EUROPEISKA GEMENSKAPERNAS KOMMISSION 
Bryssel den 08.11.1995 
KOM(95) 522 slutlig 
RAPPORT FRÅN KOMMISSIONEN TILL RÅDET OCH EUROPAPARLAMENTET 
OM AVFALLSHANTERINGSPOLITIKEN 

SAMMANFATTNING 
Som svar på kommissionens meddelande om en gemensam strategi för avfallshantering 
lade rådet i sin resolution om avfallshantering av den 7 maj 1990 fram ett antal önskemål 
och riktlinjer för gemenskapens avfallshanteringspolitik under 1990-talet. 
I denna rapport presenterar kommissionen sin strategi för att åstadkomma en heltäckande 
politik för avfallshantering inom gemenskapen. 
Kommissionen har föreslagit ett antal allmänna rättsakter för att upprätta en juridisk ram 
för gemenskapens avfallshanteringspolitik som, tillsammans med andra akter som avser 
särskilda typer av avfall (förpackningar) eller avfallshantering (förbränning) redan har 
antagits av rådet. Ytterligare åtgärder befinner sig i sista fasen före det slutliga antagandet 
(polyklorerade bifenyler (PCB), nedgrävning av avfall). 
Lagstiftningsarbetet har kompletterats med åtgärder och förslag för hanteringen av 
särskilda avfallsflöden, utveckling av avfallsstatistik och utforskning av användningen av 
nya ekonomiska och tekniska medel för att bidra till att uppnå det yttersta målet att göra 
avfallshanteringen allmänt vedertagen, nödvändig, ekonomiskt bärkraftig och miljövänlig. 
Utvärderingen av avfallshanteringspolitikens operativa svårigheter belyste ett antal frågor 
som skulle kunna göra gemenskapen mer effektiv om de behandlas riktigt. Först och 
främst måste arbetet grundas på gemensamt fastställda och respekterade definitioner och 
principer. Dessutom måste gemenskapsinstitutionerna komma överens om en långsiktig 
strategi och förbinda sig att följa den. Medlemsstaterna måste samtidigt stärka sin 
politiska vilja att att finna vägar att genomföra en avfallshanteringspolitik med slutna 
kretslopp. Nya medel måste utvecklas för att stödja lagstiftningsarbetet och för att erbjuda 
en bättre teknisk och ekonomisk grund för gemenskapens politik och åtgärder. Slutligen 
behövs ett närmare samarbete och en bättre dialog mellan gemenskapsinstitutionerna, 
medlemsstaterna och de aktörer och sektorer som omfattas av avfallshanteringen för att 
utveckla gemenskapens avfallshanteringspolitik i enlighet med principerna om öppenhet, 
subsidiaritet och delat ansvar. Detta kräver en särskilt stor ansträngning vad gäller 
information och utbildning. 
CD 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL 
AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 
ON WASTE MANAGEMENT POLICY 
CONTENTS 
SUMMARY 
I. INTRODUCTION 
II. WASTE MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS 
III. IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING OF COMMUNITY LAW 
IV. SPECIFIC COMMUNITY ACTION 
PRIORITY WASTE STREAMS 
WASTE STATISTICS 
V. INFORMATION, CONSULTATION AND COMMUNICATION 
VI. DIFFICULTIES IN IMPLEMENTATION 
VII. CONCLUSION 
SUMMARY 
In response to the Commission's communication on a Community Strategy for Waste 
Management, the Council Resolution of 7 May 1990 on waste policy put forward a set of 
requests and guidelines for Community waste management policy in the 1990s. 
In this report the Commission presents its approach towards setting up a comprehensive 
policy to deal with all waste in the Community. 
The Commission has proposed a series of general legislative measures establishing the legal 
framework for the Community Waste Management Policy, which, together with other, more 
specific measures to deal with particular types of waste (packaging) or waste disposal 
operations (incineration), have already been adopted by the Council. Further measures are 
in the last stages prior to final adoption (PCBs, landfill). 
