Ordinance
on the Avoidance and the Disposal of Waste
(Waste Ordinance, ADWO)

This Or­din­ance aims to:

a.

pro­tect people, an­im­als, plants and their bio­lo­gic­al com­munit­ies, wa­ters, the soil and the air from harm­ful ef­fects or nuis­ances caused by waste;

b.

to lim­it en­vir­on­ment­al pol­lu­tion by waste through pre­cau­tion­ary meas­ures;

c.

to en­cour­age the sus­tain­able use of nat­ur­al raw ma­ter­i­als through the en­vir­on­ment­ally sus­tain­able re­cov­ery of waste.

This Or­din­ance ap­plies to the avoid­ance and dis­pos­al of waste and to the con­struc­tion and op­er­a­tion of waste dis­pos­al fa­cil­it­ies. Spe­cial reg­u­la­tions on in­di­vidu­al types of waste in oth­er fed­er­al acts and or­din­ances are re­served.

In this Or­din­ance:

a.³

mu­ni­cip­al waste means:

1.

waste from house­holds,

2.

waste from busi­nesses with few­er than 250 full-time em­ploy­ees the com­pos­i­tion of which in in­gredi­ents and pro­por­tions is sim­il­ar to waste from house­holds,

3.

waste from pub­lic au­thor­it­ies the com­pos­i­tion of which in in­gredi­ents and pro­por­tions is sim­il­ar to waste from house­holds;

b.

un­der­tak­ing means a leg­al en­tity with its own iden­ti­fic­a­tion num­ber or such en­tit­ies com­bined in a group with a jointly or­gan­ised waste dis­pos­al sys­tem;

c.

spe­cial waste means waste des­ig­nated as spe­cial waste in the list of wastes is­sued in Art­icle 2 of the Or­din­ance of 22 June 2005⁴ on Move­ments of Waste (OMW);

d.

bio­gen­ic waste means waste of ve­get­able, an­im­al or mi­cro­bi­al ori­gin;

e.

con­struc­tion waste means waste pro­duced in the con­struc­tion, con­ver­sion or dis­mant­ling of fixed in­stall­a­tions;

f.

ex­cav­ated ma­ter­i­almeans ma­ter­i­al that is ex­cav­ated or ex­trac­ted in the course of con­struc­tion work, with the ex­cep­tion of any top­soil and sub­soil re­moved;

f^bis.⁵

mer­cury waste:

1.

waste that con­tains mer­cury or mer­cury com­pounds,

2.

mer­cury or mer­cury com­pounds ori­gin­at­ing from the treat­ment of mer­cury waste in terms of num­ber 1; the fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to mer­cury that has been au­thor­ised for ex­port un­der An­nex 1.7 Num­bers 2.2.4 or 4.2 of the Chem­ic­al Risk Re­duc­tion Or­din­ance of 18 May 2005⁶ (OR­RChem),

3.

mer­cury or mer­cury com­pounds that is or are no longer re­quired in in­dus­tri­al pro­cesses;

g.

waste dis­pos­al fa­cil­ity means an in­stall­a­tion in which waste is treated, re­covered, de­pos­ited or tem­por­ar­ily stored, with the ex­cep­tion of ma­ter­i­al ex­trac­tion sites in which ex­cav­ated ma­ter­i­al is re­covered;

h.⁷

...

i.

com­post­ing fa­cil­itymeans a waste dis­pos­al fa­cil­ity in which bio­gen­ic waste de­com­poses while ex­posed to the air;

j.⁸

fer­ment­a­tion fa­cil­itymeans a waste dis­pos­al fa­cil­ity in which bio­gen­ic waste is al­lowed to fer­ment in the ab­sence of air;

k.

land­fill means a waste dis­pos­al fa­cil­ity in which waste is de­pos­ited;

l.

in­cin­er­a­tion means the treat­ment of waste at a tem­per­at­ure that is suf­fi­ciently high that sub­stances haz­ard­ous to the en­vir­on­ment are des­troyed or phys­ic­ally or chem­ic­ally bon­ded by min­er­al­isa­tion;

m.

state of the art means the latest stage of de­vel­op­ment of pro­ced­ures, in­stall­a­tions and op­er­at­ing meth­ods which:

1.

have been suc­cess­fully tested in com­par­able fa­cil­it­ies or activ­it­ies in Switzer­land or abroad or have been used suc­cess­fully in tri­als and may be used in oth­er fa­cil­it­ies or activ­it­ies in ac­cord­ance with the rules of the tech­no­logy, and

2.

is eco­nom­ic­ally vi­able in a me­di­um-sized and eco­nom­ic­ally sound en­ter­prise in the rel­ev­ant in­dustry.

¹ The can­tons shall each draw up a waste man­age­ment plan for their ter­rit­ory. It shall in­clude in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

meas­ures to avoid waste;

b.

meas­ures to re­cov­er waste;

c.

the num­ber of fa­cil­it­ies re­quired to dis­pose of mu­ni­cip­al waste and oth­er types of waste that the can­tons are re­spons­ible for dis­pos­ing of;

d.

the land­fill volume re­quired and the loc­a­tions of land­fills (land­fill plan);

e.

the re­quired catch­ment areas.

² The can­tons shall work to­geth­er on their waste man­age­ment plans, in par­tic­u­lar on the mat­ters men­tioned in para­graph 1 let­ters c–e and shall if ne­ces­sary des­ig­nate in­ter­can­t­on­al plan­ning re­gions for this pur­pose.

³ They shall re­view their waste man­age­ment plans every five years and amend them if ne­ces­sary.

⁴ The can­tons shall sub­mit their waste man­age­ment plans and the sig­ni­fic­ant re­vi­sions there­of to the Fed­er­al Of­fice for the En­vir­on­ment (FOEN).

