Waste Recovery and Disposal Codes
Waste recovery and disposal codes form part of the European Waste Framework Directive.
In their own words, the directive is concerned with: "measures to protect the environment and human health by preventing or reducing the adverse impacts of the generation and management of waste and by reducing overall impacts of resource use and improving the efficiency of such use".
Waste Recovery Codes
- R1 – use principally as a fuel or other means to generate energy
- R2 – solvent reclamation/regeneration
- R3 – recycling/reclamation of organic substances which are not used as solvents (including composting and other biological transformation processes)
- R4 – recycling/reclamation of metals and metal compounds
- R5 – recycling/reclamation of other inorganic materials
- R6 – regeneration of acids or bases
- R7 – recovery of components used for pollution abatement
- R8 – recovery of components from catalysts
- R9 – oil re-refining or other reuses of oil
- R10 – land treatment resulting in benefit to agriculture or ecological improvement
- R11 – use of wastes obtained from any of the operations numbered R1 to R10
- R12 – exchange of wastes for submission to any of the operations numbered R1 to R11
- R13 – storage of wastes pending any of the operations numbered R1 to R12 (excluding temporary storage, pending collection, on the site where it is produced)
Waste Disposal Codes
- D1 – deposit into or onto land (for example, landfill and so on)
- D2 – land treatment (for example, biodegradation of liquid or sludgy discards in soils and so on)
- D3 – deep injection (for example, injection of pumpable discards into wells, salt domes or naturally occurring repositories and so on)
- D4 – surface impoundment (for example, placement of liquid or sludgy discards into pits, ponds, or lagoons and so on)
- D5 – specially engineered landfill (for example, placement into lined discrete cells which are capped and isolated from one another and the environment and so on)
- D6 – release into a water body except seas/oceans
- D7 – release into seas/oceans including sea-bed insertion
- D8 – biological treatment not specified elsewhere in this Table which results in final compounds or mixtures which are discarded by means of any of the operations numbered D1 to D12
- D9 – physico-chemical treatment not specified elsewhere in this Table which results in final compounds or mixtures which are discarded by means of any of the operations numbered D1 to D12 (for example, evaporation, drying, calcination and so on)
- D10 – incineration on land
- D11 – incineration at sea
- D12 – permanent storage (for example, emplacement of containers in a mine and so on)
- D13 – blending or mixing prior to submission to any of the operations numbered D1 to D12
- D14 – repackaging prior to submission to any of the operations numbered D1 to D13
- D15 – storage pending any of the operations numbered D1 to D14 (excluding temporary storage, pending collection, on the site where it is produced)