The legislative work has been complemented by measures and proposals for the management 
of specific waste streams, the development of waste statistics and exploration of the 
application of new economic and technical instruments to help achieve the ultimate objective 
of turning waste management into a generally accepted, necessary, economically viable and 
environmentally sound practice. 
Evaluation of the operational difficulties of the Community Waste Management Policy 
highlighted a number of issues which, if properly dealt with, would enable the Community 
to become more effective. First of all, work must be based on commonly agreed and 
respected definitions and principles; secondly, the Community institutions need to agree on 
a long-term strategy and the commitment to pursue it. Meanwhile, the Member States must 
strengthen their political will to find the means to implement a closed loop waste 
management policy. New instruments need to be developed to back up the regulatory work 
and provide a better technical and economic basis for Community policy and measures. 
Finally, there must be greater collaboration and dialogue between Community Institutions, 
Member States and the actors and sectors involved in waste management in order to develop 
the Community Waste Management Policy in accordance with the principles of transparency, 
subsidiarity and shared responsibility. This calls for a particular effort on information and 
training. 
I. INTRODUCTION 
The Commission is submitting this report to the Council and Parliament in response to the 
Council Resolution of 7 May 1990 on waste management policy1. 
Though requested for the end of 1992, the report has been delayed to enable the Commission: 
to cover the latest developments regarding the three main legislative acts underpinning 
the Community waste management policy, viz. the framework Directive on waste, the 
Directive on hazardous waste and the Regulation on the supervision and control of 
shipments of waste within, into and out of the European Community; 
to provide additional information on other legislative measures recently adopted or on 
the point of being adopted by the Council, viz. the proposals on packaging and packaging 
waste, the landfill of waste and the incineration of hazardous waste. 
The "Community programme of policy and action in relation to the environment and 
sustainable development" (Fifth Action Programme),2 adopted by the Commission in 
1992, was a major step forward, laying the foundations for a Community environment policy 
geared towards sustainable development. 
The fifth programme marked a new approach based on the principles of prevention, shared 
responsibility, subsidiarity, integration and transparency. 
These are the principles which will underpin the Commission's continued implementation of 
a waste management policy geared towards sustainable development. 
1 OJ 1990, C 122, p. 2. 
2 COM(92)23 final, 20.5.92. 
II. WASTE MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS 
Since the Community Strategy for Waste Management3 was adopted in September 1989, 
action in this field has been developing in the following five areas: 
prevention, 
promotion of recovery, 
minimization of final disposal, 
regulation of transport, 
remedial action. 
Each of these areas encompasses different activities: 
prevention: clean technologies and products, reuse, 
recovery: recycling and transformation of materials, energy recovery, 
disposal: optimization of landfills and incineration, preferably with energy recovery, 
transport: minimization and control of shipments of waste, 
remedial action: clean up of contaminated sites. 
These major themes have inspired both the legislation adopted since 1989 and the 
programming of future Community action. ^ 
The Strategy called for a consistent approach to waste management in the Community, an 
important precondition of which was the establishment of a suitable legal framework of basic 
definitions and concepts. This has been promoted through the following three pieces of 
legislation, which currently constitute the backbone of the waste management policy: 
• Directive 91/156/EEC4 amending Directive 75/442/EEC5 on waste 
This Directive provides the legal framework for the avoidance, management and disposal 
of waste, as set out in the Community Strategy for Waste Management. The Directive 
is based on the following main elements: 
- a definition of waste; 
- the establishment of a common terminology through the adoption of Commission 
Decision 94/3/EC of 20 December 1993 establishing a list of wastes pursuant to 
Article 1(a) of Council Directive 75/442/EEC on waste,6 commonly referred to as the 
European Waste Catalogue; 
i SEC (89) 934 final. 18.9.89. 
OJ 1991, L78, p. 32. 
OJ 1975, L 194, p. 39. 
OJ 1994, L5, p. 15. 
- the need to establish, for waste disposal, the principles of proximity (disposal in one 
of the nearest suitable facilities) and of self-sufficiency at Community level; 
- the use of waste management plans as a major tool to achieve this policy. 