¹ The can­tons shall take ac­count of the res­ults of the waste man­age­ment plan rel­ev­ant to spa­tial plan­ning in their struc­ture plans.

² They shall in­dic­ate the planned loc­a­tions of land­fills in the land­fill plan in their struc­ture plans and en­sure that the re­quired land use zones are set aside.

¹ Each year, the can­tons shall draw up pub­licly ac­cess­ible lists with the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion and sub­mit the same to the FOEN:

a.

quant­it­ies of types of waste men­tioned in An­nex 1 that are dis­posed of on their ter­rit­ory;

b.⁹

fa­cil­it­ies for treat­ing con­struc­tion waste and fa­cil­it­ies for treat­ing metal­lic waste on their ter­rit­ory in which more than 1000 t waste is treated each year;

c.

oth­er waste dis­pos­al fa­cil­it­ies on their ter­rit­ory in which more than 100 t waste is dis­posed of each year.

² The Fed­er­al De­part­ment of the En­vir­on­ment, Trans­port, En­ergy and Com­mu­nic­a­tions may the re­vise the types of waste spe­cified in An­nex 1 to take ac­count of tech­nic­al de­vel­op­ments.

³ The can­tons shall sub­mit a re­port to the FOEN on re­quest on the op­er­a­tion and con­di­tion of the land­fills on their ter­rit­ory.¹⁰ The re­port shall con­tain the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

the quant­ity and type of the de­pos­ited waste as well as re­main­ing quant­it­ies of ex­ist­ing land­fills;

b.

in the case of new land­fills and al­ter­a­tions to ex­ist­ing land­fill sites: evid­ence that the fa­cil­it­ies on the site sat­is­fy the re­quire­ments of An­nex 2 num­bers 2.1–2.4;

c.

where ap­plic­able, any meas­ures taken un­der Art­icle 53 para­graph 4 to pre­vent pos­sible harm­ful ef­fects or nuis­ances be­ing caused to the en­vir­on­ment by land­fills.

¹ The en­vir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion agen­cies shall in­form and ad­vise private in­di­vidu­als and au­thor­it­ies on how to avoid pro­du­cing waste and to dis­pose of waste. Among oth­er is­sues, they shall provide in­form­a­tion on the re­cov­ery of waste and on meas­ures to avoid throw­ing away small quant­it­ies of waste or leav­ing it ly­ing around.

² Based on the re­ports from the can­tons (Art. 6 para. 1), the FOEN shall pub­lish re­ports on the quant­it­ies of waste dis­posed of throughout Switzer­land and on ex­ist­ing waste dis­pos­al fa­cil­it­ies as in Switzer­land.

In co­oper­a­tion with the can­tons and em­ploy­ment or­gan­isa­tions, the Con­fed­er­a­tion shall en­sure that per­sons car­ry­ing out activ­it­ies in con­nec­tion with the dis­pos­al of waste are taught the state of the art in their ba­sic and con­tinu­ing pro­fes­sion­al train­ing.

Waste of one types may not be mixed with oth­er waste or with ag­greg­ates if this is primar­ily in­ten­ded to re­duce the pol­lut­ant con­tent of the waste by di­lu­tion and thereby to com­ply with reg­u­la­tions on the con­sign­ment, re­cov­ery or land­fill of waste.

Mu­ni­cip­al waste and waste of sim­il­ar com­pos­i­tion, sewage sludge, com­bust­ible frac­tions of con­struc­tion waste and oth­er com­bust­ible waste must be in­cin­er­ated in ap­pro­pri­ate fa­cil­it­ies, un­less their con­stitu­ents may be re­covered.

¹ The FOEN and the can­tons shall en­cour­age the avoid­ance of waste through ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures such as rais­ing the aware­ness of and provid­ing in­form­a­tion to the pub­lic and busi­nesses. In do­ing so, they shall work with the private sec­tor or­gan­isa­tions con­cerned.

² Any per­son who man­u­fac­tures products must or­gan­ise the pro­duc­tion pro­cesses ac­cord­ing to the state of the art so that as little waste as pos­sible is pro­duced and any waste that is pro­duced con­tains as few sub­stances as pos­sible that harm the en­vir­on­ment.

¹ Waste must be re­cycled or re­covered for en­ergy provided re­cov­ery does less harm to the en­vir­on­ment than:

a.

any oth­er form of dis­pos­al; and

b.

the man­u­fac­ture of new products or the ac­quis­i­tion of oth­er heat­ing fuels.

² Re­cov­ery must be car­ried out ac­cord­ing to the state of the art.

¹ The can­tons shall en­sure that that the re­cov­er­able parts of mu­ni­cip­al waste such as glass, pa­per, card­board, metals, garden waste and tex­tiles are if pos­sible col­lec­ted sep­ar­ately and re­cycled.

² They shall en­sure that the fol­low­ing are col­lec­ted and dis­posed of sep­ar­ately:

a.

spe­cial waste from house­holds;

b.¹¹

non-busi­ness-spe­cif­ic spe­cial waste of up to 20 kg per col­lec­tion from busi­nesses and pub­lic au­thor­it­ies with few­er than 10 full-time em­ploy­ment po­s­i­tions.

³ They shall en­sure that the in­fra­struc­ture re­quired to com­ply with para­graphs 1 and 2 is provided, and in par­tic­u­lar that col­lec­tion points are set up. If ne­ces­sary they shall also en­sure that reg­u­lar col­lec­tions are made.

⁴ The pro­pri­et­ors of waste from busi­nesses with 250 or more full-time em­ploy­ment po­s­i­tions must as far as pos­sible and reas­on­able col­lect and re­cycle the re­cov­er­able parts of their waste that are sim­il­ar in their com­pos­i­tion to mu­ni­cip­al waste.

