (a), Member States should implement the necessary measures in accordance with Article 16(1) and (8) of that Directive, with the aim of progressively reducing pollution from priority substances and ceasing or phasing out emissions, discharges and losses of priority hazardous substances.

(5)

Numerous Community acts have been adopted since 2000 which constitute emission control measures in accordance with Article 16 of Directive 2000/60/EC for individual priority substances. Moreover, many environmental protection measures fall under the scope of other existing Community legislation. Therefore priority should be given to implementation and revision of existing instruments rather than establishing new controls.

(6)

As regards emission controls of priority substances from point and diffuse sources as referred to in Article 16 of Directive 2000/60/EC, it seems more cost-effective and proportionate for Member States to include, where necessary, in addition to the implementation of other existing Community legislation, appropriate control measures, pursuant to Article 10 of Directive 2000/60/EC, in the programme of measures to be developed for each river basin district in accordance with Article 11 of that Directive.

(7)

Decision No 2455/2001/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2001 establishing the list of priority substances in the field of water policy and amending Directive 2000/60/EC (5) sets out the first list of 33 substances or groups of substances that have been prioritised for action at Community level. Among those priority substances, certain substances have been identified as priority hazardous substances for which Member States should implement necessary measures with the aim of ceasing or phasing out emissions, discharges and losses. Some substances were under review and should be classified. The Commission should continue to review the list of priority substances, prioritising substances for action on the basis of agreed criteria that demonstrate the risk to, or via, the aquatic environment, in accordance with the timetable provided for in Article 16 of Directive 2000/60/EC, and bring forward proposals as appropriate.

(8)

From the point of view of Community interest and for a more effective regulation of surface water protection, it is appropriate to set up EQS for pollutants classified as priority substances at Community level and to leave it to Member States to lay down, where necessary, rules for remaining pollutants at national level, subject to the application of relevant Community rules. Nonetheless, eight pollutants which fall under the scope of Council Directive 86/280/EEC of 12 June 1986 on limit values and quality objectives for discharges of certain dangerous substances included in List I of the Annex to Directive 76/464/EEC (6), and which form part of the group of substances for which Member States should implement measures with the aim of achieving good chemical status by 2015, subject to Articles 2 and 4 of Directive 2000/60/EC, were not included in the list of priority substances. However, the common standards established for those pollutants proved to be useful and it is appropriate to maintain their regulation at Community level.

(9)

Consequently, the provisions concerning current environmental quality objectives laid down in Council Directive 82/176/EEC of 22 March 1982 on limit values and quality objectives for mercury discharges by the chlor-alkali electrolysis industry (7), Council Directive 83/513/EEC of 26 September 1983 on limit values and quality objectives for cadmium discharges (8), Council Directive 84/156/EEC of 8 March 1984 on limit values and quality objectives for mercury discharges by sectors other than the chlor-alkali electrolysis industry (9), Council Directive 84/491/EEC of 9 October 1984 on limit values and quality objectives for discharges of hexachlorocyclohexane (10) and Directive 86/280/EEC will become superfluous and should be deleted.

(10)

The aquatic environment can be affected by chemical pollution both in the short term and in the long term, and therefore both acute and chronic effects data should be used as the basis for establishing the EQS. In order to ensure that the aquatic environment and human health are adequately protected, EQS expressed as an annual average value should be established at a level providing protection against long-term exposure, and maximum allowable concentrations should be established to protect against short term exposure.

(11)

In accordance with the rules set out in Section 1.3.4 of Annex V to Directive 2000/60/EC, when monitoring compliance with the EQS, including those expressed as maximum allowable concentrations, Member States may introduce statistical methods, such as a percentile calculation, to deal with outliers (extreme deviations from the mean) and false readings in order to ensure an acceptable level of confidence and precision. To ensure the comparability of monitoring between Member States, it is appropriate to provide for the establishment of detailed rules for such statistical methods through committee procedure.

(12)

The establishment of EQS values at Community level should, at this stage, for the majority of substances be limited to surface water only. However, as regards hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorobutadiene and mercury, it is not possible to ensure protection against indirect effects and secondary poisoning at Community level by EQS for surface water alone. It is therefore appropriate to establish EQS for biota at Community level for those three substances. To allow Member States flexibility depending on their monitoring strategy, they should be able either to monitor and apply those EQS for biota, or to establish stricter EQS for surface water providing the same level of protection.

