No C 330/32 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
Opinion on the Proposal for a Council Directive amending Directive 75/439/EEC on the 
Disposal of Waste Oils (!) 
(85/C 330/08) 
On 11 February 1985, the Council of the European Communities decided, under Articles 100 
and 235 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, to ask the Economic 
and Social Committee for an opinion on the abovementioned proposal. 
The matter was referred to the Section for Protection of the Environment, Public Health and 
Consumer Affairs, which adopted its opinion on 1 October 1985. The rapporteur, Mr Low, 
made an oral report. 
At its 230th Plenary Session (meeting of 31 October 1985) the Economic and Social Committee 
adopted the following opinion with no votes against and two abstentions: 
1. General Comments 
1.1. The Committee welcomes the Commission's 
aims in its proposal for a Directive and the measures 
suggested for achieving them. 
1.2. In view of the environmental dangers (e.g. the 
contamination of ground water, air pollution) which 
may result from the improper collection or disposal of 
waste oils, the Committee fully supports the Com­
mission's intention to revise Directive 75/439/EEC and 
get it implemented and applied more effectively in the 
Member States. Indeed, the Committee feels that only 
by such a revision can the goals of improving health and 
environmental protection be attained. The Committee 
deplores the Member States' failure to date to 
implement Directive 75/439/EEC and once again calls 
upon the Member States to implement speedily the 
goals formulated in the Directive and the new proposal. 
It would refer here to its Opinion on the draft version 
of the original Directive (2). 
1.3. The Committee regrets that the definitions of 
'waste oil' and 'regeneration' are not sufficiently clear, 
and refers to its specific comments below. 
1.4. As regards the disposal of waste oils through 
regeneration or combustion, the Committee has con­
siderable doubts about whether giving priority to regen­
eration will solve the problems which arise in practice. 
1.5. The present process for regenerating waste oil 
may lead to an intolerable concentration of poisonous 
substances in the corresponding oils, especially when 
polluted waste oils are re-refined. This in turn may very 
(') OJ No C 58, 4. .3. 1985, p.3 
(2) OJ No C 125, 16. 10. 1974, pp. 33 et seq. rapidly lead to an extraordinarily.high percentage of 
waste oils having to be treated separately. It will not 
be possible to burn these 'poisoned' oils in a normal 
combustion plant, even one with a capacity of over 50 
megawatts; they will have to be destroyed in very 
expensive special installations. 
1.6. The Committee therefore thinks that waste oil 
regeneration plants must be operated in such a way 
that concentrations of poisons — especially dioxins or 
dibenzofurans — cannot build up. 
1.7. The Committee considers that it is particularly 
necessary for the controls provided for in the Directive 
to be applied. It calls upon the Member States to carry 
out collection, further processing and combustion in 
due accordance with the Directive and to regularly 
effect the relevant controls. 
1.8 In particular, the Committee considers that waste 
oils must not be mixed with other substances, and that 
polluted waste oils must be separated out before further 
processing, whether this be combustion or regeneration. 
It is especially important that checks on the amount of 
PCB, PCT, dioxins and furans in waste oils be carried 
out whenever a plant is loaded up. 
2. Specific Comments 
Article 1(1) 
2.1. The Committee is pleased that the new proposal 
will not apply to synthetic oils which do not consist of 
hydrocarbons, such as polychlorinated biphenyls and 
terphenyls (PCB/PCTs), phosphate esters and glycols. 
20. 12. 85 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 330/33 
2.2. When PCBs and PCTs are burnt in an improper 
manner, highly poisonous substances such as dioxins 
and dibenzofurans may be produced, which cause 
exceptional damage to people and the environment. 
Improper disposal of PCBs and PCTs causes additional 
environmental damage because of the products' poor 
biodegradability. But in the suggested wording of 
Article 1(1) it is not clear whether or not synthetic oils 
made from pure hydrocarbon bondings, which in their 
basic chemical structure are no different from pe­
troleum products, are to be covered by the Directive, 
as they have been so far. For this reason, the singling-
out of used motor vehicle lubricants is also inappro­
priate. 
