Article 1 — Overall objective
1. With a view to meeting the requirements of Directive 75/442/EEC, and in particular Articles 3 and 4 thereof, the aim of this Directive is, by way of stringent operational and technical requirements on the waste and landfills, to provide for measures, procedures and guidance to prevent or reduce as far as possible negative effects on the environment, in particular the pollution of surface water, groundwater, soil and air, and on the global environment, including the greenhouse effect, as well as any resulting risk to human health, from landfilling of waste, during the whole life-cycle of the landfill.
2. In respect of the technical characteristics of landfills, this Directive contains, for those landfills to which Directive 96/61/EC is applicable, the relevant technical requirements in order to elaborate in concrete terms the general requirements of that Directive. The relevant requirements of Directive 96/61/EC shall be deemed to be fulfilled if the requirements of this Directive are complied with.
Article 3 — Scope
1. Member States shall apply this Directive to any landfill as defined in Article 2(g).
2. Without prejudice to existing Community legislation, the following shall be excluded from the scope of this Directive:
— the spreading of sludges, including sewage sludges, and sludges resulting from dredging operations, and similar matter on the soil for the purposes of fertilisation or improvement,
— the use of inert waste which is suitable, in redevelopment/restoration and filling-in work, or for construction purposes, in landfills,
— the deposit of non-hazardous dredging sludges alongside small waterways from where they have been dredged out and of non-hazardous sludges in surface water including the bed and its sub soil,
— 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.
3. Without prejudice to Directive 75/442/EEC Member States may declare at their own option, that the deposit of non-hazardous waste, to be defined by the committee established under Article 17 of this Directive, other than inert waste, resulting from prospecting and extraction, treatment and storage of mineral resources as well as from the operation of quarries and which are deposited in a manner preventing environmental pollution or harm to human health, can be exempted from the provisions in Annex I, points 2, 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 of this Directive.
4. Without prejudice to Directive 75/442/EEC Member States may declare, at their own option, parts or all of Articles 6(d), 7(i), 8(a)(iv), 10, 11(1)(a), (b) and (c), 12(a) and (c), Annex I, points 3 and 4, Annex II (except point 3, level 3, and point 4) and Annex III, points 3 to 5 to this Directive not applicable to:
(a) landfill sites for non-hazardous or inert wastes with a total capacity not exceeding 15 000 tonnes or with an annual intake not exceeding 1 000 tonnes serving islands, where this is the only landfill on the island and where this is exclusively destined for the disposal of waste generated on that island. Once the total capacity of that landfill has been used, any new landfill site established on the island shall comply with the requirements of this Directive;
(b) landfill sites for non-hazardous or inert waste in isolated settlements if the landfill site is destined for the disposal of waste generated only by that isolated settlement.
Not later than two years after the date laid down in Article 18(1), Member States shall notify the Commission of the list of islands and isolated settlements that are exempted. The Commission shall publish the list of islands and isolated settlements.
5. Without prejudice to Directive 75/442/EEC Member States may declare, at their own option, that underground storage as defined in Article 2(f) of this Directive can be exempted from the provisions in Article 13(d) and in Annex I, point 2, except first indent, points 3 to 5 and in Annex III, points 2, 3 and 5 to this Directive.