Background / Objectives

The amount of waste is increasing year by year within the Member States of the European Union. Each year about 1.3 billion tonnes of waste are produced by the citizen of the European Union, of which 40 million tonnes are classified as hazardous waste. In order to reduce the negative effects to human health and to the environment, the environmental policy of the European Commission intends to set standards for the handling, transport, treatment and disposal of waste.

The Directive 2006/12/EC on waste (Waste framework Directive - WFD), which will be repealed by Directive 2008/98/EC on 12.12.2010, requires that Member States ensure that waste is recovered or disposed of without endangering human health and the environment and that the waste amount disposed off is reduced to a minimum by taking measures to reduce waste generation. Reuse, recycling and recovery shall be promoted and adopted whenever suitable in order to safe resources and to reduce the amount of waste.

Directive 2006/12/EC on waste (Article 3 - European Waste Hierarchy)

Disposal to a landfill shall be the least treatment option. Member States must take the necessary measures to prohibit the abandonment, dumping or uncontrolled disposal of waste. Any establishment or undertaking carrying out waste disposal or recovery operations must have a permit and be inspected at regular intervals by the authorities. Anyway a huge amount of waste is still disposed within landfills.

Consequently within the legal framework of the WFD, the Directive 1999/31/EC on the landfill of waste (Landfill Directive) sets out specific provisions concerning e.g. technical standards, permit, monitoring and control, as well as reduction targets for biowaste. All existing landfills have to fully comply with the requirements of the directive at the latest by 2009 (earlier for landfills for hazardous waste). The Landfill Directive entered into force on 16 July 1999 and had to be fully implemented by 16 July 2001.

The Acceptance Criteria Decision (2003/33/EC) further specifies requirements for waste acceptance procedures and acceptance criteria (waste types, limit values). This decision entered into force on 16 July 2004 and the limit values had to be applied at the latest by 16 July 2005.

In this context one of the highest priorities of the European waste management policy is the elimination of illegal landfills which can not be adopted to the new technical standards as these might lead to serious pollution of soil, water and air. Available information shows that the problem exists in several Member States part of the EU prior to May 2004 (EU-15) as well as in those which became Member States after this date (EU-12).

Therefore the European Commission initiated a project where national and regional experts are given the possibility to receive information, exchange experiences and to identify possibilities for further improvements within their countries.

Events

The workshop aims at information and knowledge exchange and elaboration of solutions of competent authorities and all experts involved in the waste management. Each event shall deal with the current status notification and control procedures and stimulate cooperation initiatives and joint action by the authorities concerned. Particularly the objectives of the awareness-raising events are the following:

• Overview on legal requirements

• Targets, deadlines

• Current deficits in implementation and consequences thereof

• Current obstacles to implementation of the legislation

• Information and support tools

• Infringement procedures

• Examples of good practise concerning waste acceptance, recoverables and biodegradable waste

• Possible solutions and proposals to further improve implementation including joint initiatives and activities