EU - Amendment on Annex V to EU REACH Regulation

​Annex V to Regulation (EC) No.1906/2006 (EU REACH Regulation) contains a list of substances that are exempt from the obligation to register in accordance with Article 2(7)(b) of that Regulation.

Digestate is a residual semisolid or liquid material that has been sanitized and stabilized by a biological treatment process, of which the last step is an anaerobic digestion step, and where the inputs used in that process are biodegradable materials originating only from non-hazardous source segregated materials, such as food waste, manutre and energy crops.
Biogas resulting from the same process as digestate or from other anaerobic digestion process, as well as compost resulting from the aerobic decomposition process of similar biodegradable materials, are already listed in Annex V to Regulation (EC) No.1907/2006.

Therefore, digestate that is either not waste or has ceased to be waste should also be listed in that Annex, as it is inappropriate and unnescessary to require that substance to be registered and as its exemption from Title II, V and VI of Regulation (EC) No.1907/2006 does not prejudice the objectives of that Regulation.

In Annex V to Regulation (EC) No.1907/2006, point 12 is replaced by the following:
'12. Compost, biogas and digestate.'.

This shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union (i.e. October 30, 2019).