The UK is to be referred to the Court of Justice over its “failure to adopt measures that prioritise the processing of waste oils by regeneration when there is no technical, economic or organisational constraint to prevent this”, which is contrary to the Waste Oils Directive, and over its failure to implement the Landfill Directive before the deadline.
Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrm said: “EU legislation on waste exists for a reason. We want to prevent waste from damaging the environment and from harming human health. There is no point in Member States agreeing to EU laws unless they then abide by them.”
A spokesman for DEFRA told letsrecycle.com that infringement procedures between the EU and its member states are normally confidential, and that the government does not comment on the process.
Landfill
The Landfill Directive was adopted by the European Union in July 1999, setting out operational, regulatory and technical requirements for the landfilling of waste, and should have been implemented by EU Member States by 16 July 2001. However, the implementation of the Directive by the UK has not yet been completed.
As part of the implementation process in this country, the Environment Agency has been calling for operators of landfill sites to submit site condition plans (see letsrecycle.com story). However, even after the close of the EA's deadline, 149 sites that are not already known to be closing next year have still not submitted their plans, and the Agency has said that if those site conditioning plans have not been received by August 19, closing procedures will be set in motion for the offending landfill sites.
Oils
The 1975 Directive on Waste Oils, amended in 1987, aims to create a harmonised system for the collection, treatment, storage and disposal of waste oils, without harming the environment.
The Directive pushes for EU Member States to set up systems for the registering, permitting and supervising of activities involving the processing or disposal of waste oils. Among the different options for recovery, priority is given to the regeneration of waste oils rather than incineration or controlled storage.
However, several European studies have demonstrated that European Member States do not favour the regeneration of waste oils, and widely use them as fuel in industrial installations.
In the UK, most waste oil is currently burnt as replacement fuel. The Waste Incineration Directive, which the Government plans to implement at the end of 2002, will restrict demand for the replacement fuel that the waste oil industry supplies.
Waste oils are also classified as hazardous wastes, so requirements of the Hazardous Waste Directive also apply.
The Government said in its Waste Strategy 2000 that it would be consulting this year about the tax treatment of waste oil used as a fuel as part of its commitment to “examine ways of enhancing the competitiveness of regenerated or recycled oils”. A government spokesman confirmed that waste oils are currently being looked at, saying: “Watch this space.”
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