¹ Bio­gen­ic waste must be re­covered solely by re­cyc­ling or by fer­ment­a­tion, provided:

a.

it is suit­able for this pur­pose as a res­ult of its prop­er­ties, in par­tic­u­lar its nu­tri­ent and pol­lut­ant con­tent;

b.

it has been col­lec­ted sep­ar­ately; and

c.

re­cov­ery is not pro­hib­ited by oth­er pro­vi­sions of fed­er­al law.

² Bio­gen­ic waste that need not be re­covered in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 must as far as pos­sible and reas­on­able simply be re­covered for en­ergy or in­cin­er­ated in ap­pro­pri­ate fa­cil­it­ies. In do­ing so, its en­ergy con­tent must be used.

¹ Phos­phor­us must be re­covered from mu­ni­cip­al waste wa­ter, from sewage sludge from cent­ral waste wa­ter treat­ment plants or from the ash pro­duced by the in­cin­er­a­tion of such sewage sludge and then re­cycled.

² Phos­phor­us in an­im­al and bone meal must be re­cycled, un­less the an­im­al and bone meal is used as an­im­al feed­stuffs.

³ When re­cov­er­ing phos­phor­ous from waste in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 or 2, the pol­lut­ants in the waste must be re­moved ac­cord­ing to the state of the art. If the phos­phor­ous re­covered is used to man­u­fac­ture a fer­til­iser, the re­quire­ments of An­nex 2.6 Num­ber 2.2.4 OR­RChem¹² must also be met.¹³

¹ In the case of con­struc­tion work, when ap­ply­ing for the build­ing per­mit, the build­er must provide the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible with in­form­a­tion on the nature, qual­ity and quant­ity of the waste pro­duced and on the plans for its dis­pos­al if:

a.

it is prob­able that more than 200 m³ con­struc­tion waste will be pro­duced; or

b.

con­struc­tion waste con­tain­ing sub­stances that are haz­ard­ous to the en­vir­on­ment or to health, such as poly­chlor­in­ated bi­phen­yls (PCBs), poly­cyc­lic aro­mat­ic hy­dro­car­bons (PAHs), lead or as­bes­tos, is ex­pec­ted.

² If the build­er has pre­pared a waste man­age­ment plan in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1, it must prove to the au­thor­ity re­spons­ible for the build­ing per­mit at its re­quest on com­ple­tion of the con­struc­tion work that the waste pro­duced has been dis­posed of ac­cord­ingly to the au­thor­ity’s re­quire­ments.

¹ In the case of con­struc­tion work, spe­cial waste must be sep­ar­ated and dis­posed of sep­ar­ately from oth­er waste. The fol­low­ing con­struc­tion waste must be kept sep­ar­ate on the con­struc­tion site:

a.

re­moved top­soil and sub­soil, if pos­sible without be­ing mixed;

b.

un­pol­luted ex­cav­ated ma­ter­i­al, ex­cav­ated ma­ter­i­al that sat­is­fies the re­quire­ments of An­nex 3 num­ber 2, and oth­er ex­cav­ated ma­ter­i­al, if pos­sible without be­ing mixed;

c.

ex­cav­ated as­phalt, con­crete rubble, road sur­face rubble, mixed rubble, brick rubble and plaster, if pos­sible without be­ing mixed;

d.

fur­ther re­cyc­lable waste such as glass, metals, tim­ber and plastics, if pos­sible without be­ing mixed;

e.

com­bust­ible waste that is not re­cyc­lable;

f.

oth­er waste.

² If the sep­ar­a­tion of oth­er con­struc­tion waste on the con­struc­tion site is not op­er­a­tion­ally pos­sible, the waste must be sep­ar­ated in suit­able fa­cil­it­ies.¹⁴

³ The au­thor­ity may re­quire fur­ther sep­ar­a­tion if ad­di­tion­al parts of the waste may be re­covered thereby.

¹ Re­moved top­soil and sub­soil must be re­covered in full if pos­sible provided:

a.

it is suit­able for the in­ten­ded re­cov­ery ow­ing to its prop­er­ties;

b.

it meets the bench­mark val­ues in An­nexes 1 and 2 of the Or­din­ance of 1 Ju­ly 1998¹⁵ on the Pol­lu­tion of Soil (SoilPO); and

c.

it does not con­tain for­eign sub­stances or in­vas­ive ali­en or­gan­isms.

² In the case of re­cov­ery, the top­soil and sub­soil must be pro­cessed in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 6 and 7 SoilPO.

¹ Ex­cav­ated ma­ter­i­al that sat­is­fies the re­quire­ments of An­nex 3 num­ber 1 (un­pol­luted ex­cav­ated ma­ter­i­al), must be re­covered to the fullest ex­tent pos­sible as fol­lows:

a.

as con­struc­tion ma­ter­i­al on build­ing sites or land­fills;

b.

as raw ma­ter­i­al for the man­u­fac­ture of con­struc­tion ma­ter­i­als;

c.

for the re­filling of ma­ter­i­al ex­trac­tion sites; or

d.

for per­mit­ted land­scap­ing work.

² Ex­cav­ated ma­ter­i­al that sat­is­fies the re­quire­ments of An­nex 3 num­ber 2 must be re­covered to the fullest ex­tent pos­sible as fol­lows:

a.

as a raw ma­ter­i­al for the man­u­fac­ture of hy­draul­ic or bi­tu­min­ous bound con­struc­tion ma­ter­i­als;

b.

as con­struc­tion ma­ter­i­al for land­fills of Types B–E;

c.¹⁶

as a raw ma­ter­i­al in the man­u­fac­ture of ce­ment clinker;

d.¹⁷

in the case of civil en­gin­eer­ing work, on the site where the ma­ter­i­al is pro­duced, provided any treat­ment re­quired for the ma­ter­i­al is car­ried out on or dir­ectly ad­ja­cent to the site; Art­icle 3 of the Con­tam­in­ated Sites Or­din­ance of 26 Au­gust 1998¹⁸ (CSO) re­mains re­served.

