Europe expected to re-assess waste shipment laws

At present, exports of non-hazardous “green list” waste materials to non-OECD countries are governed by Commission Regulation 801/2007, which came into force in July alongside regulations for exports within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, the Bureau of International Recycling's environmental and technical director, Ross Bartley, told the meeting of the International Environmental council in Warsaw last week that these controls were likely to be “short-lived” – with new regulations emerging later this year or in early 2008.

This is because they have only taken into account the regulation desires of only 21 of over 160 non-OECD countries when the rest failed to reply to a questionnaire about the regulations. Some of the responses even conflicted with previous correspondence with the countries, adding to the confusion.

Addressing a meeting of the International Environmental council in Warsaw last week, Mr Bartley explained that now the EU Commission had more responses these would be taken into account – although it is not clear yet how this will affect them.

He said: “The dialogue of EU Commission and non-OECD country missions was not good enough to set up a regulation properly. One of the mistakes made was not to recognise the previous replies.”

Enforcement

How the EU shipment regulations are enforced was also up for discussion in Poland.

Kees Wielenga, of Belgium-based Ffact Management consultants, explained that the The European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) was currently working with 10 EU Member States to crack down on illegal waste shipment and promote consistency throughout Europe.

The aim of the project is to focus on the problem companies while respecting the differences between administrative infringements and attempts to export illegal, environmentally-risky cargo.

Magda Gosk, who works for Poland's Environment Protection Inspectorate, explained that in the past, similar inspections have uncovered “really high levels of non-compliance”.

Kinga Zgierska from the scrap chamber of commerce in Warsaw argued that transitional arrangements for sending waste material to Poland were hampering imports of some vital secondary raw materials, mainly through delays in the issuing of authorisations.

Mr Gosk explained that the Polish government had introduced provisions to reduce the burden of these transitional measures, which have also raised concern amongst textile recyclers (see letsrecycle.com story).

Lindsay Millington, director general of British Metals Recycling Association writes more about illegal shipments in this week's letsrecycle.com opinion section.