The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010

Interpretation and application of Part B

1.  For the purposes of Part B—

“adhesive” means any preparation, including all the organic solvents or preparations containing organic solvents necessary for its proper application, which is used to adhere separate parts of a product;

“adhesive coating” means any activity in which an adhesive is applied to a surface, excluding the application of adhesive and laminating associated with printing activities;

“coating” means any preparation, including all the organic solvents or preparations containing organic solvents necessary for its proper application, which is used to provide a decorative, protective or other functional effect on a surface;

“coating activity” means any activity in which a single or a multiple application of a continuous film of a coating is applied (including a step in which the same article is printed using any technique) but does not include the coating of substrate with metals by electrophoretic or chemical spraying techniques;

“coil coating” means any activity where coiled steel, stainless steel, coated steel copper alloys or aluminium strip is coated with either a film forming or laminate coating in a continuous process;

“consumption” means the total input of organic solvents into an installation per calendar year, or any other 12-month period, less any volatile organic compounds that are recovered for reuse;

“dry cleaning” means any industrial or commercial activity using volatile organic compounds to clean garments, furnishing and similar consumer goods excluding the manual removal of stains and spots in the textile and clothing industry;

“flexography” means a printing activity using an image carrier of rubber or elastic photopolymers on which the printing areas are above the non-printing areas, and liquid inks which dry through evaporation;

“footwear manufacture” means any activity of producing complete footwear or parts of footwear;

“heat web offset printing” means a web-fed printing activity using an image carrier in which the printing and non-printing area are in the same plane, where—

(a)

the non-printing area is treated to attract water and reject ink,

(b)

the printing area is treated to receive and transmit ink to the surface to be printed, and

(c)

evaporation takes place in the oven where hot air is used to heat the printed material;

“ink” means a preparation, including all the organic solvents or preparations containing organic solvents necessary for its proper application which is used in a printing activity to impress text or images on to a surface;

“laminating associated to a printing activity” means the adhering together of 2 or more flexible materials to produce laminates;

“manufacturing of coating preparations, varnishes, inks and adhesives” means the manufacture of coating preparations, varnishes, inks and adhesives as final products and where carried on at the same site, the manufacture of intermediates by the mixing of pigments, resins and adhesive materials with organic solvent or other carrier, including—

(a)

dispersion and pre-dispersion activities,

(b)

viscosity and tint adjustments, and

(c)

operations for filling the final product into its container;

“manufacturing of pharmaceutical products” means an activity that involves the—

(a)

chemical synthesis,

(b)

fermentation,

(c)

extraction, or

(d)

formulation and finishing,

of pharmaceutical products and, where carried on at the same site, the manufacture of intermediate products;

“the Motor Vehicle Directive” means Council Directive 70/156/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers(1);

“organic compound” means any compound containing at least the element carbon and one or more of hydrogen, halogens, oxygen, sulphur, phosphorus, silicon or nitrogen, with the exception of carbon oxides and inorganic carbonates and bicarbonates;

“organic solvents” means any volatile organic compound which is used alone or in combination with other agents, and without undergoing a chemical change to dissolve raw materials, products or waste materials, as a—

(a)

cleaning agent to dissolve contaminants,

(b)

dissolver,

(c)

dispersion medium,

(d)

viscosity adjuster,

(e)

surface tension adjuster,

(f)

plasticiser, or

(g)

preservative;

“other coating activities” means a coating activity applied to—

(a)

trailers, defined in categories O1, O2, O3, and O4 in the Motor Vehicle Directive,

(b)

metallic and plastic surfaces including surfaces of airplanes, ships, trains, or

(c)

textile, fabric, film and paper surfaces;

“printing activity” means any activity (not being a step in a coating activity) for reproducing text and/or images in which, with the use of an image carrier, ink is transferred onto any type of surface, including the use of associated varnishing, coating and laminating techniques;

“publication rotogravure” means a rotogravure printing activity used for printing paper for magazines, brochures, catalogues or similar products, using toluene-based inks;

“reuse” means the use of organic solvents recovered from an installation for any technical or commercial purpose and including use as a fuel but excluding the final disposal of such recovered organic solvent as waste;

“rotary screen printing” means a web-fed printing activity in which liquid ink which dries only through evaporation is passed onto the surface to be printed by forcing it through a porous image carrier, in which the printing area is open and the non-printing area is sealed off;

“rotogravure” means a printing activity, using a cylindrical image carrier in which the printing area is below the non-printing area and liquid inks which dry through evaporation, and in which the recesses are filled with ink and the surplus is cleaned off the non-printing area before the surface to be printed contacts the cylinder and lifts the ink from the recesses;

“rubber conversion” means—

(a)

any activity of mixing, milling, blending, calendering, extrusion or vulcanisation of natural or synthetic rubber, or

(b)

any ancillary operations for converting natural or synthetic rubber into a finished product;

“surface cleaning” means any activity, except dry cleaning, using organic solvents to remove contamination from the surface of material including degreasing but excluding the cleaning of equipment; and a cleaning activity consisting of more than one step before or after any other activity is to be considered as one surface cleaning activity;

“varnish” means a transparent coating;

“varnishing” means an activity by which varnish or an adhesive coating for the purpose of sealing the packaging material is applied to a flexible material;

“vegetable oil and animal fat extraction and vegetable oil refining activities” means any activity to extract vegetable oil from seeds and other vegetable matter, the processing of dry residues to produce animal feed, the purification of fats and vegetable oils derived from seeds, vegetable matter or animal matter;

“vehicle coating” means a coating activity applied to the following vehicles—

(a)

new cars, defined as vehicles of category M1 in the Motor Vehicle Directive, and of category N1 in so far as they are coated at the same installation as M1 vehicles,

(b)

truck cabins, defined as the housing for the driver, and all integrated housing for the technical equipment, of vehicles of category N2 or N3 in the Motor Vehicle Directive,

(c)

vans and trucks, defined as vehicles of category N1, N2 or N3 in the Motor Vehicle Directive, but not including truck cabins, or

(d)

buses, defined as vehicles in category M2 or M3 in the Motor Vehicle Directive;

“vehicle refinishing” means any industrial or commercial coating activity and associated degreasing activities performing—

(a)

the original coating of road vehicles as defined in the Motor Vehicle Directive or part of them with refinishing-type materials, where this is carried on away from the original manufacturing line, or

(b)

the coating of trailers (including semi-trailers) (category O in the Motor Vehicle Directive);

“volatile organic compound” or “VOC” means—

(a)

any organic compound having a vapour pressure of 0.01 or more kPa at 293.15K or having a corresponding volatility under the particular conditions of use, or

(b)

the fraction of creosote which exceeds a vapour pressure of 0.01 kPA at 293.15K;

“web-fed” means that the material to be printed is fed to the machine from a reel as distinct from separate sheets;

“winding wire coating” means any coating activity of metallic conductors used for winding the coils in transformers and motors, etc;

“wood and plastic lamination” means any activity to adhere together wood or plastic to produce laminated products;

“wood impregnation” means any activity giving a loading of preservative in timber.

2.  An activity is deemed to be operated above the solvent consumption threshold specified for that activity under Part B if the activity is likely to be operated above that threshold in any 12-month period.

3.  An activity listed in Part B includes the cleaning of equipment but, except for a surface cleaning activity, not the cleaning of products.

(1)

OJ No L42, 23.2.1970, p 1 (OJ/SE Series I Chapter 1970(I) P, p 82, as last amended by Directive 2006/40/EC (OJ No L 161, 14.6.2006, p 12).