When is a landfill subject to the IED?

Text of class 11.5 of the First Schedule of the EPA Act 1992 as amended:

Landfills, within the meaning of section 5 (amended by Regulation 11(1) of the Waste Management (Certification of Historic Unlicenced Waste Disposal and Recovery Activity) Regulations 2008 (S.I. No. 524 of 2008)) of the Act of 1996, receiving more than 10 tonnes of waste per day or with a total capacity exceeding 25,000 tonnes, other than landfills of inert waste.

Text of class 5.4 of Annex I of the IED:

Landfills, as defined in Article 2(g) of Council Directive 1999/31/EC of 26 April 1999 on the landfill of waste receiving more than 10 tonnes of waste per day or with a total capacity exceeding 25,000 tonnes, excluding landfills of inert waste.

The definition of landfill, as referenced in section 5 of the Act of 1996 and Article 2(g) of the Landfill Directive, is:

"landfill" means a waste disposal site for the deposit of waste onto or into land (i.e. underground), including:

• internal waste disposal sites (i.e. landfill where a producer of waste is carrying out its own waste disposal at the place of production), and
• a permanent site (i.e. more than one year) which is used for temporary storage of waste, but excluding
• facilities where waste is unloaded in order to permit its preparation for further transport for recovery, treatment or disposal elsewhere, and
• storage of waste prior to recovery or treatment for a period less than three years as a general rule, or
• storage of waste prior to disposal for a period less than one year.

It would be convenient to limit the application of IED to those landfills subject to the Landfill Directive. However the definition of class 11.5 is silent on the applicability of the Landfill Directive and simply refers to landfills, potentially meaning all landfills, regardless of applicability of the Landfill Directive or status of operations – e.g. operational, aftercare.

The definition of class 5.4 in the Directive indicates that landfills are as defined in the Landfill Directive, but does not restrict the application of IED to those landfills subject to the Landfill Directive.

Article 82 of the Industrial Emissions Directive states (paraphrased) the following:In relation to installations carrying out activities referred to in Annex I, …point 5.4 … which are in operation and hold a permit before 7 January 2013…, Member States shall apply the laws, regulations, and administrative provisions adopted in accordance with Article 80(1) from 7 January 2014….

Article 76A(8) of the Waste Management Act 1996 as amended, states, in relation to class 11.5 (landfill) activities, that the Agency shall, by 7 January 2014, examine the terms of every waste licence and determine whether, having regard to the provisions of the Industrial Emissions Directive, the waste licence is to be amended to bring it into conformity with the Directive.

The provisions of the Industrial Emissions Directive (Article 82) state that the Directive should be applied to installations “which are in operation”. The Agency will apply the provisions of the IED only to those landfills “which are in operation”. The Landfill Directive differentiates between two principal phases of a landfill – the operational phase and the aftercare phase. The provisions of the IED will be applied to those landfills that remain in the operational phase. The Landfill Directive is silent on the closure phase as being a distinct phase, therefore the operational phase will be taken to include the period of time during which closure procedures are being implemented. The onus will be on the landfill operator (licensee) to demonstrate the documented achievement of site closure in accordance with the CRAMP (including verification of definite closure by OEE) and demonstrate that the site has entered the aftercare phase before 7 January 2014.