agq-treatment-efficiency-waste-landfill
ENAC grants the inspection body AGQ the first accreditation for assessing treatment efficiency prior to depositing municipal waste in landfill
The Order TED/834/2023, in force since 2 January, requires accreditation for assessing treatment efficiency prior to landfilling municipal waste, which is to at least include separating and classifying recoverable fractions and stabilizing their organic fraction.
ENAC has recently granted the first accreditation according to the UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17020 standard to Labs & Technological Services AGQ for assessing "the efficiency of treating waste that is to be landfilled, taking into account both the waste's organic matter content from mechanical treatment, and their degree of stabilization in the biological treatment”.
As stated in the order's background, "pre-landfill treatment has a double purpose: on the one hand, it pursues using the maximum resources contained in the recovered waste by mechanical means and, on the other, by biological treatment, to ensure that the waste's behaviour, once dumped, is adequate. Therefore, the effectiveness of treating waste that is going to be deposited in a landfill must take into account both the organic matter content in the mechanical treatment waste and their degree of stabilization in the biological treatment.”
In addition to the minimum requirements of prior treatment, the order includes the frequency of determinations and the progressive objectives for establishing these requirements in the coming years. Exceeding these values will not condition admitting waste to landfills, but it will impact the greenhouse gas emission costs associated with landfilling.
The order requires that assessing efficiency classification and stabilization of waste for landfills is carried out by inspection bodies accredited according to the UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17020 standard, and the corresponding analytical determinations by laboratories accredited according to the UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17025 standard.
With this new accreditation, the environmental authorities have the first accredited inspection service to comply with the provision Order TED/834/2023, which sets the minimum requirements for treatment prior to depositing municipal waste in landfill.
Order TED 834/2023 is another example of the confidence placed by the Spanish Public Administration in ENAC's accreditation to achieve the objectives of its public policies on waste management and environmental protection. Previously, this confidence was evident in 2020, when the RD 646/2020 on waste disposal by landfill was published, which set out that waste characterizations and environmental controls in landfills should be carried out by ENAC-accredited inspection bodies.
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