The criticism of the Commission and lobbyists, as well as some sections of the media, came today from federations representing the metals and paper sector. Their counterparts in the UK include the two paper trade associations – the CPI and the IWPPA – as well as the British Metals Recycling Association.
The European recycling federations EFR (ferrous metals), EUROMETREC (non-ferrous metals) and ERPA (paper) issued a statement saying they “denounce inaccurate statements that report high percentages of illegal waste shipments out of the EU. These statistics are likely to mislead recycling companies, consumers (steelworks, smelters, paper mills) and legislators alike.
“Over the past years, certain lobby organisations have been reporting very high percentages of illegal shipments of waste out of the EU. In late 2007 for example, several EU trade organisations claimed that “51% of all shipments are illegal and of the remaining, 43% have irregularities”. However, such a presentation of these statistics is misleading.”
Targeted loads
The organisations, which work with the Bureau of International Recycling, say that the figures are being misused in that the data for illegal shipments should be applied to specifically targeted loads. They explained that the data shows “less than 0.5% of EU waste shipments have been found to be illegal, which may indicate a less than 1-in-20 chance of detection of an illegal shipment, and it would also be acceptable to state that some 51% of EU waste shipments pre-selected as potentially illegal were confirmed as illegal shipments”.
The organisations add: “It is important to say that illegal transports of waste are not found randomly, but that normally a pre-selection amongst all waste shipments is carried out, on which subsequently physical inspections are being conducted. Therefore it is incorrect to reason that +/-50% of any batch of waste shipments will be illegal.”
A spokesman for the grouping said: “Sadly, few people care to challenge the misuse of statistics, but such distortions are likely to upset business plans and result in unsubstantiated legislative proposals.
A headline in a recycling magazine from December 2005 claimed that half of 'EU waste exports are found to be illegal', encouraging in particular some copper and aluminium recyclers to still talk in such spectacular and misleading terms. And even the EU Commission states in COM (2007) 707 final that “in joint inspections carried out in 30 EU ports by 13 Member States simultaneously in the framework of IMPEL around 50% of the waste shipments were found to be illegal. Such a statement, in failing to explain the context of pre-selection, misleads the reader.”
The three federations say that the best sources, releases and statements on illegal waste shipments that can be relied upon are by IMPEL-TFS, the group of European environmental agencies.
The European federations EFR, EUROMETREC and ERPA support the strengthening of the work done by IMPEL-TFS in strengthening the waste shipment legislation enforcement, in particular with regard to inspections. However, they strongly object to the proliferation and misuse of distorted statistics that suggest a more fundamental problem with the regulation.
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