BIR Environmental Committee Wrangles Over Terms

The definition of waste continued to be a contentious issue for the recycling industry. During the recently held fall meeting of the Bureau of International Recycling, discussion ranged over definitions essential to the scrap recycling industry.

Pat Neenan, Environment Committee chair, said the BIR was continuing to seek ‘legal certainty’ on when a waste ceased to be a waste, as well as on when materials such as co-products, by-products or residues were not wastes. Despite these uncertainties, inter-governmental bodies were ‘trying to tighten their application of the imperfect definition in specific cases’, in a move that would almost certainly lead to ‘trouble ahead’. The European List of Wastes, due to come into effect in January 2002, will aggravate this situation.

Industry organizations, meanwhile, were pushing ahead with proposals for a change in the European definition of waste in the framework directive, and supporting a Guidance Document from France outlining a more practical interpretation of the definition.

In his review of regulatory matters affecting the recycling industry, Neenan pointed to the ‘stronger line’ adopted by the European Parliament on issues such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directive. Whereas the European Commission had sought a collection target of 4 kilograms per head per year and the creation of efficient collection systems, the Parliament had called for all WEEE to be collected separately and for a target of at least 6 kilogram per head per year. The Parliament also wanted a total ban on disposal of unsorted WEEE.

A common Council of Ministers position was anticipated this month, while adoption of the WEEE directive was likely at the end of next year. Implementation by Member States could then follow by December 2006. A similar time scale was anticipated for the related Restriction on Hazardous Substances directive.

Guest speaker Terry Sheridan, assistant principal for Waste Prevention and Recovery at the Republic of Ireland’s Ministry of the Environment, spoke of Ireland’s plans for a ‘radical transformation’ of the country’s poor waste management performance. Ireland recovered only 9 percent of municipal waste and 27 percent of industrial waste in 1998 but, by 2013, the government hopes to divert 50 percent of household waste from landfill while achieving 35 percent material recycling of municipal waste.

Second guest speaker Kathleen O’Donoghue, manager of Membership Services for REPAK Ireland, said her organization helped increase packaging recycling in Ireland from 53,000 metric tons in 1997 to 146,000 metric tons last year. A goal of 450,000 metric tons had been set for 2005. These recycling efforts had been boosted in late 2000, she said, by the introduction of the REPAK Payment Subsidy Scheme that provided a material specific subsidy per metric ton of packaging waste recycled at a level which was varied each month in line with market prices.