amending Annexes IV and V to Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 of the European Parliament and of the Council on persistent organic pollutants

Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council

Policy context

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are chemicals that persist in the environment, bio-accumulate and can cause significant adverse effects to human health or the environment. This impact assessment addresses options to change the thresholds that apply to certain POPs in waste and that are set out in Annex IV of the POPs Regulation. If POPs are present in waste at concentrations that are equal to or higher than these thresholds, then the waste cannot be recycled; in most cases, it should be disposed of in such a way that the POPs it contains are destroyed or irreversibly transformed.

What is the problem?

The POPs Regulation covers a total of 26 POP substances (or groups of substances), but this impact assessment looks at a limited number of POPs, that either:

·are already listed in the POPs Regulation, and for which tightening the limit values in Annex IV could be justified, to adapt their limit values to scientific and technical progress: PBDEs, HBCDD, SCCPs, dioxins and furans, and dioxin-like PCBs.

·have recently been listed as POPs under the Stockholm Convention, and therefore have to be reflected in Union legislation (i.e. the POPs Regulation): PFOA, dicofol and pentachlorophenol (PCP).

These POPs are, with limited exceptions, generally not used any more in new products in Europe, but past use means they are still found in waste. If the waste materials in which the POPs are contained (e.g. plastic, wood, paper) are recycled, then they may re-enter the economy, harming the environment and human health.

Setting a limit value for these substances determines the way in which waste that contains POPs has to be managed, the ultimate goal being to ensure that this waste is managed in an environmentally sound way. Generally, this means that waste exceeding the limit values for POPs content will have to be destroyed or irreversibly transformed through incineration or other permitted disposal operations, stopping POPs from re-entering the economy.

This action may limit the uptake of secondary raw materials that could otherwise be obtained from waste, reducing the potential for these materials to contribute to a circular economy. However, this may also help to improve trust in secondary raw materials in terms of their level of contamination. The resulting substitution of secondary material by primary material can also have adverse effects, often contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.

What do we want to achieve?

The specific objective of the initiative is to set or revise limit values for this limited number of POPs in waste, in a way that achieves the best possible balance between three general objectives:

·the transition to high-quality, toxic-free material cycles;

·increasing recycling and circularity;

·reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Finding the right balance will ensure environmentally sound management of POP waste. This will meet the overarching objective of the POPs Regulation, of protecting human health and the environment, and ensure that the measure also contributes to the climate and circular economy objectives in the European Green Deal, to the greatest extent possible.

What are the options?

·Policy Option 1: Baseline – assumes no change in the list of substances and no new limit values are set.