Special Waste Recovery and Disposal
Regulations on the disposal of special waste
Valli Gestioni Ambientali specializes in the management, recovery and disposal of hazardous and non-hazardous special waste, which includes solid, liquid and sludge waste. The management of special and urban waste is regulated, at national level, by Part Four of Legislative Decree 152/2006 as amended “Environmental regulations”, which constitutes the regulatory framework of reference for waste management and the remediation of polluted sites.
Important definitions in Legislative Decree 152/2006 as amended
Some key definitions reported in Article 183 of Legislative Decree 152/2006 as amended include:
- Waste: any substance or object that the holder discards or intends or is required to discard;
- Special and municipal waste disposal: any operation other than recovery, even when the operation has as a secondary consequence the recovery of substances or energy. Annex B to Part IV of this decree contains a non-exhaustive list of disposal operations;
- Waste treatment: recovery or disposal operations, including preparation before recovery and disposal.
Waste management: the collection, transport, recovery, including sorting, and disposal of waste, including the supervision of such operations and post-closure of disposal sites, as well as operations carried out as a trader or intermediary. Waste management activities do not constitute waste management operations the operations of collection, grouping, selection and storage prior to the collection of materials or natural substances deriving from atmospheric or meteoric or volcanic events, including storm surges and floods, even if mixed with other materials of anthropogenic origin carried out, in the strictly necessary technical time, at the same site where these events deposited them.
General classification of waste and what is meant by management, recovery and disposal of special waste
The main regulatory references on the classification of waste are represented, at EU level, by Directive 2008/98/EC as amended, by Decision 2000/532/EC as amended and, on a national scale, by Part Four of Legislative Decree 152/2006 as amended. The aforementioned regulations extensively refer to the definitions and criteria contained in the EU provisions relating to the classification, labelling and packaging of hazardous substances and mixtures, with particular reference to Regulations 2008/1272/EC as amended (CLP Regulation), 2008/440/EC as amended and 1907/2006 as amended. (REACH). For an adequate knowledge of the procedures to be applied for the purposes of waste classification, it is therefore always necessary to carefully read the relevant EU and national legislation.
Article 184 of Legislative Decree 152/2006 as amended., provides that waste is classified into municipal and special according to its origin. In turn, based on their hazardous characteristics, they are classified into hazardous waste and non-hazardous waste.
Classification of waste: special waste and municipal waste
Article 184 of Legislative Decree 152/2006, as amended, classifies waste as follows:
- municipal waste (Article 184, paragraph 2, Legislative Decree 152/2006 as amended), the waste referred to in Article 183, paragraph 1, letter b-ter):
- unsorted household waste and separately collected waste, including: paper and cardboard, glass, metals, plastics, organic waste, wood, textiles, packaging, waste electrical and electronic equipment, waste batteries and accumulators and bulky waste, including mattresses and furniture;
- mixed waste and separately collected waste from other sources that are similar in nature and composition to the household waste listed in Annex L-quarter produced by the activities listed in Annex L-d;
- waste from street sweeping and emptying waste bins;
- waste of any nature or origin, lying on roads and public areas or on private roads and areas subject to public use or on sea and lake beaches and on the banks of waterways;
- waste from the maintenance of public green areas, such as leaves, grass clippings and tree prunings, as well as waste resulting from the cleaning of markets;
- waste from cemetery areas, exhumations and burials, as well as other waste from cemetery activities other than that referred to in points 3, 4 and 5;
6-bis. waste accidentally fished as well as waste voluntarily collected, including through
clean-up campaigns, at sea, in lakes, rivers and lagoons.
- special waste (Article 184, paragraph 3, Legislative Decree 152/2006 as amended):
- a) waste produced in the context of agricultural, agro-industrial and forestry activities, pursuant to and for the purposes of Article 2135 of the Civil Code, and fisheries;
- b) waste produced by construction and demolition activities, as well as waste deriving from excavation activities, without prejudice to the provisions of Article 184-bis;
- c) waste produced in the context of industrial processing if different from that referred to in paragraph 2;
- d) waste produced in the context of artisanal processing if different from that referred to in paragraph 2;
- e) waste produced in the context of commercial activities if different from that referred to in paragraph 2;
- f) waste produced as part of service activities if different from that referred to in paragraph 2;
- g) waste deriving from the recovery and disposal of waste, sludge produced by drinking water and other water treatments and wastewater purification, as well as waste from fume abatement, septic tanks and sewerage networks;
- h) waste deriving from health activities if different from those in Article 183, paragraph 1, letter b-ter);
- i) end-of-life vehicles.