(13)

Furthermore, Member States should be able to establish EQS for sediment and/or biota at national level and apply those EQS instead of the EQS for water set out in this Directive. Such EQS should be established through a transparent procedure involving notifications to the Commission and other Member States so as to ensure a level of protection equivalent to the EQS for water set up at Community level. The Commission should summarise these notifications in its reports on the implementation of Directive 2000/60/EC. Moreover, as sediment and biota remain important matrices for the monitoring of certain substances by Member States, in order to assess long term impacts of anthropogenic activity and trends, Member States should take measures, subject to Article 4 of Directive 2000/60/EC, with the aim of ensuring that existing levels of contamination in biota and sediments will not significantly increase.

(14)

Member States have to comply with Council Directive 98/83/EC of 3 November 1998 on the quality of water intended for human consumption (11) and manage the surface water bodies used for abstraction of drinking water in accordance with Article 7 of Directive 2000/60/EC. This Directive should therefore be implemented without prejudice to those requirements which may require more stringent standards.

(15)

In the vicinity of discharges from point sources concentrations of pollutants are usually higher than the ambient concentrations in water. Therefore, Member States should be able to make use of mixing zones, so long as they do not affect the compliance of the rest of the body of surface water with the relevant EQS. The extent of mixing zones should be restricted to the proximity of the point of discharge and be proportionate.

(16)

It is necessary to check compliance with the objectives for cessation or phase-out, and reduction, as specified in Article 4(1)(a) of Directive 2000/60/EC, and to make the assessment of compliance with these obligations transparent, in particular as regards the consideration of significant emissions, discharges and losses as a result of human activities. Further, a timetable for cessation or phase-out, and reduction, can only be related to an inventory. It should be also possible to assess the application of Article 4(4) to (7) of Directive 2000/60/EC. An appropriate tool is likewise needed for quantification of losses of substances occurring naturally, or resulting from natural processes, in which case complete cessation or phase out from all potential sources is impossible. In order to meet those needs, each Member State should establish an inventory of emissions, discharges and losses for each river basin district or part of a river basin district in its territory.

(17)

In order to avoid duplication of work by establishing those inventories and to ensure the coherence of those inventories with other existing tools in the area of surface water protection, Member States should use information collected under Directive 2000/60/EC and under Regulation (EC) No 166/2006 of the European Parliament and Council of 18 January 2006 concerning the establishment of a European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (12).

(18)

In order better to reflect their needs, Member States should be able to choose an appropriate 1-year reference period for measuring the basic entries of the inventory. However, account should be taken of the fact that the losses from the application of pesticides may vary considerably from one year to another because of different application rates, for example because of different climatic conditions. Therefore, Member States should be able to opt for a 3-year reference period for certain substances covered by Council Directive 91/414/EEC of 15 July 1991 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market (13).

(19)

In order to optimise the use of the inventory, it is appropriate to fix a deadline for the Commission to verify that emissions, discharges and losses are making progress towards compliance with the objectives set out in Article 4(1)(a) of Directive 2000/60/EC, subject to Article 4(4) and (5) of that Directive.

(20)

Several Member States are affected by pollution the source of which lies outside their national jurisdiction. It is therefore appropriate to make clear that a Member State would not be in breach of its obligations under this Directive as a result of the exceedance of an EQS due to such transboundary pollution provided that certain conditions were met and that it had taken advantage, as appropriate, of the relevant provisions of Directive 2000/60/EC.

(21)

On the basis of reports from Member States, the Commission should review the need for additional specific Community-wide measures and, if appropriate, make relevant proposals.

(22)

Criteria for identification of substances that are persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic, as well as substances of other equivalent concern, notably very persistent and very bioaccumulative, as referred to in Directive 2000/60/EC, are established in the Technical Guidance Document for Risk Assessment in support of Commission Directive 93/67/EEC of 20 July 1993 laying down the principles for assessment of risks to man and the environment of substances notified in accordance with Council Directive 67/548/EEC (14), Commission Regulation (EC) No 1488/94 of 28 June 1994 laying down the principles for the assessment of risks to man and the environment of existing substances in accordance with Council Regulation (EEC) No 793/93 (15) and Directive 98/8/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 1998 concerning the placing of biocidal products on the market (16). To ensure consistency of Community legislation, only those criteria should be applied to the substances under review according to Decision No 2455/2001/EC, and Annex X to Directive 2000/60/EC should be replaced accordingly.

