The designation of amendment sheet 2506-2 contains a maximum amount of plastic that recycling granulates may contain. At the moment that a different standard may apply in the future for aggregates under the Construction Products Regulation...

Order of the State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management of [date], No. IENW/BSK-, amending the 2022 Soil Quality Regulation updating standards documents and regulatory maintenance of Annexes C and D

The Soil Quality Regulation 2022 addresses the requirements of the Soil Quality Decree (2006/0496/NL).

The Soil Quality Regulation 2022 indicates standards documents that lay down detailed rules to ensure that work on soil research and protection is carried out with good quality and integrity (the ‘Kwalibo’ system). The Soil Quality Regulation 2022 also contains the environmental quality requirements with which construction materials, dredged materials and soil must comply.
Companies carrying out activities designated in the Soil Quality Regulation 2022 must be recognised by the Minister based on accreditation or certification. This is done on the basis of these standards documents.
In addition, the Soil Quality Regulation 2022 has designated standards documents that allow producers to demonstrate, by means of certification of construction materials or soil, that the building materials or soil they produce comply with the environmental quality requirements set out in the Soil Quality Regulation 2022. On that basis, the producer may be accredited by the minister and market the soil or building material with an accredited quality declaration. The recognised quality declaration is one method for proving environmental quality. Other means of proof are also possible, so the recognised quality declaration and certification on which it is based is therefore voluntary.
Standards documents are updated regularly. The designation in the Soil Quality Regulation 2022 takes place on the basis of the Soil Quality Decree. The standards documents have now been modified:
- The assessment guidelines for tank installations (mandatory for the design, installation, modification, (re)classification, inspection and repair of underground fuel tanks)
- The assessment guideline for product certification of the environmental properties of recycling granulate (voluntary)
In the Soil Quality Regulation 2022 (2021/0290/NL), Articles 2.1 and 2.2 refer to Annex C. This Annex C is amended to use the updated standards documents. The standards documents mentioned here contain the actual technical requirements.
A mutual recognition provision has already been included in the Soil Quality Decree (see 2006/0496/NL). This was carried out in Article 13 of that Soil Quality Decree. In order to comply with the principle of the freedom to provide services, the aforementioned article contains provisions on mutual recognition. According to this article, certificates, accreditations and recognitions issued in another EU Member State or in another country party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area are treated as certificates, accreditations and recognitions issued in the Netherlands. Mutual recognition is possible on the link of Article 13 of the Soil Quality Decree (2006/0496/NL), provided that a comparable level of protection for Dutch soil is achieved.
All standards documents referred to have been checked for possible incompatibility with the European Construction Products Regulation (REGULATION (EU) 2024/3110 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 November 2024 laying down harmonised conditions for the marketing of construction products and repealing Regulation (EU) No. 305/2011).
The amended standards document for product certification of recycling granulate does not introduce additional technical requirements to be followed to demonstrate that recycling granulate meets the environmental quality requirements set out in the Soil Quality Regulation 2022. The reason is that this document is not mandatory. However, additional requirements have been included in the standards document in order to meet the quality requirements that exist in the Dutch market.
The generally applicable environmental quality requirements are included in the Soil Quality Regulation 2022 and remain unchanged. For the environmental quality requirements and establishing that they are met, there is still...