Council Decision of 19 December 2002 establishing criteria and procedures for the acceptance of waste at landfills pursuant to Article 16 of and Annex II to Directive 1999/31/EC (2003/33/EC)

[F1 Article A1 U.K.

1. In this Decision—

(a) “appropriate agency” means—

(i) in relation to England, the Environment Agency;

(ii) in relation to Wales, the Natural Resources Body for Wales;

(iii) in relation to Northern Ireland—

• — for the purposes of this Article, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs;

• — otherwise, the Department for Infrastructure;

(b) “appropriate authority” means—

(i) in relation to England, the Secretary of State;

(ii) in relation to Wales, the Welsh Ministers;

(iii) in relation to Northern Ireland—

• — for the purposes of this Article, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs;

• — otherwise, the Department for Infrastructure;

(c) “local authority” means—

(i) in England outside Greater London—

• — a district council,

• — a county council, or

• — the Council of the Isles of Scilly;

(ii) in Greater London—

• — the council of a London borough,

• — the Common Council of the City of London,

• — the Sub-Treasurer of the Inner Temple, or

• — the Under-Treasurer of the Middle Temple;

(iii) in Wales—

• — a county council, or

• — a county borough council;

(iv) in Northern Ireland, a district council established under section 1 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972.

2. In this Decision, “the Landfill Directive” means Council Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste, as last amended by Directive (EU) 2018/850, and read in accordance with paragraphs 3 to 12.

3. A reference to one or more member States in a provision imposing an obligation or conferring a discretion on a member State or member States is to be read as a reference to the appropriate authority, appropriate agency or local authority which, immediately before IP completion day, was responsible for the United Kingdom's compliance with that obligation or able to exercise that discretion in respect of England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

4. Article 1 is to be read as if—

(a) in paragraph 1, the words from “With a view” to “thereof,” were omitted;

(b) in paragraph 2, for “Directive 96/61/EC”, in both places it occurs, there were substituted “ Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on industrial emissions ”.

5. Article 2 is to be read as if—

( a) in point (a)—

(i) “‘waste’,” were omitted; and

(ii) for “Directive 2008/98/EC” there were substituted “the Waste Framework Directive”;

(b) after point (a) there were inserted—

“(aa) “waste” means anything that—

(i) is waste within the meaning of Article 3(1) of the Waste Framework Directive, as read with Articles 5 and 6 of that Directive, and

(ii) is not excluded from the scope of that Directive by Article 2(1), (2) or (3) of that Directive;”;

(c) for point (l) there were substituted—

“(l) “operator”—

(i) in relation to England and Wales, has the meaning given in regulation 7 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016;

(ii) in relation to Northern Ireland, has the meaning given in regulation 2(1) of the Pollution Prevention and Control (Industrial Emissions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2013;”.

5A. Article 3 is to be read as if—

(a) in paragraph 2, “Without prejudice to existing Community legislation” were omitted;

(b) for paragraph 3 there were substituted—

“3. The management of extractive waste is excluded from the scope of this Directive—

(a) in relation to England and Wales, where it falls within the scope of Schedule 20, or paragraph 8(a) or (b) of Schedule 22, to the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (“the 2016 Regulations”);

(b) in relation to Northern Ireland, where it falls within the scope of the Planning (Management of Waste from Extractive Industries) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 (“the 2015 Regulations”).

In this paragraph, “extractive waste”—

(a) in relation to England and Wales, has the meaning given in regulation 2(1) of the 2016 Regulations;

(b) in relation to Northern Ireland, has the meaning given in regulation 2(2) of the 2015 Regulations.”.

6. Article 5(3) is to be read as if—

(a) in point (b), for “Annex III to Directive 91/689/EEC” there were substituted “ Annex 3 to the Waste Framework Directive ”;

(b) in point (c), for the words from “(property H9” to the end there were substituted “ in Annex 3 to the Waste Framework Directive ”;

(c) in point (d)—

(i) for “two years from the date laid down in Article 18(1)” there were substituted “ 16th July 2001 ”;

(ii) for “five years from the date laid down in Article 18(1)” there were substituted “ from 16th July 2004 ”.

(d) in point (f)—

(i) after “waste”, in the first place it occurs, there were inserted “paper, metal, plastic and glass”;

(ii) the words from “pursuant” to “Article 22 of that Directive” were omitted;

(iii) for “Article 4 of that Directive” there were substituted “Article 4 of the Waste Framework Directive”;

6A. Article 6(a) is to be read as if—

(a) in the first paragraph, in the second sentence, for “may” there were substituted “does”;

(b) in the second paragraph, for the words from “of Directive 2008/98/EC” to the end, there were substituted “set out in Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011, or any objectives in [F2 assimilated] law relating to the increase of preparing for re-use and recycling”.

7. Article 9 is to be read as if, in the words before point (a), the words from “Specifying” to “Directive 96/61/EC,” were omitted.