(23)

The obligations laid down in the Directives listed in Annex IX to Directive 2000/60/EC are already incorporated in Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 concerning integrated pollution prevention and control (17) and in Directive 2000/60/EC and, at least, the same level of protection is guaranteed if the EQS are maintained or reviewed. In order to ensure a consistent approach to chemical pollution of surface waters and to simplify and clarify the existing Community legislation in that area, it is appropriate to repeal, pursuant to Directive 2000/60/EC, with effect from 22 December 2012, Directives 82/176/EEC, 83/513/EEC, 84/156/EEC, 84/491/EEC and 86/280/EEC.

(24)

The recommendations referred to in Directive 2000/60/EC, in particular those of the Scientific Committee on Toxicity, Ecotoxicity and the Environment, have been considered.

(25)

In accordance with paragraph 34 of the Interinstitutional Agreement on better law-making (18), Member States are encouraged to draw up, for themselves and in the interests of the Community, their own tables illustrating, as far as possible, the correlation between this Directive and the transposition measures, and to make them public.

(26)

Since the objective of this Directive, namely the achieving of good surface water chemical status by laying down EQS for priority substances and certain other pollutants, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of maintaining the same level of protection of surface water throughout the Community, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

(27)

The measures necessary for the implementation of this Directive should be adopted inaccordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (19).

(28)

In particular, the Commission should be empowered to amend point 3 of part B of Annex I. Since that measure is of general scope and is designed to amend non-essential elements of this Directive, or to supplement it by the addition of new non-essential elements, it must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC,

(a)

apply, for mercury and its compounds, an EQS of 20 μg/kg, and/or for hexachlorobenzene, an EQS of 10 μg/kg, and/or for hexachlorobutadiene, an EQS of 55 μg/kg, these EQS being for prey tissue (wet weight), choosing the most appropriate indicator from among fish, molluscs, crustaceans and other biota;

(b)

establish and apply EQS other than those mentioned in point (a) for sediment and/or biota for specified substances. These EQS shall offer at least the same level of protection as the EQS for water set out in Annex I, Part A;

(c)

determine, for the substances mentioned in points (a) and (b), the frequency of monitoring in biota and/or sediment. However, monitoring shall take place at least once every year, unless technical knowledge and expert judgment justify another interval; and

(d)

notify the Commission and other Member States, through the Committee referred to in Article 21 of Directive 2000/60/EC, of the substances for which EQS have been established in accordance with point (b), the reasons and basis for using this approach, the alternative EQS established, including the data and the methodology by which they were derived, the categories of surface water to which they would apply, and the frequency of monitoring planned, together with the justification for that frequency.

(a)

restricted to the proximity of the point of discharge;

(b)

proportionate, having regard to the concentrations of pollutants at the point of discharge and to the conditions on emissions of pollutants contained in the prior regulations, such as authorisations and/or permits, referred to in Article 11(3)(g) of Directive 2000/60/EC and any other relevant Community law, in accordance with the application of best available techniques and Article 10 of Directive 2000/60/EC, in particular after those prior regulations are reviewed.

(a)

the exceedance was due to a source of pollution outside its national jurisdiction;

(b)

it was unable as a result of such transboundary pollution to take effective measures to comply with the relevant EQS; and

(c)

it had applied the coordination mechanisms set out in Article 3 of Directive 2000/60/EC and, as appropriate, taken advantage of the provisions of Article 4(4), (5) and (6) of that Directive for those water bodies affected by transboundary pollution.

18.3.2008   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 71/16

(1)

Directive 2006/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 April 2006 on waste (4) establishes the legislative framework for the handling of waste in the Community. It defines key concepts such as waste, recovery and disposal and puts in place the essential requirements for the management of waste, notably an obligation for an establishment or undertaking carrying out waste management operations to have a permit or to be registered and an obligation for the Member States to draw up waste management plans. It also establishes major principles such as an obligation to handle waste in a way that does not have a negative impact on the environment and human health, an encouragement to apply the waste hierarchy and, in accordance with the polluter-pays principle, a requirement that the costs of disposing of waste must be borne by the holder of waste, by previous holders or by the producers of the product from which the waste came.

