CJEU Case C-629/19: Sappi Austria Produktions-GmbH & Co. kg, Wasserverband ‘Region Gratkorn-Gratwein’ v Landeshauptmann von Steiermark: Suitable Recovery and Recycling Operations Surrounding Sludge in the EU)

Abstract

Even with extensive case law before the cjeu on the notion of ‘waste’, questions remain around classification of substances as waste and end-of-waste status of certain waste streams. This uncertainty hampers the transition to a circular economy. In the case at hand, a mixture of sludge from paper production and sludge from a municipal wastewater treatment plant was used as fuel for the paper plant. Although the majority (97%) of the mixture came from the paper production process and therefore would be a by-product (and hence not waste), and only 3% of the mixture stemming from the municipal waste water facility qualify waste, the mixture as a whole is assumed to be waste. Whether the ‘end of waste-criteria’ of Article 6(1) Waste Framework Directive can successfully be applied to the case, is up to the national court to decide. In addition, the case is interesting as an affirmation of the ‘Rheinmühlen/Elchinov-doctrine’.