MEPs approve rules governing waste plant emissions

A new Europe-wide system of emissions and pollution standards for industrial plants that is now expected to come into force in the UK in late 2012 favours anaerobic digestion ahead of other biological treatment activities, according to the body representing waste management companies across Europe, FEAD.

Under the latest version of the Industrial Emissions Directive which was approved by the European Parliament this week (July 7), AD plants will need to operate at a capacity of 100 tones a day or more before being subject to the requirements of the legislation, whereas other plants, such as composting facilities, will have to meet its standards if they deal with 75 tonnes a day or more of waste.

The Directive is being proposed as a means of bringing together seven pieces of European legislation on emissions, including the Waste Incineration Directive and the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive, into a single approach.

And, while it is still to be formally agreed, yesterday's Parliamentary approval – after it was backed by the Parliament's environment committee in May 2010 (see letsrecycle.com story) – means it only has to go to the European Environment Council where environment ministers will officially rubber-stamp it.

FEAD has said it then expects the Directive to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union before the end of the year, giving the UK two years to transpose its requirements into domestic legislation. The IPPC and WID are currently implemented through Environmental Permitting Regulations, enforced by the Environment Agency.

Impact

Speaking to letsrecycle.com about the impact that the new Directive was set to have on the waste sector, FEAD policy officer Laetitia Reynaud said that the organisation was “generally happy” about the draft legislation as it stands “considering it could have been much worse”.

While currently only non-hazardous waste disposal and treatment are covered by the IPPC, Miss Reynaud explained that the new Directive would also bring “recovery of non-hazardous waste” activities, such as AD, composting and shredding metals under its umbrella.

And, she said that the issue of different capacity thresholds for different technologies and activities was a particular sticking point for FEAD, explaining that: “The final text puts different thresholds to different waste management activities and we're quite disappointed.”

She added: “In general terms we're calling for a level playing field between waste management activities. For non-hazardous waste activities it benefits recovery over disposal. For recovery the threshold is 75 tonnes per day and disposal is a 50 tonnes per day threshold.”

In particular, she noted that the higher threshold for AD, which had been removed from the proposals at one point, had been reintroduced into the Directive during the recent negotiations between Council and Parliament.

“That's an obvious step against the level playing field for all activities – a higher threshold than for other biological treatment activities,” She said.

Emissions limit values

In terms of the emissions limit values which set the actual limits on emissions from industrial plants such as waste incinerators, Ms Reynaud noted that, in the final text, it had been decided that these shouldn't exceed the limitations developed through the best available techniques (BATs) process.

She said that FEAD was “not really happy” with this, but welcomed the fact that ‘competent authorities' would be able to step outside of these rules if they decided that the cost impact of the limitations would be disproportionate to the environmental benefits.

“We welcome the inclusion of a possible derogation which allows member states to deviate from them if the environmental benefits are disproportionate from the cost benefits,” she said.

But, she noted that FEAD was also “dissatisfied” with the fact that competent authorities would also be able to require facilities to set more stringent emissions limits than those developed under the BATs, or as she put it “to ask for better than what is best”.

Challenge

Ms Reynaud explained that the main challenge for the waste industry now, given the increased importance of BATs under the new Directive, was the imminent revision of the guidance documents which outline the BATs – which are known as BREFs.

She noted there is a BREF for waste treatment and another for waste incineration, with the former due for review in 2011 and the latter in 2012 and added: “The BAT conclusions will be legally binding so the discussions will be more important,” she said.