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Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) and BAT Reference (BREF) documents
The IPPC Directive (96/61/EC) lays down a framework requiring Member States to issue operating permits for certain installations carrying on industrial activities. The PPC regime in the UK will replace legislation under Part 1 of the Environmental Protection Act (1990).
PPC permits are required for all new installations and existing installations undergoing a substantial change from 31 October 1999. For existing installations IPC permits will continue to be in force until IPPC permits are phased in on a sectoral basis by October 2007. IPPC will eventually apply to all waste management facilities falling under the PPC regime by October 2007.
Best Available Techniques and BREFs
PPC permits, which are issued by the Environment Agency, must set permit conditions based on best available techniques (BAT) to achieve a high level of protection of the environment as a whole. BAT is defined by the IPPC Directive as:
'the most effective and advanced stage in the development of activities and their methods of operation which indicates the practicable suitability of particular techniques for providing the basis for emission limit values designed to prevent, and where that is not practicable, generally to reduce the emissions and the impact on the environment as a whole'.
'Techniques' includes both the technology used and the way in which the installation is designed, built, maintained, operated and decommissioned.
The determination of BAT is aided by the production of BAT reference documents (BREFs), which is co-ordinated by the European IPPC Bureau, based in Seville. Member States are required to take into account BREFs when determining BAT generally or in specific cases. BREFs are produced by Technical Working Groups (TWGs) comprising nominated experts. These experts provide information and data and then review the draft documents the Bureau produces.
The aim of a BREF is to provide information to the competent authorities, industrial operators, the Commission and the public to guide the determination of BAT-based permit conditions or general rules by providing information relevant to the permitting of installations according to the IPPC Directive. A BREF does not interpret the Directive itself, nor does it remove the obligations on operators and Member States under the Directive to make decisions at national, regional or local level including the necessary balanced decisions required by the Directive. BREFs do not prescribe techniques or emission limit values.
Waste related BREFs
The European IPPC Bureau has recently produced a first draft of the BREF for the waste treatment industries, which was available for consultation. In addition, it will soon release the first draft of the BREF for waste incineration. The draft BREFs are available on the IPPC Bureau's web site.
The production of a BREF normally takes around 2 years. Therefore, the waste treatment and waste incineration BREFs should be completed during 2005.
Waste management facilities covered by IPPC (Annex 1)
5. Waste management
Without prejudice of Article 11 of Directive 75/442/EEC or Article 3 of Council Directive 91/689/EEC of 12 December 1991 on hazardous waste (1):
5.1. Installations for the disposal or recovery of hazardous waste as defined in the list referred to in Article 1 (4) of Directive 91/689/EEC, as defined in Annexes II A and II B (operations R1, R5, R6, R8 and R9) to Directive 75/442/EEC and in Council Directive 75/439/EEC of 16 June 1975 on the disposal of waste oils (2), with a capacity exceeding 10 tonnes per day
5.2. Installations for the incineration of municipal waste as defined in Council Directive 89/369/EEC of 8 June 1989 on the prevention of air pollution from new municipal waste incineration plants (3) and Council Directive 89/429/EEC of 21 June 1989 on the reduction of air pollution from existing municipal waste-incineration plants (4) with a capacity exceeding 3 tonnes per hour
5.3. Installations for the disposal of non-hazardous waste as defined in Annex II A to Directive 75/442/EEC under headings D8 and D9, with a capacity exceeding 50 tonnes per day
5.4. Landfills receiving more than 10 tonnes per day or with a total capacity exceeding 25 000 tonnes, excluding landfills of inert waste
May 2003 
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