Regulations relating to the recycling of waste (Waste Regulations). This is an unofficial translation of the Norwegian regulation. 

Laid down pursuant to sections 9, 11, 12, 16, 20 and 31 of the Act of 13 March 1981 no. 6 relating to protection against pollution and concerning waste (the Pollution Control Act). Cf. the EEA Agreement, Appendix XX no. 32d (Council Directive 1999/31/EC).

9-1. Purpose

The purpose of the provisions in this chapter is to ensure that waste is landfilled in a sound and controlled manner such that adverse effects on the environment and human health are prevented or reduced as far as possible.

9-2. Scope

The provisions in this chapter apply to all landfills, including internal landfills, i.e. landfills where a producer of waste is responsible for carrying out its own waste disposal at the place of production.

The provisions in this chapter also apply to storage facilities for waste if the storage time prior to disposal of the waste is longer than one year or prior to recovery or treatment is longer than three years.

The provisions in this chapter nevertheless do not apply to
a) the use of suitable inert waste in redevelopment/restoration and filling-in work, or for construction purposes,
b) the deposit of unpolluted soil or of non-hazardous inert waste resulting from prospecting and extraction, treatment, and storage of mineral resources as well as from the operation of quarries
c) the deposit of non-hazardous dredging sludges alongside rivers, lakes, fjords and sounds from where they have been dredged out,
d) the redepositing and isolation of polluted soil in the same locality from which it was dredged.

9-3. Definitions

For the purposes of this chapter
a) waste means discarded objects of personal property or substances. Surplus objects and substances from service industries, manufacturing industries and treatment plants, etc., are also considered to be waste. Waste water and exhaust gases are not considered to be waste, cf. section 27 of the Pollution Control Act, b) hazardous waste means waste that cannot be treated appropriately together with other household waste because it may cause serious pollution or involve a risk of injury to people and animals., cf. chapter 11 on hazardous waste,
c) explosive waste means waste that may explode when exposed to the effects of a flame and that is more sensitive to shocks or friction than dinitrobenzene,
d) radioactive waste means waste that is regulated by provisions pursuant to the Act of 12 May 2000 no. 36 on radiation protection and use of radiation,
e) Infectious waste means waste that contains viable microorganisms or their toxins that are known to or are assumed to be able to cause sickness in humans or other living organisms,
f) Non-hazardous waste means waste which is not covered by the definitions under letters b-e,
g) inert waste means waste that does not undergo any significant physical, chemical or biological transformations. Inert waste will not dissolve, burn or otherwise physically or chemically react, biodegrade or adversely affect other matter with which it comes into contact in a way likely to give rise to environmental pollution or harm human health. The total leachability and pollutant content of the waste and the ecotoxicity of the leachate must be insignificant and in particular not endanger the quality of the surface water and/or groundwater,
h) landfill means a permanent waste disposal site for the deposit of the waste onto or into land (i.e. underground),
i) treatment means the physical, thermal, chemical or biological processes, including sorting, that change the characteristics of the waste in order to reduce its volume or hazardous nature, facilitate its handling or enhance recovery,
j) biodegradable waste means any waste that is capable of undergoing anaerobic or aerobic decomposition, such as food and garden waste, and paper, paperboard and timber,
k) wet organic waste means organic waste that is easily biodegradable,
l) liquid waste means any waste in liquid form,
m) leachate means any liquid percolating through the deposited waste and emitted from or contained within a landfill,
n) landfill gas  means all the gases generated from the landfilled waste,
o) holder of waste means the producer of the waste or the natural or legal person who is in possession of it,
p) operator means the natural or legal person responsible for a landfill,
q) competent authority means the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority as the competent authority for national landfills for hazardous waste and for corporate landfills when the company’s primary activity requires a permit from the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority in accordance with the Pollution Control Act. The county governor is the competent authority for corporate landfills when the company’s primary activity requires a permit from the county governor under the terms of the Pollution Control Act, for municipal/intermunicipal landfills and for privately owned landfills for non-hazardous waste that do not belong to a company,
r) disposal means depositing or incineration of waste without energy recovery.

