The temporary storage is an all-Italian innovation. It was introduced for the first time in environmental legislation by art. 6 letter M of Legislative Decree 22/1997 and the reference legislation is Legislative Decree 152/2006 which, dealing with a delicate issue, has been updated several times. The latest of these updates is Legislative Decree no. 116 of 3 September 2020, in which the definition of temporary storage is changed.
Art. 183 paragraph 1 letter bb defines it as “grouping of waste for the purpose of transporting it to a recovery and/or disposal plant, carried out, before collection, pursuant to art. 185 bis.
Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the new Article 185 bis indicate that the temporary storage (i.e. carried out before collection), must comply with the following conditions:
• be carried out in the area where the activity that led to the production of waste takes place (for agricultural entrepreneurs pursuant to Article 2135 of the Italian Civil Code at the site that is in the legal availability of the agricultural cooperative, including the consortia of which they are members);
• the deposit prior to collection can be carried out by distributors at the premises of their point of sale, but only in the case of waste subject to extended producer responsibility, even of a voluntary type;
• construction and demolition waste, as well as waste chains for which there is a specific legal provision, can carry out the deposit prior to collection at the areas pertaining to the points of sale;
• waste containing persistent organic pollutants, the so-called POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants) is deposited in compliance with the rules governing the storage, labelling, packaging of hazardous substances, therefore according to art. 7 of Regulation 2019/1021/EU;
• the waste is collected and sent for recovery/disposal operations according to one of the following alternatives, chosen by the producer: time or quantity. In the first case, the deposit must be cleared at least quarterly, regardless of the quantities. In the second case, the deposit must be cleared when the total quantity of waste reaches 30 cubic metres (of which a maximum of 10 cubic metres of hazardous waste). In any case, the temporary storage cannot last more than one year;
• hazardous and non-hazardous waste is grouped into homogeneous categories, in compliance with the relevant rules governing the deposit of the substances contained therein;
• must comply with the rules governing the packaging and labelling of hazardous substances;
Art. 185 bis, paragraph 3, specifies that temporary storage before collection, carried out under the conditions indicated herein, does not require authorisation from the competent authority.
As stated by a 2015 ruling, waste must first be classified in order to be properly conducted to the temporary storage and there is no doubt that it cannot be abandoned at random, without distinction (this would in fact constitute a criminal offence of unauthorized management or, if the typical conditions are met, of illegal landfill). Since the first formulations in Legislative Decree 22/1997, however, the legislator has highlighted the concept of free storage, i.e. not governed by waste legislation (not subject to authorization, but protected by countless operational and temporal requirements), with the exception of some obligations drawn from environmental regulations:
at. Prohibition of mixing waste: the temporary storage must keep the waste separate in compliance with the relevant technical standards;
b. Compliance with the regulations on the storage of hazardous substances, if present in the warehouse;
c. Compilation of the loading and unloading register for the handling of waste entering and leaving the deposit (companies not subject to the obligation to keep and compile the loading and unloading register are excluded from this);
On the first point, let us recall the ruling of the Constitutional Court on the subject of mixing: waste must not only be distinguished by EWC but by EWC and hazardous characteristics, because in order to mix waste with the same EWC but with different hazardous characteristics, it is necessary to have been previously authorised.
What are the penalties for failure to comply with the established conditions and deadlines?
Here they are in detail:
• In the case of illegal landfilling, i.e. repeated waste abandonment over time and significant in spatial and quantitative terms, pursuant to the third paragraph of art. 256, the penalty of arrest from six months to two years and the fine that can reach 26 thousand euros. If, on the other hand, it is hazardous waste, the penalty of arrest ranges from one to three years, with a fine that can reach 52 thousand euros;
• in the event of irregularities, which do not in any case integrate the factual conditions necessary for the existence of the crime of illegal landfilling, the sanction imposed is that of imprisonment from three months to one year or a fine from 2600 to 26000 euros, if it is non-hazardous waste. On the other hand, in the case of hazardous waste, the cumulative penalty of imprisonment from six months to two years and a fine from 2600 to 26000 euros is envisaged.
If you still have doubts about temporary storage and want to protect yourself from management errors, ask Eurocorporation for a Waste Stress Test to measure the risks of each management phase, identify any critical issues and solutions to optimize the entire company management of your waste.