(2)

Decision No 1600/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 July 2002 laying down the Sixth Community Environment Action Programme (5) calls for the development or revision of the legislation on waste, including a clarification of the distinction between waste and non-waste, and for the development of measures regarding waste prevention.

(3)

The Commission communication of 27 May 2003 towards a Thematic Strategy on the prevention and recycling of waste noted the need to assess the existing definitions of recovery and disposal, the need for a generally applicable definition of recycling and a debate on the definition of waste.

(4)

In its resolution of 20 April 2004 on the abovementioned communication (6), the European Parliament called on the Commission to consider extending Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 concerning integrated pollution prevention and control (7) to the waste sector as a whole. It also asked the Commission to differentiate clearly between recovery and disposal and to clarify the distinction between waste and non-waste.

(5)

In its conclusions of 1 July 2004 the Council called on the Commission to bring forward a proposal for the revision of certain aspects of Directive 75/442/EEC, repealed and replaced by Directive 2006/12/EC, in order to clarify the distinction between waste and non-waste and that between recovery and disposal.

(6)

It is therefore necessary to revise Directive 2006/12/EC in order to clarify key concepts such as the definitions of waste, recovery and disposal, to strengthen the measures that must be taken on waste prevention, to introduce an approach that takes into account the whole life-cycle of products and materials and not only the waste phase, and to focus on reducing the environmental impacts of waste generation and waste management, thereby strengthening the economic value of waste. Furthermore, the recovery of waste and the use of recovered materials should be encouraged in order to conserve natural resources. In the interests of clarity and readability, Directive 2006/12/EC should be repealed and replaced by a new directive.

(7)

Since most significant waste management operations are now covered by Community legislation in the field of environment, it is important that this Directive be adapted to that approach. An emphasis on the environmental objectives laid down in Article 174 of the Treaty would bring the environmental impacts of waste generation and waste management more sharply into focus throughout the life-cycle of resources. Consequently, the legal basis for this Directive should be Article 175.

(8)

Effective and consistent rules on waste treatment should be applied, subject to certain exceptions, to movable property which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard.

(9)

The waste status of uncontaminated excavated soils and other naturally occurring material which are used on sites other than the one from which they were excavated should be considered according to the waste definition and the provisions on by-products or on the end of waste status under this Directive.

(10)

Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 October 2002 laying down health rules concerning animal by-products not intended for human consumption (8) provides, inter alia, for proportionate controls as regards the collection, transport, processing, use and disposal of all animal by-products including waste of animal origin, preventing it from presenting a risk to animal and public health. It is therefore necessary to clarify the link with that Regulation, avoiding duplication of rules by excluding from the scope of this Directive animal by-products where they are intended for uses that are not considered waste operations.

(11)

In the light of the experience gained in applying Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002, it is appropriate to clarify the scope of waste legislation and of its provisions on hazardous waste as regards animal by-products regulated by Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002. Where animal by-products pose potential health risks, the appropriate legal instrument to address these risks is Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002 and unnecessary overlaps with waste legislation should be avoided.

(12)

The classification of waste as hazardous waste should be based, inter alia, on the Community legislation on chemicals, in particular concerning the classification of preparations as hazardous, including concentration limit values used for that purpose. Furthermore, it is necessary to maintain the system by which waste and hazardous waste have been classified in accordance with the list of the types of waste as last established by Commission Decision 2000/532/EC (9), in order to encourage a harmonised classification of waste and ensure the harmonised determination of hazardous waste within the Community.

(13)

It is necessary to distinguish between the preliminary storage of waste pending its collection, the collection of waste and the storage of waste pending treatment. Establishments or undertakings that produce waste in the course of their activities should not be regarded as engaged in waste management and subject to authorisation for the storage of their waste pending its collection.

(14)

Preliminary storage of waste within the definition of collection is understood as a storage activity pending its collection in facilities where waste is unloaded in order to permit its preparation for further transport for recovery or disposal elsewhere. The distinction between preliminary storage of waste pending collection and the storage of waste pending treatment should be made, in view of the objective of this Directive, according to the type of waste, the size and time period of storage and the objective of the collection. This distinction should be made by the Member States. The storage of waste prior to recovery for a period of 3 years or longer and the storage of waste prior to disposal for a period of 1 year or longer is subject to Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste (10).

