European Transport of Waste Directive

On October 12, 2010 the Dutch High Court rendered a decision in another case concerning violation of the European Waste Directive.  Very often the question before the Courts is whether products qualify as waste. In this particular case, it concerned transport of left over materials from the Netherlands to Malaysia. There hadn’t been any notification to the competent authorities, nor any consent had been given. That is considered illegal transport of waste, based on article 26 of the European transport ofWaste Directive (259/93). The containers were stopped by Dutch Customs. The defense had argued that term “shipment of waste” of article 26 does not include the planned shipment of waste. The High Court refused the argument, and the accused is ordered to pay a penalty of € 29.000