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Refrigerators

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what conclusions of relevance to the future implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive her Department has drawn from the United Kingdom experience with end of life refrigerators. [58104]

Mr. Meacher: The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive has not yet been finalised. It is expected to be adopted later this year. However, UK officials are currently consulting all stakeholders on the best means of implementation and will take full account of previous experience of EU legislation. As a directive, the draft WEEE legislation allows a degree of flexibility in its implementation which contrasts with the Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) legislation which is a directly applicable regulation.

Energy Efficiency

Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when she plans to publish a domestic energy efficiency strategy. [58540]

Mr. Meacher: The Government are developing a domestic energy efficiency strategy to 2010. Energy efficiency, including domestic energy efficiency, will be addressed in the Energy White Paper, which will be published towards the end of the year.

Waste Incinerators

Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what (a) gases and (b) emission levels have breached legal limits in each of the last five years from the Edmonton Incinerator; what impact this had on local air quality; and if she will make a statement; [57710]

10 Jun 2002 : Column 945W

(2) on which dates in each of the last five years London Waste has been found in breach of legal limits on emissions at its Edmonton incinerator; what penalties were imposed by the Environment Agency in response to each of those breaches; and if she will make a statement. [57708]

Mr. Meacher: The table lists the dates within the last three and a half years on which the Environment Agency has recorded emissions breaching a limit set in the authorisation for the Edmonton incinerator.

The information presented gives the averaged emission over the period of a breach, which may last up to a few hours.

The Environment Agency informs me that files relating to the remainder of the last five years have been lost. However, the remaining files indicate that there were additionally reported breaches on 24 November 1997, 2 December 1997 and 14 April 1998 but no data on the types or levels of emission are available.

In response to the increased number of breaches of the hydrogen chloride limit in 1999, the Agency wrote a strongly worded letter to the operator of the incinerator. In response to this letter the operator instituted a series of actions that has virtually eliminated these breaches.

In response to the increased number of breaches of the carbon monoxide limit in 2001 the Agency issued an enforcement notice requiring the operator to analyse the causes of the breaches and report the results of the analysis to the Agency. The reports show that if there is a loss of waste feed to the incinerator the resulting excess air cools the flame resulting in increased carbon monoxide emissions. The most common causes of a loss of waste feed are failure of the waste feed ram, bulky items blocking the waste feed chute and blockages of the ash removal mechanism. The enforcement notice and the operator's responses are on the Public Register maintained by the Agency which can be viewed at the following address:

North East Area Office (Thames Region)


Apollo Court


2 Bishops Square Business Park


St. Albans Road West


Hatfield


AL10 9EX.

With regard to the impact of such breaches on local air quality, both the operator and the Agency have carried out dispersion modelling of emissions from the plant. The Agency has modelled emissions from the plant under worst case breach conditions in comparison with current standards. It was concluded that at the highest recorded level of emissions there would not be a breach of an air quality standard.

mg/Nm⁽⁵¹⁾

Date	Emission	Value—average emission	Emission limit
22 September 1998	Hydrogen chloride	103	30
22 September 1998	Hydrogen chloride	90	30
22 September 1999	Sulphur dioxide	217	300
22 September 1998	Sulphur dioxide	242	300
21 December 1998	Hydrogen chloride	55	30
17 February 1999	Carbon monoxide	331	100
17 February 1999	Sulphur dioxide	454	300
17 February 1999	Sulphur dioxide	512	300
6 April 1999	Carbon monoxide	167	100
6 April 1999	Carbon monoxide	180	100
22 July 1999	Hydrogen chloride	140	30
22 July 1999	Hydrogen chloride	48	30
27 July 1999	Hydrogen chloride	518	30
4 October 1999	Hydrogen chloride	62	30
4 November 1999	Hydrogen chloride	83	30
23 November 1999	Hydrogen chloride	152	30
23 November 1999	Hydrogen chloride	69	30
22 May 2000	Carbon monoxide	132	100
21 June 2000	Carbon monoxide	302	100
28 July 2000	Carbon monoxide	308	100
10 August 2000	Carbon monoxide	311	100
21 November 2000	Carbon monoxide	145	100
22 November 2000	Carbon monoxide	179	100
18 October 2000	Carbon monoxide	269	100
18 October 2000	Carbon monoxide	450	100
19 January 2001	Carbon monoxide	106	100
30 January 2001	Carbon monoxide	101	100
9 February 2001	Carbon monoxide	132	100
19 February 2001	Carbon monoxide	138	100
20 February 2001	Carbon monoxide	178	100
26 February 2001	Hydrogen chloride	54	30
26 February 2001	Hydrogen chloride	34	30
26 February 2001	Carbon monoxide	163	100
5 March 2001	Carbon monoxide	212	100
9 March 2001	Carbon monoxide	165	100
22 March 2001	Carbon monoxide	267	100
4 May 2001	Particulate	30	30
18 May 2001	Carbon monoxide	138	100
21 May 2001	Carbon monoxide	150	100
31 May 2001	Carbon monoxide	156	100
30 May 2001	Carbon monoxide	172	100
21 June 2001	Carbon monoxide	136	100
5 July 2001	Carbon monoxide	174	100
3 July 2001	Carbon monoxide	131	100
2 July 2001	Carbon monoxide	237	100
17 July 2001	Carbon monoxide	151	100
3 July 2001	Carbon monoxide	308	100
11 July 2001	Oxides of nitrogen	443	350
11 July 2001	Oxides of nitrogen	352	350
19 July 2001	Oxides of nitrogen	355	350
12 July 2001	Carbon monoxide	231	100
23 July 2001	Carbon monoxide	295	100
22 August 2001	Carbon monoxide	279	100
3 August 2001	Carbon monoxide	185	100
3 August 2001	Carbon monoxide	242	100
7 August 2001	Oxides of nitrogen	355	350
7 August 2001	Oxides of nitrogen	359	350
7 August 2001	Oxides of nitrogen	354	350
10 August 2001	Oxides of nitrogen	355	350
17 October 2001	Carbon monoxide	297	100
25 October 2001	Carbon monoxide	272	100
12 November 2001	Carbon monoxide	340	100
28 November 2001	Carbon monoxide	201	100
31 December 2001	Carbon monoxide	288	100
5 February 2002	Carbon monoxide	145	100
25 February 2002	Carbon monoxide	208	100