³ Ex­cav­ated ma­ter­i­al that does not sat­is­fy the re­quire­ments of An­nex 3 num­ber 2 may not be re­covered. The fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to re­cov­ery at a ce­ment works in ac­cord­ance with An­nex 4 num­ber 1 and the re­cov­ery of ex­cav­ated ma­ter­i­al that sat­is­fies the re­quire­ments of An­nex 5 num­ber 2.3:¹⁹

a.

as con­struc­tion ma­ter­i­al for land­fills of Types C–E; or

b.²⁰

as part of the re­medi­ation of the con­tam­in­ated site that pro­duces the ma­ter­i­al; a any treat­ment re­quired for the ma­ter­i­al is car­ried out at or dir­ectly ad­ja­cent to the con­tam­in­ated site.

¹ Ex­cav­ated as­phalt con­tain­ing up to 250 mg PAH per kg, road sur­face rubble, mixed rubble and brick rubble must to the fullest ex­tent pos­sible be re­covered as raw ma­ter­i­al for the man­u­fac­ture of con­struc­tion ma­ter­i­als.

² Ex­cav­ated as­phalt con­tain­ing more than 250 mg PAH per kg may not be not re­covered.

³ Con­crete rubble must be re­covered to the fullest ex­tent pos­sible as raw ma­ter­i­al for the man­u­fac­ture of con­struc­tion ma­ter­i­als or as con­struc­tion ma­ter­i­al for land­fills.

Met­al frag­ments must be re­moved from the light­est frac­tion ob­tained by shred­ding waste con­tain­ing met­al (the light­weight frac­tion) and re­cycled.

¹ Re­cov­er­able parts such as chip­pings, sand and gravel must be sep­ar­ated from sludge and sweep­ings from street gul­lies that are primar­ily of min­er­al com­pos­i­tion and re­cycled.

² The re­main­ing parts of street sweep­ings in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 and oth­er street sweep­ings, mu­ni­cip­al waste or waste of sim­il­ar com­pos­i­tion or with high bio­gen­ic con­tent must be in­cin­er­ated in ap­pro­pri­ate fa­cil­it­ies.

Elec­tric arc fur­nace slag may only be re­covered with the con­sent of the can­ton­al au­thor­ity if:²²

a.

re­cov­ery is car­ried out in the course of con­struc­tion work in hy­draul­ic­ally or bi­tu­min­ously bound form or un­der a sur­face im­per­meable to wa­ter; and

b.

the elec­tric arc fur­nace slag ori­gin­ates from the man­u­fac­ture of un­al­loyed or low al­loyed steels sub­sequent to 1989.

¹ Waste may be used as a raw ma­ter­i­al, as raw meal cor­rect­ive sub­stances, as heat­ing fuels or as ad­dit­ives or ag­greg­ates in the pro­duc­tion of ce­ment and con­crete provided it sat­is­fies the re­quire­ments un­der An­nex 4. However, mixed mu­ni­cip­al waste may not be used as a raw ma­ter­i­al or as a heat­ing fuel even if col­lec­ted and sub­sequently sor­ted.

² Dusts from the ex­haust fil­ter­ing at fa­cil­it­ies pro­du­cing ce­ment clinker must be re­covered as ag­greg­ates for grind­ing ce­ment clinker or as ad­dit­ives in the pro­duc­tion of ce­ment. The heavy met­al con­tent of the ce­ment pro­duced must not ex­ceed the lim­it val­ues in An­nex 4 num­ber 3.2.

¹ Waste may only be de­pos­ited in land­fills if the land­fills sat­is­fy the re­quire­ments of An­nex 5. The con­struc­tion and op­er­at­ing li­cence may in­clude ad­di­tion­al re­stric­tions.

² If land­fills com­prise two or more com­part­ments sep­ar­ated by struc­tur­al meas­ures, the re­quire­ments for the de­pos­it of each type of waste ap­ply to the com­part­ment in which the re­spect­ive type is de­pos­ited.

³ Li­quid, ex­plos­ive, in­fec­tious and com­bust­ible waste may not be de­pos­ited.

¹ Mer­cury waste in terms of Art­icle 3 let­ter f^bis num­bers 1 and 2 are en­vir­on­ment­ally com­pat­ible and must be dis­posed of ac­cord­ing to the state of the art.

² Mer­cury waste in terms of Art­icle 3 let­ter f^bis num­ber 3 are en­vir­on­ment­ally com­pat­ible and must be treated and de­pos­ited ac­cord­ing to the state of the art.

¹ Waste dis­pos­al fa­cil­it­ies must be con­struc­ted and op­er­ated ac­cord­ing to the state of the art.

² Every ten years, the pro­pri­et­ors of waste dis­pos­al fa­cil­it­ies must re­view wheth­er their fa­cil­ity cor­res­ponds to the state of the art, and carry out any modi­fic­a­tions re­quired.

