Solvent Resource Management Ltd v Environment Agency, Court of Appeal - Administrative Court, November 30, 2006, [2006] EWHC 3023 (Admin)
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Solvent Resource Management Ltd v Environment Agency, Court of Appeal - Administrative Court, November 30, 2006, [2006] EWHC 3023 (Admin)
Neutral Citation Number: [2006] EWHC 3023 (Admin)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICEQUEEN'S BENCH DIVISIONADMINISTRATIVE COURTRoyal Courts of JusticeStrand, London, WC2A 2LLThursday 30th November 2006Before :MR JUSTICE BURTON- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Between :- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -(Transcript of the Handed Down Judgment ofWordWave International LtdA Merrill Communications Company190 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2AGTel No: 020 7421 4040 Fax No: 020 7831 8838Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Case No: CO/2157/2006Mr David Hart QC and Miss Rachel Marcus (instructed by Taylor Wessing) for the Claimants. Mr John Howell QC and Miss Dinah Rose QC (instructed by the Environment Agency Legal Services) for the DefendantCase No. CO/2434/2006Mr Richard Drabble QC, Mr Stephen Tromans and Miss Jess Connors (instructed by Semple Fraser WS) for the Claimants. Mr John Howell QC and Miss Dinah Rose QC (instructed by the Environment Agency Legal Services) for the Defendant- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -JudgmentMr Justice Burton: 1. This has been the hearing of two judicial review applications, directed to be heard together by order of Sir Michael Harrison on 5 July 2006, brought against the Environment Agency (``the Agency'') in both of which applications a common and important issue arises, namely in what circumstances does or can material, which has become waste or derives from waste, cease to be waste if it is to be burnt as fuel: and, in particular, whether it can or does cease to be waste when a prior process is carried out for the purpose of rendering it safe to be burnt as fuel, or whether it only so ceases when it is so burnt. This question is of very considerable financial and practical significance, because, so long as material is waste, it is subject to stringent controls in respect of handling, transport, storage, disposal and, in particular, incineration, as a result of a series of important European Directives, and consequent implementing Regulations, derived from Article 174 of the EC Treaty. The most important is the Waste Framework Directive, now codified and consolidated as Directive 2006/12/EC of 5 April 2006, but deriving from 75/442/EEC as amended on various occasions between 1975 and 1996 (``WFD''), whose primary recitals are:``(2) The essential objective of all provisions relating to waste management should be the protection of human health and the environment against harmful effects caused by the collection, transport, treatment, storage and tipping of waste.(3) Common terminology and a definition of waste are needed in order to improve the efficiency of waste management in the Community.(4) Effective and consistent rules on waste disposal and recovery should be applied, subject to certain exceptions, to movable property which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard.(5) The recovery of waste and the use of recovered materials as raw materials should be encouraged in order to conserve natural resources. It may be necessary to adopt specific rules for re-usable waste.(6) In order to achieve a high level of environmental protection, Member States should, in addition to taking responsible action to ensure the disposal and recovery of waste, take measures to restrict the production of waste particularly by promoting clean technologies and products which can be recycled and re-used, taking into consideration existing or potential market opportunities for recovered waste.(11) To ensure a high level of protection and effective control, it is necessary to provide for authorisation and inspection of undertakings which carry out waste disposal and recovery. (14) That proportion of the costs not covered by the proceeds of treating the waste must be defrayed in accordance with the `polluter pays' principle.''2. Also significant is the Waste Incineration Directive of 4 December 2000 (``WID''), whose particular materiality to this case is the extension of its application, as from 28 December 2005, from new plants, to which it had applied since 28 December 2002, to all existing plants or boilers; the effect of which, particularly for the Claimants in these proceedings, has been the need to clarify, and if at all possible to avoid, the applicability of WID by establishing that materials or products, in which they are interested, are not or no longer waste, so as not to be required to be burnt in accordance with the WID regime, which is demanding and expensive, both to install and to operate.3. There are also of relevance the Council Directive on the Disposal of Waste Oils 75/439/EEC of 16 June 1975 (``WOD''), and various `daughter' Directives, European Parliament and Council Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste of 20 December 1994 94/62/EC (``PPWD'') and Directive...See the full content of this document
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