Government Decree on the Recovery of Certain Wastes in Earth Construction (843/2017)

This Decree, made under sections 10, 32 and 117 of the Environmental Protection Act and sections 14 and 15 of the Waste Act, provides rules for the institutional or commercial recovery of wastes, as referred to in Annex 1, for specified earth construction purposes. The objective of this Decree is to promote the recovery of waste by specifying the conditions under which, if fulfilled, the use of waste referred to in this Decree in earth construction does not require an environmental permit in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act. The Decree does not apply in a Class 1 or Class 2 groundwater area referred to in section 10b of the Act on the Organisation of River Basin Management and the Marine Strategy (1299/2004), in an area intended for residential purposes or as a children’s play area, in an area designated for nature protection purposes, in an area intended for the cultivation of food plants, or in an inland flood-risk area. Requirements for the recovery and temporary storage of waste also concern protection of groundwater. If the recovery of waste is organised in accordance with this Decree, no environmental permit is required for activities that are subject to an environmental permit in accordance with section 32, subsection 2, of the Environmental Protection Act. The holder of the recovery site shall submit a notification of the activity referred to in section 116, subsection 2, of the Environmental Protection Act to the state supervisory authority for registration in the environmental protection database.