Integrated environmental permit through Best Available Techniques: Evaluation of the dairy industry

The main conclusions indicate that the degree of implementation of BAT is, in general, quite poor especially those related to waste management. The 2 plants “theoretically” with the largest number of BAT implemented are the most pollutant ones (taken into account emissions). The reason is not that BATs are not effective but every plant has its particularities (age, the kind of fuel used, and so on) and therefore, each one has its own needs from an environmental point of view. Then BAT should be selected for the most pollutant flows, the so called Improvable Flows (IF). These IF must be identified previously with adequate tools, followed by the selection of the appropriate BATs from an updated inventory. This analysis could be extrapolated and applied to the rest of the installations of this sector.