Disposal of titanium dioxide industrial waste

This directive aims to prevent, gradually reduce and ultimately eliminate pollution from titanium dioxide industrial waste.

ACT

Council Directive 78/176/EEC of 20 February 1978 on titanium dioxide industrial waste [See amending act(s)].

SUMMARY

The Member States will take steps to ensure that waste-disposal procedures take due account of human-health and environmental considerations. They will actively encourage waste prevention and recycling and the re-use of waste as raw materials.

Any discharge, dumping, storage, accumulation or injection of waste will require prior authorization, for a limited but renewable period, by the competent Member State authority:

• on whose territory the waste is produced;
• on whose territory the waste is discharged or dumped;
• from whose territory the waste is discharged or dumped.

Periodical checks will be carried out on the waste, and on the ambient environment in question, by bodies designated by the Member State responsible for issuing the licence, with a view to assessing the physical, chemical, biological and ecological aspects.

The Member States will draw up programmes for the gradual reduction, and ultimate elimination, of pollution caused by waste from old manufacturing facilities.

In the case of new manufacturing facilities, prior authorization must be obtained from the competent authorities in the Member State on whose territory it is planned to construct them. The issuing of any such authorization will be preceded by environmental impact studies and will be conditional on an undertaking by the companies concerned to use only those materials, procedures and technology that are least damaging to the environment.

Under the terms of the Directive, Member States are empowered to introduce more stringent rules.

RELATED ACTS

Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 December 2007 on industrial emissions (integrated pollution prevention and control) (Recast) [COM(2007) 844 final - Not published in the Official Journal].

The aim of this Proposal is to recast into a single legal act seven separate Directives relating to industrial emissions: Directives 78/176/EEC, 82/883/EEC and 92/112/EEC on waste and discards from the titanium dioxide industry, Directive 96/61/EC (replaced by Directive 2008/1/EC concerning integrated pollution prevention and control – the IPPC Directive), Directive 1999/13/EC on volatile organic compounds, Directive 2000/76/EC on the incineration of waste and Directive 2001/80/EC on pollutants emitted by large combustion plants. This integrated approach to issuing permits to industrial installations should allow major progress to be made in the field of atmospheric pollution. The central element of this approach is the implementation of Best Available Techniques BAT).

Codecision procedure (COD/2007/0286)

Council Directive 92/112/EEC of 15 December 1992 on procedures for harmonizing the programmes for the reduction and eventual elimination of pollution caused by waste from the titanium dioxide industry [Official Journal L 409 of 31.12.1992].

Last updated: 12.10.2010