Pilot Study on Statistics on Preparatory Waste Treatment Operations

Transcription

1 Environmental Protection Agency Grant agreement No ESTAT Pilot Study on Statistics on Preparatory Waste Treatment Operations Waste Statistics Regulation 2002/2150/EC Final Report September, 2005

2 EPA Director: Liutauras Stoškus Project manager: Violeta Juozefaitė... Working group: Leader: Romualdas Lenkaitis Rūta Bubnienė Rasa Ščeponavičiūtė Dmitrijus Žarkovas Kęstutis Česonis Jūratė Varneckienė Vilius Ališauskas Vilma Valiukaitė

3 Summary The objective of the pilot study was to assess the relevance and feasibility of including in the statistics the data on the amounts of waste conditioned by preparatory treatment operations and to propose a realistic and manageable way of collecting the data. Definitions of recovery and disposal provided in Annexes IIA and IIB of the WFD in the form of lists of separate operations do not provide adequate and sufficient information required for unambiguous identification of certain waste treatment operations as recovery or disposal. In the case of pretreatment operations lack of clarity is even more obvious as pretreatment should be identified within recovery or disposal as an interim operation not completing either recovery or disposal. Bearing in mind the decisions of the ECJ it should be concluded that any waste treatment operations which does not result in replacing other materials which would have had to be used for that purpose or, in case of incineration, recovery and use of greater part of energy generated, should be classified as disposal operation, i.e. non-recovery = disposal. Consequently, only categories D8, D9, D13 and D14 may be used for identification of pretreatment operations. Storage of waste pending recovery or disposal is actually not treatment as waste composition, properties or amounts are not changed. Therefore storage is included in both Annex IIA and Annex IIB as D15 and R13. Specific needs for statistics on pretreatment operations should be considered in the light of the requirements for development of policy measures and instruments necessary for implementation of EU and national legislation. The requirements include various obligations such as development of appropriate techniques for the final disposal of dangerous substances contained in waste destined for recovery, develop waste management plans, attaining set targets for recovery, recycling and reuse. Development of policy measures aimed at complying with these requirements needs detailed information on the efficiency of the whole waste management chain including statistical data on pretreatment operations. Very general definitions of disposal and recovery operations provided in Annexes IIA and IIB of the WFD were interpreted by reporting waste management companies in different ways. As a result, different R/D codes are often assigned to similar treatment operations, numerous entries contain obvious mistakes. Much more detailed and clear description of recovery and disposal methods is necessary in order to obtain more reliable waste statistics. Based on the review of waste management operations performed in Lithuania and data provided in the reports on waste management statistics, characterization of recovery and disposal operations, including pretreatment operations, was made. According to Annex II Section 1 of the WSR, the statistics are to be compiled for all activities classified within the coverage of Sections A to Q, of NACE REV 1 covering all

4 economic activities. All economic activities include also facilities performing any waste treatment operation including pretreatment. Therefore, WSR requirement to compile statistical data on waste generation should include also pretreatment operations. If pretreatment operations are excluded from statistics defined in Annex II of the WSR, collection of data on waste generation and on recovery and disposal will cover different categories of waste treatment facilities and it will be necessary to organize separate surveys for collection of statistical data on waste generations and on waste recovery/disposal. On the other hand, if facilities performing pretreatment operations are included in statistics on recovery/disposal (Annex II of the WSR), all necessary data may be collected in a single survey (total waste generation is equal to the total amount of waste treated by all recovery and disposal facilities). Definitions of recovery and disposal in the WSR are taken from the WFD and cover all operations including pretreatment. Very simple criterion for identification of the facilities performing recovery and disposal operation is requirement to obtain permit set by Articles 9 and 10 of the WFD. If facilities performing pretreatment will be excluded from data collection, this criterion will not apply and detailed separation of waste treatment facilities to two subcategories will be necessary. Waste streams representing the balance of waste treatment chain from generation to the final disposal/recovery were identified and characterization of separate streams together with requirements for reporting in order to obtain data needed to compile waste balance were provided. Data reported on the separate waste streams allows to calculate all components of waste balance.

5 Table of Content 1 Introduction Legal Background Requirements of the Waste Statistics Regulation Definitions of Recovery and Disposal Definition of Recycling Related Definitions in Other EU Waste Legislation Packaging Directive Directive on End-of Life Vehicles WEEE Directive Discussion Policy Needs for Statistics on Pretreatment Operations Policy Needs Related to EU Requirements Waste Framework Directive Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive ELV Directive WEEE Directive National Requirements Lithuanian Waste Statistics General Treatment Operations Reported in Waste Statistics Requirements Use of R and D Codes Recovery/Disposal Chain Treatment of Separately Collected Plastic Waste Treatment of Oil/Water Emulsions and Plating Sludge in Expanded Aggregate Production Treatment of Waste Oil Filters Treatment of Oil Sludge Treatment of Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment Storage of Waste Export and Import of Waste Characterization of Recovery/Disposal Operations Disposal Operations Recovery Operations Data Collection...50

