The problems with Annex VII of the EU's Waste Shipment Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006
Recyclers understand the need of Competent Authorities to have certain information regarding the shipment of non-hazardous wastes. Recyclers have no intention here to weaken environmental protection or hinder attainment of the objectives of the Waste Shipment Regulation, but the way that Annex VII currently brings together buying and selling details and requires each businessman to give their business details to the next businessman in the recycling chain is a direct and serious threat to business confidentiality.
Liability: Recyclers accept that Competent Authorities may need to identify the waste generator (Box-6) in case there is no-one else available to take financial responsibility for a particular negative value or minimal value non-hazardous waste shipment when that shipment is not completed. However Art.18(2) already requires that the contract between the person who arranges the shipment and the consignee provide for temporary storage, alternative recovery or take back in case a shipment is not completed.
Security: There is a security issue to consider for shipments of waste of high value where the data on Annex VII will jeopardise the security of the current shipment and could have consequences for future shipments from the same locations at later dates. For Competent Authorities that are not aware, there are many incidents of recyclables being stolen on land and somewhat less frequently at sea.
Confidentiality: Besides the person who arranges the shipment not wanting to disclose to their customer where he/she got the waste from in the first place, there is the question of the handling of the Annex VII in its country of destination where the Consignee may not want the Recovery Facility to see where or who he/she bought the waste from either. Confusingly an inconsistency appears between the text in Art.2(14) and Annex VII Box-2 and Box-7 where the consignee and the recovery facility are not necessarily coincident.
Discouraging imports: Annex VII will have an effect on the imports of non-hazardous wastes for recycling into the EU where the exporter in a non-EU Country determines to keep his supplier secret, which is a consequence of the confidentiality issue.
Encouraging exports: Annex VII encourages exports of non-hazardous wastes out of the EU.
Biggest threat is to SMEs: Annex VII threatens EU SMEs in particular as it is anti-competitive by advantaging buyers who are at the apex of a pyramid of SME collectors and sorters and processors. Environmental performance of the recycling sector would suffer if SMEs are adversely affected.
On first using Annex VII, the Buyer/Consignee (Box-2) and Buyer/Recovery facility (Box-7) see the (Box-1) Seller's Supplier (Box-6). For the next transaction the Buyer (Box-2 and/or Box-7) purchase directly off the previous sellers supplier (Box-6), etc.
It is unlikely to have been the intention of the legislator that the person who arranges the shipment should collect all this business data together and provide it, besides as intended to the Competent Authorities, to the Consignee and the Recovery Facility also. Having such information all on one page, as one document; cannot be supported for business confidentiality reasons. As it is unlikely to have been the intention of the legislator that the Consignee (Box-2) and/or the Recovery Facility (Box 7) sees the Box-6 detail, or that the Consignee's signature and the Recovery Facility representatives' signature is to verify Box-6 detail, it follows that Annex VII should be revised at the earliest opportunity.
The number of Annex VII forms likely to be used per annum in the EU-27 could be any number between 1,000,000 and 12,000,000 since recycling is a significant business sector in its own right.
End-note.
Whilst the EU is currently blind to the problems described above, other countries understand the need for Business Confidentiality
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