(15)

Waste collection schemes which are not conducted on a professional basis should not be subject to registration as they present a lower risk and contribute to the separate collection of waste. Examples of such schemes are waste medicines collected by pharmacies, take-back schemes in shops for consumer goods and community schemes in schools.

(16)

Definitions of prevention, re-use, preparing for re-use, treatment and recycling should be included in this Directive, in order to clarify the scope of these concepts.

(17)

The definitions of recovery and disposal need to be modified in order to ensure a clear distinction between the two concepts, based on a genuine difference in environmental impact through the substitution of natural resources in the economy and recognising the potential benefits to the environment and human health of using waste as a resource. In addition, guidelines may be developed in order to clarify cases where this distinction is difficult to apply in practice or where the classification of the activity as recovery does not match the real environmental impact of the operation.

(18)

This Directive should also clarify when the incineration of municipal solid waste is energy-efficient and may be considered a recovery operation.

(19)

Disposal operations consisting of release to seas and oceans including sea bed insertion are also regulated by international conventions, in particular the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, done at London on 13 November 1972, and the 1996 Protocol thereto as amended in 2006.

(20)

There should be no confusion between the various aspects of the waste definition, and appropriate procedures should be applied, where necessary, to by-products that are not waste, on the one hand, or to waste that ceases to be waste, on the other hand. In order to specify certain aspects of the definition of waste, this Directive should clarify:

(21)

In order to verify or calculate if the recycling and recovery targets set in Directive 94/62/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 1994 on packaging and packaging waste (11), Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 September 2000 on end-of life vehicles (12), Directive 2002/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 2003 on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) (13) and Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators (14) as well as other relevant Community legislation are met, the amounts of waste which have ceased to be waste should be accounted for as recycled and recovered waste.

(22)

On the basis of the definition of waste, in order to promote certainty and consistency, the Commission may adopt guidelines to specify in certain cases when substances or objects become waste. Such guidelines may be developed inter alia for electrical and electronic equipment and vehicles.

(23)

It is appropriate that costs be allocated in such a way as to reflect the real costs to the environment of the generation and management of waste.

(24)

The polluter-pays principle is a guiding principle at European and international levels. The waste producer and the waste holder should manage the waste in a way that guarantees a high level of protection of the environment and human health.

(25)

The introduction of extended producer responsibility in this Directive is one of the means to support the design and production of goods which take into full account and facilitate the efficient use of resources during their whole life-cycle including their repair, re-use, disassembly and recycling without compromising the free circulation of goods on the internal market.

(26)

This Directive should help move the EU closer to a ‘recycling society’, seeking to avoid waste generation and to use waste as a resource. In particular, the Sixth Community Environment Action Programme calls for measures aimed at ensuring the source separation, collection and recycling of priority waste streams. In line with that objective and as a means to facilitating or improving its recovery potential, waste should be separately collected if technically, environmentally and economically practicable, before undergoing recovery operations that deliver the best overall environmental outcome.

(27)

In order to implement the precautionary principle and the principle of preventive action enshrined in Article 174(2) of the Treaty, it is necessary to set general environmental objectives for the management of waste within the Community. By virtue of those principles, it is for the Community and the Member States to establish a framework to prevent, reduce and, in so far as is possible, eliminate from the outset the sources of pollution or nuisance by adopting measures whereby recognised risks are eliminated.

(28)

The waste hierarchy generally constitutes the best overall environmental option in waste legislation and policy, while departing from such hierarchy may be necessary for specific waste streams when justified for reasons of, inter alia, technical feasibility, economic viability and environmental protection.

(29)

It is necessary, in order to enable the Community as a whole to become self-sufficient in waste disposal and in the recovery of mixed municipal waste collected from private households and to enable the Member States to move towards that aim individually, to make provision for a network of cooperation as regards disposal installations and installations for the recovery of mixed municipal waste collected from private households, taking into account geographical circumstances and the need for specialised installations for certain types of waste.

