BIR News

Environment Ministers Adopt Strict Rules

Despite research showing that many secondary raw materials are not hazardous, the EU has passed legislation restricting the international commodity trade.

The Bureau of International Recycling, Brussels, had a very busy year in 1996, with a great deal of effort put into preserving the recycling industry’s freedom to trade throughout the world. In addition to the battle on the Basel front (see the BIR column in the November 1996 issue of Recycling Today), the BIR has had to tackle the challenge at the European level.

On December 10, 1996, the European Union Environment Ministers unanimously reached a political agreement on legislation regarding the supervision and control of waste shipments within, into and out of the European Community. The new regulation is in line with a decision made by the parties of the Basel Convention in March 1994 to prohibit immediately the export of hazardous waste destined for final disposal – and, starting in January 1998, the export of such waste destined for recycling and recovery – to countries that are not members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.

It is no surprise to the recycling industry that this political agreement has been made. However, the EU decision blatantly disregards scientific work completed and still in progress in the Basel Convention Technical Working Group, which is supported by the United Nations Environment Program and attended by world technical experts, including those from the EU.

Recent statements from members of the European Parliament and discussions with representatives of the European Coal and Steel Community have made it apparent that the recycling industry is not alone in its concerns over the definition of "waste".

In its report on the Commission’s Communication titled "Fresh Impetus For Restructuring The Steel Industry In The Community", the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy stated that "it would be advisable to declassify scrap as waste in Community legislation."

The president of the ECSC Consultative Committee, P. Diederich, has confirmed that under the ECSC Treaty, ferrous and steel scrap materials are granted the status of raw materials, and that this should remain so in the best interest of the European steel industry.

Disregarding this and all other technical evidence, as well as the needs of non-OECD countries, the EU environmental authorities seem bent on keeping their own hazardous waste lists in addition to the Basel list.

The Council’s proposed amendment will effectively prevent trade from EU member states to non-OECD countries in a broad range of second-

ary raw materials, including many important sources of base metals, precious metal residues, silver-containing ash from the incineration of film, and acidic or basic solutions with a pH between 2 and 11.5.

This is in spite of the full participation of EU member states and the Commission in the deliberations of the Basel Convention’s TWG, which has decided that such trade is not subject to the ban because the materials concerned are not hazardous.

Trade in these materials will, however, continue from non-EU states to non-OECD countries and between non-OECD countries, since a continuing supply is essential for industry in many non-OECD countries.

The additional restrictions contained in the EU proposal will not result in any additional protection to the environment but will seriously damage EU industry and commerce.

The EU has taken an unnecessarily tougher stance than is justifiable. This will distort the market and upset the viability of the recycling industry.

Meanwhile, discussions continue on the Basel Convention front. At press time, the convention's Technical Working Group is meeting in Geneva. A BIR delegation is attending to voice the recycling industry's viewpoint.

This is an important meeting, as it is probably the last TWG before the Fourth Conference of the Parties (COP IV) which will take place in October 1997.

After the official meeting in Manchester last September, the TWG met for two days in December 1996 in Bonn at a private meeting, without the participation of industry and non-governmental organizations.

The challenges remaining for the Basel Convention are to ascertain the official standing of the lists A, B and C (these lists classify materials as hazardous, somewhat hazardous, or not hazardous). The group must decide whether these lists are intended for guidance or whether they are legally binding.

There is a continued need for review as science, technology and waste generation changes. The lists are not exhaustive and some parties have realized that these will not be easily understood by the border inspectors who are supposed to use them, especially as some materials are listed twice.

BIR will submit further technical evidence that most of the materials traded by the industry are not hazardous. It also continues to bring its financial support to the independent environmental research carried out by Professor Donaldson of Brunel University in the United Kingdom.

The issue of whether recyclable materials are classified as waste or non-waste also remains a challenge for the United Nations Environment Program, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Union. As long as this issue has not been settled, confusion will reign and BIR will oppose any rule which could directly or indirectly hinder international free trade of innocuous secondary raw materials.