BIR Meets to Discuss Recycling Issues

The second meeting of the OECD Working Group on Waste Prevention and Recycling took place in Washington, D.C., late last month. The Business and Industry Advisory Council delegation was headed by its recently appointed chairman Ross Bartley, BIR’s Environmental & Technical Director, Sound Management and Extended Producer Responsibility, which was involved in recent EPR programs on end-of-life automobiles and electrical/electronic waste. Also featuring in the work program were the following: facilitation of closed-loop recycling and product take-back programs; the need to understand markets for secondary materials; and indicators to measure performance.

The second WGWPR meeting - the inaugural gathering took place in Paris last October - was preceded by the third OECD workshop on Environmentally Sound Management of Wastes Destined for Recovery Operations. This emphasized the use of a set of ‘Core Performance Elements’ that are still being elaborated, as well as the use of existing environmental management systems such as ISO 14001. The workshop produced an acknowledgement of the need to assist small and medium sized enterprises in implementing such systems. A specific guideline document on ESM for personal computers is very near completion.

In effect, companies that treat, re-use, recover and recycle wastes will be encouraged to attain those Core Performance Elements within their competence as well as ISO 14001 accreditation or parts of it. While much of this work stems from government decisions made over a decade ago, the detailed route now being planned demonstrates how governments have come to recognize the difficulties faced by small and micro enterprises, as well as the need for many voluntary elements within the ESM system so that it can be tailored to fit the wide range of companies in the sector.

Previously, the OECD Working Group on Waste Management Policy had completed its consolidation work to replace the familiar ‘Green, Amber and Red lists’ of the OECD with its new Council Decision C107. The new group WGWPR, whose name reflects a shift in emphasis from ‘waste management policy’ to ‘waste prevention and recycling’, has taken over the remaining files relating to these harmonisation and consolidation efforts.

In general, industry should be pleased with the OECD Council Decision although more could have been done to accelerate the notification system. While the new Decision does not itself speed up the notification process, trials of ‘on-line’ notification systems are now taking place in North America between Canada and the United States, and in the EU between the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and Belgium. These may lead to an acceleration of the process at some point in the future.