¹ Pro­pri­et­ors of waste dis­pos­al fa­cil­it­ies must:

a.²⁵

op­er­ate the fa­cil­it­ies so that no harm­ful ef­fects or nuis­ances are oc­ca­sioned to the en­vir­on­ment if pos­sible;

b.

check the waste on re­ceipt and en­sure that only ac­cept­able waste is dis­posed of in the fa­cil­it­ies;

c.

dis­pose of residues form­ing in the fa­cil­it­ies in an en­vir­on­ment­ally com­pat­ible man­ner;

d.

en­sure that the en­ergy con­tent of the waste is ex­ploited as far as pos­sible in its dis­pos­al;

e.²⁶

keep a re­cord of the ac­cep­ted quant­it­ies of the types of waste men­tioned in An­nex 1 with de­tails of their ori­gin and of the residues and emis­sions arising in the fa­cil­it­ies, and sub­mit that re­cord to the au­thor­ity each year; the fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to tem­por­ary stor­age sites in ac­cord­ance with Art­icles 29 and 30;

f.

en­sure that they them­selves and their staff have the re­quired spe­cial­ist know­ledge to op­er­ate the fa­cil­it­ies prop­erly and provide the au­thor­ity on its re­quest with the rel­ev­ant proof of ba­sic and con­tinu­ing edu­ca­tion and train­ing;

g.

check and main­tain the fa­cil­it­ies reg­u­larly and in par­tic­u­lar veri­fy by meas­ur­ing emis­sions wheth­er the re­quire­ments of en­vir­on­ment­al and wa­ters pro­tec­tion le­gis­la­tion are be­ing met;

h.

in the case of mo­bile fa­cil­it­ies, en­sure that waste pro­duced at the op­er­a­tion site con­cerned is treated.

² Pro­pri­et­ors of waste dis­pos­al fa­cil­it­ies that dis­pose of more than 100 t waste each year must draw up op­er­at­ing reg­u­la­tions that in par­tic­u­lar spe­cify the re­quire­ments for the op­er­a­tion of the fa­cil­it­ies. They shall sub­mit the reg­u­la­tions to the au­thor­ity for feed­back.

¹ The au­thor­ity shall check reg­u­larly wheth­er a waste dis­pos­al fa­cil­ity com­plies with the en­vir­on­ment­al reg­u­la­tions.

² If it iden­ti­fies de­fects, it shall re­quire the pro­pri­et­or of the fa­cil­ity to rec­ti­fy the same with­in reas­on­able time.

¹ Tem­por­ary stor­age sites may only be con­struc­ted if the re­quire­ments of en­vir­on­ment­al and in par­tic­u­lar wa­ters pro­tec­tion le­gis­la­tion are sat­is­fied.

² At land­fills, the ma­ter­i­al in tem­por­ary stor­age sites must sat­is­fy the re­quire­ments for the type of land­fill con­cerned

³ The waste stored tem­por­ar­ily must be kept sep­ar­ate from the waste land­fill.

¹ Waste may be tem­por­ar­ily stored for a max­im­um of five years. On ex­piry of the stor­age peri­od, the au­thor­ity may on one oc­ca­sion only ex­tend the tem­por­ary stor­age by no more than five years provided suit­able dis­pos­al was demon­strably not pos­sible with­in the pre­vi­ous stor­age peri­od.

² Waste suit­able for fer­ment­a­tion and de­com­pos­i­tion that is com­pressed in­to bales may be tem­por­ar­ily stored in land­fills of types C-E and at fa­cil­it­ies for the in­cin­er­a­tion of waste.²⁹

³ The can­ton­al au­thor­ity may re­quire the pro­pri­et­ors of tem­por­ary stor­age sites to provide se­cur­ity in the form of a bank guar­an­tee or in­sur­ance to cov­er the costs of a dam­aging event.³⁰

⁴ ...³¹

Fa­cil­it­ies may be con­struc­ted for the in­cin­er­a­tion of waste provided the struc­tur­al ele­ments guar­an­tee that:

a.

no dif­fuse waste gases are emit­ted;

b.³²

at fa­cil­it­ies that treat li­quid waste with a flash­point be­low 60 °C and in­fec­tious spe­cial waste, such waste can be placed in the in­cin­er­a­tion cham­ber sep­ar­ately from the oth­er waste and as dir­ectly as pos­sible.

¹ Only waste that is suit­able for in­cin­er­a­tion may be treated in fa­cil­it­ies for the in­cin­er­a­tion of waste.

² Pro­pri­et­ors of fa­cil­it­ies must op­er­ate them so that:

a.

at least 55 per cent of the en­ergy con­tent of mu­ni­cip­al waste and waste of sim­il­ar com­pos­i­tion is used out­side the fa­cil­it­ies;

b.

on treat­ment, halo­gen­ated or­gan­ic com­pounds are broken down as com­pletely as pos­sible and only re­form to a min­im­al ex­tent;

c.³³

spe­cial waste that con­tains more than one per cent by weight of or­gan­ic­ally bon­ded halo­gens is treated at a min­im­um tem­per­at­ure of 1100 °C for at least 2 seconds; the au­thor­ity may per­mit oth­er min­im­um tem­per­at­ures and treat­ment times if it is proven that this does not res­ult in more residues from in­cin­er­a­tion and that the residues do not con­tain high­er levels of or­gan­ic pol­lut­ants such as PAKs, PCDDs, PCD­Fs or PCBs;

d.³⁴

li­quid waste with a flash­point be­low 60 °C and in­fec­tious spe­cial waste are placed in the in­cin­er­a­tion cham­ber sep­ar­ately from the oth­er waste and as dir­ectly as pos­sible;

e.

the slag con­tains no more than two per cent by weight un­burned parts, meas­ured as total or­gan­ic car­bon (TOC);

f.

in the event of dis­rup­tion to op­er­a­tions, the treat­ment of any waste in the in­cin­er­a­tion cham­ber is com­pleted;

g.

at fa­cil­it­ies that in­cin­er­ate mu­ni­cip­al waste or waste of sim­il­ar com­pos­i­tion, metals are re­covered from the fil­ter ash.

¹ Com­post­ing and fer­ment­a­tion fa­cil­it­ies that ac­cept more than 100 t waste each year must be con­struc­ted on a sur­face im­per­meable to wa­ter; the fore­go­ing does not ap­ply to win­drows at field-edge com­post­ing sites. A win­drow may be used for one year at the most in any three-year peri­od.

² The struc­tur­al ele­ments must guar­an­tee that:

a.

the waste wa­ter on any sur­face im­per­meable to wa­ters can be col­lec­ted, dis­charged and if ne­ces­sary treated;

b.

gaseous ef­flu­ents pro­duced in closed spaces can be treated if ne­ces­sary;

c.

suit­able meas­ures are taken to pre­vent or re­duce emis­sions of green­house gases.

