Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2002:546
Date: 2002-09-26
Based on: Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (1957)
Subject matter: Environment;Approximation of laws;Waste
Procedure: Action for failure to fulfil obligations - unfounded
Origin: Luxembourg

Summary of the Judgment 
1. Environment — Waste — Regulation No 259/93 on shipments of waste — Classifi­
cation of the proposed shipment by the notifier — Competence of the authorities to 
which notification of a proposed shipment is addressed to check classification (recovery 
or disposal) and to object to a shipment which is wrongly classified 
(Council Regulation No 259/93, Art. 7(2) and (4)) 
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SUMMARY — CASE C-458/00 
2. Environment — Waste — Directive 75/442 on waste — Annex II B — Distinction 
between a disposal operation and a recovery operation — Combustion of waste — 
Classified as a recovery operation — Conditions 
(Council Directive 75/442, as amended by Commission Decision 96/350, Annex II B) 
1. Under the system established by Regu­
lation No 259/93 on the supervision 
and control of shipments of waste 
within, into and out of the European 
Community, all the competent auth­
orities to which notification of a pro­
posed shipment of waste is addressed 
must check that the classification by 
the notifier is consistent with the 
provisions of the regulation. If that 
classification is incorrect, those auth­
orities must object to a shipment on the 
ground of that classification error, 
without reference to one of the specific 
provisions of the regulation setting out 
the objections which the Member 
States may raise. It is not, however, 
for the competent authority to reclas­
sify ex officio the purpose of the ship­
ment of waste. 
(see paras 21-22) 
2. The combustion of waste constitutes a 
recovery operation under point R1 of 
Annex II B to Directive 75/442, as 
amended by Decision 96/350, where its 
principal objective is for the waste to 
fulfil a useful function as a means of 
generating energy, replacing the use of 
a source of primary energy which 
would have had to have been used to 
fulfil that function. In particular, the 
combustion of household waste may be 
classified as a recovery operation if the 
main purpose is to enable the waste to 
be used as a means of generating 
energy, it takes place in conditions 
which give reason to believe that it is 
indeed a means to generate energy, the 
greater part of the waste is consumed 
during the operation and the greater 
part of the energy generated is 
reclaimed and used. 
It follows that an operation whose 
principal objective is the disposal of 
waste must be classified as a disposal 
operation where the reclamation of the 
heat generated by the combustion con­
stitutes only a secondary effect of that 
operation. 
(see paras 31-37, 43) 
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