19. 11. 88 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 295/3 
II 
(Preparatory Acts) 
COMMISSION 
Proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 75/442/EEC on waste 
COM(88) 391 final — SYN 145 
(Submitted by the Commission on 16 August 1988) 
(88/C 295/03) 
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, 
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European 
Economic Community, and in particular Article 100a 
thereof, 
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, 
In cooperation with the European Parliament, 
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and 
Social Committee, 
Whereas any disparity between the laws on waste 
disposal in the Member States can distort the conditions 
of competition and thereby directly affect the estab­
lishment and functioning of the internal market; whereas 
it is therefore necessary to approximate laws in this field; 
Whereas Council Directive 75/442/EEC (') established a 
set of Community rules on waste disposal; whereas these 
must be amended to take account of experience gained 
in the implementation of this Directive by the Member 
States; whereas the amendments take as a base a high 
level of environmental protection with as much regard to 
the definition as to the disposal of waste; 
Whereas the definition of waste should be revised in the 
light of experience in order to improve the efficiency of 
waste management in the Community; 
Whereas, as the environmental action programmes stress, 
the volume of waste can effectively be reduced by inter­
vening at the production stage to promote clean techno­
logies and products which can be recycled and re-used; 
(') OJ No L 194, 25. 7. 1975, p. 47. Whereas it must be possible to adapt rapidly to technical 
progress and it is therefore advisable to facilitate such 
adaptation by providing for a procedure establishing 
cooperation between Member States within a committee 
on adaptation of this Directive to technical progress, 
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE: 
Article 1 
Directive 75/442/EEC is hereby amended as follows: 
1. Articles 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10 and 12 are replaced by the 
following: 
Article 1 
For the purposes of this Directive: 
(a) waste means any substance or object which the 
holder disposes of, or is required to dispose of, 
for the reasons listed in Annex I; 
(b) disposal means the collection, transport and 
treatment of waste, in particular any of the oper­
ations specified in Annex II; 
(c) collection means the gathering, sorting and/or 
mixing of waste from several holders for the 
purpose of treatment; 
(d) transport means the whole range of waste loading, 
unloading and carriage operations. 
Article 2 
1. The following shall be excluded from the scope 
of this Directive: 
(a) radioactive waste; 
(b) mining waste; 
(c) animal carcases and agricultural waste of faecal 
origin; 
(d) waste waters discharged into sewers and the 
aquatic environment; 
(e) emissions into the atmosphere. 
No C 295/4 Official Journal of the European Communities 19. 11. 88 
2. Specific rules for particular instances or supple­
menting those of this Directive on the disposal of 
particular categories of waste shall be laid down by 
means of special Directives. 
Article 3 
1. Member States shall take appropriate steps to 
encourage the prevention, recycling and processing of 
waste, the extraction of raw materials and possibly of 
energy therefrom and any other process for the re-use 
of waste. 
2. Member States shall inform the Commission in 
good time of any draft legislation relating to measures 
as referred to in paragraph 1 concerning, in 
particular: 
(a) the use of products considered to be a source of 
technical difficulties as regards disposal or likely 
to generate excessive disposal costs; 
(b) the encouragement of: 
— the reduction in the quantities of certain 
waste, 
— the treatment of waste for recycling and 
re-use, 
— the recovery of raw materials and/or the 
production of energy from certain types of 
waste; 
(c) the use of certain natural resources, including 
energy resources, in applications where the raw 
materials can be replaced by recovered materials. 
3. The measures must give priority to recovery, 
re-use and recycling, taking account of the available 
technology, the economic implications and existing or 
potential market opportunities for the products 
obtained, while respecting the provisions of the 
Treaty concerning the establishment and proper func­
tioning of the internal market. 
