EU Waste Law

Waste facilities
A waste facility itself is subject to prior authorisation (Article 7) after public participation (Article 8). Such a facility must be “suitably” located, constructed, managed and maintained to prevent pollution, to ensure efficient collection of contaminated water and leachate and to reduce erosion (Article 11).

At the end of the facility’s operation, the operator shall take appropriate steps in order to secure the stability of the extractive waste, to prevent pollution and to ensure the monitoring of the extractive waste and of the excavation void (Article 10). The closure procedure is authorised by the competent authority, and only deemed completed after the authority has carried out a final on-site inspection. This “shall in no way reduce the operator’s obligations under the conditions of the permit or otherwise in law”, and the operator remains responsible for the maintenance, monitoring, control and corrective measures in the after-closure phase for as long as may be required by the competent authority, unless the authority decides to take over these tasks from the operator (Article 12).

Major accident prevention
Operators of Category A waste facilities which do not fall within the scope of Directive 2012/18/EU on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances (Seveso Directive) are subject to rules which derive from the Directive. They adopt and implement a major accident prevention policy and put into effect a safety management system, as well as emergency plans in case of accident. They provide the public concerned with information on safety. When an accident does occur, they provide the competent authorities with all the necessary information in order to reduce its adverse impacts to the minimum and to remedy the these (Article 6).