(30)

For the purposes of applying Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2006 on shipments of waste (15), mixed municipal waste as referred to in Article 3(5) of that Regulation remains mixed municipal waste even when it has been subject to a waste treatment operation that has not substantially altered its properties.

(31)

It is important that hazardous waste be labelled in accordance with international and Community standards. However, where such waste is collected separately from households, this should not result in householders being obliged to complete the requisite documentation.

(32)

It is important, in accordance with the waste hierarchy, and for the purpose of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions originating from waste disposal on landfills, to facilitate the separate collection and proper treatment of bio-waste in order to produce environmentally-safe compost and other bio-waste based materials. The Commission, after an assessment on the management of bio-waste, will submit proposals for legislative measures, if appropriate.

(33)

Technical minimum standards concerning waste treatment activities not covered by Directive 96/61/EC may be adopted where there is evidence that a benefit would be gained in terms of protecting human health and the environment and where a co-ordinated approach to the implementation of this Directive would ensure the protection of human health and the environment.

(34)

It is necessary to specify further the scope and content of the waste management planning obligation, and to integrate into the process of developing or revising waste management plans the need to take into account the environmental impacts of the generation and management of waste. Account should also be taken, where appropriate, of the waste planning requirements laid down in Article 14 of Directive 94/62/EC and of the strategy for the reduction of biodegradable waste going to landfills, referred to in Article 5 of Directive 1999/31/EC.

(35)

Member States may apply environmental authorisations or general environmental rules to certain waste producers without compromising the proper functioning of the internal market.

(36)

According to Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006, Member States may take the measures necessary to prevent shipments of waste which are not in accordance with their waste management plans. By way of derogation from that Regulation, Member States should be allowed to limit incoming shipments to incinerators classified as recovery, where it has been established that national waste would have to be disposed of or that waste would have to be treated in a way that is not consistent with their waste management plans. It is recognised that certain Member States may not be able to provide a network comprising the full range of final recovery facilities within their territory.

(37)

In order to improve the way in which waste prevention actions are taken forward in the Member States and to facilitate the circulation of best practice in this area, it is necessary to strengthen the provisions relating to waste prevention and to introduce a requirement for the Member States to develop waste prevention programmes concentrating on the key environmental impacts and taking into account the whole life-cycle of products and materials. Such measures should pursue the objective of breaking the link between economic growth and the environmental impacts associated with the generation of waste. Stakeholders, as well as the general public, should have the opportunity to participate in the drawing up of the programmes, and should have access to them once drawn up, in line with Directive 2003/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 providing for public participation in respect of the drawing up of certain plans and programmes relating to the environment (16).

(38)

Economic instruments can play a crucial role in the achievement of waste prevention and management objectives. Waste often has value as a resource, and the further application of economic instruments may maximise environmental benefits. The use of such instruments at the appropriate level should therefore be encouraged while stressing that individual Member States can decide on their use.

(39)

Certain provisions on the handling of waste, laid down in Council Directive 91/689/EEC of 12 December 1991 on hazardous waste (17), should be amended in order to remove obsolete provisions and to improve the clarity of the text. In the interests of simplifying Community legislation, they should be integrated into this Directive. In order to clarify the operation of the mixing ban laid down in Directive 91/689/EEC, and to protect the environment and human health, the exemptions to the mixing ban should additionally comply with best available techniques as defined in Directive 96/61/EC. Directive 91/689/EEC should therefore be repealed.

(40)

In the interests of the simplification of Community legislation and the reflection of environmental benefits, the relevant provisions of Council Directive 75/439/EEC of 16 June 1975 on the disposal of waste oils (18) should be integrated into this Directive. Directive 75/439/EEC should therefore be repealed. The management of waste oils should be conducted in accordance with the guiding principle of the waste hierarchy, and preference should be given to options that deliver the best overall environmental outcome. The separate collection of waste oils remains crucial to their proper management and the prevention of damage to the environment from their improper disposal.

(41)

Member States should provide for effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties to be imposed on natural and legal persons responsible for waste management, such as waste producers, holders, brokers, dealers, transporters and collectors, establishments or undertakings which carry out waste treatment operations and waste management schemes, in cases where they infringe the provisions of this Directive. Member States may also take action to recover the costs of non-compliance and remedial measures, without prejudice to Directive 2004/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage (19).

