RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsibility for waste management can broadly be broken up into two areas: the legislative area, meaning all applicable laws and ordinances on how to avoid, recycle, transport, treat and dispose the different kind of wastes, and the executive area, meaning the institutions which are responsible for enforcing the regulations.

The legislative area is represented by the national parliaments which create the laws regulating the handling and management of waste. In almost any country, there is a basic law applicable to the item “waste”, which sets general priorities, how to handle waste in a sustainable way, names the responsible institutions to take care for execution of the law, and defines approval conditions. This basic law is accompanied by several specific regulations for the different operations and measures e.g. relating to

•the naming, registration and disposal control of waste

•the prescribed methods to handle the types of waste

•the technical equipment and emission protection measures for facilities treating and disposing waste

•minimum recycling proportions for different waste types

•time schedules, setting targets when a specific recycling or treatment system or a reduction aim must be achieved.

This national legislative process is predominantly influenced by the EU-Regulations

In the executive area of responsibility for waste management, each country’s Natio nal Ministry of Environment is the senior control institution, supervising the perfor mance in the different regions of the country. Depending on the structure of the nation’s administration, e.g. in a federal unit like the Republic of Germany, the (sub) states of the nation have their own specific legislation and waste management plans.

An example: UK Household Waste and EU Landfill Directive targets

An example: Estimated biodegradable waste for landfill in England versus the EU Landfill Directive targets (million tonnes)

An example: Key Drivers, Partner Organizations and Mechanisms