When such waste has certain hazardous characteristics, it must be subjected to additional control in order to avoid any health or environmental damage during its production and management. Hazardous waste producers are obliged to store it under proper health and safety conditions for a maximum of six months following its storage.
Moreover, they are not allowed to mix or dilute hazardous waste with other materials, substances or waste having the same characteristics.
As for waste containment, it must be carried out so as to avoid any content loss, and the container must be built with materials that remain intact upon contact and are resistant enough to prevent any leakage during handling. Toxic waste containers must be labeled in a clear, legible and indelible manner, in at least one official state language.
Waste management hierarchy
In the European context, where waste production is steadily increasing and economic activities associated with waste are becoming more and more important, the European Parliament and Council Directive 2008/98/EC on waste (November 19, 2008) establishes the EU legal framework for waste management, providing the necessary tools to disentangle the relationship between economic growth and waste production; it places particular emphasis on prevention, understood as a set of measures adopted before a given product becomes waste, in order to reduce the quantity and content of hazardous substances as well as their harmful impact on human health and the environment.
The transposition of this Directive into national law was formalized by Law 22/2011 on waste and contaminated soil (July 28, 2011), which incorporates the principle of hierarchy in waste management and production, establishing the order of priority in waste policy interventions:
Prevention
Preparation for reuse
Recycling
Other kinds of recovery, including energy recovery
Disposal
To ensure compliance with the provisions set out in Law 22/2011, the Board of Directors has included in EDP Spain’s Thermal Power Plants' “Integrated Environmental Permits” the obligation to “adopt appropriate measures to foster prevention in waste production, or, where appropriate, for the management of waste produced by the facility to be carried out according to the following order of priority: prevention, preparation for reuse, recycling and other kinds of recovery, including energy recovery, and, as a last resort, if the above are not feasible for any technical or economic reasons, waste disposal in such a way as to avoid or minimize its impact on the environment.”
Waste segregation in EDP Spain facilities is based on the following aspects:
- Waste storing facilities and clean areas: creating safe collection and storage facilities for waste and waste fractions.
- Waste Management Systems and Integrated Management Systems (IMS): selecting waste managers in order to ensure that final waste treatment complies with the established hierarchy: recycling, recovery and, only as a last resort, disposal.
- Employees and subcontractors: training and awareness-raising
Non-Hazardous Waste Management:
In order to collect waste fractions similar to household waste, EDP Spain has waste collection points with blue (paper), yellow (packaging) and green (glass) bins in the facilities where these are produced.
Cómo podemos proteger nuestros recursos
Nuevos modelos de consumo
La presión mundial para aumentar la eficiencia de los recursos y los esfuerzos por mejorar la sostenibilidad pueden convertirse en una fecunda fuente de innovación y competitividad industrial.
Fuente de innovación
Nuestro modo de producción y de consumo contribuye al calentamiento terrestre, a la contaminación, al uso de materiales y al agotamiento de los recursos naturales.
Producción más sostenible
Urge más que nunca la adopción de modelos de consumo y de producción más sostenibles.
¿Qué requisitos deben cumplir los residuos peligrosos?
Los productores de residuos peligrosos están obligados a mantenerlos almacenados bajo las condiciones adecuadas de higiene y seguridad durante un máximo de seis meses desde que se inicia su depósito. Además, está prohibido mezclar o diluir los residuos peligros con otros materiales, sustancias o residuos que tengan las mismas características.
En cuanto al envasado, deberá realizarse de forma que se evite cualquier pérdida de contenido –tal como está recogido en Real Decreto 83/88- y el contenedor debe estar construido con materiales que se mantengan intactos al contacto y resistentes para evitar cualquier escape durante su manipulación. Los envases que contengan residuos tóxicos deberán etiquetarse de forma clara, legible e indeleble al menos en un idioma oficial del Estado.
A ton of recycled paper saves 11 adult trees.