4. Member States shall take measures designed, 
inter alia, to: 
(a) promote the development of new clean techno­
logies generating less or no waste and more 
sparing in their use of natural resources; 
(b) promote the technical development and marketing 
of products designed to facilitate, or reduce the 
cost of, disposal, in particular by being suitable 
for recycling or re-use. Article 8 
In order to comply with the measures taken pursuant 
to Article 4, any establishment or undertaking which 
carries out -waste treatment for third parties, in 
particular any of the operations specified in Annex 
II A, must obtain a permit from the competent 
authority referred to in Article 5. 
Such permits shall cover: 
— the types and quantities of waste, 
— the technical requirements, 
— the precautions to be taken, 
— the disposal site, 
— the treatment method. 
Permits may be granted for a specified period; they 
may be renewable; and they may be subject to 
conditions and obligations. 
Article 9 
1. Establishments or undertakings which carry out 
waste disposal, with the exception of those which 
carry out the operations specified in Annex II B, shall 
be subject to periodic inspections by the competent 
authorities referred to in Article 5. 
2. Member States shall take the necessary measures 
to ensure that the establishments or undertakings 
concerned afford the representatives of the competent 
authorities all necessary assistance to enable them to 
carry out any examinations, inspections or investi­
gations concerning the waste, to take samples and to 
gather any information necessary for the performance 
of their duties. 
Article 10 
All establishments or undertakings referred to in 
Article 8 shall: 
— keep a record of the quality, nature and origin of 
the waste and the treatment method, 
— make this information available at regular intervals 
to the competent authorities referred to in Article 
5. 
Article 12 
1. Every three years, and for the first time on 1 
September 1990, Member States shall send the 
Commission a report on the measures taken to 
implement this Directive. This report shall be based 
on a questionnaire which the Commission shall send 
to the Member States six months before the above 
date. 
2. On the basis of the reports referred to in 
paragraph 1, the Commission shall publish a 
consolidated report every three years, and for the first 
time in 1991.' 
19. 11. 88 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 295/5 
2. The following Articles are inserted: 
'Article 12a 
The amendments necessary for adapting the Annexes 
to this Directive to scientific and technical progress 
shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure set 
out in Article 12c. 
Article 12b 
The Commission shall be assisted by an advisory 
committee for adaptation to scientific and technical 
progress composed of the representatives of the 
Member States and chaired by the representative of 
the Commission. 
Article 12c 
Where the procedure set out in this Article is applied, 
the representative of the Commission shall submit to 
the Committee referred to in Article 12b a draft of 
the measures to be taken. The Committee shall deliver 
its opinion on the draft, within a time limit which the 
Chairman may lay down according to the urgency of 
the matter, if necessary by taking a vote. The opinion shall be recorded in the minutes; in 
addition, each Member State shall have the right to 
ask to have its position recorded in the minutes. 
When adopting the measures, the Commission shall 
take the utmost account of the opinion delivered by 
the Committee. It shall inform the Committee of the 
manner in which its opinion has been taken into 
account.' 
3. Annexes I and II to this Directive are added as 
Annexes I and II. 
Article 2 
1. Member States shall bring into force the laws, 
regulations and administrative provisions necessary to 
comply with this Directive from 1 January 1990. They 
shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof. 
2. Member States shall communicate to the 
Commission the texts of the provisions of national law 
which they adopt in the field covered by this Directive. 
Article 3 
This Directive is addressed to the Member States. 
ANNEX I 
REASONS WHY MATERIALS ARE DESIGNATED FOR DISPOSAL 
Products or materials are designated for disposal if they belong to any of the following categories: 
Q 1 Production or consumption residues not otherwise specified below 
Q 2 Off-specification products 
Q 3 Products whose date for appropriate use has expired 
Q 4 Materials spilled, lost or having undergone other mishap including any materials, equipment etc. 
contaminated as a result of the mishap 
Q 5 Materials contaminateed or soiled as a result of planned actions (e.g., residues from cleaning oper­
ations, packing materials, containers, etc.) 
Q 6 Unusable parts (e.g., reject batteries, exhausted catalyst, etc.) 
