Types of obligations, waste management operations, waste management responsibilities
Waste management operations
Waste management obligations
The most basic and essential rule of waste law is that the abandonment, dumping or uncontrolled management of waste is prohibited (Article 36). Irrespective of whether it is recovered (Article 10) or disposed of (Article 12), waste management is “carried out without endangering human health, without harming the environment (...)” (Article 13). This requirement is of paramount importance to significant case law. Thus, irrespective of whether any actual environmental damage occurs, the simple fact that a dump is not authorised and controlled is deemed to be harmful for the environment (Case C-449/03 Commission v. France; Case C-494/01 Commission of the European Communities v Ireland).
National waste management programmes must be established in an attempt “to break the link between economic growth and the environmental impact associated with the generation of waste” through the adoption of the Member States’ waste management objectives (Article 29 (1) and (2)).
Measures shall be taken to favour reuse and recycling: encouraging the establishment and support of reuse and repair networks, the use of economic instruments, procurement criteria, or quantitative objectives, inter alia. In order to promote “high-quality” recycling, separate collections of waste should be set up where technically, environmentally and economically practicable and appropriate, and this had to be achieved at the latest by 2015 for paper, metal, plastic and glass (Article 11 (1)). By 2020, the preparing for reuse and the recycling of these four types of waste materials from households (and possibly assimilated) shall reach at least a minimum of overall 50% by weight. In addition, a minimum of 70% by weight of non-hazardous construction and demolition waste shall be subjected to various types of “material recovery” (Article 11 (2)).