One fifth of European inspected shipments broke export rules

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An average of 21 per cent of the inspected waste shipments from 28 European countries were not in compliance with European waste shipment rules, according to the IMPEL project.

IMPEL, which is the association bringing together 28 environmental regulatory authorities across Europe, found that in 26,705 inspections across these countries, 3,897 were trans-frontier shipments of waste. Of these, inspectors found that 21 per cent were in violation of the European Waste Shipment Regulation.

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In approximately one third of these cases, the violation was an illegal shipment due to a breach of export bans or missing notification documents. This type of offence was mainly concerned with waste electrical and electronic equipment and end of life vehicles being exported to Africa or contaminated plastics and paper to Asia. Other observed violations were contradictions with documents or related national rules.

The figures relate to the period from October 2008 until March 2011.