Council Directive 91/689/EEC on Hazardous Waste7 
This Directive, which replaces Directive 78/319/EEC on toxic and dangerous waste,8 
falls within the framework of Directive 75/442/EEC on waste, as amended by Directive 
91/156/EEC. It lays down additional, more stringent rules to take account of the special 
nature of hazardous waste. The Directive is designed: 
- to make the management of hazardous waste in the Community more effective; 
- to use a precise and uniform definition of hazardous waste; 
- to ensure that the disposal and recovery of hazardous waste is monitored as closely 
as possible. 
This precise and uniform definition had to be in the form of a list, the compilation of 
which proved very difficult. This resulted in the date of application of the Directive 
being delayed until 27 June 1995. Since the Council adopted the list on 15 December^ 
1994, this deadline will now be met. 
Council Regulation (EEC) No 259/93 on the supervision and control of shipments 
of waste within, into and out of the European Community9 
This Regulation has replaced Directive 84/631/EEC on the supervision and control 
within the European Community of the transfrontier shipment of hazardous waste.10 
The Regulation is adapted to the new context of the single market and transposes into 
EC law the relevant international agreements, such as the Lomé IV Convention, the Basel 
Convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous waste and their 
disposal and the OECD Decision on the control of transfrontier movements of waste 
destined for recovery. Amongst other decisions taken under these international 
agreements, the Regulation bans exports of hazardous and radioactive waste from the 
European Union to ACP countries. 
OJ 1991, L377, p. 20. 
OJ 1978, L84, p. 43. 
OJ 1993, L30, p. 1. 
OJ 1984, L326, p. 31. 
The Regulation takes account of the new approach of limiting movements of waste 
intended for disposal, in accordance with the principles of self-sufficiency and proximity, 
and regulates the control of movements of waste intended for recovery in order to 
promote recovery and to avoid movements of such waste to environmentally unacceptable 
recovery activities. 
These three pieces of legislation constitute the general framework upon which more specific 
directives have been developed, e.g. regarding the optimization of waste disposal: 
• Incineration of waste 
After the Council adopted the Directives on new (89/369/EEC)11 and existing 
(89/429/EEC)12 municipal waste incineration plants, the Commission sent it a proposal 
for a Directive on the incineration of hazardous waste. The proposal was for an 
integrated approach to environmental protection, dealing not only with air pollution, but 
also with the protection of soil, and surface and ground water, taking account of 
Community legislation in these areas. The proposed measures are based on the most up-
to-date techniques for preventing and reducing pollution. The Directive was adopted on 
15 December 199413. 
In view of the rapid development of technology in this area, the Commission is preparing 
a proposal for a directive on the incineration of non-hazardous waste to replace the two*, 
Directives on the incineration of municipal waste and to include non-hazardous industrial 
waste. 
• Landfill of waste 
The Commission has sent the Council a proposal for a Directive on the landfill of 
waste.14 The proposal introduces a horizontal framework imposing a specific 
authorization procedure for landfills and acceptability criteria for different types of waste 
for specific and appropriately prepared categories of landfill, with a view to preventing 
or reducing adverse effects on the environment as far as possible, and especially the 
pollution of surface water, groundwater, soil and air and the risks this can pose to human 
health. It lays down environmental and technical standards for the operation of landfills, 
based on a high level of environmental protection. It also lays down monitoring and 
control procedures for when landfills are closed down. Following favourable opinions 
from Parliament and the Economic and Social Committee, the Council reached political 
agreement with a view to a common position on 9 June 1994. 
OJ 1989, L 163, p. 32. 
OJ 1989, L 203, p. 50. 
OJ 1994, L 365, p. 34. 
OJ 1991, C 190, p. 1. 
7 
Another area of waste management law deals with the environmental effects of certain 
products when they become waste: 
• Packaging and Packaging Waste 
With the aim of harmonizing disparate national laws, Parliament and the Council adopted 
a Directive on packaging and packaging waste15 in December 1994. 
The Directive covers all packaging and packaging waste placed on the Community 
market and aims to harmonize national management measures so as to provide a high 
level of environmental protection and ensure the functioning of the internal market. 
