Legal Elements. ECOEMBES is a not-for-profit organization, whose corporate purpose is to design and develop systems focussed on selective collection and recovery of packaging waste with the objective to fulfil the prevention, recycling and recovery targets established in the Spanish waste legislation (transposition of European Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and waste packaging and its modifications): - Spanish Law 11/1997, 24 April, on packaging and packaging waste - Royal Decree 798/1998, 30 April, on regulations to develop the Law 11/1997
Legal Elements. Main environmental legislation: o Spanish Law 11/1997, of 24 April, on Packaging and Packaging Waste o Spanish Law 10/1998, of 21 April, on Waste o European Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC - Main health legislation: o Spanish Law 29/2006, of 26 July, on Guarantee and Rational Use of Medicines and Health Products o Royal Decree 1345/2007, of 11 October, for regulation of the procedure of authorisation, registration and sale conditions of the medicines manufactured industrially for human consumption.
Legal Elements. Later, ECO-RAEE extended its areas of action to used batteries with the entry in force of Spanish Royal Decree 106/2008 of February fist, on batteries and accumulators and their environmental waste management (transposition of European Directive 2006/66/EC).
Legal Elements. As other Spanish WEEE collective take-back systems, the legal background is the Spanish Royal Decree 208/2005 of 25 February on electric and electronic equipment and its appropriate waste management (transposition of European Directives 2002/96/EC and 2002/95/EC). (Information source: Weeeforum - European Association of Electrical and Electronic Waste Take- Back Systems)
Legal Elements. The legal background is the Spanish Royal Decree 106/2008, February 1st on batteries and accumulator and their appropriate waste management. According to this legislation, the stakeholders have some obligations. The most important ones are listed below: - Producers: collection and end-of-life treatment of the used batteries, to finance the integrated waste management, to guarantee the performance of collection and recovery targets and to mark correctly their batteries. - Distributor: to accept used batteries without charge for consumers, to facilitate the collective take back system financing asking a separated statement in invoices of the contribution charge to the collective system, to inform the consumers that batteries prices include the recycling cost and to inform consumers about the possibility of giving the old batteries in the shop.
Legal Elements. Waste management in the city of Cordoba is governed by the Spanish law 10/1998 about waste management, jointly with the Spanish Royal Decree 1981/2001, which regulates the disposal of waste in landfills. This legal framework has been updated in the last years including mandatory rules form European directives regarding treatment and management of urban solid waste, and shows the tendency to minimize the amount of waste and increase recycling; that is the same objective that SADECO`s policy pursues in its management activities. The last European directive, 2008/98/CE, lays down measures to protect the environment and human health by preventing or reducing the adverse impacts of the generation and management of waste and by reducing overall impacts of resource use and improving the efficiency of such use. With this purpose, the countries of the European Union must define national systems of waste management in which the disposal is the last option (following the waste management hierarchy), and the promotion of recovering and recycling will be more important than before this directive. With regards to the organic fraction; the European directive establishes its selective collection, specific treatment and the way to be used for compost production. Spanish government has approved the “Integral National Wastes Programme” (PNIR) for the period 2008-2015; which has been financed by the Ministry of Environment. This Programme is based on “Reduce, Recovering and Recycling”, and tries to achieve the following objectives: − Halt the increase of waste generation that exist actually. − Eliminate the illegal landfills. − Reduce the disposal and to promote the prevention, the recovering and the recycling of the most fraction of waste. − Build new structures involved in management of waste, and improve the old ones. − Avoid waste contributes to climate change.
