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Implementation of European Council Directive 2000/76/EC on the Incineration of Waste

PART 1

CHAPTER 1 The Regulatory Framework

1. THE WASTE INCINERATION DIRECTIVE

1.1 The Waste Incineration Directive (WID) introduces stringent operating conditions and sets minimum technical requirements for waste incineration and co-incineration ¹. It consolidates new and existing incineration controls into a single piece of European legislation.

1.2 The requirements of the Directive have been developed to reflect the ability of incineration plants to more cost effectively achieve high standards of emission control in comparison to the 1980s. Previous waste incineration directives only applied to municipal and hazardous waste. WID updates the requirements of the 1989 municipal waste incineration (MWI) directives (89/429/EEC and 89/369/EEC) and, merging them into the 1994 Hazardous Waste Incineration Directive (94/67/EC), consolidates new and existing incineration controls into a single piece of European legislation.

1.3 It covers virtually all waste incineration, and co-incineration plants, going beyond the plant previously covered by incineration directives. Additionally, it also replaces Article 8(1) and the Annex to the Waste Oil Directive (75/439/EEC) thus extending the scope of incineration controls to cover the burning of waste oils. WID will apply to over 200 processes in Scotland, of which around 70 per cent are waste oil burners used in vehicle service garages. Table 1 lists the main incineration and co-incineration processes and the estimated number of installations of each type.

1.4 WID sets stringent requirements that will apply to all new incinerator installations from 28 December 2002 and to all existing installations from 28 December 2005. It specifies air emission limits which must not be exceeded. It also sets requirements concerning normal and abnormal operating conditions, water discharges from cleaning exhaust gases, ash recycling, plant control and monitoring, and public access to information. WID also requires all incinerators and co-incinerators to have continuous monitors for certain pollutants.

Table 1 Summary of estimated number of incineration processes in Scotland

Note 1 Includes PPC applications made to SEPA but not yet determined
Note 2 There is an exclusion from the Directive for animal carcasses regulated under the Animal By-products Regulation which is still under consideration.

Due to exclusions, WID will not necessarily cover all of these incineration processes.

There will also be a number of incineration activities that are currently exempt* from the need to hold a waste management licence. These are not included in the above table, but some of these incinerators may need to comply with the WID.

*Paragraph 29 of Schedule 3 to the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994 exempts incinerators that dispose of waste at the place of production, by the person producing it, provided the through-put is less than 50kg/hour.

THE CURRENT FRAMEWORK

1.5 The Waste Framework Directive ² (Articles 9, 10 and 11) requires either a permit for waste disposal and recovery operations ( see Annex 3) or the registration of a permit exemption. The operations subject to control under the Waste Framework Directive include "D10 Incineration on land" and "R1 Use [of waste] principally as a fuel or other means to generate energy". Directive 84/360/EC (on the combating of air pollution from industrial plants) also requires the prior authorisation of plants for the disposal of toxic and dangerous waste by incineration and of plants for the treatment by incineration of other solid and liquid waste. The municipal and Hazardous Waste Incineration Directives referred to above contain the more detailed incineration controls which are to be applied through these permits. The transposition of these Directives means that almost all the plants that WID will apply to are currently regulated by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) under the Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) regime which deals with emissions to air, land and water; or under the Local Air Pollution Control (LAPC) regime which deals only with emissions to air.

1.6 A few small incinerators (operating at less than 50kg per hour) are currently controlled either by a waste management licence issued by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency under Part II of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994; or by a licensing exemption under those Regulations registered with SEPA. WID appears to allow such licensing exemptions to continue, notably for the disposal of non-hazardous waste at the place of its production and the recovery of non-hazardous waste (Article 4(1)). However, any incinerator currently covered by a licensing exemption would nevertheless still need to be subjected to the onerous requirements of the WID. The Executive, therefore, considers that there may not be any advantage in retaining licensing exemptions in parallel with implementing WID. We would welcome views on this proposition.

1.7 Some incinerators are subject to the requirements of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive (96/61/EC) ³. Since October 1999, any new incinerator falling under the ambit of the IPPC Directive has been regulated under the new Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) regime. This deals with emissions to all environmental media (air, water and land) and imposes additional environmental requirements, notably in respect of energy efficiency and site restoration. Transitional arrangements under the Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2000 set a timetable for existing incinerators that meet the PPC criteria to be brought into the regime by the end of 2005, although a few are not due until the following year. Incinerators that fall under the PPC regime, together with all hazardous waste incinerators subject to the Hazardous Waste Incineration Directive, are regulated by SEPA.