In line with the Community strategy for waste management, the Directive lays down that 
the management of packaging and packaging waste should give top priority to the 
prevention of waste with, as additional principles, re-use of packaging, recycling and 
other forms of recovering packaging waste and, hence, reduction of the final disposal of 
such waste. The introduction of a rigid hierarchy which could go against the need for 
flexibility and non-discrimination between packaging materials, packaging systems and 
packaging waste management alternatives has been avoided. A general principle of 
equivalence between re-use, recovery and recycling has been maintained. 
The Directive sets the following targets: ^ 
- Recovery: between 50 % and 65 % of all packaging waste; 
- Recycling: between 25 % and 45 % of all packaging materials, with a minimum 
of 15 % for each individual material. 
To allow for particular situations, it includes a clause enabling Member States to pursue 
higher targets, provided they comply with a number of conditions, and in particular that 
their policies should not hinder the introduction of similar policies in other Member 
States. To allow for existing special circumstances, some countries are allowed 
additional time to attain the first stage targets. 
Member States must take the necessary steps to set up return, collection and recovery 
systems so as to attain the objectives of the Directive. In accordance with the principle 
of subsidiarity, Member States are free to develop their own management systems 
according to their national requirements and in accordance with the Treaty. 
OJ 1994, L365, p. 10. 
8 
Batteries and accumulators 
On 18 March 1991 the Council adopted Directive 91/157/EEC on batteries and 
accumulators containing certain dangerous substances'6 (mercury, cadmium and lead). 
The Directive establishes: 
- a marketing ban on batteries and accumulators with a high heavy metal content; 
- the marking of the batteries and accumulators referred to in the annex (Commission 
Directive 93/86/EEC of 4 October 1993); 
- that Member States must draw up prevention programmes and programmes to collect 
the batteries and accumulators referred to in the annex. 
• PCBs and PCTs 
To counter the risks posed by PCBs and PCTs to human health and the environment, a 
new proposal for a Directive on the disposal of polychlorobiphenyls and 
polychloroterphcnyls (PCB/PCT)17 will replace Directive 76/403/EEC'8 on the same 
subject. It promotes better control of the management of PCBs and PCTs and improves 
the way they are disposed of and replaced. 
The Council reached political agreement on the proposal in December 1994. ^* 
Chapter IV of this report describes action taken with regard to particular waste streams. 
16 OJ 1991, L78, p. 38. 
17 OJ 1988, C 319, p. 57. 
18 OJ 1976, L 108, p. 41 
DI. IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING OF COMMUNITY LAW 
Application measures 
A Committee for Adaptation to Scientific and Technical Progress was set up following 
the adoption of the revised framework Directive (91/156/EEC) on waste. The Committee is 
made up of the representatives of the Member States and chaired by the representative of the 
Commission, who tables proposals for adoption by the Committee. The Committee started 
its work in December 1991 and has so far adopted the list of wastes (the European Waste 
Catalogue) required by Directive 91/156/EEC and agreed to amendments to the Directive on 
batteries. It has also discussed the list of hazardous waste and delivered a favourable opinion 
on the consignment note and the annexes to Regulation (EEC) No 259/93 on shipments of 
waste. Furthermore, a working group, set up by the Committee, discussed the distinction 
between "wastes" and "products". 
Reporting Directive 
One of the instruments developed to improve the implementation and monitoring of 
Community law is Council Directive 91/692/EEC standardizing and rationalizing reports 
on the implementation of certain directives relating to the environment.19 
A number of Community directives on the environment require Member States to report on 
the measures taken to implement them. On the basis of the national reports, the Commission 
drafts consolidated reports giving a general assessment of the current implementation of these 
directives in the Community as a whole. 
This Directive harmonizes reporting on the different directives, stipulating that: 
the national reports be drawn up every three years on the basis of a questionnaire 
produced by the Commission with the assistance of a committee; 
the reports be sent to the Commission within nine months of the end of the three-year 
period they cover; 
the Commission publish a consolidated report on the sector concerned within nine 
months of the submission by Member States of their respective reports. 
