Council Directive 1999/31/ECShow full title

2. General principles U.K.

The composition, leachability, long-term behaviour and general properties of a waste to be landfilled must be known as precisely as possible. Waste acceptance at a landfill can be based either on lists of accepted or refused waste, defined by nature and origin, and on waste analysis methods and limit values for the properties of the waste to be accepted. The future waste acceptance procedures described in this Directive shall as far as possible be based on standardised waste analysis methods and limit values for the properties of waste to be accepted.

Before the definition of such analysis methods and limit values, Member States should at least set national lists of waste to be accepted or refuses at each class of landfill, or defined the criteria required to be on the lists. In order to be accepted at a particular class of landfill, a type of waste must be on the relevant national list or fulfil criteria similar to those required to be on the list. These lists, or the equivalent criteria, and the analysis methods and limit values shall be sent to the Commission within six months of the transposition of this Directive or whenever they are adopted at national level.

These lists or acceptance criteria should be used to establish site specific lists, i.e. the list of accepted waste specified in the permit in accordance with Article 9 of this Directive.

The criteria for acceptance of waste on the reference lists or at a class of landfill may be based on other legislation and/or on waste properties.

Criteria for acceptance at a specific class of landfill must be derived from considerations pertaining to:

• protection of the surrounding environment (in particular groundwater and surface water),

• protection of the environmental protection systems (e.g. liners and leachate treatment systems),

• protection of the desired waste-stabilisation processes within the landfill,

• protection against human-health hazards.

Examples of waste property-based criteria are:

• requirements on knowledge of total composition,

• limitations on the amount of organic matter in the waste,

• requirements or limitations on the biodegradability of the organic waste components,

• limitations on the amount of specified, potentially harmful/hazardous components (in relation to the abovementioned protection criteria),

• limitations on the potential and expected leachability of specified, potentially harmful/hazardous components (in relation to the abovementioned protection criteria),

• ecotoxicological properties of the waste and the resulting leachate.

The property-based criteria for acceptance of waste must generally be most extensive for inert waste landfills and can be less extensive for non-hazardous waste landfills and least extensive for hazardous waste landfills owing to the higher environmental protection level of the latter two.