DEFINITIONS
30. The Directive depends
on a number of definitions, set out in Article 2. We discuss
various definitions in the context of particular Articles, but
two stand out as being particularly important to the interpretation
of the Directive's key proposal-the proposed progressive reduction
of "biodegradable municipal waste" going to landfill
(Article 5).
Municipal waste
31. "Municipal
waste" is defined as "waste from households, as well
as commercial, industrial, institutional and other waste which,
because of its nature or composition, is similar to waste from
households". This is much narrower than the definition of
"controlled" waste in UK legislation[24]
("household, industrial and commercial waste or any such
waste") in that industrial waste is included only to the
extent that it has the characteristics of household waste. Some
witnesses, including the Environment Agency and the DETR, suggested
that the term was imprecise and meant that the likely impact of
the reduction targets under Article 5 was uncertain: did
it, for instance, cover only waste that was collected by local
authorities (in England and Wales nearly 26 million tonnes in
1996, 8 per cent of which came from non-household sources[25]),
or was it also intended to include similar waste collected from
businesses under commercial contracts (for England and Wales some
44 million tonnes on top of that[26])?
32. In our opinion
it is sufficiently clear from a reading of the proposals as a
whole that the definition is not confined to waste collected by
local authorities. However, if doubts remain, it is important
that they should be removed, if necessary by some re-wording of
Article 2(b), and preferably there should be an alignment
of the Directive's definition with the definition of "controlled
waste" in UK terminology.
Biodegradable
waste
33. "Biodegradable
waste" is a term which is crucial to the working of the draft
Directive. The definition given by the Commission ("any waste
that is capable of undergoing anaerobic or aerobic decomposition")
was criticised as being too broad. Aspinwalls made the telling
point that a cabbage leaf and a baulk of timber were both biodegradable-the
one in a week and the other in perhaps 100 years (p 130).
The Directive lacked any reference to degradation per unit time,
reflecting the different rates of biodegradation, which in turn
can depend on the types of microorganism present in a landfill
site.
34. We do not believe
that the definition of biodegradable waste is adequate: the ability
to undergo aerobic or anaerobic decomposition does not in itself
make a material biodegradable. We take the view that in the context
of the Directive it is the rate of biodegradation that is more
important, rather than simply the ability to biodegrade. This
is a matter which requires clarification before the Directive
is formally adopted: we recommend that biodegradable waste should
be defined in terms of its ability to degrade completely within
the 50year aftercare period proposed in Article 10
of the Directive, thereby leaving a site in an environmentally
benign state. This has an important bearing on our recommendation
in paragraph 91 on the need to optimise methane generation
and recovery.
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