³ Stor­age ca­pa­city in the fa­cil­ity of at least three months for com­post and sol­id di­gest­ates and of at least five months for li­quid di­gest­ates must be avail­able or con­trac­tu­ally guar­an­teed. The au­thor­ity may re­quire a longer stor­age ca­pa­city for fa­cil­it­ies in the moun­tain re­gion or in un­fa­vour­able cli­mat­ic or spe­cial ag­ro­nom­ic con­di­tions.

¹ In com­post­ing and fer­ment­a­tion fa­cil­it­ies that ac­cept more than 100 t of waste each year, bio­gen­ic waste may only be al­lowed to de­com­pose or fer­ment if it is suit­able for the rel­ev­ant pro­ced­ure due to its prop­er­ties, and in par­tic­u­lar its nu­tri­ent and pol­lut­ant con­tent, and for re­cov­ery as fer­til­iser as defined in Art­icle 5 of the Fer­til­iser Or­din­ance of 10 Janu­ary 2001³⁵ (FertO). Waste that is fer­men­ted in fa­cil­it­ies for co-fer­ment­a­tion in waste wa­ter treat­ment plants is ex­empt from the re­quire­ment of suit­ab­il­ity as fer­til­iser.

² Pack­aged bio­gen­ic waste may only be al­lowed to de­com­pose or fer­ment in com­post­ing and fer­ment­a­tion fa­cil­it­ies in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1 oth­er than waste wa­ter treat­ment plants if:

a.

the pack­aging is bio-de­grad­able and suit­able for the pro­ced­ure con­cerned; or

b.

the pack­aging is as far as pos­sible re­moved be­fore or dur­ing de­com­pos­i­tion or fer­ment­a­tion.

³ The reg­u­la­tions in the FertO and the OR­RChem³⁶ re­lat­ing to com­post and di­gest­ates also ap­ply.

¹ The fol­low­ing types of land­fills may be con­struc­ted and op­er­ated:

a.

Type A for waste in ac­cord­ance with An­nex 5 num­ber 1;

b.

Type B for waste in ac­cord­ance with An­nex 5 num­ber 2;

c.

Type C for waste in ac­cord­ance with An­nex 5 num­ber 3:

d.

Type D for waste in ac­cord­ance with An­nex 5 num­ber 4;

e.

Type E for waste in ac­cord­ance with An­nex 5 num­ber 5.

² Land­fills may have com­part­ments for dif­fer­ent types in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 1.

³ Where land­fills are made up of two or more com­part­ments, the re­quire­ments for the rel­ev­ant type of waste ap­ply to the com­part­ments con­cerned.

¹ The re­quire­ments spe­cified in An­nex 2 ap­ply to the loc­a­tion and the struc­ture of land­fills.

² Type E land­fills may not be con­struc­ted un­der­ground. Oth­er land­fills may be con­struc­ted un­der­ground with the FOEN’s con­sent provided:

a.

the waste is de­pos­ited in a stable cav­ity un­til the end of the after-care phase;

b.

it is demon­strated that the land­fills, with the ex­cep­tion of Type A land­fills, can­not harm the en­vir­on­ment un­til the end of the after-care phase;

c.

in the case of Type D land­fills, only slag is de­pos­ited that ori­gin­ates from fa­cil­it­ies in which mu­ni­cip­al waste or waste of sim­il­ar com­pos­i­tion is in­cin­er­ated and ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures are taken to pre­vent the build-up of gases.

³ In cases where it is per­mit­ted un­der the wa­ters pro­tec­tion le­gis­la­tion to di­vert a body of flow­ing wa­ter for the con­struc­tion of a land­fill:

a.

the bod­ies of wa­ter must be di­ver­ted around the land­fill;

b.

it must be en­sured that no wa­ter can in­trude in­to the land­fill.

¹ Land­fills must be of at least the fol­low­ing ex­ploit­able volumes:

a.

Type A: 50 000 m³;

b.

Type B and Type C: 100 000 m³;

c.

Type D and Type E: 300 000 m³.

² If land­fills com­prise com­part­ments for dif­fer­ent types, the type of com­part­ment with the largest ex­ploit­able min­im­um volume de­term­ines the min­im­um volume of the en­tire land­fill

³ The can­ton­al au­thor­it­ies may with the FOEN’s con­sent au­thor­ise the con­struc­tion of land­fills with lower volumes if this is ap­pro­pri­ate giv­en the geo­graph­ic­al cir­cum­stances.

¹ Any per­son who wishes to con­struct a land­fill or a com­part­ment re­quires a con­struc­tion per­mit from the can­ton­al au­thor­ity.

² Any per­son who wishes to op­er­ate a land­fill or a com­part­ment re­quires an op­er­at­ing li­cence from the can­ton­al au­thor­ity.

¹ The can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall grant the con­struc­tion per­mit for a land­fill or a com­part­ment provided:

a.

the re­quire­ments for land­fill volume and the loc­a­tion of the land­fill are in­dic­ated in the waste man­age­ment plan;

b.

the re­quire­ments un­der Art­icle 36 for the loc­a­tion and build­ing of land­fills are met.

² In the con­struc­tion per­mit, it shall spe­cify:

a.

the type the land­fill or of the com­part­ment;

b.

any re­stric­tions on the ac­cept­able waste in ac­cord­ance with An­nex 5;

c.

fur­ther re­quire­ments and con­di­tions that are ne­ces­sary for com­pli­ance with the en­vir­on­ment­al and wa­ters pro­tec­tion le­gis­la­tion.

