April 2019
In its 7th Environmental Programme, the European Commission is, among other things, pursuing key objectives in the handling of substances and materials known under the keywords “non-toxic environment” and “circular economy”. These target areas have numerous interfaces in waste, chemicals and product legislation. Conflicts of objectives can arise, for example, with regard to the classification of waste in analogy to chemicals and at the border between waste and secondary raw materials that are processed into products. Based on questions and practical experience, we investigate how these conflicts of objectives can be defused or solved. In our opinion, it is necessary to provide waste management actors with much more information than before about the composition of used products; this should not only include hazardous substances, but also interfering and value-adding materials in general. Disposal routes as well as the entire handling of waste are largely based on risk considerations in waste management – a one-to-one transfer of hazard-related classifications from the chemicals and products sector to waste management would be counterproductive for achieving the Commission’s objectives. In the case of contaminated secondary raw materials, their entry into products can be justified in individual cases; however, this requires a risk assessment that includes in particular physico-chemical factors, utility models and controllable recycling routes. For plastics in particular, new Europe-wide End-of-Waste regulations are necessary. Internationally recognized variety lists of used plastics are an important condition for a significant increase in their recycling.
- Henning Friege, Beate Kummer, Klaus-Günter Steinhäuser, Joachim Wuttke und Barbara Zeschmar-Lahl: Umgang mit Schnittstellen zwischen Chemikalien-, Produkt- und Abfallrecht. AbfallR 2, 66-82, 2019 (in German)