6 7.1 Basic Requirements Secondary Waste Generation Identification or Reporting Units System Boundaries Data Collection Options Waste Balance Characteristics of Waste Streams Waste Balance Components Recommended methodology Conclusions References...62 ANNEX 1. Reported Data on Waste Treatment Methods...63

7 1 INTRODUCTION The Waste Statistics Regulation adopted in November 2002 sets out four areas where pilot studies should to be undertaken before regular data collection is established including the pilot study on statistics on preparatory waste treatment operations. (Annex II, Section 8(3)) In the Waste Statistics Regulation, the waste treatment methods are indicated in Annex II. The methods are classified according to the R(ecovery) and D(isposal) codes set out in the Directive on Waste (75/442/EEC). A clear description of these operations is not given in the Directive. For the pre-treatment operations, additional problems sometimes occur because of the complex operations or the subsequent handling (treatment chain) applied. In order to arrive at harmonised and comparable statistics, a clear description is needed of the kind of operations to be included, the products they deliver and which operations can lead to double, or more, counting of the waste streams. The pilot studies should address these issues. The objective of the pilot study was to assess the relevance and feasibility of including in the statistics the data on the amounts of waste conditioned by preparatory treatment operations. As specified in the Terms of Reference, the study should give an answer to the following questions: A. General information i. A discussion of the policy needs for statistics on waste undergoing preparatory treatment both at national and EU-level. B. Specific information ii. A discussion on and suggestion for preparatory treatment operations that should be included in the Waste Statistics Regulation. iii. Which R and D codes cover the relevant preparatory treatment operations, how should sorting be regarded, and is it possible to distinct between preparatory treatment and final treatment? iv. Proposals for identification and clear descriptions of the preparatory treatment operations C. Conclusion and recommendation In the conclusions of the study specific attention should be given on the questions: v. What is a realistic and manageable way of collecting the data in the Member States? vi. How can data quality and comparability be ensured? 1

8 vii. A recommendation for the preparatory treatment methods to be included in the statistics has to be given. This pilot study was carried out in the framework of the programme drawn up by the Commission in accordance with Section 8(3) of Annex II to the Waste Statistics Regulation and was financed by Eurostat grants in the field of waste statistics. 2

9 2 LEGAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Requirements of the Waste Statistics Regulation Regulation (EC) No 2150/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 November 2002 on waste statistics (WSR) establishes a framework for the production of Community statistics on the generation, recovery and disposal of waste. Member States and the Commission are obliged to produce Community statistics on the generation, recovery and disposal of waste, excluding radioactive waste, which is already covered by other legislation. According to Art. 1 of the WSR, the statistics shall cover the following areas: Generation of waste according to Annex I; Recovery and disposal of waste according to Annex II. As specified in Section 1 of Annex 2, the statistics are to be compiled for all recovery and disposal facilities which run any of the operations referred to in Section 8(2) and which belong to or are part of the economic activities according to the groupings of NACE REV 1, provided in Annex I, Section 8(1.1). The List of Recovery and Disposal Operations provided in Section 8(2) is based on Annexes IIA and IIB of the Waste Framework Directive 75/442/EEC (WFD). The following operations are included in the List: Item No Code Types of recovery and disposal operations Incineration 1 R1 Use principally as a fuel or other means to generate energy 2 D10 Incineration on land 3 R2 + R3 + R4 + R5 + R6 + R7 + R8 + R9 + R10 + R11 Operations which may lead to recovery (excluding energy recovery) Solvent reclamation/regeneration Recycling/reclamation of organic substances which are not used as solvents (including composting and other biological transformation processes) Recycling/reclamation of metals and metal compounds Recycling/reclamation of other inorganic materials Regeneration of acids or bases Recovery of components used for pollution abatement Recovery of components from catalysts Oil refining or other reuses of oil Land treatment resulting in benefit to agriculture or ecological improvement Use of wastes obtained from any of the operations numbered R1 to R10 3

