The process taking place in the Centre Integral de Valorització de Residus del Maresme ensures a truly environmentally and human health friendly treatment of the waste.

Both the MBT plant and the Waste-to-Energy plant, through their corresponding environmental authorization respectively, comply with all the legal requirements set by the relevant authorities.

Regarding the recovery of energy, the Directive 2000/76/CE, of 4th December, concerning the incineration of waste, sets the environmental requirements and limits the emissions for this activity. The new Directive of Industrial Emissions adds some modifications to this regulation and strengthens the role of the Best Available Techniques (BAT).

The conversion of Directive 2000/76 / EC was in Spain RD 653/2003, of May 30, on waste incineration. This has been repealed by RD 815/2013, of October 18, which approves the Regulation of industrial emissions and development of Law 16/2002, of July 1, on integrated pollution prevention and control.

All the emissions come to be measured continuously, keeping the periodical measurements only for heavy metals (except for Hg, measured continuously) and dioxins and furans.

Regarding the emissions of dioxins and furans, the limit is 0.1 ng/Nm3. The Catalan plants not only comply with this limit, but also have real emissions, since years before the enforcement of the new limits (December 2005), much below this value (usually between 10 and 100 times below).

Information on the emissions can be found in the section “Analytical results” in the webpage menu.

In addition to the comprehensive control of the emissions, an independent accredited laboratory carries out a daily control of the immissions –ambiental air from two control stations located near the plant.

This way, the strict gas depuration systems in the Centre show they are entirely effective towards the achievement of the legal environmental quality levels –emissions and immissions– without any technical problems.

Since 1995 to present, the Waste-to-Energy plant in Mataró has gone through eight stages in the biological monitorization study called “Evolució dels nivells de dioxines (PCDD), furans (PCDF), policlorats bifenils (PCB) i metalls pesants (Pb, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, As) a les poblacions de Mataró i Arenys de Mar” (“Evolution of the levels of dioxins (PCDD, furans (PCDF), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, As) in the towns of Mataró and Arenys de Mar”), carried out by the Unitat de Recerca del Consorci Sanitari del Maresme (Research Unit of the Maresme Health Consortium).
From phase VI of the study, controls were also incorporated into the breast milk of women from Mataró.

The results of the different population groups studied (exposed, control and workers of the Waste-to-Energy plant) show that there is no relationship between the concentration of pollutants and the proximity to the Waste-to-Energy plant.

In addition to the continuity of the biological monitoring study that the Consortium started in 1995, for phase VI of this study and to date, the Mataró incinerator has carried out three phases of the environmental monitoring study "Evolution of dioxin levels ( PCDD), furans (PCDF), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, As) to the populations of Mataró and Arenys de Mar, and Evaluation of the risks to the health of the population , derived from the exhibition of the activity of the plant ", prepared by the company LABSAME SL (new name of the company TecnITox Solutions S.L. attached to the Rovira y Virgili University).

The results of the various phases show the absence of significant risks to public health derived from the operation of the facility.