8. Article 11(1)(b) is to be read as if—

(a) in the first indent—

(i) for “Article 5(3) of Directive 91/689/EEC” there were substituted “ Article 19(2) of the Waste Framework Directive ”;

(ii) for the words from “Council Regulation (EEC) No 259/93” to the end there were substituted “ Regulation (EC) 1013/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on shipments of waste ”;

(b) in the third indent, in the second sentence, “and Community” was omitted.

9. Article 13(d) is to be read as if the words from “and without prejudice” to “waste holder” were omitted.

10. Annex 1 is to be read as if—

(a) in point 3.4, for “Directive 80/68/EEC”, there were substituted “ Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy”.

11. Annex 2 is to be read as if—

(a) point 1 were omitted;

(b) in point 2, in the second paragraph, the third sentence were omitted;

(c) in point 4, in the fourth and fifth paragraphs, for “covered by Directive 91/689/EEC” there were substituted “ classified as hazardous waste ”.

12. Annex 3 is to be read as if—

(a) Annex 3 is to be read as if—

(ii) in the table, for “14.00h CET” in both places it occurs there were substituted “1 p.m.”;

(b) in point 3, in the fourth paragraph, in the table, in table footnote (7), the words from “, and will report” to the end were omitted.

Textual Amendments

F1 Arts. A1-A3 inserted (31.12.2020) by The Waste (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/620), regs. 1(2)(b), 15(2) (as amended by S.I. 2020/1540, regs. 1(3), 14(11)); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

F2 Word in Art. A1(6A)(b) substituted (27.2.2025) by The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2025 (S.I. 2025/82), reg. 1(2), Sch. 15 para. 63(2)(a)

Article A2 U.K.

1. In this Decision, “the Waste Framework Directive” means Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste, as last amended by Directive (EU) 2018/851, and read in accordance with paragraphs 2 to 8.

2. A reference to one or more member States in a provision imposing an obligation or conferring a discretion on a member State or member States is to be read as a reference to the appropriate authority, appropriate agency or local authority which, immediately before IP completion day, was responsible for the United Kingdom's compliance with that obligation or able to exercise that discretion in respect of England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

3. Article 2 is to be read as if—

(a) in paragraph 2—

(i) in the words before point (a), for “other Community legislation” there were substituted “[F3 assimilated] law”;

(ii) in points (b) and (c), for “Regulation (EC) No 1774/2002” there were substituted “ Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009 ”;

(iii) in point (d), as it extends to England and Wales, for the words from “Directive 2006/21/EC” to the end there were substituted “ the Mining Waste Directive ”;

(iv) for point (d), as it extends to Northern Ireland, there were substituted—

“(d) extractive waste, which has the same meaning as in regulation 2(2) of the Planning (Management of Waste from Extractive Industries) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015.”;

(b) in paragraph 3, the words from “Without prejudice” to “Community legislation,” were omitted;

(c) paragraph 4 were omitted.

4. Article 5 is to be read as if—

(a) in paragraph 1, “Member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure that” were omitted;

(b) after paragraph 1 there were inserted—

“1A. Any decision as to whether a substance or object is a by-product must be made—

(a) in accordance with any regulations setting out detailed criteria on the application of the conditions in paragraph 1 to specific substances or objects; and

(b) having regard to any guidance published by the appropriate authority or the appropriate agency for the purposes of this Article.”;

(c) paragraphs 2 and 3 were omitted..

5. Article 6 is to be read as if—

(a) in paragraph 1, “Member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure that” were omitted;

(b) after paragraph 1 there were inserted—

“1A. Any decision as to whether a substance or object has ceased to be waste must be made—

(a) in accordance with any regulations or [F4 assimilated direct] legislation setting out detailed criteria on the application of the conditions in paragraph 1 to specific types of waste; and

(b) having regard to any guidance published by the appropriate authority or the appropriate agency for the purposes of this Article.”;

(c) in paragraph 2—

(i) the first subparagraph were omitted;

(ii) in the second subparagraph, for “Those detailed criteria” there were substituted “Any detailed criteria set out in guidance as referred to in paragraph 1A”;

(iii) the third and fourth subparagraphs were omitted;

(d) paragraph 3 were omitted;

(e) in paragraph 4—

(i) in the first subparagraph—

(aa) in the first sentence, for the words from the beginning to “Member State”, there were substituted “Where criteria have not been set out as referred to in paragraph 1A(a), the appropriate agency”;

(bb) the second sentence were omitted;

(ii) in the second subparagraph—

(aa) for “Member States” there were substituted “The appropriate agency”;

(bb) “by competent authorities” were omitted.

6. Article 7 is to be read as if—

(a) before paragraph 1 there were inserted—

“A1. In this Article, the “list of waste” means the list contained in the Annex to Commission Decision 2000/532/EC, as that list has effect in England, Wales or Northern Ireland (as the case may be).”;

(b) in paragraph 1—

(i) the first and second sentences were omitted;

(ii) for the third sentence there were substituted “The list of waste shall, except as provided in Commission Decision 2000/532/EC, be binding as regards determination of the waste which is to be considered as hazardous waste or as non-hazardous waste.”;

(c) paragraphs 2, 3, 6 and 7 were omitted.