¹ The can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall grant the op­er­at­ing li­cence for a land­fill or a com­part­ment if:

a.

the land­fill struc­ture has been con­struc­ted in ac­cord­ance with the ap­proved con­struc­tion plans;

b.

op­er­at­ing reg­u­la­tions in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 27 para­graph 2 are avail­able; and

c.

a pre­lim­in­ary plan for clos­ure is avail­able to­geth­er with proof that the costs of clos­ure in ac­cord­ance with the pre­lim­in­ary plan and for the an­ti­cip­ated after-care will be covered.

² It shall veri­fy com­pli­ance with para­graph 1 let­ter a on the basis of doc­u­ment­a­tion from the ap­plic­ant and by car­ry­ing out an on-site in­spec­tion of the land­fill struc­ture.

³ The au­thor­ity shall spe­cify the fol­low­ing in the op­er­at­ing li­cence:

a.

the type the land­fill or of the com­part­ment;

b.

any catch­ment areas;

c.

any re­stric­tions on the waste ac­cept­able in ac­cord­ance with An­nex 5;

d.

meas­ures to com­ply with the op­er­at­ing re­quire­ments in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 27 para­graph 1, in par­tic­u­lar the fre­quency of in­spec­tions;

e.

mon­it­or­ing of the col­lec­ted leachate and if ap­plic­able of the ground­wa­ter in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 41;

f.

if ap­plic­able, the in­spec­tions of the de­gass­ing sys­tems and ana­lyses of the land­fill gases in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 53 para­graph 5;

g.

fur­ther re­quire­ments and con­di­tions ne­ces­sary to com­ply with the en­vir­on­ment­al and wa­ters pro­tec­tion le­gis­la­tion.

⁴ The au­thor­ity shall lim­it the op­er­at­ing li­cence to no more than five years.

¹ The pro­pri­et­ors of land­fills must ana­lyse the col­lec­ted leachate at least twice each year.

² They must ana­lyse the ground wa­ter at least twice each year if mon­it­or­ing is re­quired to pro­tect wa­ters as a res­ult of the hy­dro­geo­lo­gic­al con­di­tions. For Type A land­fills, ground­wa­ter mon­it­or­ing is only re­quired if they are loc­ated above ex­ploit­able un­der­ground wa­ters or in the ad­join­ing zones re­quired for their pro­tec­tion.

³ If mon­it­or­ing of the ground­wa­ter is re­quired in ac­cord­ance with para­graph 2, pro­pri­et­ors must en­sure that ground­wa­ter samples may be taken in the im­me­di­ate vi­cin­ity of the land­fill or the com­part­ment, and if pos­sible at three loc­a­tions in the down­stream area and one loc­a­tion in the up­stream area.

⁴ They must doc­u­ment the ana­lyses and sub­mit the res­ults to the au­thor­ity.

¹ The pro­pri­et­or of a land­fill or a com­part­ment shall sub­mit a plan for car­ry­ing out the re­quired clos­ure work to the can­ton­al au­thor­ity at the earli­est three years and at the latest six months be­fore the clos­ure of the land­fill.

² The can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall ap­prove the plan if:

a.

it sat­is­fies the re­quire­ments of An­nex 2 num­ber 2.5 for sur­face clos­ure;

b.

there is a guar­an­tee that the re­quire­ments for the fa­cil­it­ies un­der An­nex 2 num­bers 2.1–2.4 will be met for the en­tire after-care phase;

c.

if ap­plic­able, pro­vi­sion is made in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 53 para­graph 4 for meas­ures to en­sure that the land­fill causes no harm or nuis­ance to the en­vir­on­ment.

¹ The after-care phase for a land­fill or a com­part­ment be­gins after the clos­ure of the land­fill or the com­part­ment and lasts for 50 years. The can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall re­duce the after-care phase provided harm­ful ef­fects or nuis­ances to the en­vir­on­ment are no longer ex­pec­ted. The after-care phase shall however last for at least:

a.

5 years in the case of land­fills or com­part­ments of Types A and B;

b.

15 years in the case of land­fills or com­part­ments of Types C, D and E.

² The pro­pri­et­or of a land­fill or a com­part­ment must en­sure for the en­tire after-care phase that:

a.

the fa­cil­it­ies sat­is­fy the re­quire­ments of An­nex 2 num­ber 2.1–2.4 and are reg­u­larly in­spec­ted and main­tained;

b.

the ground wa­ter, col­lec­ted leachate and the land­fill gases are mon­itored, provided mon­it­or­ing in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 41 and Art­icle 53 para­graph 5 is re­quired.

³ The pro­pri­et­or must en­sure that the sur­face soil fer­til­ity is mon­itored for five years fol­low­ing clos­ure of a land­fill or a com­part­ment.

⁴ The can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall spe­cify the dur­a­tion of the after-care phase and the ob­lig­a­tions of the pro­pri­et­or of the land­fill in ac­cord­ance with the para­graphs 2 and 3 in the fi­nal op­er­at­ing li­cence for the land­fill or com­part­ment fest. It may ex­empt Type A land­fills or com­part­ments from re­quire­ments men­tioned in para­graphs 2 and 3.

¹ The can­tons shall im­ple­ment this Or­din­ance, un­less they as­sign im­ple­ment­a­tion to the Con­fed­er­a­tion.

² If fed­er­al au­thor­it­ies are re­quired to ap­ply oth­er fed­er­al acts or in­ter­na­tion­al law agree­ments or de­cisions that re­late to mat­ters reg­u­lated in this Or­din­ance, they shall also im­ple­ment this Or­din­ance. Art­icle 41 para­graphs 2 and 4 EPA gov­ern the in­volve­ment of the FOEN and the can­tons; stat­utory du­ties of con­fid­en­ti­al­ity are re­served.

