EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/789

(2004/C 78 E/0840)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3203/03

by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(30 October 2003)

Subject: Treatment of hospital waste in Attica

According to the ESDKNA (Association of Municipalities and Rural Communities of the Prefecture of Attica) most hospitals and private clinics in Attica do not send their hospital waste for incineration to the plant which is specifically intended for this purpose but prefer to use their own incinerating plant which fails to meet the necessary specifications (temperatures of 100° only compared with 1 600° in the ESDKNA plant), while in many cases such waste is simply buried along with domestic waste at designated sites. According to newspaper reports, of the 25 tonnes of hospital waste produced each day in Attica, only three tonnes is sent to the association's specialist incineration plant.

What provisions of Community legislation apply here? What is the situation in other Member States?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(27 November 2003)

The following Community legislation is the most relevant that applies to the management of animal and human health care waste:

— Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste (1);

— Council Directive 91/689/EEC of 12 December 1991 on hazardous waste (2);

— Council Regulation (EEC) No 259/93 of 1 February 1993 on the supervision and control of shipments of waste within, into and out of the European Community (3);

— Parliament and Council Directive 94/62/EC of 20 December 1994 on packaging and packaging waste (4);

— Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste (5);

— Directive 2000/76/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 4 December 2000 on the incineration of waste (6);

— Commission Decision of 16 January 2001 (7) amending Commission Decision 2000/532/EC of 3 May 2000 (8) as regards the list of wastes;

— Council Decision 2003/33/EC of 19 December 2002 establishing criteria and procedures for the acceptance of waste at landfills pursuant to Article 16 of and Annex II to Directive 1999/31/EC (9).

The implementation of the Directives on waste, on hazardous waste and on packaging and packaging waste is described in the report from the Commission to the Council and the Parliament on the Implementation of Community Legislation (10). The report does not provide details on the amount of human health care waste recovered or disposed.

Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 of the Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2002 on waste statistics (11) will, amongst other things, provide Community statistics on the production and management of health care wastes on a regular basis. The Commission will submit the first report to the Parliament and the Council on the statistics compiled pursuant to this Regulation by the end of 2007.

(1) OJ L 194, 25.7.1975.

(2) OJ L 377, 31.12.1991.

(3) OJ L 30, 6.2.1993.

(4) OJ L 365, 31.12.1994.

(5) OJ L 182, 16.7.1999.

(6) OJ L 332, 28.12.2000.

(7) OJ L 47, 16.2.2001.

(8) OJ L 226, 6.9.2000.

(9) OJ L 11, 16.1.2003.

(10) COM(2003)250 final, http://europa.eu.int/eur4ex/en/com/rpt/2003/com2003_0250en03.pdf

(11) OJ L 332, 9.12.2002.