The European Commission has today (11 July) proposed stronger legislation on national inspections of waste shipments, to crack down on waste being exported illegally.

The EU Waste Shipment Regulation (Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006) (WSR) bans all exports of hazardous waste to non-OECD countries and all exports of waste for disposal outside the EU. However, the EC says that around 25 per cent of waste shipments sent from the EU illegally end up in developing countries that often lack the infrastructure needed to process waste effectively. As such, waste (especially hazardous waste) is often dumped or mismanaged, causing ‘causing serious negative impacts on human health and the environment’.

To counter this, the EC has proposed amendments to the WSR to ensure all member states are following stringent inspection procedures. Indeed, the EC notes that although the WSR currently contains a general provision on enforcement (‘checks on shipments shall include the inspection of documents, the confirmation of identity and, where appropriate, physical checking of the waste’), standards are left to member states, and as such ‘the lack of harmonised inspection procedures undermines a proper functioning of the internal market’. The EC has now proposed establishing minimum inspection requirements throughout the EU, to ensure ‘sufficient controls are carried out in all member states’.

Waste Shipment Regulation amendments

The amendments include:

• carrying out risk assessments covering specific waste streams and sources of illegal shipments and using these to drive annual inspection plans (which should be published annually);
• considering intelligence–based data, such as police investigations and analyses of criminal activities to crack down on illegal activities;
• requiring evidence of the legality and source of a shipment (such as whether the shipment is ‘waste’ or not) from persons responsible for a shipment;
• inspecting collection points and storage facilities so any illegal activity can be caught earlier;
• greater co-operation between authorities; and
• better training of inspectors.

Of these, the EC found that inspection planning is the most important proposal in terms of cracking down on illegal waste shipments, followed by requiring evidence from suspected illegal waste exporters to check the legality of shipments.

The EC amendment document reads: ‘[A] combination of EU legislative requirements and guidance would be the most effective option to address the problems related to illegal waste shipments. This option would also have the lowest net costs and the most positive economic, social and environmental impacts. It would result in significant cost savings for clean-up and repatriation as well as indirect cost savings for member states where waste transits. Industry would also benefit from harmonisation of legislation. Higher quantities of waste routed through legal channels would lead to optimised processes, better sorting techniques and better waste quality. A legal requirement to reinforce inspections could also create new jobs and avoid relocation of jobs outside the EU.’

Indeed, the EC estimates that the additional inspections required would break even if less than one per cent of all the yearly inspections resulted in average fines.

Further, the EC is also placing greater clarity on what is termed as ‘reuse’ to ensure that resources aren’t being sent abroad when they still hold value. The proposals suggest adding a new paragraph to Article 2 of the WSR that reads: ‘“re-use” means any operation by which products or components that are not waste are used again for the same purpose for which they were conceived’.

‘Time for stricter controls’

Speaking of the amendments, Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik said: "It's time for stricter controls in all member states – that's the best way of stopping dishonest exporters from taking advantage of the system. Today's proposal will help to reduce mismanagement of waste, make sure hazardous waste is dealt with properly and see that valuable resources are reused.”

The proposal takes account of the results of a public consultation during which 90 per cent of stakeholders expressed wide support in favour of EU legislative requirements on waste shipment inspections. The proposal also hopes to address concerns raised by SMEs about the operation of the WSR, in particular the fact that due to differences in implementation and interpretation across Europe, the regulation has not led ‘to the creation of a common market for waste utilisation and recycling’.

The amendments to the regulation shall go to the European Parliament Council for consideration 'in autumn'.

The news follows a similar consultation launched by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in March in regards to amending the UK’s Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007 ‘to improve enforcement and control of the waste exports regime, in particular, to help combat illegal waste exports from the UK’.

Speaking of the EC's proposals, a Defra spokesperson said: “Illegal export of waste is unacceptable. We have a good system of inspections in the UK and would like to see effective systems in place across all member states to stop illegal exports.”

Read the EC’s ‘Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 on shipments of waste’.