BIR News

BIR SEEKS DEFINITIVE WASTE/NON-WASTE DEFINITIONS

Proposals to resolve the complex waste/non-waste issue were put forward by BIR director general Francis Veys at a special symposium on the subject held in Brussels in late February. The symposium was organized by the BIR and three of its sister trade associations: EFR (European Ferrous Recovery and Recycling Association), Eurometrec (European Metal Trade and Recycling Association) and ERPA (European Recovered Paper Association).

After a welcome from BIR president Anthony Bird, a special opening address was given by European Union (EU) environment commissioner Ritt Bjerregaard in a video message, followed by an introduction from Jean-François Verstrynge, deputy director General of the EU Industry Commission, and Jörn Keck, deputy director-general of the EU Commission of the Environment, Nuclear Safety and Civil Protection. The symposium drew more than 200 representatives of governments and industry from EU and non-EU countries.

During four sessions dealing with recycling and scrap industry topics, representatives of industry, national governments, European agencies, and international law firms gave a comprehensive outline of the situation in the European recycling industry.

Veys offered what he called “the simplest and most immediate solution” to the ongoing dispute of defining what is waste within Europe and for export reasons. He suggested a case-by-case guidance document that would provide concise interpretations on the basis of specific cases. A draft information sheet on second-hand clothing prepared by the Commission was cited by Veys as a good example of an approach that could be applied to other materials. Guidance notes could be added in a new annex to EU 91/156 without the need for a long, cumbersome legal procedure, said Veys. They would serve as a useful reference for competent authorities and industry at large.

Alternatively, a general guidance document could provide a harmonized interpretation of the definition of waste, with reference to European Court of Justice judgements and a series of criteria. He advocated use of the French methodological approach, outlined earlier in the symposium by Corinne Lepage, former French environment minister, which poses a number of standards to determine when a waste item becomes non-waste or a product. According to Veys, the recycling industry would have no difficulty in meeting these conditions, which range from stability of outlets and the employment of contracts to adherence to specifications and quality assurance.

Veys told the symposium that a new definition of waste was not the recycling industry’s short-term priority, although it might ultimately become necessary. A change could endanger the whole regulatory structure and policy on which the EU waste management program was based. However, something could be done about the “Annex IIB,” which lists “operations which may lead to recovery.” Collection, sorting and grading should be considered as part of materials recovery operations. A clear distinction should also be made between objects for re-use and material for recovery—the two prime examples were clothing and tires that might be directly reused or recycled as raw materials.

BIR President Anthony Bird insisted on the need for clarification of the distinction between waste and secondary raw material. “Waste for final disposal is waste and should be regulated as such,” he declared. “But the feedstocks that BIR members transport for manufacturing industries all over the world are not waste as they will never be wasted.”

On behalf of the European Commission, Pedro Ortun Silvan, director of the Basic Industries Directorate of the EU, and Dr. Ludwig Krämer, head of the Waste Management Unit of the Environment, Nuclear Safety and Civil Protection Commission, analyzed the results of the day’s discussions, stressing the need for a “common language and terminology on what we mean when we talk of products or waste.”

Dr. Krämer pointed out that the Commission was open for discussion with BIR on a guidance document and that case-by-case might be the only rational way to proceed. “Let us try to go to each different situation and each sector, analyze the different processes and steps and see if we can find some way ahead. How this can be translated into some legal form remains to be discussed.”

The performance of the recycling markets in 1998 was reviewed by EFR president Alan Crowe, Eurometrec president Anders Jungersen, and ERPA president Dominique Maguin. These bodies represent the EU ferrous, nonferrous and paper recycling industries, respectively. The role of the London Metal Exchange in setting underlying values for non-ferrous metals was explained by Raymond Sampson of the LME.

Florian Ermacora of the EU Environment Directorate Commission outlined the current definition of waste, pointing out that the qualifying word “discarded” applied to both recovery and disposal, regardless of economic value.

The OECD had concluded, said Henrik Harjula, that a globally harmonized control system should be the goal. But in four years of deliberation, the OECD had failed to reach consensus on the waste/non waste issue.

A sequence of contributions from industry experts explained the practical operation of recycling as applied to a range of commodities. Among speakers representing consumers, Gilbert Baillet of the French steel-maker USINOR referred to ferrous scrap as, “A perfectly normal raw material, very closely monitored and related very closely to the efficiency of our own job.”

Everard Van der Straten-Ponthoz of the Belgian corporation Metallo-Chimique International, pressed the need for more flexibility in the movement of secondary raw materials to retain metal in the economic cycle. Bert Barkmeijer of the paper-making group SCA called for the formal acceptance of recovered paper as a raw material when it conformed to commonly accepted standards.

In closing the symposium, Bird said that BIR would welcome similar initiatives on other aspects of recycling from the Commission and the government departments of member states. “This is the first time ever that the industry, the consumers and the authorities have talked openly and frankly over recycling industry matters,” he said.