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Environment

Polychlorinated biphenyls and polychlorinated terphenyls (PCBs/PCTs)

EU rules to ensure the safe disposal of PCBs/PCTs to protect human health and the environment. 

Overview

Workers fully protected against toxic fumes carrying dangerous materials
© Smederevac, Getty Images

Certain chemicals, including PCBs and PCTs, are identified as highly toxic and are now heavily restricted. Products containing these chemicals are still being discarded. This type of waste must therefore be handled with great care.

PCBs and PCTs are manmade chemicals that were produced on a large scale across the world between the 1930s and 1980s. They were often used in lubricants and in electrical and hydraulic equipment.

They are pervasive and have since been detected in soil, surface and ground water, as well as in food. They are now classified as probable human carcinogens and produce various adverse effects in both humans and animals.

In the 1970s, several countries limited the utilisation of them. Their use and marketing have been very heavily restricted in Europe since 1985.

Find a summary of the legislation here.

Objectives

The Directive on the disposal of PCBs/PCTs entered into force on 16 September 1996.

It aims to ensure the environmentally sound disposal of these chemicals and of the equipment containing them as soon as possible.

Law

Under the law, EU countries must ensure that they:-

  • Make inventories of big equipment containing PCBs or PCTs
  • Adopt plans for the disposal of this equipment and safely dispose of it (deadline for disposal was the end of 2010)
  • Prepare outlines for collecting and disposing of non-inventoried equipment containing PCBs and PCTs (such as most household appliances manufactured before the ban on these chemicals)

Under the recast of the POPs Regulation in 2019, all remaining PCBs within dielectric equipment in concentrations above 0.005% and in volumes greater than 50 ml must be destroyed or irreversibly transformed by the end of 2025 at the latest.

See more on the restriction of hazardous chemicals in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS) and persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

Timeline

Key dates related to EU rules on PCBs/PCTs

  1. 31 December 2025
    Upcoming deadline

    For all remaining PCBs within di-electric equipment in concentrations above 0.005% and in volumes greater than 50 ml to be identified and removed from use.

    At the end of 2010, EU counties had to decontaminate or dispose of equipment containing PCB volumes of more than 5 litres. This did not apply to transformers containing between 0.05 % and 0.005 % by weight of PCBs or PCTs, which could be disposed of at the end of their useful lives.

  2. 16 September 1999
    Member States sent inventories of equipment with PCB volumes of more than 5 dm³ to the European Commission.
  3. 16 March 1998
    Deadline for EU countries to incorporate the Directive into national law
  4. 16 September 1996
    Directive on the disposal of PCBs/PCTs enters into force

Related links

Contact

For questions about EU environmental policy, please contact Europe Direct.