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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.
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.
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
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:
Apollo Court
2 Bishops Square Business Park
St. Albans Road West
Hatfield
AL10 9EX.
10 Jun 2002 : Column 946W
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.
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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]
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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:
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.
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 199697 |
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 199798. Application for new plant currently being determined. |
Cleveland Waste Management | Billingham, Cleveland | New plant commissioned 199 |
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