(42)

The measures necessary for the implementation of this Directive should be adopted in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (20).

(43)

In particular, power should be conferred on the Commission to establish criteria regarding a number of issues such as the conditions under which an object is to be considered a by-product, the end-of-waste status and the determination of waste which is considered as hazardous. Furthermore, power should be conferred on the Commission to adapt the annexes to technical and scientific progress and to specify the application of the formula for incineration facilities referred to in Annex II, R 1. Since those measures are of general scope and are designed to amend non-essential elements of this Directive and to supplement it by the addition of new non-essential elements, they must be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny provided for in Article 5a of Decision 1999/468/EC.

(44)

In accordance with paragraph 34 of the interinstitutional agreement on better lawmaking (21), Member States are encouraged to draw up, for themselves and in the interest of the Community, their own tables, illustrating, as far as possible, the correlation between this Directive and the transposition measures and to make them public.

(45)

Since the objective of this Directive, namely, the protection of the environment and human health, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reasons of the scale or effects of the Directive, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective,

(a)

gaseous effluents emitted into the atmosphere;

(b)

land (in situ) including unexcavated contaminated soil and buildings permanently connected with land;

(c)

uncontaminated soil and other naturally occurring material excavated in the course of construction activities where it is certain that the material will be used for the purposes of construction in its natural state on the site from which it was excavated;

(d)

radioactive waste;

(e)

decommissioned explosives;

(f)

faecal matter, if not covered by paragraph 2(b), straw and other natural non-hazardous agricultural or forestry material used in farming, forestry or for the production of energy from such biomass through processes or methods which do not harm the environment or endanger human health.

(a)

waste waters;

(b)

animal by-products including processed products covered by Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002, except those which are destined for incineration, landfilling or use in a biogas or composting plant;

(c)

carcases of animals that have died other than by being slaughtered, including animals killed to eradicate epizootic diseases, and that are disposed of in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002;

(d)

waste resulting from prospecting, extraction, treatment and storage of mineral resources and the working of quarries covered by Directive 2006/21/EC.

1.

‘waste’ means any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard;

2.

‘hazardous waste’ means waste which displays one or more of the hazardous properties listed in Annex III;

3.

‘waste oils’ means any mineral or synthetic lubrication or industrial oils which have become unfit for the use for which they were originally intended, such as used combustion engine oils and gearbox oils, lubricating oils, oils for turbines and hydraulic oils;

4.

‘bio-waste’ means biodegradable garden and park waste, food and kitchen waste from households, restaurants, caterers and retail premises and comparable waste from food processing plants;

5.

‘waste producer’ means anyone whose activities produce waste (original waste producer) or anyone who carries out pre-processing, mixing or other operations resulting in a change in the nature or composition of this waste;

6.

‘waste holder’ means the waste producer or the natural or legal person who is in possession of the waste;

7.

‘dealer’ means any undertaking which acts in the role of principal to purchase and subsequently sell waste, including such dealers who do not take physical possession of the waste;

8.

‘broker’ means any undertaking arranging the recovery or disposal of waste on behalf of others, including such brokers who do not take physical possession of the waste;

9.

‘waste management’ means the collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste, including the supervision of such operations and the after-care of disposal sites, and including actions taken as a dealer or broker;

10.

‘collection’ means the gathering of waste, including the preliminary sorting and preliminary storage of waste for the purposes of transport to a waste treatment facility;

11.

‘prevention’ means measures taken before a substance, material or product has become waste, that reduce:

12.

‘re-use’ means any operation by which products or components that are not waste are used again for the same purpose for which they were conceived;

13.

‘treatment’ means recovery or disposal operations, including preparation prior to recovery or disposal;

14.

‘recovery’ means any operation the principal result of which is waste serving a useful purpose by replacing other materials which would otherwise have been used to fulfil a particular function, or waste being prepared to fulfil that function, in the plant or in the wider economy. Annex II sets out a non-exhaustive list of recovery operations;

15.

‘preparing for re-use’ means checking, cleaning or repairing recovery operations, by which products or components of products that have become waste are prepared so that they will be re-used without any other pre-processing;

16.

‘recycling’ means any recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or other purposes. It includes the reprocessing of organic material but does not include energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling operations;

17.

