Waste Crime - Waste Risks: Gaps in Meeting the Global Waste Challenge

the Convention have developed further criteria to support the process of distinguishing waste from non-waste. In the Euro- pean Union, end-of-waste criteria (European Comisssion 2015) have been developed to specify when certain waste ceases to be waste and achieves the status of a product or a secondary raw material – for example, if the substance or object is commonly used for specific purposes; if there is an existing market or demand for the substance or object and the use is lawful (substance or object fulfils the technical requirements for the specific purposes and meets the existing legislation and stand- ards applicable to products); and the use will not lead to overall adverse environmental or human health impacts. It is estimated that thousands of tonnes of e-waste declared as second-hand goods are regularly exported from developed countries to developing countries (Secretariat of the Basel Convention 2011). The Basel Convention technical guidelines referred to above have the potential to draw a clear line between used electronic and electrical equipment and waste electronic and electrical equipment falling within the scope of the Basel Convention and its export and import control regime. What is hazardous waste? Once the waste status has been established or assumed (in some cases, in court as a result of legal proceedings), the question is whether the waste is “hazardous” or “other,” given

Example of criteria to distinguish e-waste from non-e- waste from the EU Directive on Waste Electrical and Elec- tronic Equipment (WEEE) – Annex VI: Minimum Require- ments for Shipments: “In order to distinguish between EEE and WEEE, where the holder of the object claims that he intends to ship or is ship- ping used EEE and not WEEE, Member States shall require the holder to have available the following to substantiate this claim: a copy of the invoice and contract relating to the sale and/or transfer of ownership of the EEE which states that the equipment is destined for direct re-use and that it is fully functional; evidence of evaluation or testing in the form of a copy of the records (certificate of testing, proof of functionality) on every item within the consignment and a protocol containing all record information according to point 3; a declaration made by the holder who arranges the trans- port of the EEE that none of the material or equipment within the consignment is waste as defined by Article 3(1) of Directive 2008/98/EC; and appropriate protection against damage during transpor- tation, loading and unloading in particular through suffi- cient packaging and appropriate stacking of the load. (a) (b) (c) (d)

15