Criminal proceedings against Paul Van de Walle, Daniel Laurent, Thierry Mersch and Texaco Belgium SA.
Date: 2004-09-07
27. As for the hydrocarbons in question in the main proceedings, which leaked from the service station’s tanks, their producer or their holder discarded them. The hydrocarbons are specifically covered by heading Q4 of Annex I to Directive 75/442 and are, moreover, hazardous waste. They must therefore be considered to be waste within the meaning of the Directive.
42. Article 1(a) of Directive 75/442 defines waste as ‘any substance or object in the categories set out in Annex I which the holder discards or intends … to discard’. The annex clarifies and illustrates that definition by providing lists of substances and objects which can be classified as waste. However, the lists are only intended as guidance, and the classification of waste is to be inferred primarily from the holder’s actions and the meaning of the term ‘discard’ (see to that effect Case C‑129/96 Inter‑Environnement Wallonie  [1997] ECR I‑7411, paragraph 26, and Case C-9/00 Palin Granit and Vehmassalon kansanterveystyön kuntayhtymän hallitus  [2002] ECR I‑3533, paragraph 22).
45. First, as the Court has held, the verb ‘to discard’ must be interpreted in the light of the aim of Directive 75/442, which, in the wording of the third recital in the preamble, is the protection of human health and the environment against harmful effects caused by the collection, transport, treatment, storage and tipping of waste, and that of Article 174(2) EC, which states that Community policy on the environment is to aim at a high level of protection and is to be based, in particular, on the precautionary principle and the principle that preventive action should be taken. The verb ‘to discard’, which determines the scope of ‘waste’, therefore cannot be interpreted restrictively (see to that effect Joined Cases C‑418/97 and C‑419/97 ARCO Chemie Nederland and Others  [2000] ECR I‑4475, paragraphs 36 to 40).
46. Secondly, when the substance or object in question is a production residue, that is to say, a product which is not itself wanted for subsequent use and which the holder cannot economically re-use without prior processing, it must be considered to be a burden which the holder seeks to ‘discard’ (see to that effect Palin Granit and Vehmassalon kansanterveystyön kuntayhtymän hallitus , cited above, paragraphs 32 to 37).
47. It is clear that accidentally spilled hydrocarbons which cause soil and groundwater contamination are not a product which can be re-used without processing. Their marketing is very uncertain and, even if it were possible, implies preliminary operations would be uneconomical for their holder. Those hydrocarbons are therefore substances which the holder did not intend to produce and which he ‘discards’, albeit involuntarily, at the time of the production or distribution operations which relate to them.
54. As regards whether, in the circumstances of the main action, the petroleum undertaking supplying the service station can be considered to be the producer or holder of waste within the meaning of Article 1(b) and (c) of the Directive, under the division of functions provided for by Article 234 EC it is for the national court to apply to the individual case before it the rules of Community law as interpreted by the Court (Case C-320/88 Shipping and Forwarding Enterprise Safe  [1990] ECR I‑285, paragraph 11).
56. Article 8 of Directive 75/442 states that those obligations, which are the corollary to the prohibition on the abandonment, dumping or uncontrolled disposal of waste laid down in Article 4 of the Directive, are the responsibility of ‘any holder of waste’.
57. In addition, Article 15 of Directive 75/442 provides that, in accordance with the principle of polluter pays, the cost of disposing of waste must be borne by the holder who has waste handled by an operator responsible for disposing of it and/or previous holders or the producer of the product from which the waste came. The Directive therefore does not preclude the possibility that, in certain cases, the cost of disposing of waste is to be borne by one or several previous holders, that is to say, one or more natural or legal persons who are neither the producers nor the possessors of the waste.