WRITTEN QUESTION E-2479/02 by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission. Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC: Hazardous waste.
Date: 2002-09-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: dangerous substance, electrical equipment, electronic equipment, environmental protection, storage of waste, television equipment, waste management, waste recycling

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Official Journal of the European Union

EN

6.2.2003

(2003/C 28 E/275)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2478/02

by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 September 2002)

Subject: Implementation of Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC

On what date were the first requirements of the EU Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC (1) due to enter into
force?

What initial requirements does the Directive impose on Member States?

Which Member States had informed the Commission by the due date that the provisions of the Directive
had been transposed into national legislation?

What action, if any, is the Commission taking against any Member States which have failed so to inform it
or to comply with the initial requirements of the Directive?

(1) OJ L 182, 16.7.1999, p. 1.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(8 October 2002)

Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste entered into force on 16 July
1999 and had to be transposed into national law by 16 July 2001.

The Directive lays down technical requirements for the design, operation, closure and after-care of landfills
in order to control emissions and protect the environment. New landfills must comply with these
requirements since July 2001. Existing landfills must be adapted to the requirements at the latest by 2009.
Shorter transition periods apply to landfills for hazardous waste.

By 16 July 2001 the Commission had received the transposition measures only from Austria. Since then
Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland and Sweden have notified their
implementing measures.

The Commission is pursuing infringement proceedings against Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg
and the United Kingdom for non-communication of the national transposition measures.

(2003/C 28 E/276)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2479/02

by Chris Davies (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 September 2002)

Subject: Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC: Hazardous waste

Can the Commission confirm that, pursuant to Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC (1), old television sets became
categorised as hazardous waste in January 2002?

For how long have Member States been aware that this was likely to happen?

From what date must Member States ensure that all hazardous waste is collected by specially licensed
operators and disposed of in tips reserved exclusively for hazardous waste?

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Has the UK Government, or any other EU government, expressed any concerns about the difficulty of
complying with these requirements in accordance with the legislative timetable?

(1) OJ L 182, 16.7.1999, p. 1.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(3 October 2002)

The classification of waste as hazardous or non-hazardous waste is established under Council Directive 91/
689/EC of 12 December 1991 on hazardous waste (1) and not by Council Directive 1999/31/EC of
26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste. A waste is considered to be hazardous if it displays any of the 14
hazardous properties listed in Annex III of Directive 91/689/EEC.

In the case of a discarded television set,
it is considered to be a waste from electrical or electronic
equipment. This equipment is made of different components, some of which can contain dangerous
substances, such as cadmium and lead oxide in monitor cathode ray tubes. A discarded television set
comprising of hazardous components is hazardous waste for the purposes of Directive 91/689/EC and
would be classified under code entry 16 02 13* of Commission Decision 2000/532/EC (2), as amended (3),
which establishes a Community list of waste categories.
In contrast, a television set stripped of all
hazardous components would not be hazardous waste (4). By way of a general remark, the Community
Strategy on Waste Management has endeavoured to promote recycling and recovery of waste from
electrical and electronic equipment (5). This has crystallized into a specific proposal for a Directive from the
Commission on waste from electrical and electronic equipment (6), currently at conciliation committee
phase. It aims to require Member States to ensure the collection and segregation of hazardous components
from such equipment, in order to ensure their safe disposal as well as to promote the recycling of the
remaining fractions. In that context, a discarded television set, which contains valuable materials such as
recoverable metals, ought not to go as such directly to a landfill, and instead should be subject to
appropriate prior dismantling and recycling operations.

The classification of ‘waste from electrical and electronic equipment containing hazardous components’ as
hazardous waste was adopted in May 2000 by Commission Decision 2000/532/EC, with no objection
from Member States on that specific waste entry, and entered into force 1 January 2002. The previous
discussions with Member States that lead to that decision spanned over three years prior to May 2000.

The obligation to hand over hazardous waste to an undertaking which is obliged to have a permit to
manage hazardous waste is established in Council Directive 75/442/EEC of 15 July 1975 on waste, as
amended (7), in conjunction with Directive 91/689/EEC. These provisions have been in force since 1977
and 1993 respectively.

One of the most important principles of Directive 1999/31/EC is that hazardous waste may not be
landfilled together with non-hazardous waste,
in order to ensure safe and environmentally sound
landfilling (ban of co-disposal). This applies since 16 July 2001. Indeed, the Parliament in 1996 rejected
the Council common position, in part for having omitted a strict co-disposal ban.

The United Kingdom was the only Member State that did not support the prohibition of co-disposal. In
order to facilitate the implementation of this requirement, a transition period until 16 July 2004 is
accorded to Member States under the Landfill Directive in respect of those landfills already existing before
16 July 2001.

(1) OJ L 377, 31.12.1991.
(2) Commission Decision 2000/532/EC of 3 May 2000 replacing Decision 94/3/EC establishing a list of wastes
pursuant to Article 1(a) of Council Directive 75/442/EEC on waste and Council Decision 94/904/EC establishing a
list of hazardous waste pursuant to Article 1(4) of Council Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste, OJ L 226,
6.9.2000.

(3) As amended by Commission Decisions 2001/118/EC of 16 January 2001 and 2000/119/EC of 22 January 2001

(OJ L 47, 16.2.2001) and Council Decision 2001/573/EC of 23 July 2001 (OJ L 203, 28.7.2001).

(4) See entry 16 2 14 in Commission Decision 2000/532/EC.
(5) See eg. section 3.3 of COM(96) 399 final, Commission Communication on the review of the Community strategy

for waste management.
(6) OJ C 365 E, 19.12.2000.
(7) OJ L 194, 25.7.1975, as amended by Council Directive 91/156/EEC of 18 March 1991 (OJ L 78, 26.3.1991) and

Commission Decision 96/350/EC of 24 May 1996 (OJ L 135, 6.6.1996).