2.3. The Committee suggests that the following 
phrase be inserted in the definition: 
'... consisting of mixtures of mineral and synthetic oils, 
used hydrocarbon oils of synthetic origin, oily residues 
from tanks ...' 
Article 1 (2) 
2.4. The Committee thinks that the definition of 
'regeneration' should also include distillation and sim­
pler oil processing operations, such as filtration, cen­
trifugal separation or chemical processing, in order 
to prevent the destruction of waste oils and produce 
products which are equivalent to other economic goods. 
Such operations are an important processing sector, 
especially for some Member States which do not have 
any re-refining facilities. 
2.5. The Committee suggests that the following 
phrase be inserted in the definition: 
'... any process which avoids the destruction of waste 
oil and makes it usable, especially as fuel, fuel oil, 
fluxing oil or base oil, in particular by removing the 
contaminants, oxidation products additives contained 
in such oils.' 
Article 3 
2.6. The Committee refers here to its general com­
ments. 
Article 4 
2.7. The Committee welcomes a ban on the combus­
tion of waste oils in plants with a low thermal output. 
In the interest of health and environmental protection, 
the minimum thermal output value should be set as high 
as possible. But as users and producers are expected 
to have some difficulties in technical adjustment, the Committee agrees with a minimum limit of one 1 mega­
watt until the end of 1990. However, the Committee 
thinks this figure should be reviewed after a period of 
four to five years and raised decisively from 1 January 
1991. The Committee believes that in the long run the 
harmless combustion of waste oils cannot be assured in 
plants with a thermal output of less than 50 megawatts. 
Article 5 
2.8. The Committee is pleased that programmes to 
inform and make the public aware are to be 
implemented in all the Member States; this should 
help to reduce, or even eliminate, the highly disturbing 
phenomenon of pollution by individuals. 
Article 6 
2.9. The Committee is pleased that the new proposal 
will make it compulsory to have a permit for both 
disposing of and collecting waste oil. It recognizes that 
the aim is to protect the environment better, especially 
when combustion is involved, by tightening up regu­
lations. 
2.10. The Committee is particularly pleased that 
strict emission limits must be observed when burning 
waste oils. It is aware that compliance with stricter 
limits will cause technical — and especially economic 
— difficulties for smaller plants, and so it agrees with 
the figures proposed by the Commission as a first step. 
To allow industry to adapt to concrete situations in 
the long term, all limit values should be examined in 
accordance with a predetermined schedule and lowered 
in the light of the most recent knowledge and of techni­
cal possibilities, although at the latest by 1 January 
1991. 
.2.11. Emissions of dust, sulphur dioxide, carbon 
monoxide, oxygen, inorganic gaseous chlorine com­
pounds (known as chlorides) and the volume of waste 
gas should be continuously measured and recorded. 
2.12. The Committee considers that it is particu­
larly necessary to measure the PCB/PCT, dioxins 
and furans in the waste gas before issuing a waste 
gas combustion plant with the permit required by 
Article 6. 
No C 330/34 Official Journal of the European Communities 20. 12. 85 
Article 8 (2) 
2.13. The Committee is pleased that synthetic oils 
which are not hydrocarbons, especially PCBs and PCTs, 
phosphate esters and glycols, are to be excluded from 
the scope of the proposed Directive. Annex 
2.14 The Committee would refer here to its com­
ments on Article 6 (second paragraph). • 
Done at Brussels, 31 October 1985. • 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Gerd MUHR 
APPENDIX 
to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee 
Point (2.10., last sentence) was amended in the discussion. The previous version read: 
'To allow industry to adapt to concrete situations in the long term, all limit values should he lowered by at 
least half in accordance with a predetermined schedule although at the latest by 1 January 1991.'