for the classification of waste, record- keeping,
licensing and waste treatment. The regulations
affect any companies with operations that generate, transport or manage waste that is not
In Hungary, the entire
body of waste legslation
i
has undergone a review
collected by the municipal authorities.
In the US, companies that
must currently manage solvent-contaminated
industrial
wipes as hazardous waste should
benefit from recent amendments
that exclude such items from regulation as hazardous waste. The
U.S. EPA has adopted amendments to its hazardous waste
regulations to conditionally exclude solvent-contaminated industrial wipes
from regulation as hazardous waste which may
reduce the regulatory burden for companies
that must currently manage used wipes as hazardous waste. The exclusions take effect on 31
January 2014.
In Hungary, the entire body of waste legislation has undergone a review. The changes
concern a shift in waste management/organization, for which a new National Waste Agency
has been established. It is now this Agency that
organizes waste management by way of tenders and companies who want to bid and have
to comply with a certain qualification system
(depending on the qualification, certain companies can only bid in certain tenders applicable to
their class). Also, the national Agency organizes
the take-back requirements, which basically removed compliance schemes from the picture
(by joining a compliance scheme, companies
Enhesa Flash Nov/Dec 2013
no longer comply with their take-back requirements), the system is organized by the Agency
– and applicable to all products subject to the
environmental product charge.
In Indonesia, a February 2013 Regulation
has put more meat on the bones of a 2009
law requiring compulsory environmental audits
for companies that are a high risk for the environment. Annex 1 of the Regulation provides
list of activities that are considered having high
risk to the environment with an audit interval for
each activity. These activities are such as: cement industries (every 3 years), petrochemical
industries (every 3 years), oil and gas refineries
(every 5 years), hydropower (every 5 years), and
facilities managing hazardous and toxic waste
(every 2 years). Besides this list, the Minister of
Environment may also determine other activities
to be included as high risk activities based on
a proposal from the Environmental Impact Assessment Committee or other related Ministries.
Good tidings
Of course, it is not all bad news that we
come across. For example, on 29 July 2013,
Dubai Municipality announced the opening of
the Al Qusais waste landfill facility. The Al Qusais Landfill facility is the first green landfill in
the Middle-Eastern region and is one of the
Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) used
to assist the UAE in reducing green gas house
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