Waste Category

Legislative Documents

Legislative Provisions

For each of the mentioned waste fractions, Danish municipalities set up provisions in individual by-laws (regulations).

Health-Care risk waste

Statutory Order on Waste, no. 619, 27 June 2000.

Detailed guidelines on health-care risk waste is based on Guideline no. 4, 1998.

Provisions as for other categories of hazardous waste: Municipality shall initiate collection from source. Enterprises shall report all hazardous waste to the municipality.

Healthcare risk waste is defined in the guideline.

PCB and PCT

Directive (96/59/EC) on PCBs and PCTs

Statutory Order on PCB, BCT and substances, no. 925 of 13 December 1998

Regulates the decontamination or disposal of equipment containing PCBs and/or the disposal of used PCBs in order to eliminate them completely.

Decontamination and/or disposal of large PCB volumes (> 5 dm³) must take place at the latest by the end of 2010. Equipment containing < 5 dm³ of PCB must be disposed of at the end of the product's useful life. These measures aim to reduce and prevent the dispersal of PCBs in the environment, which are highly toxic and bioaccumulate in fat issues.

Importing and marketing PCB and equipment containing PCB has been banned in Denmark since 1986, and the use of condensers and equipment containing PCB above a total weight of 1 kg (or an effect of ³ 2 kVAr) has been banned since 1995. This means that large condensers and transformers (> 5 dm³ PCB) do not exist in Denmark, and equipment with a PCB content of >0.05 % by weight must be decontaminated as soon as possible.

Waste oil

The Directive on the disposal of waste oils (75/439/EEC, and amendments)

Statutory Order on Waste.

Prohibits any discharge or treatment of waste oils causing a risk of pollution. Where discharges are unavoidable, measures must be taken to ensure the safe collection and disposal of waste oils.

Waste oil in Denmark is collected to be recycled at district heating plants and/or incinerated. A subsidy scheme also exists for waste oil that encourages incineration at district heating plants.

PVC

Statutory Order on Waste

Municipalities shall collect PVC waste from households, and shall assign PVC from enterprises. Recyclable PVC shall be recycled, non recyclable shall be deposited at sanitary landfills.

Impregnated wood

Statutory Order on Waste

Municipalities shall collect impregnated wood from households, and shall assign impregnated wood from enterprises to depositing at sanitary landfills. Only for creosote impregnated wood, incineration is permitted.

Batteries and accumulators

Batteries are regulated both via legislation and via agreements and economic instruments.

Directive on batteries and accumulators (91/157/EEC).

Statutory Order on Waste

Statutory Order on certain batteries and accumulators that contain hazardous substances, no. 1044 of 16 December 1999.

Statutory Order on collection of Lead Accumulators and Subsidy to Collection and Disposal for Recycling, no. 91 of 22 February 1996.

Statutory Order on Fees on Lead Accumulators, no. 92 of 22 February 1996.

Statutory Order on Collection of Hermetically Sealed Nickel-Cadmium Accumulators and Remuneration for Collection and Disposal for Recycling, no. 93 of 22 February 1996.

Requires the establishment of collection schemes and separate treatment and disposal of spent batteries and accumulators containing mercury, cadmium or lead.

The Statutory Order ban import and sale of batteries with a heavy metal content above specific weight limits

Lead Accumulators and Ni-Ca Batteries shall be collected for recycling. Remuneration is paid to public and private enterprises collecting the batteries.

Waste electrical and electronic equipment

Statutory Order on management of waste from electrical and electronic products, no. 1067 of 22 December 1999.

The European Commission has adopted a proposal for a Directive (COM(2000) 347)8.

The Statutory Order is expected to increase the recycling of heavy metals contained in waste from electrical and electronic products: around 25,000 tonnes of WEEE per year, corresponding to 40 % of copper landfilled today, is expected to be recycled. Separate treatment of WEEE is also expected to improve the possibility of recycling slag from incineration plants.

The proposed Directive aims to increase the recycling of WEEE. Consumers will be able to return their equipment free of charge to producers, who will be responsible for taking back and recycling WEEE. This will provide producers with an incentive to design electrical and electronic equipment in an environmentally more efficient way. In order to prevent the generation of hazardous waste, the use of certain hazardous substances will be restricted and the substitution of various heavy metals and brominated flame retardants in new electrical and electronic equipment from 1 January 2008 onwards will be required.

Refrigeration equipment

Circular on municipal by-laws on disposal of CFC-containing refrigeration equipment, no. 132 of June 13, 1996.

Since 1997, Danish municipalities have been obliged to ensure that at least 95 % of CFC12 is collected for recycling or disposal, and 80 % of the CFC 11 and mercury contacts and condensators are collected for special treatment and disposal.

End-of-life vehicles

(Statutory Order no. 860 of November 29, 1999).

Statutory Order no. 141 of February 25, 2000).

1997 draft Directive on end-of-life vehicles.

Since April 2000, owners of end-of-life cars are obliged to deliver them to specific garages and car dealers. Other motorised vehicles must be delivered to enterprises that are certified by the municipality. When delivering an old car, the owner is paid 1,500 DKK.

Draft directive aims to prevent waste from end-of-life vehicles and promote the collection, re-use and recycling of vehicle components. The draft Directive provides for the introduction of a system for collecting such vehicles at the manufacturer's expense, in accordance with the polluter pays principle.

Shredder waste

Statutory Order on Waste

Management of shredder waste has so far been regulated by general rules in the Statutory Order on Waste and via the environmental approvals or permits for enterprises dealing with shredder waste, such as iron and metal recycling enterprises, which are considered heavily polluting enterprises (see section below). When treatment methods have been developed, rules will be issued on the management of shredder waste.

Foundry waste

Statutory Order on Waste

Management of foundry waste is regulated by general rules in the Statutory Order on waste and via the environmental approvals or permits for foundries that are considered heavily polluting enterprises.

Packaging waste

Directive on packaging and packaging waste (94/62/EC)

Statutory Order on Waste

Statutory Order on certain requirements for packaging no. 298 of 30 April 1997.

The Directive includes provisions on prevention and it sets up a number of quantitative objectives for the recycling of packaging waste. Requirements for design of packaging described in the Directive are directed at manufacturers (or importers) of packaging. The purpose of these requirements is to reduce amounts and environmental impact of packaging and packaging waste. The Directive specifies concentration levels of heavy metals in packaging and essential requirements on the composition and nature of packaging.

Rules on management and recovery of packaging waste in Denmark are included in the Statutory Order on waste and requirements for manufacture and composition of packaging are laid down in the Statutory Order on packaging.