Use of modern incinerators in waste management

Subject: Use of modern incinerators in waste management

On 27 August 2019, Bucharest City Council adopted its Master Plan for Waste Management, which provides for the construction of a huge incinerator in that city.

EU legislation states that waste management must ensure differentiated waste collection, respect for the waste hierarchy and a reduction in landfill before resorting to solutions such as incineration that affect the environment and health. Under Article 3(3) of Directive 2018/2001, Member States must not finance incineration projects if they have not previously complied with the waste hierarchy laid down in Articles 24 and 25 of that directive and in Article 4 of Directive 2008/98/EC.

According to a recent 2018 survey by ToxicWatch, the modern incinerators used in the Netherlands exceed the limits imposed for dioxin emissions, which severely affect health. The survey is all the more worrying in the case of the population of Bucharest, who live in a city which is already very polluted.

In its Circular Economy Action Plan, the EU, along with the EIB, plans to end financing for the construction of incinerators and to encourage investment in line with the notion of the circular economy.

Does the Commission consider the construction of a huge incinerator to be compatible with EU legislation on waste management? Have any impact studies been conducted on the environment and health effects of emissions from modern incinerators?

Answer given by Mr Sinkevičius on behalf of the European Commission (24 March 2020)

EU waste legislation (1), (2) requires Member States, by 2035, to recycle 65% of their municipal waste and not to landfill more than 10%. Consequently, even after the year 2035, up to 35% of municipal waste, representing a residual, non-recyclable fraction, could in theory be energy recovered in line with the waste hierarchy.

As communicated by the Commission (3), where Member States with non-existent dedicated incineration capacity and high reliance on landfill for new residual waste treatment capacity, such as the case of Romania, decide on installing incineration capacity, they should pay particular attention to the use of state-of-the-art energy-efficient technologies and to the size and location of the plant.

It is also crucial to ensure full compliance with the requirements for incineration and co-incineration facilities set out in EU legislation, in particular the Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EC (4) and the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/2010 establishing the best available techniques (BAT) conclusions, under Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, for waste incineration (5) .

Recently, the Commission has not conducted any study on the environment and health effects from modern incinerators. However, achievable emissions limits from such installations are documented in the updated waste incineration reference document (WI BREF) (6).

⋅1∙ Article 11(2) of Directive 2008/98/EC.

⋅2∙ Article 5(5) of Directive 1999/31/EC.

⋅3∙ Communication from the Commission on the role of waste to energy in the circular economy, https://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/waste-to-

energy.pdf , at page 7. ⋅4∙

OJ, L 334, 17.12.2010, p.17.

⋅5∙ OJ, L 312, 03.12.2019, p.55.

⋅6∙ https://eippcb.jrc.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2020-01/JRC118637_WI_Bref_2019_published_0.pdf