The first reports on the implementation of the waste directives should cover the period from 
1995 to 1997 inclusive and should reach the Commission before 1 October 1998. The 
Commission adopted the relevant questionnaires on 24 October 1994. These cover Directives 
75/439/EEC on the disposal of waste oils, as amended by Directive 87/101/EEC,20 
75/442/EEC (framework Directive), as amended by Directive 91/156/EEC, and 86/278/EEC 
on the use of sewage sludge in agriculture.21 
19 OJ 1991, L 377, p. 43. 
20 OJ 1987, L 42, p. 48. 
21 OJ 1986, L 181, p. 6. 
10 
IV. SPECIFIC COMMUNITY ACTION 
PRIORITY WASTE STREAMS 
In its Resolution of 7 May 1990 the Council considered it desirable to establish action 
programmes for particular types of waste and invited the Commission to present proposals 
for action at Community level. 
The first step was to work with the Member States to produce an inventory. On the basis 
of the inventory the Commission initiated in 1991 its Programme on Priority Waste Streams. 
For maximum results in terms of reducing the main waste streams and improving their 
management, the Commission opted for greater participation by all the actors concerned with 
specific waste streams and the use of special discussion procedures. This approach is in line 
with the principles set out in the Fifth Action Programme on the Environment. 
Under this procedure, a project group of all interested parties at Community level (Member 
States, European Commission, producers, distributors, suppliers of materials, consumers, 
environmental organizations, etc.) identifies the problems caused by a specific type of waste, 
formulates targets for reducing or avoiding such problems, looks at alternative strategies and 
proposes measures. 
Given that some of the measures proposed may affect other aspects of the life cycle of a 
particular product, such as its production, distribution or use, and not only its waste phase, 
any action under consideration has to be negotiated and agreed by all the sectors concerned 
at institutional, industrial and consumer level. 
One objective of the new approach considered for the Priority Waste Streams programme was 
to examine new instruments for implementing the Community waste management policy 
different from and complementary to the hitherto exclusively regulatory approach. 
The following projects have been initiated under the Priority Waste Streams Programme since 
1991: 
Used tyres 
The project was launched early in 1991 and concluded by the end of 1993. 
The parties involved proposed a strategy to stop disposing of used tyres in landfill by the 
year 2000, and to stop incinerating them without energy recovery. 
li 
This will mean: 
reducing the number of used tyres through preventive measures in the field of tyre 
maintenance; 
increasing the retreading of used tyres from 20 % in 1990 to 25 % by the year 2000; 
recovering at least 65 % of discarded used tyres by the year 2000 (against 30 % in 
1990). 
The final report presented by the project group to the Commission comprises: 
a proposal for a (Commission) Recommendation regarding measures for the prevention, 
recovery and disposal of used tyres to meet the abovementioned objectives, 
a proposal for a (Council) Resolution on used tyres welcoming the Commission's 
Recommendation, and calling for collaboration between the Commission and the Member 
States in evaluating the impact of the proposed measures, 
a proposal for an amendment to the Council Directive on the landfill of waste to ensure 
that whole used tyres are not accepted for landfill from 1996 onwards, and shredded used 
tyres from 2000. This ban should ensure the introduction of other forms of used tyre 
management in accordance with the strategy defined in 1990. 
The Commission is planning to back up the project group's proposals with a proposal for a 
Council Directive, which could in turn be backed up by other measures, such as voluntary 
agreements or technical or economic instruments designed to: ^ 
ensure that whole used tyres are not accepted for landfill from 1998 onwards, and 
shredded used tyres from 2000; 
set the conditions for establishing a market for retreaded, regrooved and recycled tyres 
as well as alternative usages of tyre granulates; 
establish the principles for ensuring common quality standards for recovered tyres. 
End of Life Vehicles 
The End of Life Vehicles project began in 1991 and submitted its results to the Commission 
in March 1994. 
The objective of the Strategic Plan submitted to the Commission is to encourage recycling 
by reducing the amount of residues disposed of to 15 % by the year 2002 and to 5% by 
2015. It is based on the integration of collection activities and the processing of end-of-life 
vehicles in networks which tackle both aspects. Such integration, together with optimized 
recovery of non-metallic parts, should allow extra costs to be absorbed in line with market 
laws. 