9-4. Prohibition on the dumping of certain types of waste

The dumping of the following types of waste is not permitted:
a) wet organic waste, with the exception of remnants of this kind of waste where it is not feasible to separate it out through waste sorting schemes. The competent authority may in special cases grant exemptions to individual landfills,
b) liquid waste,
c) waste which, in the conditions of landfill, must be regarded as explosive, radioactive or corrosive, oxidising, highly flammable or flammable, cf. appendix 3 to chapter 11 on hazardous waste,
d) infectious waste from hospitals and other medical or veterinary establishments, and waste from research and development or education facilities that contains chemical substances that are unknown and/or are new and the effects of which on humans and the environment are not known,
e) whole used tyres and shredded used tyres with the exception of bicycle tyres,
f) any other type of waste which does not fulfil the acceptance criteria determined by the competent authority.

The dilution or mixture of waste solely in order to meet the waste acceptance criteria is prohibited.

9-5. Classes of landfills

Each landfill shall be classified into one of the following classes:
Class 1: landfills for hazardous waste,
Class 2: landfills for non-hazardous waste,
Class 3: landfills for inert waste.

9-6. Waste to be accepted in the different classes of landfill

All waste shall be treated before it is landfilled, cf. section 9-3 letter i, unless treatment cannot promote economically viable recovery measures and reduce the health and environmental risks related to the waste.

Only hazardous waste and waste that fulfils the criteria laid down by the competent authority for the landfilling of hazardous waste is permitted to be landfilled at landfills for hazardous waste.

Landfills for non-hazardous waste may be used for
a) non-hazardous waste that fulfils the criteria of the competent authority for the acceptance of waste at landfills for non-hazardous waste,
b) stable, non-reactive hazardous waste with leaching behaviour equivalent to that of the non-hazardous types of waste specified under letter a. This hazardous waste shall not be landfilled together with biodegradable waste.
       Inert waste landfills shall be used only for inert waste.

9-7. Requirements for permits

An operator of a waste landfill must have a permit under the terms of the Pollution Control Act.

Permits for landfilling shall not be granted unless the landfill can satisfy all the relevant requirements in this chapter and its appendices.

9-8. Application for a permit

An application for a permit to operate a landfill in accordance with section 9-7 shall contain the following information as a minimum
a) the identity of the applicant, of the owner of the property and of the operator,
b) a description of the types and the total annual quantity of waste to be deposited,
c) the proposed total capacity of the landfill,
d) a description of the site and affected properties, map and co-ordinates, as well as information on the hydrogeological and geological conditions,
e) the proposed methods for pollution prevention and abatement,
f) the proposed operation, monitoring and control plan,
g) the proposed plan for the closure and after-care procedures,
h) assessment of the need for an impact assessment, cf. Regulations no. 502 of 21 May 1999 relating to impact assessments pursuant to chapter VII-a of the Planning and Building Act,
i) a financial guarantee or appropriate security from the applicant, cf. section 9-10, subsection one.

9-9. Content of the permit 

A permit for the operation of a landfill shall as a minimum contain:
a) the class of the landfill, cf. section 9-5,
b) a list of the defined types and the total quantity of waste which are authorised to be deposited in the landfill
c) the requirements for the landfill preparations, landfilling operations and monitoring and control procedures, cf. appendices I and III to this chapter, as well as provisional requirements for the closure and after-care operations,
d) detailed information on the obligation of the applicant to report to the competent authority, cf. section 9-13,
e) requirements relating to satisfactory financial guarantees or similar security, cf. section 9-10, subsection one.

9-10. Financial guarantee and covering of costs 

Each landfill shall provide a satisfactory financial guarantee or similar security in order to ensure that the obligations that result from the permit, including the closure and after-care procedures that are required under section 9-15, can be fulfilled.