10 4 5 D1 + D3 + D4 + D5 + D12 D2 + D6 + D7 Disposal operations Deposit into or onto land (e.g. landfill etc.) Deep injection (e.g. injection of pumpable discards into wells, salt domes or naturally occurring repositories etc.) Surface impoundment (e.g. placement of liquid or sludge discards into pits, pounds or lagoons etc.) Special engineered landfill (e.g. placement into lined discrete cells which are capped and isolated from one another and the environment etc.) Permanent storage (e.g. emplacement of containers in a mine etc.) Land treatment (e.g. biodegradation of liquid or sludgy discards in soils etc.) Release into a water body except seas/oceans Release into seas/oceans including sea-bed insertion Several operations that are provided in Annexes IIA and IIB of the WFD are not included in the list of recovery and disposal operations in Annex II of the WSR. These operations are considered to be preparatory pretreatment operations not leading to recovery and disposal but performed before the final recovery or disposal operations: R12 Exchange of wastes for submission to any of the operations numbered R 1 to R 11 R13 D8 D9 D13 Storage of wastes pending any of the operations numbered R 1 to R 12 (excluding temporary storage, pending collection, on the site where it is produced) Biological treatment not specified elsewhere in this Annex which results in final compounds or mixtures which are discarded by means of any of the operations numbered D 1 to D 12 Physico-chemical treatment not specified elsewhere in this Annex which results in final compounds or mixtures which are discarded by means of any of the operations numbered D 1 to D 12 (e.g. evaporation, drying, calcination, etc.) Blending or mixing prior to submission to any of the operations numbered D 1 to D 12 D14 Repackaging prior to submission to any of the operations numbered D 1 to D 13 D15 Storage pending any of the operations numbered D 1 to D 14 (excluding temporary storage, pending collection, on the site where it is produced) Another operation excluded from the scope of the WSR is D11- Incineration at sea 2.2 Definitions of Recovery and Disposal The definitions of recovery and disposal in the WSR are taken from the WFD: "recovery" shall mean any of the operations provided for in Annex IIB to Directive 75/442/EEC; "disposal" shall mean any of the operations provided for in Annex IIA to Directive 75/442/EEC; 4

11 Definitions of recovery and disposal in the form of lists of separate operations do not provide adequate and sufficient information required for unambiguous identification of certain waste treatment operations as recovery or disposal. Detailed review of the definitions and their application to identification of specific waste treatment operations is provided by Okopol (2004). Okopol (2004) comes to the general conclusion that recovery and disposal operations cannot be easily characterised using one of the entries of Annex II of the WFD. Additionally, it is noted that the wording of several entries does not enable an unambiguous characterisation of the operations and some entries give rise to diverging interpretation because of a lack of clarity. In the case of pretreatment operations lack of clarity is even more obvious as pretreatment should be identified within recovery or disposal as an interim operation not completing either recovery or disposal. Annex II of the WFD does not allow for any other waste treatment operation except recovery or disposal. Such approach is understandable if general framework character of the WFD is taken into consideration. However, if more specific issues and problems are taken into consideration, general approach may pose serious problems. As noted by Okopol (2004), defining recovery to determine whether waste circulates freely in the internal market is not the same as defining recovery in order to set mandatory targets. In recent years the European Court of Justice has made several decisions concerning clarification of the terms recovery and disposal. In the case C-6/00 the ECJ decided that in order to determine whether the operation is a disposal or a recovery operation within the meaning of the WFD, treatment operation must be classified on a case-by-case basis in the light of the objectives of the Directive. Treatment operation constitutes a recovery if its principal objective is that the waste serve a useful purpose in replacing other materials which would have had to be used for that purpose. According to ECJ judgment in case C-228/00, it follows from Article 3(1)(b) and the fourth recital of the Directive (WFD) that the essential characteristic of a waste recovery operation is that its principal objective is that the waste serve a useful purpose in replacing other materials which would have had to be used for that purpose, thereby conserving natural resources. In case C-116/01 the ECJ concluded that waste treatment process is not to be assessed as a whole, but each phase must be classified separately when it constitutes a distinct operation in itself. The classification of the first operation as a recovery operation is not affected by the classification of the following operation, be it a recovery or a disposal operation. 5

12 The main implication of the ECJ judgments is that waste treatment operation may be classified as recovery only if its principal objective is that the waste serve a useful purpose in replacing other materials which would have had to be used for that purpose. Specific interpretation of this general principle for waste incineration is given in case C-228/00. The ECJ judged that it follows from the term principally used in point R1 of Annex II B to the Directive that the waste must be used principally as a fuel or other means of generating energy, which means that the greater part of the waste must be consumed during the operation and the greater part of the energy generated must be recovered and used. 2.3 Definition of Recycling Definition of recycling in the WSR is taken from the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (94/62/EC): 'recycling` shall mean the reprocessing in a production process of the waste materials for the original purpose or for other purposes including organic recycling but excluding energy recovery. In case C-444/00 the ECJ judged that the definition of recycling requires that packaging waste must undergo reprocessing in a production process which is in line with the decisions concerning definition of recovery as replacement of raw materials. According to the judgement, the transformation of metal scrap which is waste in the meaning of the Framework Directive into a secondary raw material by sorting, cleaning, shredding etc. does not constitute recycling, although the material meets defined technical specifications and has a market value. Accordingly, all operations which do not produce new materials or new products possessing characteristics comparable to those of the material from which the waste was derived are not recovery operations and should be assigned to pretreatment. 2.4 Related Definitions in Other EU Waste Legislation General requirements of the WFD are more specifically defined in several other waste sector directives which also provide more detailed specification of waste treatment operations. The most important from this point of view are: - Packaging and packaging waste directive (94/62/EC) - Directive on end-of life vehicles (2000/53/EC) - Directive on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) (2002/96/EC) 6

