EU Court Rules On Waste Shipments

National regulatory authorities have been handed the power to refuse to allow waste shipments to leave European Union ports or cross their territories via inland waterways, whether they represent the country sending a cargo, receiving it or being used for transhipment after a key ruling by the European Court of Justice.

Judges said that all EU member states had the duty to examine whether waste cargoes officially destined for recycling and recovery, (such as waste-for-energy schemes), were to be processed this way, or were actually earmarked for straight disposal, (such as landfilling), for which regulations allowing cross-border shipments are stricter.

The case centered on an Austrian waste operator Abfall Service AG, which wanted to send 7,000 metric tons of hazardous incinerator ash and slag to Germany, for sealing disused mines.

While the German environmental authorities approved the shipment, the Austrians refused and the case was referred to the ECJ to rule whether under EU law, the state of the waste supplier could block such a movement. Lloyds List