7. Article 19(2) is to be read as if, for “a Member State” there was substituted “ the United Kingdom ”.

8. Annex 3 is to be read as if, in entry HP 9, in the second sentence, “in the Member States” were omitted.

Textual Amendments

F1 Arts. A1-A3 inserted (31.12.2020) by The Waste (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/620), regs. 1(2)(b), 15(2) (as amended by S.I. 2020/1540, regs. 1(3), 14(11)); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

F3 Word in Art. A2(3)(a)(i) substituted (27.2.2025) by The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2025 (S.I. 2025/82), reg. 1(2), Sch. 15 para. 63(2)(b)

F4 Words in Art. A2(5)(b) substituted (27.2.2025) by The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2025 (S.I. 2025/82), reg. 1(2), Sch. 15 para. 63(3)

Article A3 U.K.

1. In Article A2(3)(a)(iii), the “Mining Waste Directive” means Directive 2006/21/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the management of waste from extractive industries, read in accordance with paragraphs 2 and 3.

2. Article 2 is to be read as if—

(a) in paragraph 2(c), the reference to Article 11(3)(j) of Directive 2000/60/EC were a reference to that Article read in accordance with paragraph 7 of this Article;

(b) paragraphs 3 and 4 were omitted.

3. Article 3(1) is to be read as if, for “Article 1(a) of Directive 75/442/EEC” there were substituted “ Article 3(1) of Directive 2008/98/EC, as read with Articles 5 and 6 of that Directive ”.

4. For the purposes of paragraph 2(a), Article 11(3)(j) of Directive 2000/60/EC is to be read as if—

(a) the reference to “Member States” were a reference to the competent authority or appropriate agency;

(b) in the words after the final indent, “environmental objectives”—

(i) in relation to the Northumbria River Basin District, means the environmental objectives referred to in the WFD Regulations as applied by regulation 5 of the Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (Northumbria River Basin District) Regulations 2003;

(ii) in relation to the Solway Tweed River Basin District, has the same meaning as in regulation 2 of the Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (Solway Tweed River Basin District) Regulations 2004;

(iii) in relation to a river basin district within the meaning of the WFD Regulations, has the same meaning as in those Regulations.]

5. In paragraph 4(b), “the WFD Regulations” means the Water Environment (Water Framework Directive) (England and Wales) Regulations 2017.

Textual Amendments

F1 Arts. A1-A3 inserted (31.12.2020) by The Waste (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/620), regs. 1(2)(b), 15(2) (as amended by S.I. 2020/1540, regs. 1(3), 14(11)); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

Article 1 U.K.

[F5 1.] This Decision establishes the criteria and procedures for the acceptance of waste at landfills in accordance with the principles set out in Directive 1999/31/EC and in particular Annex II thereto.

[F6 2. This Decision does not extend to Scotland.]

Textual Amendments

F5 Art. 1 renumbered as Art. 1(1) (31.12.2020) by The Waste (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/620), regs. 1(2)(b), 15(3)(a); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

F6 Art. 1(2) inserted (31.12.2020) by The Waste (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/620), regs. 1(2)(b), 15(3)(b); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

Article 2 U.K.

[F7 The appropriate agency] shall apply the procedure as set out in section 1 of the Annex to this Decision to determine the acceptability of waste at landfills.

Textual Amendments

F7 Words in Art. 2 substituted (31.12.2020) by The Waste (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/620), regs. 1(2)(b), 15(4); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

Article 3 U.K.

[F8 The appropriate agency] shall ensure that waste is accepted at a landfill only if it fulfils the acceptance criteria of the relevant landfill class as set out in section 2 of the Annex to this Decision.

Textual Amendments

F8 Words in Art. 3 substituted (31.12.2020) by The Waste (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/620), regs. 1(2)(b), 15(4); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

Article 4 U.K.

The sampling and testing methods listed in section 3 of the Annex to this Decision shall be used for determining the acceptability of waste at landfills.

Article 5 U.K.

F9 ... The criteria and procedures as set out in the Annex to this Decision shall not apply to waste resulting from prospecting, extraction, treatment and storage of mineral resources nor from the working of quarries, when they are deposited on-site. F10 ...

Textual Amendments

F9 Words in Art. 5 omitted (31.12.2020) by virtue of The Waste (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/620), regs. 1(2)(b), 15(5)(a); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

F10 Words in Art. 5 omitted (31.12.2020) by virtue of The Waste (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/620), regs. 1(2)(b), 15(5)(b); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

F11 Article 6 U.K.

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Textual Amendments

F11 Arts. 6-8 omitted (31.12.2020) by virtue of The Waste (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/620), regs. 1(2)(b), 15(6); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

F11 Article 7 U.K.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Textual Amendments

F11 Arts. 6-8 omitted (31.12.2020) by virtue of The Waste (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/620), regs. 1(2)(b), 15(6); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

F11 Article 8 U.K.

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Textual Amendments

F11 Arts. 6-8 omitted (31.12.2020) by virtue of The Waste (Miscellaneous Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/620), regs. 1(2)(b), 15(6); 2020 c. 1, Sch. 5 para. 1(1)

Done at Brussels, 19 December 2002.

For the Council

The President

M. Fischer Boel