The Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) states that “recovery” shall mean any of the operations listed in Annex II to the Directive.
These operations are:
| R1 | Use principally as a fuel or other means to generate energy |
| R2 | Solvent reclamation/regeneration |
| R3 | Recycling/reclamation of organic substances which are not used as solvents (including composting and other biological transformation processes) (**) |
| R4 | Recycling/reclamation of metals and metal compounds |
| R5 | Recycling/reclamation of other inorganic materials (***) |
| R6 | Regeneration of acids and bases |
| R7 | Recovery of components used for pollution abatement |
| R8 | Recovery of components from catalysts |
| R9 | Oil re-refining or other reuses of oil |
| R10 | Land treatment resulting in benefit to agriculture or ecological improvement |
| R11 | Use of waste obtained from any of the operations numbered R1 to R10 |
| R12 | Exchange of waste for submission to any of the operations numbered R1 – R11 (****) |
| R13 | Storage of waste pending any of the operations numbered R1 to R12 (excluding temporary storage, pending collection, on the site where the waste is produced) (*****) |
(*) This includes incineration facilities dedicated to the processing of municipal waste only where their energy efficiency is equal to or above:
- 0,60 for installations in operation and permitted in accordance with applicable Community legislation before 1 January 2009
- 0,65 for installations permitted after 31 December 2008
(**) This includes gasification and pyrolisis using the components as chemicals
(***) This includes soil cleaning resulting in recovery of the soil and recycling of inorganic construction materials
(***) If there is no other R code appropriate, this can include preliminary operations prior to recovery including pre-processing such as, inter alia, dismantling, sorting, crushing, compacting, pelletising, drying, shredding, conditioning, repackaging, separating, blending or mixing prior to submission to any of the operations numbered R1 to R11
(****) Temporary storage means preliminary storage according to point (10) of Article 3
