International Review of Waste Management Policy - Department of ...

1.6 The Incineration Directive
The Directive on the Incineration of Waste (‘the waste incineration Directive’, or WID)
was published in 2000. 29 The Directive replaces earlier Directives relating to
incineration.
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The aim of this Directive is to prevent or to limit as far as practicable negative
effects on the environment, in particular pollution by emissions into air, soil,
surface water and groundwater, and the resulting risks to human health, from
the incineration and co-incineration of waste.
Co-incineration plant is defined under Article 3(5) as:
stationary or mobile plant whose main purpose is the generation of energy or
production of material products and:
— which uses wastes as a regular or additional fuel; or
— in which waste is thermally treated for the purpose of disposal.
Hence, the Directive covers emissions from facilities such as cement kilns which may
make use of wastes as fuel.
The Directive does not apply to some plants, set out in Article 2, such as those
treating only: 30
(i) vegetable waste from agriculture and forestry,
(ii) vegetable waste from the food processing industry, if the heat generated is
recovered,
(iii) fibrous vegetable waste from virgin pulp production and from production of
paper from pulp, if it is co-incinerated at the place of production and the heat
generated is recovered,
(iv) wood waste with the exception of wood waste which may contain
halogenated organic compounds or heavy metals as a result of treatment with
wood preservatives or coating, and which includes in particular such wood
waste originating from construction and demolition waste,
(v) cork waste.
Such plants may be regulated differently to incineration plants covered by the
Directive.
Some key aspects of the Directive are highlighted below.
Article 4 states: 31
29 Directive 2000/76/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 December 2000 on the
incineration of waste, Official Journal of the European Communities L 332/91, 28/12/2000.
30 Directive 2000/76/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 December 2000 on the
incineration of waste, Official Journal of the European Communities L 332/91, 28/12/2000.
International Review of Waste Policy: Annexes