The FOEN shall spe­cify the min­im­um geodata mod­els and rep­res­ent­a­tion mod­els for ba­sic geo­graph­ic­al data un­der this Or­din­ance; in this re­spect it is des­ig­nated as the spe­cial­ist fed­er­al au­thor­ity in An­nex 1 to the Geoin­form­a­tion Or­din­ance of 21 May 2008³⁷.

The FOEN shall is­sue an im­ple­ment­a­tion guide on the ap­plic­a­tion of this Or­din­ance, and in par­tic­u­lar on the state of the art for waste dis­pos­al. In do­ing so, it shall work with the fed­er­al agen­cies, can­tons and private sec­tor or­gan­isa­tions con­cerned.

The Tech­nic­al Or­din­ance on Waste of 10 Decem­ber 1990³⁸ is re­pealed.

The amend­ment of oth­er le­gis­la­tion is reg­u­lated in An­nex 6.

¹ Art­icles 3 let­ter a and 13 para­graph 4 ap­ply from 1 Janu­ary 2019.

² Un­til 31 Decem­ber 2018, waste from house­holds and waste of sim­il­ar com­pos­i­tion is deemed to be mu­ni­cip­al waste.

The duty to re­port in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 6 ap­plies from 1 Janu­ary 2021.

The duty to re­cov­er phos­phor­us in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 15 ap­plies from 1 Janu­ary 2026.

¹ Ex­cav­ated as­phalt con­tain­ing more than 250 mg PAH per kg may be re­covered in the course of con­struc­tion work un­til 31 Decem­ber 2025 provided:

a.

the ex­cav­ated as­phalt con­tains no more than 1000 mg PAH per kg and is mixed in ap­pro­pri­ate fa­cil­it­ies with oth­er ma­ter­i­al so that it con­tains no more than 250 mg PAH per kg on re­cov­ery; or

b.

the ex­cav­ated as­phalt is used with con­sent the can­ton­al au­thor­ity so that no emis­sions of PAH oc­cur. The can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall re­cord the pre­cise level of PAH in the ex­cav­ated as­phalt as well as the loc­a­tion of re­cov­ery and shall re­tain the in­form­a­tion for at least 25 years.

² Ex­cav­ated as­phalt con­tain­ing more than 250 mg PAH per kg may be de­pos­ited un­til 31 Decem­ber 2025 in a land­fill of Type E.

Fil­ter ash and dust from the in­cin­er­a­tion of wood that is not wood fuel as defined in An­nex 5 num­ber 31 para­graph 2 of the Air Pol­lu­tion Con­trol Or­din­ance of 16 Decem­ber 1985⁴¹ (OAPC) may be de­pos­ited un­til 1 Novem­ber 2023 in land­fills of types D and E (An­nex 5 Nos 4.1 and 5.1).

¹ Land­fills and com­part­ments that came in­to op­er­a­tion be­fore this Or­din­ance comes in­to force may con­tin­ue in op­er­a­tion provided the re­quire­ments for grant­ing an op­er­at­ing li­cence in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 40 are met by 31 Decem­ber 2020 at the latest.

² The can­ton­al au­thor­ity shall as­sess by by 31 Decem­ber 2020 at the latest wheth­er the land­fills or com­part­ments will cause harm or nuis­ance to the en­vir­on­ment or wheth­er they are likely to cause harm or nuis­ance with­in 50 years of clos­ure (risk as­sess­ment). The pro­pri­et­ors of the land­fills shall provide the au­thor­ity with the data re­quired for this pur­pose.

³ Where the risk as­sess­ment finds that a land­fill or com­part­ment is caus­ing harm or nuis­ance to the en­vir­on­ment or that there is a spe­cif­ic danger of such harm or nuis­ance, the land­fill or com­part­ment may not con­tin­ue in op­er­a­tion un­less im­prove­ments are made in ac­cord­ance with the CSO⁴².

⁴ Where the risk as­sess­ment finds that a land­fill or com­part­ment is likely to cause harm or nuis­ance with­in 50 years of clos­ure or that there is a spe­cif­ic risk of such harm or nuis­ance, the land­fill or com­part­ment may con­tin­ue in op­er­a­tion, provided the po­ten­tial harm or nuis­ance is pre­ven­ted through ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures.

⁵ The pro­pri­et­or of an ex­ist­ing land­fill or an ex­ist­ing com­part­ment with de­gass­ing sys­tems must ar­range for these fa­cil­it­ies to be reg­u­larly in­spec­ted by an ex­pert un­til the end of op­er­a­tions and for the land­fill gases to be ana­lysed at least twice a year.

¹ Waste dis­pos­al fa­cil­it­ies oth­er than land­fills and com­part­ments that come in­to op­er­a­tion be­fore this Or­din­ance comes in­to force must sat­is­fy the re­quire­ments of this Or­din­ance for struc­tur­al modi­fic­a­tions by 31 Decem­ber 2020 at the latest. The oth­er re­quire­ments ap­ply from the date on which this Or­din­ance comes in­to force, sub­ject to para­graphs 2 and 3.

² The duty un­der Art­icle 32 para­graph 2 let­ter a to use at least 55 per cent of the en­ergy con­tent of mu­ni­cip­al waste and waste of sim­il­ar com­pos­i­tion in fa­cil­it­ies for the in­cin­er­a­tion of waste ap­plies from 1 Janu­ary 2026.

³ The duty un­der Art­icle 32 para­graph 2 let­ter g to re­cov­er metals from fil­ter ash pro­duced in the treat­ment of mu­ni­cip­al waste and waste of sim­il­ar com­pos­i­tion ap­plies from 1 Janu­ary 2026. Un­til that date, fil­ter ash may be de­pos­ited in hy­draul­ic­ally bound form without the re­cov­ery of metals in Type C land­fills or com­part­ments provided there are no avail­able treat­ment ca­pa­cit­ies for re­cov­ery.⁴³

This Or­din­ance comes in­to force on 1 Janu­ary 2016.