 All costs involved in the setting up and operation of a landfill shall be covered by the price to be charged by the operator for the depositing of waste at the landfill. This also applies to the costs involved in the financial security or its equivalent as specified in subsection one and the estimated costs for the closure and after-care of the site for a minimum period of 30 years.

9-11. Waste acceptance

When waste is accepted at a landfill, the necessary documentation that the waste fulfils the criteria concerning waste quality that have been set in the permit for the landfill shall be presented.

The operator shall make sure that the following waste reception procedures are carried out:
a) The waste documentation is checked,
b) The waste is visually inspected at the entrance and at the point of deposit, and, as appropriate, conformity with the description provided in the documentation submitted by the holder is verified. If representative samples of the waste have to be taken in order to implement level 3 in appendix II to this chapter, the results of the analyses shall be kept and the sampling shall be carried out in compliance with appendix II, no. 3, to this chapter. These samples shall be kept for a minimum of one month.

9-12. Registration

A register shall be kept of the quantities and characteristics of the waste deposited, indicating origin, date of delivery, identity of the producer or collector in the case of household waste, and, in the case of hazardous waste, the precise location on the site. This information shall be made available to the national and EU statistical authorities when requested for statistical purposes.

9-13. Reporting

The operator undertakes to report to the competent authority a minimum of once a year on the types and quantities of the deposited waste and on the result of the monitoring programme established under the terms of sections 9-14 and 9-15 and appendix III to this chapter.

9-14. Control and monitoring procedures in the operational phase

During the operating phase, a control and monitoring programme shall be implemented as specified in the permit, cf. appendix III to this chapter.

The operator shall notify the competent authority of any significant adverse environmental effects revealed by the control and monitoring procedures.

Sampling and analyses shall be carried out according to recognised methods.

9-15. Closure and after-care procedures

When a landfill, or a demarcated part of a landfill, is closed, a duty to provide notification, etc., arises in accordance with section 20 of the Pollution Control Act.

A landfill, or part of it, may only be regarded as definitely closed after the competent authority has carried out a final on-site inspection and has found that the conditions for closure are fulfilled. This does not reduce the responsibility of the operator under the conditions of the permit.

After a landfill has been definitely closed, the operator shall be responsible for its maintenance, monitoring and control in the after-care phase in compliance with appendix III to this chapter. The operator shall notify the competent authority of any significant adverse environmental effects revealed by the control and monitoring procedures.

9-16. Existing landfills

The operator shall, before 1 May 2003, present to the competent authority a plan for closure or a conditioning plan for the site in the form of a new application, cf. section 9-8. The application must specify the measures required to bring the site into compliance with the requirements of this chapter, as well as a schedule for the implementation of those measures.

The competent authority shall make a decision on whether operations at an existing landfill may continue on the basis of the conditioning plan submitted or whether it shall be closed down as soon as possible in accordance with sections 9-8, letter g, and 9-15. All landfills shall be operated in compliance with the requirements in this chapter by 16 July 2009.

The provisions in sections 9-4,  9-5 and 9-11 as well as appendix II to this chapter shall apply to landfills for hazardous waste by 16 July 2003.

The provision in section 9-6 shall apply to landfills for hazardous waste by 16 July 2004.

Appendix I. General requirements for all classes of landfills

1. Control and monitoring
In order to satisfy the requirement concerning procedures for control and monitoring at a landfill, requirements relating to weight shall generally be imposed if this is not considered to be unreasonable or obviously unnecessary.

2. Water control and leachate management
Appropriate measures shall be taken, with respect to the characteristics of the landfill and the meteorological conditions, in order to:
a) control water from precipitations entering into the landfill body,
b) prevent surface water and/or groundwater from entering into the landfilled waste
c) collect contaminated water and leachate,
d) treat contaminated water and leachate collected from the landfill if it is necessary to achieve the required discharge quality.
The above provisions may not apply to landfills for inert waste.

