Summary

Law 22/2011 on Waste and Contaminated Land transposed Directive 2008/98/EC on waste (Waste Framework Directive) and established the general waste management policy to be implemented by the environmental authorities to control waste management operations, reporting, storage, shipment, reuse, recycling and recovery of non-hazardous and hazardous waste. General waste policies implemented under Law 22/2011 must be based on the following waste hierarchy: prevention, preparation for reuse, recycling, other forms of recovery including energy recovery and disposal. Under Article 27 of Chapter III of Law 22/2011 on Waste and Contaminated Land, operators of waste treatment, including storage awaiting recovery and recycling operations, must be authorized by the autonomous community environmental authority. Waste treatment authorizations are valid for eight years, subject to renewal. The producer of waste must keep a record of waste treatment operations, which must include information on the quantity, origin, type, collection, treatment, recovery or recycling operation methods performed on-site. These records must be kept on an annual basis and must be available for at least three years. In addition, waste disposal operators must submit an annual report to the environmental authority of the autonomous community. Operators are under a general obligation to provide information to the authorities periodically to enable them to determine whether the land is contaminated. The government is obliged to keep a register of potentially contaminating activities (the list of which is contained in Royal Decree 9/2005).