The all-consuming definition of 'waste' and the end of the 'contaminated land' debate?

Journal of Environmental Law

Volumn 17, Issue 1, 2005, Pages 109-127

  McIntyre, Owen ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK   (Ireland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CONTAMINATED LAND; ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION; WASTE DISPOSAL;

EID: 26844538902     PISSN: 09528873     EISSN: 1464374X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/envlaw/eqi005     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. Directive 75/442, (1975) OJ L194/47, as amended by Directives 91/156, (1991) OJ L78/32 and 91/692, (1991) OJ L377/48.
2. Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber), 7 September 2004, para 52.
3. Opinion of Advocate General Kokott, 29 January 2004, para 24.
4. Judgment, para 42, referring to Case C-129/96 Inter-Environnement Wallonie [1997] ECR I-7411, para 26, and Case C-9/00 Palin Granit and Vehmassalon kansanterveystyön kuntayhtymän hallitus [2002] ECR I-3533, para 22.
5. Judgment, para 52.
6. AG Opinion, para 29.
7. Adopted under Commission Decision 94/3/EEC.
8. Subsection 17 05 03.
9. Ibid at 17 05 04.
10. AG Opinion, para 29.
11. Ibid at para 30.
12. Ibid at para 31.
13. Judgment, para 45, referring to Joined Cases C-418/97 and C-419/97 ARCO Chemie Nederland and Others [2000] ECR I-4475, at paras 36-40.
14. Judgment, para 46, referring to Palin Granit, supra, n 4.
15. Ibid at para 47.
16. Ibid at para 52.
17. AG Opinion, para 35.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Judgment, para 52.
21. AG Opinion, para 38.
22. Ibid at para 37.
23. Judgment, para 48.
24. Ibid. at para 52.
25. Ibid at para 48.
26. AG Opinion, para 24, referring to Joined Cases C-418/97 and C-419/97 ARCO Chemie Nederland and Others [2000] ECR I-4475, para 38 et seq, and Case C-9/00 Palin Granit and Vehmassalon kansanterveystyön kuntayhtymän hallitus [2002] ECR I-3533 para 23.
27. AG Opinion, para 32.
28. Ibid.
29. AG Opinion, para 33.
30. Judgment, para 58.
31. Ibid at paras 60-1.
32. Ibid at para 54.
33. See e.g. Directive 2000/53 on End-of-Life Vehicles, (2000) OJ L269/34, which introduces the concept of 'extended producer responsibility', whereby vehicle manufacturers are required to offer free take-back for vehicles sold after 1 July 2002 and for all vehicles sold after 2007, a concept which is regarded as consistent with the 'polluter pays principle'.
34. AG Opinion, para 59.
35. Indeed, a 2000 publication identifies and outlines the dedicated national regimes applying to the remediation of historically contaminated land in each of thirteen of the, then fifteen, EU Member States. See R. Seerden and K Deketelaere (eds), Legal Aspects of Soil Pollution and Decontamination in the EU Member States and the United States (Intersentia/Metro, 2000).
36. Part IIA, consisting of sections 78A to 78YC, was inserted into the 1990 Act by section 57 of the Environment Act 1995. See further O. McIntyre, 'Statutory Liability for Contaminated Land: Failure of the Common Law' in J. Lowry and R. Edmunds (eds), Environmental Protection and the Common Lam (Hart, 2000) 115;
37. P. Lane and M. Peto, Blackstone's Guide to the Environment Act 1995 (Blackstone, 1995);
38. A. Layard, 'Contaminated Land: Law and Policy in the United Kingdom' (1995) Environmental Liability 56;
39. R. Lewis, 'Contaminated Land: The New Regime of the Environment Act 1995', (1995) JPL 1087.
40. Contrary to section 33 (1) (b) (i) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
41. Contrary to section 34(1) (c) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
42. Under section 73 (6) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
43. For example, in 1993, Friends of the Earth estimated that there may be as many as 100,000 contaminated sites in England, Buyer Beware: A Guide to Finding Out about Contaminated Land (London: FoE, 1993). In the same year, the Confederation of British Industry estimated that these sites might cover as much as 200,000 hectares of land and cost up to £20 billion to investigate and, where appropriate, remediate, Firm Foundations: CBI Proposals for Environmental Liability and Contaminated Land (London: CBI, 1993).
44. See further, O. McIntyre, 'Liability for Remediation of Contaminated Land in Ireland: The Need for a Dedicated Statutory Regime', (2002) 10 Environmental Liability 83.
45. See e.g. Wicklow Co Co v Fenton (2002] IEHC 102 (High Court), 31 July 2002.
46. Section 4. See further, D. Laurence, 'Swallows and Fishes: The Definition of Waste in the Waste Management Act 1996', (2000) 7 Irish Planning and Environmental Law Journal 43.
47. Article 15.5 of the 1937 Irish Constitution provides that 'The Oireachtas [Parliament] shall not declare acts to be infringements of the law which were not so at the date of their commission'. The Irish Supreme Court has interpreted this provision as 'an expressed and unambiguous prohibition against the enactment of retrospective laws declaring acts to be an infringement of the law, whether of the civil or the criminal law', Magee v Culligan [1992] 1 ILRM 223 at 272, per Finlay CJ. See also, Hamilton v Hamilton [1982] IR 466, per O'Higgins CJ at 474.
48. For example, section 58 (1) (a) provides 'Where, on application by any person to the appropriate court, that court is satisfied that another person is holding, recovering or disposing of, or has held, recovered or disposed of, waste, in a manner that is causing, or has caused, environmental pollution, that court may make an order requiring that other person to one or more of the following...' (emphasis added).
49. COM (2000) 66 final, 9 February 2000, para 4.1. On the White Paper generally, see O. McIntyre, 'EU Proposals on Environmental Liability: A Thorny Issue Revisited', (2001) 8 Irish Planning and Environmental Law Journal 135;
50. L. Bergkamp, 'The Proposed EC Environmental Liability Regime and EC Law Principles' (2001) 6 Environmental Liability 251;
51. L. Bergkamp, 'The Commission's White Paper on Environmental Liability: A Weak Case for an EC Strict Liability Regime', (2000) European Environmental Law Review (April), 105;
52. G. Betlam, 'White Paper on Environmental liability', (2000) 11 Journal of Environmental Law 405.
53. Directive 2004/35/EC on environmental liability with regard to the prevention of and remedying of environmental damage, (2004) OJ L143/56. See further, O. McIntyre, 'The New European Directive on Environmental Liability: Substantive Content and Practical Implications', (2004) 11 Irish Planning and Environmental Law Journal 99.
54. COM(89) 282 final, (1989) OJ C251/1 and COM(91) 219, (1991) OJ C192/6.
55. Supra n 47.
56. Article 2 (1) (a).
57. Article 2 (1) (b).
58. Article 2 (1) (c).
59. Directive 67/548/EEC.
60. Directive 1999/45/EC.
61. Directive 91/414/EEC.
62. Directive 98/8/EC.
63. AG Opinion, para 25.
64. Judgment, para 45.
65. ARCO Chemie Nederland, and Palin Granit, supra, n 26.
66. Judgment, para 58.
67. Case C-284/95, [1998] ECR I-4301. See also, Case C-341/95, Bettati [1998] ECR I-4355.
68. See further, A. Whelan, 'Fundamental Principles of EU Environmental Law', (1999) Irish Journal of European Law 37 at 42.
69. Case C-127/02 Landelijke Vereniging tot Behoud van de Waddenzee and Anr v Staatsecretaris van Landbouw, Natuurbeheer en Visserij (Judgment, 7 September 2004).