The Best Available Techniques Review Process – An Operator’s View from the UK
Stewart Davis, Head of Technical Compliance, Viridor The Process
Incineration of non-hazardous municipal solid waste is governed by Chapter IV of the European Union’s (EU’s) Industrial Emissions Directive (IED, 2010). A core feature of IED is the use of Best Available Techniques (BAT) to prevent, and, where that is not practicable, to reduce emissions and the impact on the environment as a whole:
‘best’ means most effective in achieving a high general level of protection of the environment as a whole;
‘available’ means those developed on a scale which allows implementation in the relevant industrial sector, under economically and technically viable conditions, taking into consideration the costs and advantages, whether or not the techniques are used or produced inside the Member State in question; and
‘techniques’ includes both the technology used and the way in which the installation is designed, built, maintained, operated and decommissioned.
In order to ensure an effective and active exchange of information ahead of producing BAT reference documents (BREFs), the European Commission (EC) established a forum to enable Member States and stakeholders to provide data of suffi cient quality and quantity based on established guidance, the Joint Working Centre (JRC) of the EU Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Bureau (EIPPCB).
There were 11 UK delegates at the Waste Incineration Technical Working Group (TWG) in Sevilla, including 2 delegates from the Environment Agency who represented the UK as a Member State.
The overall BREF review process is complex and may be summarised briefl y as:
- BREF author(s): provided by the EIPPCB (early 2015);
- Technical Working Group (TWG): established with 126 representatives from Member States, 113 from industry and 9 non-governmental organisations (NGOs);
- JRC meetings of the TWG (the “Sevilla Process”): A kick-off meeting to initiate data gathering and exchange from hundreds of plants in operation; an informal meeting to iron out any remaining issues ahead of publication of the fi nal TWG; and a Final TWG to issue the fi nal draft (~3 years);
- Information Exchange Forum: Agreement on draft fi nal BREF. Following the fi nal TWG there is an EC approval process which culminates in a vote by Member States and then publication of the BREF and BAT Conclusions (BATCs); and
- Publication: Formal adoption and publication by Commission.
The Waste Incineration BATCs were published on 3rd December 2019. These apply immediately to new installations i.e. to any permits issued after this date. For existing installations, national regulators have up to 4 years to update permit conditions to implement these new standards which come into force on 3rd December 2023.
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