HC Deb 03 April 2000 vol 347 cc326-7W
Mr. Gill

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the exemptions agreed in respect of farmers and growers in other EU countries to the Waste Incineration Directive. [116253]

Mr. Hill

I have been asked to reply.

The European Council agreed a Common Position on the proposed Waste Incineration Directive in June 1999. The Common Position text excludes from the scope of the Directive experimental plants used for research, development and testing in order to improve the incineration process and which treat less than 50 tonnes of waste per year, and plants treating only the following wastes:

  1. (i) vegetable waste from agriculture and forestry,
  2. (ii) vegetable waste from the food processing industry,
  3. (iii) wood waste with the exception of:
    • wood waste that may contain halogenated organic compounds or heavy metals as a result of treatment;
    • treated wood originating from building and demolition waste,
  4. (iv) cork waste,
  5. (v) waste excluded from the scope of the Waste Framework Directive (75/442/EEC) as amended, pursuant to Article 2(1) of that Directive. (Article 2(1) excludes from the scope of the Waste Framework Directive the following:
    1. (a) gaseous effluents emitted into the atmosphere;
    2. (b) where they are already covered by other legislation:
      1. (i) radioactive waste;
      2. (ii) waste resulting from prospecting, extraction, treatment and storage of mineral resources and the working of quarries;
      3. (iii) animal carcases and the following agricultural waste: faecal matter and other natural, non-dangerous substances used in farming;
      4. (iv) waste waters with the exception of waste in liquid form;
      5. (v) decommissioned explosives; and
  6. (vi) waste resulting from the exploration for, and the exploitation of, oil and gas resources from off-shore installations and incinerated on board the installation.

The Council decided it was appropriate to consider vegetable waste from the food processing industry and cork waste as biomass, and therefore to add them to the exclusions from the scope of the proposal alongside those originally proposed by the European Commission to avoid discouraging use of biomass for energy purposes.

The European Parliament is seeking to amend the list of exclusions, including by the addition of an exclusion for fibrous vegetable waste from sorting, screening and washing of virgin pulp and paper production, if it is co-incinerated at the place of production and the heat generated is recovered.

There are no country specific exclusions from the scope of the proposal, nor does any individual member state have the right to opt out of parts of the proposal.