IMPLEMENTATION UNDER THE PPC REGIME

1.8 PPC applies an integrated environmental approach to the permitting and regulation of a range of industrial activities, including some incinerators. This means that emissions to air, water and land, and a range of other environmental effects, must be considered together. Regulators must set permit conditions to achieve a high level of protection of the environment as a whole. The conditions are based on the use of best available techniques (BAT). PPC is wider in scope than the regimes under Part I of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (EPA) which it replaces, both in terms of the industrial process and the environmental impacts covered.

1.9 WID has much in common with PPC, notably in requiring incinerator operators to apply for a permit with conditions to ensure that pollution is prevented, or controlled where that is not possible. In implementing WID, there are clear attractions in making Regulations which would apply the current PPC regime to all the incinerators covered by WID, in such a way as to impose additionally the specific WID requirements (for example, continuous monitoring).

1.10 The Executive is of the view that implementing WID for all incinerators through PPC will not place a significant additional burden upon their operators. It is, therefore, proposed to implement WID through PPC. The only requirements likely to incur additional costs immediately for incinerators/co-incinerators falling outside the scope of the IPPC Directive are those relating to the production of initial site surveys. This requirement and the related requirement to apply to surrender permits have, therefore, been disapplied for non-IPPC incinerators.

1.11 In the minority of cases where site surveys do need to be undertaken (that is, at PPC Part A plants), operators should establish the "baseline" condition of the site, in relation to the PPC requirement to return the site to a satisfactory state before the eventual surrender of the permit can be accepted. Appendix 1 of The Pollution Prevention and Control (Scotland) Regulations 2000 - a practical guide⁴ contains further details.

1.12 There will be a requirement to maintain a regulatory regime for excluded incineration plant (ie those not covered by WID). For example, currently where an incinerator operates at less than 50kg per hour and burns animal carcasses (which are exempt from WID: see 2.16 and 2.20 of this paper), it would remain regulated by SEPA under the Waste Management Licensing regime. There is, however, an opportunity to simplify the overall regulatory regime by removing the 50kg per hour threshold and bring all small waste incinerators into PPC control as a Part B process. This threshold would be removed for incineration plants that fall under WID, as there is no de-minimus in the Directive. Removing the 50kg per hour threshold for all incineration plants would simplify the system without compromising regulatory control.

Although the removal of the 50kg per hour threshold has not been reflected in either Table 2 or the draft Waste Incineration Regulations, the Executive would, nevertheless, welcome views on whether this threshold should remain or whether small exempted waste incinerators should be brought within PPC/WID control as a Part B installation. In particular, the Executive would welcome views on whether transferring small incineration plants from Waste Management Licensing regime to PPC control as Part B installations would help regulation of these plants and help simplify the regulatory system overall.

Table 2 Proposed arrangements for implementing WID for Schedule 1, Section 5.1 activities

Notes:
Note 1 As per S1 1998/767 The Environmental Protection (Prescribed Processes and Substances) (Amendment) (Hazardous Waste Incineration) Regulations 1998.
Note 2 Plants that are due to transfer to Part A under PPC will contain conditions that comply with both the PPC Part A regime and WID.
Note 3 Depends on specific waste type being incinerated.
Note 4 Plants that would otherwise transfer to PPC Part B will have requirement for site survey removed - see paragraph 1.10

Table 3 Proposed arrangements for implementing WID for Schedule 1, Section 1.1 activities

This table applies to materials that are still waste. Some materials may cease to be waste when manufactured into fuel, hence WID (and HWID) would not apply.
Note 1 There is an exclusion for certain wastes incinerated on board off-shore oil and gas installations.

1.13 Incineration and co-incineration plants covered by WID are distributed throughout Schedule 1 to the PPC Regulations. The main incineration activities affected are in Section 5.1 of Schedule 1 and the main combustion activities are in Section 1.1. There are various co-incineration activities throughout Schedule 1. They will continue to be regulated under these activities. Otherwise co-incinerators will be regulated under Section 5.1. Tables 2 and 3 below summarise the proposed arrangements for bringing into WID those processes contained in Sections 5.1 and 1.1 in Schedule 1.

TRANSITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS

1.14 For new plant, WID will apply from 28 December 2002. New plant means a plant which is not an existing plant: see paragraphs 1.15 to 1.17.

1.15 Article 3(6) of WID defines existing plant as that which is:

• in operation and having the required permit before 28 December 2002; or

• authorised or registered for incineration or co-incineration before 28 December 2002 and is put into operation not later than 28 December 2003; or

• the subject of a full permit application, before 28 December 2002 provided it is put into operation not later than 28 December 2004.

1.16 Article 20(3) adds an additional category for co-incineration plant which already has any required permit, and whose purpose is the generation of energy or manufacture of products. Such plant may start co-incinerating waste not later than 28 December 2004 and be regarded as an existing plant.

1.17 Tables 4 and 5 summarise the compliance deadlines for various scenarios for both incineration and co-incineration plants.

APPLYING WID TO EXISTING INCINERATION PLANT

1.18 WID is required to apply to existing incineration and co-incineration plant from 28 December 2005. The activities which may be subject to WID controls are distributed throughout Schedule 1 to the PPC Regulations, although the majority fall within Section 5.1 of Schedule 1. The current timetable in PPC (1 June to 31 August 2005) would theoretically allow these activities to meet the WID timetable. However, should the application take any longer than four months to determine (which might happen, for example, because additional information is required by SEPA), then it is likely that the permit would not be issued before the installation is required to comply with WID. In order to address this situation, the Executive proposes to move the phase-in timetable forward by five months, (i.e. to 1 January - 31 March 2005) for activities falling within Section 5.1 .

Table 4 WID compliance deadlines for incinerators.

Table 5 WID compliance deadlines for co-incinerators.

1.19 A further option would be to bring forward the timetable for Schedule 1, Section 5.1 activities to an even earlier period (ie earlier than 1 January to 31 March 2005), or to give operators the option of applying before 1 January 2005. This would potentially benefit businesses by allowing them more time to comply with permit conditions after the permit is issued by SEPA. The Executive would be interested to receive views on this suggestion.

1.20 For sectors whose PPC applications fall to be made before 2005, and which will therefore already have a PPC permit, it is proposed to allow operators the options set out in Table 7 for transferring to PPC and WID.

1.21 There are also a number of WID activities listed in Schedule 1 that are due to transfer to PPC after 2005. These are shown in Table 6. The Executive proposes to give operators of these activities the options of transferring to PPC and WID as set out in Table 7.

Table 6 WID activities with PPC phase-in dates after 2005.

1.22 Incinerators with a capacity of less than 50kg per hour and currently regulated under waste management licensing, or an exemption from licensing, do not currently feature in Schedule 1 to the PPC Regulations. However, unless excluded from the scope of WID (see explanation of excluded plant in paragraph 2.16), the proposed Regulations will bring them within Section 5.1 of Schedule 1 so that they will need to apply for a PPC/WID permit between 1 January and 31 March 2005 in order to meet the requirements.

The Executive invites views on the options set out in Table 7.

DISAPPLICATION OF EXISTING INCINERATOR CONTROLS

1.23 Once WID applies to new or existing plant, it replaces the existing incineration directives on municipal waste incineration (89/429/EEC and 89/369/EEC) and the Hazardous Waste Incineration (94/67/EC) as well as Article 8(1) and the Annex to the Waste Oil Directive (75/439/EEC).

REGULATIONS AND DIRECTIONS

1.24 Throughout this document reference is made to implementing "Regulations". However, to implement WID, the Executive proposes to use both Regulations and Directions to regulators. The Regulations will determine the scope of the new regulatory regime and the powers which SEPA will have in regulating the activities covered by the Regulations. The Directions set out how SEPA is to exercise the powers it has been given under the Regulations. An explanatory note to the draft Regulations and Directions is contained in Part 2 of this paper.

1.25 The Executive is minded to prepare a joint practical guide to the WID with SEPA and to make it available by the end of December 2002 when WID will be implemented for new plant.

Views on these proposals are invited

Table 7 Timetable for existing installations to make applications to SEPA (if authorisation subject to WID)

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