‘regeneration of waste oils’ means any recycling operation whereby base oils can be produced by refining waste oils, in particular by removing the contaminants, the oxidation products and the additives contained in such oils;

18.

‘disposal’ means any operation which is not recovery even where the operation has as a secondary consequence the reclamation of substances or energy. Annex I sets out a non-exhaustive list of disposal operations;

19.

‘best available techniques’ means best available techniques as defined in Article 2(11) of Directive 96/61/EC.

(a)

further use of the substance or object is certain;

(b)

the substance or object can be used directly without any further processing other than normal industrial practice;

(c)

the substance or object is produced as an integral part of a production process; and

(d)

further use is lawful, i.e. the substance or object fulfils all relevant product, environmental and health protection requirements for the specific use and will not lead to overall adverse environmental or human health impacts.

(a)

the substance or object is commonly used for a specific purpose;

(b)

a market or demand exists for such a substance or object;

(c)

the substance or object fulfils the technical requirements for the specific purpose referred to in (a) and meets the existing legislation and standards applicable to products; and

(d)

the use of the substance or object will not lead to overall adverse environmental or human health impacts.

(a)

without risk to water, air, soil, plants or animals;

(b)

without causing a nuisance through noise or odours; and

(c)

without adversely affecting the countryside or places of special interest.

(a)

prevention;

(b)

preparing for re-use;

(c)

recycling;

(d)

other recovery, e.g. energy recovery; and

(e)

disposal.

(a)

the mixing operation is carried out by an establishment or undertaking which has obtained a permit in accordance with Article 20;

(b)

the conditions laid down in Article 10 are complied with and the adverse impact of the waste management on human health and the environment is not increased; and

(c)

the mixing operation conforms to best available techniques.

(a)

waste oils are collected separately, where this is technically feasible;

(b)

waste oils are treated in accordance with Articles 10 and 11;

(c)

where this is technically feasible and economically viable, waste oils of different characteristics are not mixed and waste oils are not mixed with other kinds of waste or substances, if such mixing impedes their treatment.

(a)

the separate collection of bio-waste;

(b)

the treatment of bio-waste in a way that fulfils a high level of environmental protection;

(c)

the use of environmentally safe materials produced from bio-waste.

(a)

the types and quantities of waste that may be treated;

(b)

for each type of operation permitted, the technical and any other requirements relevant to the site concerned;

(c)

the safety and precautionary measures to be taken;

(d)

the method to be used for each type of operation;

(e)

such monitoring and control operations as may be necessary;

(f)

such closure and after-care provisions as may be necessary.

(a)

disposal of their own non-hazardous waste at the place of production; or

(b)

recovery of waste.

(a)

establishments or undertakings which collect or transport waste on a professional basis;

(b)

dealers or brokers; and

(c)

establishments or undertakings which are subject to exemptions from the permit requirements pursuant to Article 21.

(a)

be directed to the main environmental impacts of the waste treatment activity;

(b)

ensure that the waste is treated in accordance with Article 10;

(c)

take into account best available techniques; and

(d)

as appropriate, include elements regarding the quality of treatment and the process requirements.

(a)

the type, quantity and source of waste generated within the territory, the waste likely to be shipped from or to the national territory, and an evaluation of the development of waste streams in the future;

(b)

existing waste collection schemes and major disposal and recovery installations, including any special arrangements for waste oils, hazardous waste or waste streams addressed by specific Community legislation;

(c)

an assessment of the need for new collection schemes, the closure of existing waste installations, additional waste installation infrastructure in accordance with Article 14, and, if necessary, the investments related thereto;

(d)

sufficient information on the location criteria for site identification and on the capacity of future disposal or major recovery installations, if necessary;

(e)

general waste management policies, including planned waste management technologies and methods, or policies for waste posing specific management problems.

(a)

organisational aspects related to waste management including a description of the allocation of responsibilities between public and private actors carrying out the waste management;

(b)

an evaluation of the usefulness and suitability of the use of economic and other instruments in tackling various waste problems, taking into account the need to maintain the smooth functioning of the internal market;

(c)

the use of awareness campaigns and information provision directed at the general public or at a specific set of consumers;

(d)

historical contaminated waste disposal sites and measures for their rehabilitation.