From plastic to electronic scrap, waste is on the rise all across Europe. In the EU, the average person produces 511kg of waste each year and only 38% of waste is recycled.
Much of the waste we produce is treated by waste management facilities that apply incineration processes. Such treatments primarily aim to reduce the amount and hazardous nature of the waste – destroying, however, materials that could be reused or recycled.
Waste incineration installations also emit health-harming substances including dioxins, heavy metals and particulate matter that contaminate air, water and soil.
The EU BREF on waste incineration (WI BREF) is setting binding minimum performance standards for these installations, aiming to prevent and minimise the negative impact that waste incineration operations can have on the environment. It was published in 2006 (under the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive of 1996, which was repealed and replaced by the Industrial Emissions Directive in 2014), and revised in 2014-2018.
The updated BAT conclusions were published in the Official Journal of the EU (OJEU) in 2019.
The publication of the BAT conclusions in the OJEU sets a four-year deadline for installations across the EU to comply with the updated requirements. However, if the BAT conclusions are published before an installation’s permit is issued, the installation must comply with the requirements immediately.
The updated BREF is available here.
Implementation
The NGOs operating at national level are advised to closely follow the permitting process.
The EEB prepared a briefing to assist them in this mission, including blind spots and suggested recommendations.
The review in a nutshell
The 2019 standards include some significant improvements in comparison to the original 2006 ones.
Most notably, progress has been made in terms of monitoring of mercury and dioxin emissions to the air, management of abnormal operating conditions – which are often associated with very high emission levels – and abatement of water pollution.
However, the new standards also present shortcomings to watch out for.
They fail to promote the uptake of the most advanced and effective techniques, especially in terms of air emissions abatement, including techniques that have already been in place for some time.
A case in point? NOx emissions as high as 150 mg/Nm3 (and 180 mg/Nm3 if the most effective technique, known as SCR technique, is not applicable) are suggested ‘as associated with use of BAT’ for existing plants, whereas data show that even generally less effective techniques, such as the SNCR technique, can achieve levels lower than 100 mg/Nm3 (daily average).
Furthermore, a loophole could allow certain plant operators to pollute more if they add biomass – like wood chippings or vegetable waste – to the materials they already burn, as doing so could place them out of the scope of the standards. Competent authorities must ensure that whenever waste is burnt these dedicated standards apply to curb harmful impacts on human health and the environment.
More information in this EEB briefing.
Contacts
Aliki Kriekouki, Senior Policy Officer for Industrial Production: aliki.kriekouki@eeb.org
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Documents archive from the review process
1. Kick-off Meeting (KoM) of the technical working group (January 2015):
- The KoM report, incl. decisions taken on the scope of the review and the key environmental issues to focus on, is available here.
- The KoM background paper, summarising the stakeholders’ positions on key issues is available here.
2. First draft of the BREF (D1) (May 2017)
- The D1 of the BREF is available here.
- The EEB comments on the D1 are available here.
3. Final Meeting (FM) of the technical working group (April 2018)
- The background paper of the FM, summarising the stakeholders’ positions on key issues is available here.
- The Commission’s assessment on dissenting views following the FM is available here.
5. The meeting of the IED Forum
- the opinion of the Forum is available here.