12 
The short-term strategy is based on a system of authorization of integrated collection and 
processing networks, together with the issuing of a certificate of delivery to the last owner 
when the vehicle is finally taken off the road. 
The long-term strategy is for new vehicles coming onto the market to be designed for easier 
recovery. 
The Commission is currently examining the project group's findings and will decide how to 
proceed as soon as possible, possibly opting for voluntary agreements. 
Healthcare Waste 
Healthcare waste has been identified as a priority waste stream owing to the diversity and 
complexity of its composition and the potential dangers it poses for the environment, 
including the risk of infectious contamination. 
The findings of the group, communicated to the Commission services in December 1994, 
indicated that the latter should prepare and put to the Council a draft directive laying down: 
(a) basic concepts of healthcare waste management, such as the adoption of definitions and 
classification; 
•J-5 
(b) environmental protection rules applying to the places where such waste is produced; 
(c) environmental protection rules applying outside such areas. 
Other projects currently under discussion are: 
Construction and Demolition Waste 
The general aim of this project is to reduce the amount of such waste disposed of in landfills 
and give priority to the reuse or recycling of raw materials. 
Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment 
The general aim of this project is to reduce the amount of residues disposed of, to recover 
valuable raw materials and energy and to produce a design for equipment which facilitates 
environmentally sound management in the waste phase. 
13 
Chlorinated solvents 
The Commission began a project on chlorinated solvents in 1991. The project was suspended 
following the implementation of the Montreal Protocol on CFCs, which covered the four 
main solvents involved. 
WASTE STATISTICS 
The Commission underlines the importance of developing and updating data on waste types 
and waste streams in the Community so as to be able to determine what action to take at the 
most appropriate point. 
In addition, one of the aims and activities of the Fifth Action Programme is the development 
of data on the production and characterization of waste (hazardous and non-hazardous) and 
on waste processing installations within the framework of the strict application of Community 
law. 
Facts show that the lack of a standard waste nomenclature in the Member States makes it 
very hard, or even impossible, to make qualitative and quantitative estimates. 
Accordingly, the Commission (Eurostat - DG XI) has set up a working party om_ 
environmental statistics, which has launched a programme to produce' a system of waste 
statistics. 
This programme began with an inventory of the statistics available in the Member States, 
collected and published in the brochure "Statistics and Environment 1991". 
This showed that waste statistics in the Member States are very heterogeneous and incomplete 
and cannot be compared owing to differing administrative requirements and, notably, 
different national waste catalogues. 
A statistical methodology has been proposed to remedy this situation. It includes a system 
of statistical surveys in industry (production and processing of waste), local authorities 
(collection and processing) and processing businesses. There are also plans to put the 
documents which accompany waste shipments to statistical use. The methodology also 
supposes a common statistical nomenclature, for which the European Waste Catalogue should 
serve as basic reference. 
The second phase of the programme comprises pilot surveys in four Member States 
(Denmark, Netherlands, Portugal, United Kingdom) to test the proposed methodology and 
the European Waste Catalogue. On the basis of the results (end 1994), a programme will be 
finalized which will lead to the creation of a legislative framework for the production of 
Community waste statistics. The Commission recently began preparatory work in this area. 
14 
V. INFORMATION, CONSULTATION AND COMMUNICATION 
Since work first began to develop a Community waste management policy, Member States 
and industrial and professional associations have been formally consulted through committees 
and ad hoc working parties. 
Waste Management Committee 
The Waste Management Committee was set up by Commission Decision 76/431/EEC of 
21 April 1976. Its task is to provide the Commission with opinions on matters relating to 
the formulation of a waste management policy, the implementation of directives on waste 
management and any proposals for new legislation. 
The Committee is chaired by a representative of the Commission, which appoints two 
representatives per Member State. It meets twice a year. 