Q 7 Substances which no longer perform satisfactorily (e.g., contaminated acids, contaminated solvents, 
exhausted tempering salts, etc.) 
Q 8 Residues of industrial processes (e.g., slags, still bottoms, etc.) 
Q 9 Residues from pollution abatement processes (e.g., scrubber sludges, baghouse dusts, spent filters, 
etc.) 
Q 10 Machining/finishing residues (e.g., lathe turnings, mill scales, etc.) 
Q 11 Residues from raw materials extraction and processing (e.g., mining residues, oil field slops, etc.) 
Q 12 Adulterated materials (e.g., oils contaminated with PCB, etc.) 
No C 295/6 Official Journal of the European Communities 19. 11. 88 
Q 13 Any materials, substances or products whose use has been banned by law 
Q 14 Products for which the holder has no further use (e.g., agricultural, household, office, commercial 
and shop discards, etc.) 
Q 15 Materials, substances or products resulting from remedial actions with respect to contaminated land 
Q 16 Any materials, substances or products which the holder wishes to dispose of, or is required to dispose 
of, and which are not contained in the above categories 
ANNEX II 
DISPOSAL OPERATIONS 
(Annex II is divided into two sections) 
A. Operations which do not lead to the possibility of resource recovery, recycling, reclamation, direct re-use 
or alternative uses of wastes 
(NB Annex II A is intended to encompass all such disposal operations which occur in practice. These 
operations may or may not be acceptable from the point of view of environmental amenity) 
D 1 Deposit into or on to land (e.g., landfill, etc.) 
D 2 Land treatment (e.g., biodegradation of liquid or sludgy discards in soils, etc.) 
D 3 Deep injection (e.g., injection of pumpable discards into wells, salt domes or naturally occurring 
repositories, etc.) 
D 4 Surface impoundment (e.g., placement of liquid or sludge discards into pits, ponds or lagoons, 
etc.) 
D 5 Specially engineered landfill (e.g., placement into lined discrete cells which are capped and 
isolated from one another and the environment, etc.) 
D 6 Release into a water body except seas/oceans 
D 7 Release into seas/oceans including sea-bed insertion 
D 8 Biological treatment not specified elsewhere in this Annex which results in final compounds or 
mixtures which are discarded by means of any of the operations in Annex II A 
D 9 Physico-chemical treatment not specified elsewhere in this Annex which results in final 
compounds or mixtures which are discarded by means of any of the operations in Annex II A 
(e.g., evaporation, drying, calcination, etc.) 
D 10 Incineration on land 
D 11 Incineration at sea 
D 12 Permanent storage (e.g., emplacement of containers in a mine, etc.) 
D 13 Blending or mixing prior to submission to any of the operations in Annex II A 
D 14 Repackaging prior to submission to any of the operations in Annex II A 
D 15 Storage pending any of the operations in Annex II A 
B. Operations which may lead to resource recovery, recycling, reclamation, direct re-use or alternative uses 
of wastes 
(NB Annex II B is intended to encompass all operations intended to extract and/or to utilize secondary 
materials) 
R 1 Use principally as a fuel or other means to generate energy 
R 2 Solvent reclamation/regeneration 
19. 11. 88 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 295/7 
R 3 Recycling/reclamation of organic substances which are not used as solvents 
R 4 Recycling/reclamation of metals and metal compounds 
R 5 Recycling/reclamation of other inorganic materials 
R 6 Regeneration of acids or bases 
R 7 Recovery of components used for pollution abatement 
R 8 Recovery of components from catalysts 
R 9 Oil re-refining or other re-uses of oil 
RIO Spreading on land resulting in benefit to agriculture or ecological improvement, including 
composting and other biological transformation processes 
R 11 Uses of materials obtained from any of the operations numbered R1-R10 
R 12 Exchange of wastes for submission to any of the operations numbered Rl-Rll 
R 13 Accumulation of material intended for any operation in Annex II B