13 2.4.1 Packaging Directive Packaging directive introduces new term of reuse: 'reuse` shall mean any operation by which packaging, which has been conceived and designed to accomplish within its life cycle a minimum number of trips or rotations, is refilled or used for the same purpose for which it was conceived, with or without the support of auxiliary products present on the market enabling the packaging to be refilled; such reused packaging will become packaging waste when no longer subject to reuse. The term reuse is used in the directive separately from recovery and recycling, meaning that it should be considered separately in waste statistics. Other terms introduced by the Packaging directive are organic recycling and energy recovery : 'organic recycling` shall mean the aerobic (composting) or anaerobic (biomethanization) treatment, under controlled conditions and using micro-organisms, of the biodegradable parts of packaging waste, which produces stabilized organic residues or methane. Landfill shall not be considered a form of organic recycling; 'energy recovery` shall mean the use of combustible packaging waste as a means to generate energy through direct incineration with or without other waste but with recovery of the heat. Definition of organic recycling is amending definition of recycling and is actually more detailed characterisation of recovery operation R3 and does not introduce new aspects related to pretreatment operations. However, the definition of energy recovery provided in the Packaging directive is contradicting the judgement of the ECJ in the case C-228/00. According to the judgment, the necessary conditions for assigning waste incineration to recovery are that the greater part of the waste must be consumed during the operation and the greater part of the energy generated must be recovered and used. In the save time definition in the directive assigns incineration to recovery independently of part of the waste consumed or amount of energy recovered Directive on End-of Life Vehicles ELVs directive provides definition of reuse which is, if compared to the definition in the Packaging directive, is accommodated to the specific needs and requirements of the ELVs directive: reuse means any operation by which components of end-of life vehicles are used for the same purpose for which they were conceived. 7

14 The definition of recycling in the ELVs directive includes definitions of both recycling and energy recovery: recycling means the reprocessing in a production process of the waste materials for the original purpose or for other purposes but excluding energy recovery. Energy recovery means the use of combustible waste as a means to generate energy through direct incineration with or without other waste but with recovery of the heat. The definition actually repeats the definitions of recycling and energy recovery provided in the Packaging directive but including of organic recycling is not specifically mentioned in the definition. ELVs directive introduces new definition of treatment which was not defined in the directives adopted earlier: treatment means any activity after the end-of life vehicle has been handed over to a facility for depollution, dismantling, shearing, shredding, recovery or preparation for disposal of the shredder wastes, and any other operation carried out for the recovery and/or disposal of the end-of life vehicle and its components. Treatment is defined separately from recovery and disposal, however, as it includes operations carried out for the recovery and/or disposal, it should be considered as pretreatment operation for which codes R12, R13, D8, D9 may be assigned WEEE Directive The WEEE directive provides definitions of reuse, recycling and treatment which are essentially the same as in the ELVs directive but are accommodated to the specific needs of the WEEE directive; "reuse" means any operation by which WEEE or components thereof are used for the same purpose for which they were conceived, including the continued use of the equipment or components thereof which are returned to collection points, distributors, recyclers or manufacturers; "recycling" means the reprocessing in a production process of the waste materials for the original purpose or for other purposes, but excluding energy recovery which means the use of combustible waste as a means of generating energy through direct incineration with or without other waste but with recovery of the heat; "treatment" means any activity after the WEEE has been handed over to a facility for depollution, disassembly, shredding, recovery or preparation for disposal and any other operation carried out for the recovery and/or the disposal of the WEEE. 8

15 2.5 Discussion Assuming that waste collection and transport are not treatment operations, the WFD does not leave space for any other treatment operations except listed in Annexes IIA and IIB. Bearing in mind the decisions of the ECJ, it should be concluded that any waste treatment operations which does not result in replacing other materials which would have had to be used for that purpose or, in case of incineration, recovery and use of greater part of energy generated, should be classified as disposal operation, i.e. non-recovery = disposal. Direct application of this principle means that pretreatment operations which do not result in replacement of natural resources or generation of energy should be classified as disposal operations independently whether pretreated waste is destined for recovery or disposal. Consequently, only categories D8, D9, D13 and D14 may be used for identification of pretreatment operations. It may be argued that outputs of pretreatment operations in practice are never limited to pure fractions for recovery and always include residual waste for disposal, else they will not be needed. From this point of view assigning of pretreatment to disposal operations becomes understandable. Storage of waste pending recovery or disposal is actually not treatment as waste composition, properties or amounts are not changed. Therefore storage is included in both Annex IIA and Annex IIB as D15 and R13. It should by noted that the judgements of the ECJ (except C-444/00) were made in cases related to transboundary shipments of waste and the main objective was to define whether treatment process in receiving country corresponds to the definition of recovery. In practice each recovery process results in certain amount of secondary waste which should be disposed of. In some cases (e.g. recovery of silver from photochemical solutions) fraction of recovered materials may be as low as 1 or 2 per cent. From waste management policy perspective, specific results and outputs of treatment operations are more important than formal classification of operation itself. Okopol (2004) comes to the conclusion that relations not dealt with in the WFD such as recovery quotas of the Packaging, ELVs and WEEE Directives should not be linked with the characterisation of Annex II. In such cases the process should be evaluated according to its actual technical properties (e.g. D-functions and various R-operations are taken into account as parallel elements of a waste treatment operation). Furthermore, Okopol report notes that considering all individual cases of waste treatment operations, which are currently employed in the EU, would contradict the framework character of the WFD. It therefore appears to be sensible to carry out detailed clarification at another subordinate level. It is especially important when collection of statistical data related to implementation of the directives regulating specific waste streams are taken into consideration. Reuse of packaging and dismantled parts of ELVs and WEEE is an essential requirement of corresponding directives, however it is a separate operation and cannot be included in either 9

