. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/GBR/22 
9 September 2009  
 (09-4245) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  UNITED KINGDOM
  
If applicable, name of local governme nt involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):    
2. Agency responsible:    
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above :   
Trevor Staines 
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 
Area 6D Ergon House,  17 Smith Square,  LONDON SW1P 3JR United Kingdom  
Tel: +44 (0)20 7238 4355  
Fax: +44 (0)20 7238 4857  E-mail: trevor.staines@defra.gsi.gov.uk 
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable):  Processed Fuel Oil (PFO) 
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Title: Draft Quality 
Protocol: End of waste criteria for the produc tion and use of processed fuel oil from waste 
lubricating oils (20 pages, English).  
6. Description of content:  In 2007 the UK Court of Appeal was asked to consider whether it 
was possible for waste lubricating oil which was to be used as fuel to cease to be waste before 
it was burned. The Appeal Court concluded that  waste lubricating oil was no different from 
any other waste and that it might cease to be wa ste if it had been completely recovered. The 
Appeal Court considered the point at which comp lete recovery would occur taking account of 
case law established by the European Court of  Justice on the definition of waste in Article 
1(1)(a) of the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) (2006/12/EC). In its judgment, the Appeal 
Court proposed the following three-part tes t: “It should be enough that the holder has 
converted the waste materi al into a distinct, marketable product, which can be used in exactly 
the same way as an ordinary fuel, and with  no worse environmental effects.” The Appeal 
Court suggested that the UK Government and the Environment Agency should provide practical guidance for those affected by this question. The draft end-of-waste protocol for 
PFO has been produced in response to the Appe al Court’s judgment. PFO will be regarded  as  G/TBT/N/GBR/22 
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   having been fully recovered and to have ceased to be waste provided (a) it requires no further 
processing before use; (b) it has been produced using only those input materials specified in 
Section 2 of the draft protocol; and (c) it meet s the requirements of an approved standard 
(Section 2). Producers must demonstr ate that these criteria have been met in the ways set out 
in Section 3 of the draft protocol.  
7. Objective and rationale, including the na ture of urgent problems where applicable:  
Article 6(4) of the revised WFD (2008/98/EC) provides that, wher e end-of-waste criteria have 
not been set at Community level in accordance w ith Articles 6(1) and (2), Member States may 
decide case by case whether certain waste has ceased to be waste taking into account the 
applicable case law. No end-of-waste criteria have been set at Community level for waste lubricating oil in accordance with Arti cles 6(1) and (2) of the revised WFD.  
8. Relevant documents:    
- Draft quality protocol: End of  waste criteria for the production and use of processed fuel oil 
from waste lubricating oils; 
- Partial Financial Impact Assessment of a qu ality protocol for Processed Fuel Oil.  
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:   }March 2010 
10. Final date for comments:  90 days from notification 
11. Text available from: National enquiry po int [ X], or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addres ses, if available of the other body:    
Trevor Staines 
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Area 6D Ergon House 
17 Smith Square 
LONDON SW1P 3JR United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)20 7238 4355 Fax: +44 (0)20 7238 4857  E-mail: trevor.staines@defra.gsi.gov.uk     
And can be downloaded here