On the 29th of September 2020 the Legislative Decree 3rd of September 2020 n. 121, implementing Directive 2018/850 on waste landfills, one of the four European directives on the circular economy, which amends Directive 1999/31 / EC (implemented by Legislative Decree 36/03).
The new Decree definitively repeals the D.M. 27th of September 2010 “Definition of the criteria for the admissibility of waste in landfills”.
The main objective of Directive 2018/850 is to ensure that, by 2035, each member state substantially reduces the amount of waste disposed of in landfills (max 10%). To this end, the standard introduces new criteria for carrying out the verification of waste directly in the place of production, in parallel with the procedures for admission to landfill, adopting specific technical criteria to establish when the treatment of the waste is necessary or not, for the purpose of disposal.
In particular, we point out the changes introduced with respect to:
· The basic characterization of the waste
· Landfill eligibility criteria
· The methods to be adopted during the sampling and analysis of the waste
1. Basic characterization of the waste related to a targeted and timely collection of relevant information (Article 7 bis of Legislative Decree 36/03 and subsequent amendments) In order to determine the admissibility of waste in each category of landfill, the waste producer is required to carry out the basic characterization of each type of waste sent to landfill. The characterization must be carried out before delivery to the landfill or after the last treatment carried out and repeated at each significant change in the process that originates the waste and, in any case, at least once a year.
2. Criteria for landfill eligibility dictated by Article 6 of Legislative Decree 36/03 and subsequent amendments
Landfilling of waste suitable for recycling or other recovery and certain other types of hazardous waste is prohibited.
3. Methods to be adopted during sampling and analysis
The methods listed in Annex 6 of Legislative Decree 36/03 and subsequent amendments for the determination of the product analysis according to the ANPA method, the TOC on which it is, the preparation of the eluates and the subsequent determination of the analytes, have become imperative and mandatory. Therefore, other methods cannot be used even if they have the same analytical technique.