Waste management and Circular Economy (previous Landfill Inspections Project series)

Project description and aims

This project builds on the results and products from the previous landfill projects and is moving through the waste hierarchy steps, in order to promote Eco-innovation and Circular Economy and create a level playing field and common understanding of the key points of the Waste Framework Directive in permitting and inspection processes.

This will be achieved by inspectors and permit writer coming together to learn from each other, identifying good practices, developing guidance to promote those practices and disseminating technical know how through training and professional development initiatives. Supporting regulatory authorities in this way should result in stronger compliance assurance and a more level regulatory playing-field.

The Guidance “‘Making the Circular Economy work’, launched in Rome in March 2019, is a living document that will be further revised with the results of the subgroups running in 2021-2024.

Specific outcomes of the project along 2021 will be:

• A better understanding of Value-Retention Processes (namely remanufacturing, refurbishment, repair and direct reuse) as complementary to recycling at the step of prevention of waste hierarchy (primary objective) to enable faster achievement of circular economy.
• Guidances to help regulatory practitioners in applying by-product criteria.
• Identifying the instruments within the IED that can contribute to the overall objective of achieving a circular economy in Europe and sharing good practices on how they are implemented.
• Setting up a practical tool to help operators and the competent authorities to check the more appropriate way to evaluate the compliance of EoW/by-products with REACH Regulation.
• Developing an End of waste database (case by case and national criteria set up by MS) to share information on technical and environmental criteria of secondary raw material
• Kick off of a “Waste incineration subgroup” to define a working programme in 2022 related to practical solutions for the implementation of BAT Conclusions in waste incineration to help to achieve a more homogeneous level playing field across Europe.
• Specific training session on REACH&Circular economy or on End-of-waste and by-products

REACH Regulation and Circular Economy Guideline

In order to promote circular economy, the concepts of ‘by-product’ and ‘End-of-Waste’ are highly relevant. REACH does not apply to waste. But REACH does apply to by-products and end-of-waste. According to the Waste Framework Directive, a material can only achieve a by-product or end-of-waste status if it complies with applicable legislation and standards, one of which is REACH. Therefore REACH is highly relevant for the circular economy: in principle any secondary raw material that can (potentially) be regarded as by-product or as end-of-waste may need a REACH registration in order to achieve the by-product or end-of-waste status. Sometimes an authorisation may be required and restrictions may apply. There are however some exemptions to these obligations. 

Therefore, a clarification about the applicability of REACH to the aforementioned is essential to promote their market and circulation. 

This guideline includes multiple practical examples from different Member States on the application of REACH in the circular economy

The guideline is divided in 6 chapters and 2 annexes:  

Chapter 1 introduces the theme and describes the most important basic concepts of REACH Regulation.  
Chapter 2 examines the scope of application of REACH Regulation and how it might apply to waste-based materials.  
Chapter 3 describes other relevant chemicals legislation which might be applied to waste-based materials. These provisions are not focused on in this report focusing on REACH Regulation.  
Chapter 4 provides guidance with practical examples to interpret and comply with the basic obligations of REACH Regulation: Registration, authorisation and restrictions.  
Chapter 5 provides guidance on applying the exemptions from the basic provisions of REACH. The chapter includes a subchapter focusing on applying recovery exemption to recycled plastics.  
Chapter 6 discusses the enforcement of REACH Regulation in recovery plants.  
Annex I contains a flowchart for REACH compliance summarizing the basic content of this report.  
Annex II sets out checklist for chemicals legislation compliance.  

The Romanian version of the guideline is also available: RO-Regulamentul REACH și economia circulară 2023

Related files/information

• EU new Circular Economy Action Plan 11/03/2020
• EU Endorsed work programme 2020-2022 to improve environmental compliance and governance
• Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC as amended by Directive 2018/851/EC.
• European Parliament resolution of 13 September 2018 on implementation of the circular economy package: options to address the interface between chemical, product and waste legislation (2018/2589(RSP).
• Commission Staff Working Document “Sustainable Products in a Circular Economy – Towards an EU Product Policy Framework contributing to the Circular Economy” {SWD(2019) 92 final}.
• Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: “The role of waste-to-energy in the circular economy”.
• Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC as amended by Directive 2018/850/EU.
• Industrial Emission Directive 2010/75/EU