Paper should be placed in the blue bin. It was designed for books, notebooks, notepads, cardboard folders, cardboard boxes, paper bags… Avoid grease stained paper, toilet paper, or paper with paper clips, staples, metal rings, etc.)
Laminated paper, waxed paper or aluminum foil must go into the packaging bin (yellow bin).
EDP favors electronic gas and electricity billing, and it currently has more than xxxx registered customers
All packaging should be placed in the yellow bin. It was designed for beverage cans, cartons (milk, juice), bottles (water, soda, juice), milk product containers, aluminum trays, disposable cups and cutlery, plastic wrap (cling film).
Do not place ceramic and clay objects (tableware) or plastic objects other than containers. These must go into the organic waste bin.
Glass should be placed in the green bin. It was designed for glass bottles of any color, jars, flasks, cosmetic and perfume bottles. Do not place any light bulbs, crystal objects, eyeglasses, glass bottle caps or corks, fluorescent tubes.
Segregating waste for subsequent recycling is a crucial step which enables resource reuse.
Other non-hazardous waste
Hazardous Waste Management
Hazardous waste is stored separately from non-hazardous waste, and the segregated fractions are managed with appropriate managers.
EDP Spain has established collaboration agreements with different Integrated Management Systems (IMS) to ensure the most appropriate treatment of the following hazardous wastes:
AMBILAMP: IMS for fluorescent lamp waste management.
INDUMETAL: IMS for electric and electronic device waste (EEDW), particularly electric meters.
ECOPILAS: ensures the recycling of batteries, accumulators and used batteries.
For all other hazardous waste, EDP Spain has signed agreements with Authorized Managers to ensure the treatment of all waste produced by its facilities; waste is duly segregated before being delivered for final treatment according to available recovery, recycling and/or valuation techniques.
EDP Spain initiatives for waste reduction
More than 14,000 euros and 304 computers. These are the results of the Charitable Computers initiative in 2015. This initiative offers employees the possibility of buying computer equipment that is about to be replaced, while also donating equipment directly to different charitable organizations. Since its launch in July 2014, this initiative has donated more than 26,000 euros and 562 computers.
Employees select the NGOs that will receive the funds and donated equipment. In 2015 the organization that benefited the most with this initiative was Doctors Without Borders, with more than 20% of the donations. Transfers to the NGOs are handled by the EDP Foundation.
One of the major hazardous wastes produced in the Group’s stations are rags and wipers contaminated with dangerous substances, resulting from facility maintenance operations.
In order to reduce the production of this particular waste in its electricity generation plants, EDP Spain has implemented a waste washing and reuse system for the production of electric power. Thus, absorbents have been replaced by reusable rags by means of a washing system. Once used, oil soaked rags are sent to a German plant where sludge is washed to be reused and produce electricity in a cogeneration plant.
A new concept: Circular Economy
Demand for the planet’s resources exceeds the Earth’s replenishing capacity; moreover, industrialized countries have developed consumption profiles that in many cases make them dependent on other countries' resources, thereby exposing them to high prices and market volatility.
At the EU level, this problem has led the European Union to devise a strategy for attaining a more efficient resource consumption model.
This strategy, known as Strategy Towards a Circular Economy, will promote competitiveness, innovation and environmental protection, contributing to economic growth and job creation.
Circular economy requires different interventions at different stages of the product’s life cycle: from raw material extraction and product design to product distribution, consumption, repair, reuse, recycling, and waste management. All these stages are interconnected, and they all require specific measures to improve energy and and resource efficiency. Action is also required from the demand side, which means that the Strategy also involves the creation of innovative solutions and new markets.
In the near future, these EU policies will be translated into guidelines for all Member States, which in turn will convert them into operational requirements for all industry operators and action guidelines for society in general.
EDP is currently studying a strategy for the implementation of Circular Economy throughout its production cycle; the first step consisted in conducting a pilot analysis (in the Portuguese context) of the existing materials (receipts, issues and stock levels), in order to identify the main resources used by the different business units and define possible guidelines to optimize their use and the search for viable alternatives.