CLEAN AIR ACT 1993

The Clean Air Act prohibits the emission of dark smoke from industrial or trade premises.  

The purpose of the Clean Air Act is to regulate air pollution, particularly emissions of dark smoke. The main provisions of the Act include:  

• prohibition of dark smoke from industrial or trade premises; including from industrial bonfires;
• prohibition of dark smoke from chimneys serving boilers and industrial plant;
• a requirement for all new furnaces, as far as practicable, to be smokeless;
• the local authority must be advised of any plan to install a new furnace, and the regulators will consider if the unit will burn fuel without smoke emissions;
• establishment of a system of prior approval by local authorities of chimney heights; and
• establishment of smoke control areas and smoke control orders (these are established by local authorities and once an order has been made it becomes an offence to emit smoke within a smoke control area).

In the Act 'dark smoke' means smoke which, if compared in the appropriate manner with a Ringlemann Chart, would appear to be as dark as or darker than Shade 2.

Section VI of this Act exempts obligated activities under PPC from parts I (Dark Smoke) and III (Smoke Control Areas) of the Clean Air Act as well as waste operations obligated under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010, as amended. Other sections still apply; most notably Part II on smoke, grit, dust and fumes. Part II requires:

• new furnaces to be smokeless, as far as is practicable;
• arrestment plant to be fitted;
• chimney and furnace stack heights to be approved by the local authority following an application; and
• measurements of grit, dust and fume to be undertaken by occupiers and local authorities.

Regulations made under earlier Acts (1956 and 1968 Clean Air Acts) still apply. These include: 

• The Dark Smoke (Permitted Periods) Regulations 1958, which specifies certain times at which the emission of dark smoke from a chimney is considered not to be an offence.
• The Clean Air (Emission of Dark Smoke) (Exemption) Regulations 1969, which makes provision for exempting the destruction of some materials in industrial bonfires, where there is no other reasonably safe or practical disposal method.
• Clean Air (Height of Chimneys) (Exemption) Regulations 1969, which defines the circumstances under which chimney heights do not have to be approved.
• Clean Air (Arrestment Plant) (Exemptions) Regulations 1969, which specifies certain exemptions from the requirement that non-domestic furnaces are equipped with properly maintained grit and dust arrestment plant.
• Clean Air (Measurement of Grit and Dust from Furnaces) Regulations 1971, which sets out the procedural requirements for the measurement of grit and dust emissions from relevant furnaces.
• Clean Air (Emission of Grit and Dust from Furnaces) Regulations 1971, which sets maximum permitted quantities of grit and dust that can be emitted from certain categories of combustion plant (including boilers), according to their rating.

Sections 30 and 32 only of the Act apply to Northern Ireland. These relate to the composition and content of motor fuel and fuel oil.

Applicability

This legislation is applicable to all of Ardagh's British sites.

Ardagh Glass Ltd operate a number of combustion processes on each site.  Under normal operations these processes are not expected to result in emissions of dark smoke as all sites use gas firing; however, as the gas supply to these sites is interruptible, on occassion medium density fuel oil is combusted. Under these circumstances, the company must take extra vigilance, in particular during start up and shut down, to ensure that dark smoke is not generated.

Electrostatic precipitators are fitted to stacks that have the potential to emit particulates. Emissions are tested regularly and the company representative reported no issues with dust or particulate emissions from any site. In addition, the company does not burn wastes, or have bonfires on site. 

The company representative has reported that each site carries out a visual inspection of the stack on a twice-daily basis.   This is conducted out using a Ringelmann chart and the results recorded in the relevant furnace log-book.

No complaints or non-compliance issues have been reported from any of Ardagh's sites within the past 12 months.

Related Aspects
Fire Furnace Emissions Dust from onsite processes Dust from Construction or Demolimation Boiler House Boiler House