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Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she will take to improve the regulatory framework in which energy from waste incinerators operate in order to ensure breaches in emissions are minimised; and if she will make a statement. [57709]

Mr. Meacher: 'Energy from Waste' incinerators are already tightly regulated through authorisations issued under the Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) regime. This regulatory regime is being subsumed into the even more exacting Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC). Existing energy from waste incinerators will have to apply for IPPC permits by 31 August 2005.

10 Jun 2002 : Column 947W

Additionally, we are currently transposing the new Waste Incineration Directive (WID), which will further tighten emissions standards. This will apply to all new incinerators within its scope by 28 December 2002, and to existing plant by 28 December 2005.

The Environment Agency has also recently varied the authorisations for existing municipal solid waste incinerators to reduce the dioxin emission limit to that required by the WID.

In all cases, authorisations and permits specify stringent emission limits and other operating conditions with which the operator must comply. The Environment Agency assesses compliance through its monitoring and inspection programmes.

Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what action is being taken by the Environment Agency to reduce emissions of gases from energy from waste incinerators; what improvements have been registered in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [57711]

10 Jun 2002 : Column 948W

Mr. Meacher: The Environment Agency has implemented the EU Municipal Waste Incineration Directives through the Integrated Pollution Control regime by imposing emission limits which are as strict as, or stricter than, those required by these directives. In addition, the agency has imposed limits for nitrogen oxides and dioxins although they were not required by the directives, and, in general, tighter limits for heavy metals.

The agency has also issued variation notices which have:

reduced dioxin and metals emission limits for those plants where emissions are significantly below the current limits;


increased or maintained the extractive sampling frequency for the sector;


for those incinerators without continuous emission monitoring systems for volatile organic compounds, required them to be installed; and


required the operators to review the techniques for continuous dioxin monitoring.

The table summarises improvements made during the last five years at the 11 operational municipal waste incinerators, regulated by the Environment Agency, which recover energy from waste.

Operator	Location	Improvements
London Waste Ltd.	Edmonton, London	Plant upgraded and recommissioned 1997
SELCHP	Deptford, London	Installed oxides of nitrogen abatement (SNCR) August 1998
Coventry and Solihull Waste Disposal Co. Ltd.	Coventry	Plant abatement upgraded 1996–97
MES Environmental Ltd.	Dudley, West Midlands	New plant commissioned 1998
MES Environmental Ltd.	Wolverhampton	New plant commissioned 1998
MES Environmental Ltd.	Stoke-on-Trent	New plant commissioned 1998
Tyseley Waste Disposal Ltd.	Tyseley, Birmingham	New plant commissioned 1998
Waste Recycling Group plc	Nottingham	Plant upgraded and recommissioned 1997
GM Waste Ltd.	Bolton, Lancashire	New plant commissioned 2000
Sheffield city council	Sheffield	Plant upgraded and recommissioned 1997–98. Application for new plant currently being determined.
Cleveland Waste Management	Billingham, Cleveland	New plant commissioned 1–99

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