Ad Hoc Commission-Industry Waste Management Committee 
An ad hoc committee of representatives from trade and industry was set up in 1991 to deal 
with waste management issues. Its purpose is to provide regular contact between trade and 
industry and the Commission and thus improve communication on waste management^ 
matters. Specific working parties may be set up to deal with particular subjects. 
These committees and working parties are proof of a degree of transparency in the 
Commission's working methods, which is a basic principle of the Fifth Programme. 
Furthermore, in drafting Community law the Commission invited not only national experts, 
but also industry, consumers and environmental NGOs to give their opinions (on the 
packaging directive, the landfill directive and the waste list, for instance). Regular contacts 
are maintained with industry, the NGOs and consumer associations in the work on priority 
waste streams. 
The Commission pursues an active policy of communication with various disseminating 
bodies (local and regional authorities, NGOs, economic operators, unions, etc.). 
15 
VI. DIFFICULTIES IN IMPLEMENTATION 
In drafting legislation and implementing its waste management policy the Commission has 
run into a number of inter-related difficulties: 
(a) Technical and administrative implementation of Community provisions. It is not rare for 
administrative and technical structures laid down in Community acts not to be set up at 
national level. Partial implementation or failure to implement a unanimously adopted 
directive raises the whole problem of adapting the administrative, technical and 
organizational infrastructure in the Member States. 
(b) The lack of reliable basic statistical, technical and economic data with which the 
Commission could justify its policies and proposed regulations. Few proposals put 
forward since 1989, not even the important packaging and landfill proposals, underwent 
prior cost/benefit and cost/effectiveness analysis, and this has led the Member States to 
question their economic justification. 
(c) The imprecision of the legal acts and the ambiguity of some of the concepts which 
underpin the policy. This is making the three pillars of Community waste legislation (i.e. 
the framework Directive 75/442/EEC, as amended by Directive 91/156/EEC on waste, 
Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste and Regulation (EEC) No 259/93 0113. 
shipments of waste within, into and out of the Community) difficult to apply, leaving 
authorities and economic operators in a situation of uncertainty and causing much 
misunderstanding. 
(d) The poor functioning of collective consultation. For all that the Commission is assisted 
by committees (two consultative, one regulatory), consultation is failing to produce the 
hoped-for results, mainly because the committees do not bring together the people really 
responsible for practical implementation of waste management policy. 
These difficulties cannot be overcome by legislation alone. Other measures are needed, 
whether technical (information gathering, cost/benefit analysis), economic (financial support, 
economic instruments) or managerial (plans, voluntary agreements), and should be considered 
in addition to legislative action. 
All this calls for greater collective consultation of the actors as a whole, i.e. through 
development of networks of the main partners at both administrative and operational level. 
16 
VII. CONCLUSION 
The abovementioned tasks have been the main subject of Community activity on waste 
management policy over the last five years. The greatest emphasis has been on developing 
a regulatory framework, while not forgetting to explore new approaches, develop new 
instruments and analyse new issues that will determine the path to follow in the future. 
The Commission has started several initiatives to that extent, such as the examination of 
Community networks in the waste sector, amendments to the Regulation on the shipment of 
waste and, if the case arises, to the Basel Convention, a better implementation and application 
of the existing provisions and the promotion of economic instruments in the waste sector. 
The legislative framework rests on three pillars: Directive 75/442/EEC on waste, as amended 
by Directive 91/156/EEC, Directive 91/689/EEC on hazardous waste and Regulation (EEC) 
No 259/93 on the shipment of waste. It has been fleshed out by specific directives or 
proposals (recently, on packaging, the incineration of dangerous waste, landfill and PCBs). 
The Commission is proposing to work closely with the Member States in the months ahead 
to produce a communication setting out a strategy which is not confined to legislation, which 
is based on greater collective consultation of the actors and provision of information to the 
public and which takes account, inter alia, of discussions on the creation of Europeans 
infrastructure networks, the necessity to better define "wastes" with regard to "products" and 
to ensure a better practical implementation of Regulation 259/93 on the shipment of wastes, 
the transport of waste to third countries, civil liability, economic instruments and the 
implementation of existing provisions. 
17 
ISSN 1024-4506 
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