3. Protection of soil and water
3.1. A landfill must be situated and designed so as to meet the necessary conditions for preventing pollution of the soil, groundwater or surface water and ensuring efficient collection of leachate as and when required. Protection of soil, groundwater and surface water is to be achieved by the combination of a geological barrier and a bottom liner during the operational/active phase and by the combination of a geological barrier and a bottom liner during the operational/active phase and by the combination of a geological barrier and a top liner during the passive phase/post closure.
3.2. The geological barrier is determined by geological and hydrogeological conditions below and in the vicinity of a landfill site providing sufficient attenuation capacity to prevent a potential risk to soil and groundwater.
The landfill base and sides shall consist of a mineral layer which satisfies the following permeability and thickness requirements:
- landfill for hazardous waste: K1 = 1.0 x 10-9 m/s, thickness = 5 m,
- landfill for non-hazardous waste: K = 1.0 x 10-9 m/s, thickness = 1 m,
- landfill for inert waste: K = 1.0 x 10-7 m/s, thickness = 1 m,
 or in another way provides equivalent protection of soil, groundwater and surface water.
Where the geological barrier does not naturally meet the above conditions it can be completed artificially and reinforced by other means giving equivalent protection. An artificially established geological barrier should be no less than 0,5 metres thick.
3.3. On sites for hazardous waste and non-hazardous waste, an artificial sealing membrane and a drainage layer with a minimum thickness of 0.5 m shall be set up in addition to the geological barrier specified in point 3.2 so as to ensure that leachate accumulation at the base of the landfill is kept to a minimum. Requirements can be set for a surface sealing if this is considered necessary to prevent leachate formation.
3.4. If, on the basis of an environmental risk assessment, cf. Council Directive 80/68/EEC,2 it has been established that the collection and treatment of leachate is not necessary or that the landfill poses no potential hazard to soil, groundwater or surface water, the requirements in point 2 letter c, and sections 3.2 and 3.3 above may be reduced accordingly.

4. Gas control
4.1. Appropriate measures shall be taken in order to control the accumulation and migration of landfill gas.
4.2. Landfill gas shall be collected from all landfills receiving biodegradable waste and the landfill gas must be treated. If the gas collected cannot be used to produce energy, it must be flared. The collection, treatment and use of landfill gas shall be carried on in a manner that does not pose a risk to the environment or to human health.

5. Nuisances and hazards
Measures shall be taken at the landfill to minimise nuisances and hazards arising from:
- emissions of odours and dust,
- wind-blown materials,
- noise and traffic,
- birds, vermin and insects,
- formation of aerosols.

6. Stability
 The emplacement of waste on the site shall take place in such a way as to ensure stability of the mass of waste and associated structures, particularly in respect of avoidance of slippages. Where an artificial barrier is established it must be ensured that settlement that may cause damage to the barrier is prevented

7. Barriers
The landfill shall be secured sufficiently to prevent free access to and illegal dumping on the site.
1 K = the hydraulic conductivity of the mineral stratum measured in m per second (m/s).
2 EFT L 20 of 26 January 1980, p. 43. The directive was last amended by directive 91/692/EEC (EFT L 377 of 31 December 1991, p. 48).

Appendix II. Waste acceptance procedures

1. General procedures for testing and acceptance of waste

The composition, leachability, environmental effects, long-term behaviour (change in quality) and general properties of the waste in a landfill must be known as precisely as possible before dumping.

The general characterisation and testing of waste must be based on the following three-level hierarchy depending on its place in the classification process:

Level 1 Basic characterisation. Comprehensive documentation of the composition, the short and long-term leaching behaviour and possible environmental effects based on chemical, biological or ecotoxicological measurements of the waste.

Level 2 Compliance testing. Following the basic characterisation, several parameters are selected and followed up on using periodical measurements in order to verify that the waste complies with the permit conditions. As a basis for comparison, specific reference criteria covered in the basic characterization can be used.