Classification of waste: hazardous and non-hazardous
Pursuant to Article 183, paragraph 1, letter b) of Legislative Decree 152/2006, as amended, the following is defined: “b) “hazardous waste”: waste that “has one or more characteristics referred to in Annex I of Part Four of this decree”. This definition is also confirmed by Article 184, paragraph 4, which reiterates: “hazardous waste is waste that bears the characteristics referred to in Annex I of Part Four of this decree”. However, as of 1 June 2015, Regulation (EU) No. 1357/2014 as amended, entered into force., directly applicable in all Member States, which replaced Annex III of Directive 2008/98/EC. This regulation introduced new criteria for the attribution of hazardous characteristics to waste, in line with Regulation (EC) No. 1272/2008 (CLP), repealing the previous Directives 67/548/EEC and 1999/45/EC. Therefore, from 1 June 2015, the hazardous characteristics of waste are no longer those indicated in Annex I, Part IV of Legislative Decree 152/2006, but those defined in Regulation (EU) No. 1357/2014 as amended. Consequently, the classification of a waste as hazardous must now be based on the HP characteristics listed in the annex to Regulation 1357/2014 as amended, including:
HP 1 “Explosive”
HP 2 “Comburente”
HP 3 “Flammable”
HP 4 “Irritant – Skin irritation and eye lesions”
HP 5 “Specific Target Organ Toxicity (STOT)/Aspiration Toxicity”
HP 6 “Acute Toxicity”
HP 7 “Carcinogenic”
HP 8 “Corrosive”
HP 9 “Infectious”
HP 10 “Toxic to reproduction”
HP 11 “Mutagen”
HP 12 “Acute Toxicity Gas Release”
HP 13 “Sensitizer”
HP 14 “Ecotoxic”
HP 15 “Waste that does not directly possess one of the above-mentioned hazardous characteristics but may manifest it later”.
Special and urban waste recovery and disposal procedure
Pursuant to Article 183, paragraph 1, letter f) of Legislative Decree 152/2006 as amended, the “waste producer” is the “person whose activity produces waste and the person to whom such production is legally referable (initial producer) or anyone who carries out pre-treatment, mixing or other operations that have changed the nature or composition of said waste (new producer)“.
The procedure for the management, recovery and disposal of special (and urban) waste requires careful planning and compliance with regulations. The correct management of special waste requires producers to keep a loading and unloading register with quantitative and qualitative details on the waste produced. In particular, for each type of waste produced, the following are indicated:
- the quantity produced or treated;
- the nature and origin of such waste;
- the quantity of products and materials obtained from treatment operations, such as preparation for reuse, recycling and other recovery operations, as well as, where applicable, the details of the identification form referred to in art. 193.
Pursuant to art. 190 of Legislative Decree 152/2006 as amended (“Chronological register of loading and unloading”) are obliged to keep a chronological register of loading and unloading:
- anyone who carries out waste collection and transport activities on a professional basis;
- waste dealers and intermediaries without detention;
- companies and bodies that carry out waste recovery and disposal operations;
- the Consortia and recognized systems, established for the recovery and recycling of packaging and particular types of waste;
- the initial producers of hazardous waste and the initial producers of non-hazardous waste referred to in Article 184, paragraph 3, letters c), d) and g).
The entries to be recorded in the chronological register are made:
- a) for waste producers, at least within ten working days of the production of the waste and its discharge;
- b) for entities that carry out collection and transport, at least within ten working days from the date of delivery of the waste to the destination plant;
- c) for traders, intermediaries and consortia, at least within ten working days from the date of delivery of the waste to the destination plant;
- d) for subjects who carry out recovery and disposal operations, within two working days of taking charge of the waste.
The transport of waste, carried out by bodies or companies, is accompanied by an Identification Form (FIR) from which the following data must appear:
- a) name and address of the producer and holder;
- b) origin, type and quantity of waste;
- c) destination plant;
- d) date and route of the route;
- e) name and address of the recipient.
