EU waste legal instruments
With respect to waste, the EU’s environmental policy operates within a complex international legal framework, which is quite constrained by the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Waste and Disposal of 22 March 1989 (hereinafter - the Basel Convention). The objective of the Basel Convention is to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects of hazardous wastes. The scope of application of the Basel Convention covers a wide range of wastes defined as “hazardous wastes” based on their origin and/or composition and their characteristics, as well as household waste and incinerator ash.
The EU legal framework pertaining to waste is structured by the so-called Waste Framework Directive, which defines the legal category of waste. This includes provisions of what is not waste, for example by-products (substances or objects obtained from a production process, the primary aim of which is not the production of that substance or object) and products obtained from recovered waste (further to recycling). These provisions have been among the most litigious of EU environmental law, as the question of whether a given substance or object is waste has been fiercely disputed since 1975 when the predecessor to the current Waste Framework Directive was first adopted. This is because, uniquely, even waste remains susceptible to the potential of economic exploitation.
The Waste Framework Directive also lays down the main rules applicable to waste management. It sets forth the hierarchy between the various types of waste management operations, favouring prevention over recovery, and recovery over disposal. It lays down the duties and responsibilities of public authorities of the Member States, ensuring that the waste management is carried out appropriately, that is, without endangering human health or the environment. It achieves this thanks to an integrated and adequate network of waste management installations, and by following waste management plans and prevention programmes. Furthermore, it provides for the responsibilities of the economic agents involved: first and foremost, the holder of the waste and, albeit in a less systematic fashion, the producers of the products from which the waste came. Last but not least, the Waste Framework Directive now integrates the special legal regime applicable to hazardous waste which, obviously, requires special care.