Level 3. On-site verification. This constitutes rapid check methods to confirm that a waste is the same as that which has been subjected to compliance testing and that which is described in the accompanying documents. It may merely consist of a visual inspection of a load of waste before and after unloading at the landfill site.

A particular type of waste must normally be characterised at level 1 in order to be accepted on a reference list or a site-specific list and permitted to be deposited. In order to remain on a site-specific list over time, a particular type of waste must be tested at level 2 at regular intervals. Each waste load arriving at the gate of a landfill must be subjected to level 3 verification.

Certain waste types may be exempted permanently or temporarily from testing at level 1. This may be due to impracticability of testing, to unavailability of appropriate testing procedures and acceptance criteria.

2. Guidelines for preliminary waste acceptance procedures

Until a uniform procedure for the classification and acceptance of waste has been completed, only sampling at level 3 is mandatory, while levels 1 and 2 shall be applied to the extent possible. At this preliminary stage, waste to be accepted at a particular class of landfill must either be on a restrictive national or a site-specific list drawn up in compliance with sections 9-4 and 9-6.

3. Sampling of waste

The sampling of waste shall to the greatest possible extent ensure that the samples are representative, and the sampling shall follow the procedures laid down in relevant standards for sampling of waste if such standards exist.

Appendix III. Control and monitoring procedures in operation and after-care phases

1. Introduction

The sampling of leachate and gas emissions and the monitoring in the recipient shall be conducted at relevant and representative points and at times and frequencies that reflect the actual emission and environmental effects. The monitoring programme shall be adapted to the individual landfill on the basis of its location, content and design. It shall be possible to carry out recipient monitoring in surface water and/or groundwater irrespective of the location of the landfill.

The monitoring procedures shall also be established with a view to checking
- that the processes within the landfill proceed as desired,
- that the environmental protection systems are functioning fully as intended,
- that the permit conditions for the landfill are fulfilled.

2. Meteorological data

If it is considered appropriate, for example as a step in the control of the water balances in the landfill, conditions can be set in the permit that meteorological data shall be collected at the landfill or from a nearby meteorological station.

3. Emission data: monitoring of leachate, surface water, groundwater and landfill gas

All landfills subject to a requirement to collect leachate, cf. appendix I to this chapter, point 2, cf. point 3.4, shall implement a leachate monitoring programme. Sampling and measuring of the volume and composition of leachate must be performed separately at each point at which leachate is discharged from the site (1).

The monitoring of surface water shall be carried out at no fewer than two points, one upstream from the landfill and one downstream, and using methods and parameters that record leakage over time.

The monitoring of the groundwater must focus on groundwater likely to be affected by the landfill with at least one measuring point in the groundwater inflow region and two points in the outflow region. The number of sample points can be increased on the basis of a specific hydrogeological survey and the need for early identification of accidental leachate release into the groundwater. Sampling must be carried out in at least three locations before the landfill begins operation in order to establish reference values for future sampling (2). 

To the degree that it is possible, limit values shall be established for groundwater that define when significant environmental damage has arisen and that trigger the duty to provide notification  under sections 9-14 and 9-15.

The monitoring of gas generation depends on the content of biodegradable waste at the landfill and must be representative of each section of the landfill.

The frequency of the sampling and analysis shall be assessed in each individual case. Suggested frequencies are given in the following table.

For leachate and surface water, mixed samples shall be taken for monitoring purposes that are representative of the average composition during the period since the previous sampling.

The parameters to be measured and the substances to be analysed in the monitoring programme will vary according to the composition of the landfill. They must be specified in the permit and reflect the properties of the waste.

4. Development of a landfill

For landfills in the operating phase, a status overview of the development of the landfill shal be drawn up every year showing the surface area occupied by the waste, the volume and composition, landfilling methods, duration of the landfilling and remaining capacity. Any settlement in the landfill is to be registered for all landfills both during the operating and the after-care phase.

(1) Reference: General guidelines on sampling technology, ISO 5667-2 (1991).
(2) Reference: Sampling of groundwater, ISO 5667, part 11, 1993.