Temporary storage and collection of special waste
Pursuant to Article 185-bis of Legislative Decree 152/2006 as amended, the grouping of waste for the purpose of transporting it to a recovery or disposal plant is carried out as a temporary storage, before collection, in compliance with the following conditions:
- a) in the place where the waste is produced, to be understood as the entire area in which the activity that led to the production of the waste takes place or, for the agricultural entrepreneurs referred to in Article 2135 of the Civil Code, at the site that is in the legal availability of the agricultural cooperative, including the agricultural consortia, of which they are members;
- b) exclusively for waste subject to extended producer responsibility, including voluntary waste, the deposit prior to collection may be carried out by distributors at the premises of their own point of sale;
- c) for construction and demolition waste, as well as for waste chains for which there is a specific legal provision, the deposit prior to collection may be carried out in the areas pertaining to the points of sale of the related products.
Temporary storage prior to collection is carried out under the following conditions:
(a) waste containing persistent organic pollutants referred to in Regulation (EC) No 850/2004, as amended, shall be deposited in accordance with the technical standards governing the storage and packaging of waste containing hazardous substances and managed in accordance with that Regulation;
- b) the waste is collected and sent for recovery or disposal operations according to one of the following alternative methods, chosen by the waste producer:
– at least quarterly, regardless of the quantities in storage;
or
– when the quantity of waste in storage reaches a total of thirty cubic metres, of which a maximum of ten cubic metres of hazardous waste.
In any case, when the quantity of waste does not exceed the aforementioned limit per year, the temporary storage of waste may not last longer than one year.
- c) the waste is grouped into homogeneous categories, in compliance with the relevant technical standards, and, for hazardous waste, in compliance with the rules governing the deposit of hazardous substances contained therein;
(d) in compliance with the rules governing the packaging and labelling of dangerous substances.
Correctly identifying waste with EER codes is crucial to ensure that waste management is carried out as safely as possible.
How to proceed with the transport
The transport of waste is governed by specific legislation contained in Legislative Decree 152/2006 as amended. There are two types of transport, depending on who produces the waste and who transports it. In this respect, a distinction is made between transport on own account and transport on behalf of third parties. Those who transport waste must be registered in the National Register of Environmental Managers (in Italian, Albo Nazionale Gestori Ambientali). Registration in the register is divided into categories depending on the activity carried out, let’s see the main ones:
- Category 1 – Collection and transport of municipal waste
- Category 2bis – Initial producers of non-hazardous waste who carry out collection and transport operations of their own waste, as well as initial producers of hazardous waste who carry out collection and transport operations of their hazardous waste in quantities not exceeding thirty kilograms or thirty litres per day, referred to in Article 212, paragraph 8, of the Legislative Decree of 3 April 2006, No. 152
- Category 3bis – Repealed by Resolution no. 4 of 19 December 2024
- Category 4 – Collection and transport of special non-hazardous waste.
- Category 5 – Collection and transport of special hazardous waste.
- Category 6 – Companies that carry out the sole operation of cross-border transport of waste referred to in Article 194, paragraph 3, of Legislative Decree no. 152 of 3 April 2006
- Category 7 – Logistics operators at railway stations, freight terminals, terminals, freight terminals and ports to which, in the context of intermodal transport, waste is entrusted pending its acceptance by the railway or naval undertaking or the company carrying out the subsequent transport. (category not yet active)
- Category 8 – Intermediation of waste trade without holding the waste itself.
- Category 9 – Site remediation.
- Category 10 – Remediation of assets containing asbestos.
Categories 1, 4 and 5 are divided into six classes. The six classes in Category 1 depend on the overall population served. The six classes inherent to categories 4 and 5, on the other hand, depend on the annual tons of waste managed.
Waste can be transported in bulk or in packages. During transport, waste must be labelled in accordance with the relevant regulations in force, including, in particular, the provisions on the transport of dangerous goods by road and those of public safety (e.g. hazard labels, marks, UN number, R label, EER code, other).
Recovery and disposal in waste treatment plants
Once it arrives at a waste management, recovery and disposal plant, the life cycle of the waste ends safely, ensuring the minimum impact on the environment.
Any waste management activity must be authorised in advance by the competent authority. The legal system provides for different authorization regimes, modulated according to the type of operation carried out. In particular, recovery and disposal activities, which fall within the broader scope of “waste treatment”, are subject to an authorisation regime whose complexity varies according to the characteristics of the activity and the infrastructures involved. These activities must comply not only with the relevant environmental legislation, but also with the provisions relating to the appointment and presence of the waste technical manager, as required by Ministerial Decree 120/2014, as well as the regulations on fire prevention and safety in the workplace.
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Valli Gestioni Ambientali offers a complete range of services for the recovery, management and disposal of special waste
Services of Valli Gestioni Ambientali for the recovery and disposal of special waste
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