Directive 2000/76/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the incineration of waste.

A high level of environmental protection and human health protection requires the setting and maintaining of stringent operational conditions, technical requirements and emission limit values for plants incinerating or coincinerating waste within the Community. The aim of this Directive is to prevent or reduce negative effects on the environment, particularly emissions into air, soil, surface water, as well as the resulting risks to human health which might arise from incineration and coincineration of waste. Within this framework, the requirements set forth in Directive 75/442/EEC are to be met.
This Directive covers incineration and coincineration plants. However, the plants described by article 2 (2) shall not fall within its scope. No incineration or coincineration plant shall operate without the permit referred to in article 4. Article 5 concerns the precautions to be taken by operators as regards the delivery and reception of waste, particularly hazardous waste. Further operation conditions are laid down in article 6. Waste water from the cleaning of exhaust gases discharged form an incineration or coincineration plant shall be subject to a permit as prescribed by article 8. Residues resulting from the operations hereby envisaged are to be minimized in their amount and harmfulness. Residues shall be recycled directly in the plant or outside in compliance with relevant Community legislation (art. 9). Article 10 deals with control and monitoring. Article 12 regulates access to information and public participation. Six Annexes are attached. Annex II is devoted to the determination of air emission limit values for the coincineration of waste. Annex III describes measurement techniques. Annex IV sets forth emission limit values for discharges of waste water from the cleaning of exhaust gases. Annex V establishes emission limit values. Lastly, Annex VI indicates formula to calculate the emission concentration at the standard percentage oxygen concentration.