About KME

KME and Community Directives

KME has played an active role in the laying out of the BAT in the EC Directive on prevention and control of emissions

KME played an active role in Seville as part of the European technical working group established by the European Commission at the European IPPC Bureau for the setting out of the reference documents for BAT (Best Available Techniques) in our sector (“Processing of non-ferrous metals”). The BAT are an integral part of Community Directive 96/61/EC, commonly known as the “IPPC Directive” (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) which determines the obligations of industry in the matter of the prevention and control of pollution.

Pollution prevention activities also effect production processes to guarantee a minimum environmental impact, to be obtained also via the diffusion and introduction of clean technologies determined by the implementation of Best Available Techniques (BAT).

The competent authorities may not impose the use of any given production or reduction technology, but must control the application of BAT and establish, for each individual plant, the emissions limits as provided by the BAT document itself (in our case, the Non-Ferrous Metal BREF).

We must emphasise that all KME plants were found to be already compliant with the emission limits established in the BAT documents.

KME: CUTTING EDGE PROCESSES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

All KME plants are equipped with processes which guarantee their compliance with the emissions limits provided by the BAT documents.

A particular mention goes to the foundry of the Italian Serravalle Scrivia (Alessandria) plant, which achieves maximum environmental protection with secondary fumes extraction via a roof mounted handling plant, one of the very few such systems installed in our industry in Europe.

It is remarkable how the plant in Serravalle Scrivia, heavily involved for years on the environmental scene, was not only the first Italian metallurgical plant to obtain the ISO 14001 certification in 2004, but it also received the AIA in June 2008, an "Integrated Environmental Authorization" that replaces all previous Italian authorisations for the environment. It makes the EU Directive No 96/61/EC known as IPPC (Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control) operational.

Serravalle Scrivia, KME Italy