16 recovery or pretreatment operations. From the point of view of statistics on pretreatment operations, it should be noted that reuse (selling) of dismantled ELV or WEEE parts is performed by the dismantling companies, i.e. undertakings performing pretreatment operations. On the other hand, recovery and disposal are defined as processes while statistics are concerned primarily with waste streams entering of leaving specific process. As noted by the Cees van Beusekom (2004), in order to arrive at harmonised and comparable statistics, a clear description is needed of the products they deliver and which operations can lead to double, or more, counting of the waste streams. In order to arrive at clear description of products the general classification of treatment processes provided by the WFD is not always helpful and it may be useful to develop more detailed classification corresponding to the specific needs of waste statistics. 10

17 3 POLICY NEEDS FOR STATISTICS ON PRETREATMENT OPERATIONS As specified in the WSR, regular Community statistics on the production and management of waste from businesses and private households are required by the Community for monitoring the implementation of waste policy. This creates the basis for monitoring compliance with the principles of maximisation of recovery and safe disposal. Waste statistics are required for assessing compliance with the principle of waste prevention and to establish a link between waste generation data and global, national and regional inventories of resource use. Specific needs for statistics on pretreatment operations should be considered in the light of the requirements for development of policy measures and instruments necessary for implementation of EU and national legislation. 3.1 Policy Needs Related to EU Requirements The most important waste sector directives requiring establishment and implementation of policy measures and instruments are the following: Council Directive 75/442/EEC on waste (Waste Framework directive); European Parliament and Council directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste; Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on end-of life vehicles; Directive 2002/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) Waste Framework Directive Council Directive on waste (75/442/EEC) or Waste Framework Directive (WFD) sets the general principles and requirements for waste management and forms the background for establishing environmentally friendly and economically feasible waste management systems. Article 3.1 of the WFD requires the Member States to take appropriate measures to encourage inter alia: - the development of appropriate techniques for the final disposal of dangerous substances contained in waste destined for recovery; - the recovery of waste by means of recycling, re-use or reclamation or any other process with a view to extracting secondary raw materials, or 11

18 - the use of waste as a source of energy. The requirement to develop appropriate techniques for the final disposal of dangerous substances contained in waste destined for recovery is especially important in the context of statistics on pretreatment operations. Recovery is usually the last stage in the chain of operation which most frequently should be assigned to pretreatment operations. If waste is destined for recovery after generation, it does not mean that the total amount of generated waste will be recovered. Secondary waste is generated during each intermediary pretreatment operation and detailed information on amount of generated secondary waste and its properties is necessary in order to develop appropriate techniques for its final disposal. Statistical data is the main component of this information necessary for development of appropriate policy measures and adoption of required decisions. Maximization of recycling, reuse and reclamation of waste is also directly related to pretreatment processes as the amount and quality of waste undergoing the last stage or recovery depends on proper selection and execution of pretreatment operations. Therefore, policy decisions aimed at increasing efficiency of waste recovery, recycling or reuse should take into consideration statistical data on pretreatment operations. Article 5.1 of the WFD requires to take appropriate measures to establish an integrated and adequate network of disposal installations, taking into account of the best available technology not involving excessive costs. Planned capacities of waste disposal installations depend on waste generation including generation of secondary waste in pretreatment processes which shows that proper establishment of the network of disposal installations is hardly possible without statistical information on secondary waste generation during waste pretreatment operations. Waste management plans required in accordance with Article 7 of the WFD must be related in particular to: - the type, quantity and origin of waste to be recovered or disposed of, - general technical requirements, - any special arrangements for particular wastes, - suitable disposal sites or installations. Relation to the origin of waste means that statistical information on secondary waste generation during pretreatment processes is necessary for development and implementation of waste management plans required by the WFD. Furthermore, special arrangements for particular wastes should be developed and implemented. The directive does not specify the meaning of the special arrangements, however it is obvious that pretreatment operations changing waste composition and properties and making it ready for final recovery or disposal should make a key element of the special arrangements. Once again, statistical information on pretreatment operations is needed. 12