Legal Elements. In Germany the “Act for Promoting Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management and Ensuring Environmentally Compatible Waste Disposal” regulates the requirements for waste disposal in consideration of the public interest. According to these statutory provisions the waste that is not recovered shall be permanently excluded from closed substance cycle waste management, and it shall be disposed of permanently in a manner in keeping with the public interest. Waste shall be disposed of in such a manner that the public interest is not impaired. Impairment occurs when, in particular, - human health is impaired, - animals and plants are endangered, - water bodies and soil are harmfully influenced, - harmful influences on the environment are caused by air pollution or noise, - the aims, principles and other requirements of regional planning, and the interests of nature - conservation, landscape management and urban development, are not considered adequately or - the public's safety and the public order are otherwise threatened or disturbed. In the “Act for Promoting Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management and Ensuring Environmentally Compatible Waste Disposal” will be regulated that the preparation of re-use and recycling of municipal waste shall constitute at least 65 per cent by weight at the latest starting from 2020. The provisions of the above mentioned Act will be concretized by the recently amended Landfill Ordinance. The Ordinance now integrates the requirements of the suspended “Ordinance on Environmentally Compatible Storage of Waste from Human Settlements” as well as the requirements of the suspended “Ordinance pertaining to the recovery of waste at surface landfills”. With the Landfill Ordinance the Environment Ministry has established standards for the recovery of waste which are similarly strict to those for disposal. Since then all waste has to be regularly pretreated prior to a disposal on landfills. In the future this will prevent the false declaration which is criticized by many waste treatment facility operators. Landfill operators who comply with their legal obligations and fill and close down their landfills according to the best available technology shall not suffer economic disadvantages because of waste tourism. This is why strict provisions have been established especially for using waste to shape the surface of a landfill body (profiling), where big volumes of wastes are recovered. Therefore, waste may only be used for profiling if all other po...
Legal Elements. The Federal Law on the Environment of Switzerland was promulgated in 1983. It stipulated guiding principles as (among others) the polluter-pays principle, the precautionary principle and the principle of reduction of emissions at its source. It also considered the possibility for the introduction of advanced recycling or disposal fees for wastes which require a special treatment or which are easily recyclable. It furthermore stated the need for the elaboration of district wise waste management plans. In 1986 a general orientation and guiding principles for future waste management which was pioneering in many aspects was set-up by an expert committee. Besides arrogating the sequence of the waste hierarchy (1. avoid and minimize; 2 reuse; 3. recycle; 4. recover; 5. dispose) the agreement stated crucial requirements in the design on waste management: • Waste disposal systems shall only produce two types of residues: recyclable residues and residues which can be disposed finally without need for long-term monitoring. • Landfilling of endangering wastes should be done in a concentrated manner whereas environmentally unprobmelatic wastes should be in a condition which is similar to the earth crust. • Organic waste shall not be landfilled due to their long-term need for treating and monitoring effluents and gaseous emissions. • Final disposal should only be done in monotype landfills. It was furthermore stated that waste management should not be subsidized and the consumer costs should be related to the real costs and the risks associated with the disposal option selected. The proposed orientation was based on sustainability principles and life-cycle thinking. Legal translation of these principles took place in following years. The Technical Ordinance on Waste which is based on the Federal Law on the Environment entered into force in 1990. From April 1996 onwards landfilling of organic waste was prohibited and incineration (with a few exceptions until the year 2000) became a legal requirement, almost 10 years before the EU introduced a similar clause. As regards to Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) the ordinance on the Return, the Taking Back and the Disposal of Electrical and Electronic Appliances (ORDEA) regulates the obligations for return, take-back and disposal by consumers, producers and municipalities. A technical handbook to the ordinance defines the requirements for detoxification and final disposal. An ordinance on Packaging Materials aim...
Legal Elements. The European Union (EU) has introduced measures to prevent or reduce air, water and soil pollution caused by the incineration or co-incineration of waste, as well as the resulting risk to human health. These measures specifically require a permit be obtained for incineration and co- incineration plants, and emission limits for certain pollutants released to air or to water. Directive 2000/76/EC on the incineration of waste states that “incineration of both hazardous and harmless wastes may cause emissions of substances which pollute the air, water and soil and have harmful effects on human health. In order to limit these risks, the European Union (EU) shall impose strict operating conditions and technical requirements on waste incineration plants and waste co- incineration plants”. The limit values for incineration plant emissions to air are set out in Annex V to the Directive. They concern heavy metals, dioxins and furans, carbon monoxide (CO), dust, total organic carbon (TOC), hydrogen chloride (HCl), hydrogen fluoride (HF), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and the nitrogen oxides (NO and NO2) Moreover, Directive 2006/12/EC of the European Parliament on waste; fixes: The Member States shall take appropriate measures to encourage: • The prevention or reduction of waste production and its harmfulness, in particular by: − The development of clean technologies more sparing in their use of natural resources; − The technical development and marketing of products designed so as to make no contribution or to make the smallest possible contribution, by the nature of their manufacture, use or disposal, to increasing the amount or harmfulness of waste and pollution hazards; − The development of appropriate techniques for the final disposal of dangerous substances contained in waste destined for recovery; • The recovery of waste by means of recycling, reuse or reclamation or any other process with a view to extracting secondary raw materials; or • The use of waste as a source of energy.
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