Keywords
Summary

Keywords

1. Environment — Waste — Regulation No 259/93 on shipments of waste — Classification of the proposed shipment by the notifier — Competence of the authorities to which notification of a proposed shipment is addressed to check classification (recovery or disposal) and to object to a shipment which is wrongly classified — (Council Regulation No 259/93, Art. 7(2) and (4))

2. Environment — Waste — Directive 75/442 on waste — Annex II B — Distinction between a disposal operation and a recovery operation — Combustion of waste — Classified as a recovery operation — Conditions — (Council Directive 75/442, as amended by Commission Decision 96/350, Annex II B)

Summary

1. Under the system established by Regulation No 259/93 on the supervision and control of shipments of waste within, into and out of the European Community, all the competent authorities to which notification of a proposed shipment of waste is addressed must check that the classification by the notifier is consistent with the provisions of the regulation. If that classification is incorrect, those authorities must object to a shipment on the ground of that classification error, without reference to one of the specific provisions of the regulation setting out the objections which the Member States may raise. It is not, however, for the competent authority to reclassify ex officio the purpose of the shipment of waste.

see paras 21-22

2. The combustion of waste constitutes a recovery operation under point R1 of Annex II B to Directive 75/442, as amended by Decision 96/350, where its principal objective is for the waste to fulfil a useful function as a means of generating energy, replacing the use of a source of primary energy which would have had to have been used to fulfil that function. In particular, the combustion of household waste may be classified as a recovery operation if the main purpose is to enable the waste to be used as a means of generating energy, it takes place in conditions which give reason to believe that it is indeed a means to generate energy, the greater part of the waste is consumed during the operation and the greater part of the energy generated is reclaimed and used.

It follows that an operation whose principal objective is the disposal of waste must be classified as a disposal operation where the reclamation of the heat generated by the combustion constitutes only a secondary effect of that operation.

see paras 31-37, 43