19 Further, waste management plans should cover, inter alia: - the estimated costs of the recovery and disposal operations, - appropriate measures to encourage rationalization of the collection, sorting and treatment of waste. The total costs of waste recovery and disposal operations comprise costs of all treatment stages including pretreatment operations and detailed information on capacity and efficiency of pretreatment is necessary in order to develop waste management plans ensuring economically viable waste management. Finally, the requirement to rationalize sorting and treatment of waste is directly related to pretreatment operations including sorting and other treatment techniques. So, it is obvious that statistical information on pretreatment operations is of utmost importance for development and implementation of policy measures and instruments aimed at complying with the requirements of the WFD Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive The Packaging directive is aimed at preventing the production of packaging waste and, as additional fundamental principles, at reusing, recycling and other forms of recovering packaging waste and, hence, at reducing the final disposal of such waste (Art. 1.2). To this end the targets (Art. 6) are set for recovery, incineration at waste incineration plants with energy recovery, and recycling. As definitions of recovery, recycling and incineration are referring to processes, it should be understood that the targets are attained when the amount of waste defined as target is submitted to the corresponding operation. Secondary waste generated during recovery, recycling and incinerations is not taken into account except targets for recycling of plastics. The minimum recycling targets for plastic materials contained in packaging waste (Art. 6.1(e)(iv)) are set counting exclusively material that is recycled back into plastics. It means that efficiency of the operation should be taken into account and outputs rather than inputs of the operations should be recorded. Performance of pretreatment operations is an important factor to be considered in developing policies aimed at maximizing recovery and recycling and reducing final disposal of packaging waste. The amount of waste submitted to recovery and attainment of set targets depend on the efficiency of pretreatment operations which predetermine the quantity of separated secondary materials submitted to the final recovery operations. Therefore, statistical information on pretreatment operation is needed for development of policy measures and instruments aimed at attaining the targets set in the directive. Article 7.1 of the Packaging directive requires to set up systems providing for the return and/or collection of used packaging and/or packaging waste from the waste stream in order 13

20 to channel it to the most appropriate waste management alternatives. Such channelling may be performed only taking into consideration the whole waste management chain including pretreatment operations. Accordingly, statistical data on pretreatment operations are necessary in order to comply with Article 7.1 of the directive. Finally, adoption of economic instruments required by Article 15 of the Packaging directive should also cover the whole waste management chain establishing clear responsibilities of all actors in the market. Pretreatment undertakings should make an integral part of the system and should be taken into consideration when developing policy measures ELV Directive The ELV directive requires to encourage the reuse of components which are suitable for reuse, the recovery of components which cannot be reused and the giving of preference to recycling when environmentally viable (Art. 7.1). The targets are set for reuse and recovery and for reuse and recycling keeping in mind that recycling is included as a part of recovery. Parts of ELVs suitable for reuse are dismantled during treatment operation which, according to its definition, is actually pretreatment operation and cannot be assigned to recycling. Reusable parts are sold then as second hand products to users. As a result, reuse operation is completed within the pretreatment chain and the need for statistical information on dismantling operations is obvious WEEE Directive Article 6 of the WEEE directive requires to ensure that producers or third parties acting on their behalf set up systems to provide for the treatment of WEEE using best available treatment, recovery and recycling techniques. To ensure compliance with Article 4 of Directive 75/442/EEC, the treatment shall, as a minimum, include the removal of all fluids and a selective treatment. These operations should be assigned to pretreatment and establishment of efficient treatment systems covering the whole treatment chain is hardly possible without detailed statistical data on pretreatment operations. Implementation of requirements of the WEEE directive related to reuse needs adoption of similar policy measures and instruments as in case of ELV directive. Need for statistical information related to pretreatment operations required for development of these policy measures is also obvious. 3.2 National Requirements All requirements of the EU waste sector directives are transposed to the Lithuanian legislation and waste management policy in Lithuania is based on the principles adopted in the EU. 14

