§ Mr. SayeedTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to introduce tougher controls on emissions from existing municipal incinerators; and if she will make a statement. [7751]
§ Mr. MeacherThe recently adopted Waste Incineration Directive 2000/76/EC sets minimum standards for a variety of plants that burn waste, including municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs). The UK Government are committed to transposing the EU Waste Incineration Directive, into UK law by 28 December 2002. Its provisions will apply to all new incinerators by this date, and to existing plant by 28 December 2005. This directive tightens dioxin limits to 0.1 ng/m3 (0.1 billionth of a gram). This standard will be the maximum amount of dioxin permitted to be emitted from MSWIs.
There is no dioxin limit in the Municipal Waste Incineration Directives (89/429/EEC and 89/369/EEC). In 1996 the Environment Agency chose to implement a 1.0 ng/m3 emission limit as achievable using the best available technique not entailing excessive cost (BATNEEC). In 2000 the Agency took a similar decision on BATNEEC and MSWIs were required to either (i) reduce dioxin limits to 0.1 ng/m3 (that is 10 times lower than the earlier limit); or (ii) on plant which could immediately achieve that level, to report on how they would achieve it. As a result, we estimate that dioxin emissions from incinerators in the UK have fallen several hundred-fold.
The Environment Agency intends to review the performance of existing MSWIs before the Waste Incineration Directive applies.