Brussels, 31/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - An EU regulation adopted by the European Commission on Thursday 31 March should give a serious boost to recycling in the EU because the new end-of-waste regulation sets out clear criteria to decide exactly when waste is no longer waste and is actually a new product or a raw material. The setting of the new criteria was required by the new EU Waste Directive to sharply increase recycling and reduce the use of new natural resources as far as possible.
Environment Commissioner Janez Potoènik said: “We must start treating waste as a valuable resource, and the adoption today of these end-of-waste criteria for material streams will really boost our recycling industry and services. It marks another important step towards Europe's goal of becoming a resource-efficient economy and a recycling society.”
The regulation that clean and safe metal scrap does not have to be classified as waste provided producers apply a quality management system and demonstrate compliance with the criteria by a statement of conformity for each metal scrap consignment.
Any kind of treatment, like cutting, shredding, cleaning and de-pollution needed to prepare the scrap for the final use in steel or aluminium works or foundries has to be completed before the metal scrap can be released from waste status.
For example, old cars have to be dismantled, fluids and hazardous compounds removed and the metal fraction treated in order to recover clean metal scrap which meets the end-of-waste criteria.
The new criteria provide legal security and homogenous conditions for competition in the recycling industry, scrapping red tape and withdrawing clean secondary raw materials that are no danger to the environment from the waste legislation. The new rules will help ensure harmonisation of raw materials in the EU industry. However, in the past were no clear criteria determining when a material recovered from waste ceases to be waste and can be dealt with as other products or raw materials, and each member state drew up its own rules. The regulation comes into force when it is published in the EU Official Journal and will be directly applicable in the member states after a six-month transition period. (A.N./transl.fl)