21 According to the Lithuanian Law on Waste Management, industries and waste management undertakings are obliged to take all possible and economically feasible measures to reduce waste amount and risks to human health and environment keeping to the following priorities: - prevention of waste generation, - development and implementation of low waste technologies in order to reduce waste generation and disposal in landfills, - production of new products or raw materials suitable for production of new products, - use for energy production, - safe disposal in landfills. The Lithuanian National Strategic Waste Management Plan aims at establishing rational waste management system meeting the needs of the society, ensuring good environmental quality without endangering human health and keeping in line with the principles of market economy. The plan sets specific tasks for development of waste management system which should ensure attainment of the requirements established in the EU directives. The basis for the development of waste management system and attainment of set targets is the planning process. The Law on Waste Management requires drawing up waste management plans on three levels national, regional and municipal. The plans should be coordinated among themselves and the lower level plans should be based on higher level plans. As emphasised repeatedly in legal acts and National Strategic Waste Management Plan, availability of correct and reliable information and data on waste generation and management is one of the main conditions for attainment of set ambitious targets and improvement of existing waste management system. Data collection and management is one of the main priorities in waste management sector in Lithuania. The National Strategic Waste Management Plan emphasises that information on waste generation and management is an important tool for planning and implementation of advanced waste management systems in municipalities, regions and the whole country and should form the basis for efficient coordination of waste management activities. Additionally, information management system should help industries and other waste generators in controlling waste streams and facilitation of measures aimed at prevention waste generation and reduction of their hazardous properties. In order to obtain reliable information on waste management it is necessary to make clear distinction between operations resulting in final recovery or disposal of generated waste and preparatory treatment operations or recovery and treatment operations resulting in generation of new waste. 15

22 4 LITHUANIAN WASTE STATISTICS 4.1 General The Law on Waste Management sets the general reporting requirements and authorises the Ministry of Environment to define detailed reporting procedures and formats. Reporting is required by several regulations issued by the Ministry of Environment including: - Waste Management Regulation, and - Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste Management. According to the Waste Management Regulation, waste management undertakings including waste importing companies as well as waste generating industries which are obliged to have IPPC permits must keep records of waste generation and treatment. Waste recoding is also mandatory for enterprises involved in technical maintenance of vehicles and generating hazardous waste. Waste recording log must be kept in the location of waste generation and must be submitted to the authorised officials of the Ministry of Environment, counties or municipalities upon their request. Waste generation and treatment should be recorded at least once per week. If waste is generated or treated not continuously, each separate generated or treated quantity must be recorded. Recording should include: - geographic origin of waste, - industrial origin of waste, - source name, - waste code in Waste List, - statistical classification code, - waste name, - amount of generated, received, treated or dispatched waste, - treatment method, - receiving facility (if waste was dispatched), Waste recovery and disposal undertakings are obliged to provide annual reports on waste management to the regional environmental protection departments of the Ministry of Environment. Waste generating industries obliged to have IPPC permits must provide annual recording reports. Both types of reports are very similar and have only minor differences and must include summarised waste recording data. 16

23 The reports are collected by the regional environmental protection departments and transferred to the Environmental Protection Agency which is responsible for data processing and keeping waste database. 4.2 Treatment Operations Reported in Requirements to report waste treatment operations were introduced by the Lithuanian Waste Management Regulation approved by the Minister of Environment in However, the operations to be reported were different from the operations provided in Annex II to the directive 75/442/EEC. Following is the list of operations according to the requirements of the Regulation: 1. Waste disposal 1.1. Disposal of non-hazardous waste in landfills or other places into or onto land Storage on non-hazardous waste for more than one year Incineration of non-hazardous waste without energy recovery Disposal of non-hazardous waste by other methods Disposal of hazardous waste in landfills or other places into or onto land Storage of hazardous waste for more than three months Incineration of hazardous waste without energy recovery Disposal of hazardous waste by other methods Export of waste for disposal. 2. Use of waste for energy production 2.1. Use of non-hazardous waste for energy production Use of hazardous waste for energy production export of waste for energy production. 3. Waste recycling 3.1. Physical-chemical recycling of non-hazardous waste Biological recycling of non-hazardous waste Recycling of hazardous waste Recycling of bulky waste Export of waste for recovery. 4. Collection and transportation of waste 4.1. Collection of waste from households and enterprises that are not obliged to have primary waste recording log Collection and transportation of non-hazardous waste Reloading and repacking of non-hazardous waste for transportation Collection and transportation of hazardous waste Reloading and repacking of hazardous waste for transportation. 5. Intermediary activity in waste management The operations listed above were used in the reports on waste generation and management collected by the Ministry of Environment for the years 2000 to Approximate correlation between the recovery and disposal operations provided in Annex II to the directive 75/442/EEC and the operations set in the Lithuanian Waste Management Regulation till 2004 is given in Tables 4.1 and

24 Table 4.1. Correlation between recovery operations provided in Annex II to the directive 75/442/EEC and operations used for waste data reporting in Recovery operations, Annex II to the directive 75/442/EEC R 1 Use principally as a fuel or other means to generate energy Operations defined for waste data reporting in in Lithuania 2.1 Use of non-hazardous waste for energy production 2.2 Use of hazardous waste for energy production R 2 Solvent reclamation/regeneration 3.3 Recycling of hazardous waste R 3 Recycling/reclamation of organic substances which are not used as solvents (including composting and other biological transformation processes) Biological recycling of non-hazardous waste Recycling of hazardous waste Recycling of bulky waste R 4 R 5 Recycling/reclamation of metals and metal compounds Recycling/reclamation of other inorganic materials Physical-chemical recycling of nonhazardous waste Recycling of hazardous waste R 6 R 7 Regeneration of acids or bases Recovery of components used for pollution abatement 3.3 Recycling of hazardous waste 2.2 Use of hazardous waste for energy production R 8 Recovery of components from catalysts 3.1 Physical-chemical recycling of nonhazardous waste 3.3 Recycling of hazardous waste R 9 R 10 R 11 Oil re-refining or other reuses of oil Land treatment resulting in benefit to agriculture or ecological improvement Use of wastes obtained from any of the operations numbered R 1 to R Recycling of hazardous waste 3.2 Biological recycling of non-hazardous waste 18

25 R 12 Exchange of wastes for submission to any of the operations numbered R 1 to R Export of waste for energy production Export of waste for recovery R 13 Storage of wastes pending any of the operations numbered R 1 to R 12 (excluding temporary storage, pending collection, on the site where it is produced) Storage on non-hazardous waste for more than one year Storage on hazardous waste for more than three months Table 4.2. Correlation between disposal operations provided in Annex II to the directive 75/442/EEC and operations used for waste data reporting in Disposal operations, Annex II to the directive 75/442/EEC D 1 Deposit into or onto land (e.g. landfill, etc.) Operations defined for waste data reporting in in Lithuania 1.1 Disposal of non-hazardous waste in landfills or other places into or onto land 1.5 Disposal of hazardous waste in landfills or other places into or onto land D 2 Land treatment (e.g. biodegradation of liquid or sludgy discards in soils, etc.) Biological recycling of non-hazardous waste Recycling of hazardous waste D 3 Deep injection (e.g. injection of pumpable discards into wells, salt domes or naturally occurring repositories, etc.) D 4 Surface impoundment (e.g. placement of liquid or sludgy discards into pits, ponds or lagoons, etc.) D 5 Specially engineered landfill (e.g. placement into lined discrete cells which are capped and isolated from one another and the environment, etc.) Disposal of non-hazardous waste in landfills or other places into or onto land Disposal of non-hazardous waste in landfills or other places into or onto land 19

26 D 6 D 7 D 8 D 9 Release into a water body except seas/oceans Release into seas/oceans including sea-bed insertion Biological treatment not specified elsewhere in this Annex which results in final compounds or mixtures which are discarded by means of any of the operations numbered D 1 to D 12 Physico-chemical treatment not specified elsewhere in this Annex which results in final compounds or mixtures which are discarded by means of any of the operations numbered D 1 to D 12 (e.g. evaporation, drying, calcination, etc.) D 10 Incineration on land 1.3 D 11 D 12 D 13 D 14 Incineration at sea Permanent storage (e.g. emplacement of containers in a mine, etc.) Blending or mixing prior to submission to any of the operations numbered D 1 to D 12 Repackaging prior to submission to any of the operations numbered D 1 to D Disposal of non-hazardous waste by other methods Disposal of hazardous waste by other methods Incineration of non-hazardous waste without energy recovery Incineration of hazardous waste without energy recovery Storage of non-hazardous waste for more than one year Storage of hazardous waste for more than three months Reloading and repacking of non-hazardous waste for transportation Reloading and repacking of hazardous waste 20

27 D 15 Storage pending any of the operations numbered D 1 to D 14 (excluding temporary storage, pending collection, on the site where it is produced) 4.7 for transportation The reports include only two types of operations that may be assigned to preparatory treatment: 1.2. Storage on non-hazardous waste for more than one year, and 1.6. Storage of hazardous waste for more than three months. From approximately 1.6 million tonne of non-hazardous wastes placed for storage, more than 1.5 million tonne are municipal and industrial wastewater treatment sludge, lime sludge from sugar production and alcohol production sludge. These wastes were disposed onto land for permanent storage and it would be more correct to report them as disposed by operation disposal of non-hazardous waste in landfills or other places into or onto land. Actually, another part of similar waste is reported as landfilled including 1.8 million tonne of phosphogypsum waste, sugar production waste, etc. Remaining part of reported stored non-hazardous waste is mainly various streams of waste stored because no suitable treatment methods are available or generators are not able or not willing to pay for proper treatment or disposal. Such waste streams include spent tyres, catalysts, unsorted glass not accepted for recycling, etc. The main part of hazardous waste placed on storage is oil contaminated sludge. It may be stored for biological degradation though biological degradation is reported under operation 3.3 recycling of hazardous waste. Various preparatory treatment operations were included in operations 3.1 to 3.3. Physicalchemical recycling includes dismantling and shredding of end-of life vehicles, electric and electronic equipment, preparatory treatment of plastic waste, etc. Operations reported under 3.3 recycling of hazardous waste - includes oil-water-soil mixtures without clear indication of further treatment of separated oil or sludge. Summary of reported data for 2003 is provided in Annex 1. 21