Regulation (EU) 2024/1157 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 on shipments of waste, amending Regulations (EU) No 1257/2013 and (EU) 2020/1056 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 (Text with EEA relevance)

TITLE I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1

Subject matter

This Regulation lays down measures to protect the environment and human health and to contribute to climate neutrality and to achieving a circular economy and zero pollution by preventing or reducing the adverse impacts which can result from shipments of waste and from the treatment of the waste at its destination. It establishes procedures and control regimes for shipments of waste, depending on the origin, destination and route of the shipment, the type of waste and the type of treatment to be applied to the waste at its destination.

Article 2

Scope

This Regulation applies to:

(a) shipments of waste between Member States, with or without transit through third countries;

(b) shipments of waste imported into the Union from third countries;

(c) shipments of waste exported from the Union to third countries;

(d) shipments of waste in transit through the Union on the way to or from third countries.

This Regulation does not apply to:

(a) waste, including waste water and residues, generated by the normal operation of ships and offshore platforms until that waste is offloaded for the purposes of recovery or disposal, provided that the waste is subject to the requirements of Directive (EU) 2019/883 of the European Parliament and of the Council (¹), the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments or other relevant binding international instruments;

(b) waste generated on board vehicles, trains, aeroplanes and ships, until that waste is offloaded for the purposes of recovery or disposal;

(c) shipments of radioactive waste as defined in Article 5 of Council Directive 2006/117/Euratom (²);

(d) shipments of animal by-products and derived products as defined in Article 3, points (1) and (2), of Regulation (EC) No 1069/2009, respectively, except animal by-products or derived products mixed or contaminated with any waste listed as hazardous in the list of waste referred to in Article 7 of Directive 2008/98/EC;

(e) shipments of waste waters which are covered by Council Directive 91/271/EEC (³) or other relevant Union legislation;

(f) shipments of substances that are destined for use as feed materials as defined in Article 3(2)point, of Regulation (EC) No 767/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council (⁴) and that do not consist of or contain animal by-products;

(g) shipments of waste from the Antarctic into the Union in accordance with the requirements of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (⁵);

(h) shipments of carbon dioxide for the purposes of geological storage in accordance with Directive 2009/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (⁶);

(i) ships flying the flag of a Member State falling within the scope of Regulation (EU) No 1257/2013, with the exception of ships: (i) which are considered as hazardous waste, that are located in an area under the national jurisdiction of a Member State and that are exported from the Union for recovery, to which only Articles 39, 48, 49 and Title VII of this Regulation shall apply; or (ii) which are considered as waste, that are located in an area under the national jurisdiction of a Member State and that are destined for disposal.

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

(1) ‘mixture of wastes’ means waste that results from an intentional or unintentional mixing of two or more different wastes which are: (a) listed in different entries in Annexes III, IIIA, IIIB and IV, or, where applicable, in different indents or sub-indents of such entries; or (b) not classified under one single entry in Annex III, IIIA, IIIB or IV; Waste shipped in a single shipment of wastes, consisting of two or more wastes, where each waste is separated, is not a mixture of wastes;

(2) ‘interim disposal’ means any disposal operations listed under D8, D9, D13, D14 or D15 in Annex I to Directive 2008/98/EC;

(3) ‘interim recovery’ means any recovery operations listed under R12 or R13 in Annex II to Directive 2008/98/EC;

(4) ‘environmentally sound management’ means taking all practicable steps to ensure that waste is managed in a manner that will protect human health, the climate and the environment against adverse effects which can result from such waste;

(5) ‘consignee’ means any natural or legal person under the national jurisdiction of the country of destination to whom or to which the waste is shipped for recovery or disposal;

(6) ‘notifier’ means: (a) in the case of a shipment originating from a Member State, any of the following natural or legal persons under the national jurisdiction of that Member State, who carries out or plans to carry out a shipment of waste as referred to in Article 4(1), (2) or (3), or who has or plans to have such a shipment carried out, to whom the duty to notify is assigned: (i) the original waste producer; (ii) the new waste producer who carries out operations prior to shipment resulting in a change in the nature or composition of the waste; (iii) a collector who, from various small quantities of the same type of waste collected from a variety of sources, has assembled the shipment which is to start from a single notified location; (iv) a dealer or a broker acting on behalf of any of the persons referred to in point (i), (ii) or (iii); or (v) where all of the persons referred to in points (i) to (iv) are unknown or insolvent, the waste holder; (b) in the case of an import into or transit through the Union of waste that does not originate in a Member State, any of the following natural or legal persons under the national jurisdiction of the country of dispatch who carries out or plans to carry out a shipment or who has or plans to have a shipment carried out: (i) the person designated by the law of the country of dispatch; (ii) in the absence of a person designated by the law of the country of dispatch, the waste holder at the time the export took place;

(7) ‘person who arranges the shipment’ means any of the following natural or legal persons under the national jurisdiction of the country of dispatch, who carries out or plans to carry out a shipment as referred to in Article 4(4) or (5), or who has or plans to have such a shipment carried out: (i) the original waste producer; (ii) the new waste producer who carries out operations prior to shipment resulting in a change in the nature or composition of the waste; (iii) a collector who, from various small quantities of the same type of waste collected from a variety of sources, has assembled the shipment which is to start from a single location; (iv) a dealer or a broker acting on behalf of any of the persons referred to in points (i), (ii) or (iii); or (v) where all of the persons referred to in points (i) to (iv) are unknown or insolvent, the waste holder;

(8) ‘collector’ means any natural or legal person carrying out waste collection as defined in Article 3, point (10), of Directive 2008/98/EC;

(9) ‘competent authority’ means: (a) in the case of a Member State, the body designated by the Member State concerned pursuant to Article 75; (b) in the case of a third country that is a Party to the Basel Convention of 22 March 1989 on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal (‘the Basel Convention’), the body designated by that country as the competent authority for the purposes of the Basel Convention in accordance with Article 5 thereof; (c) in the case of any country not referred to in either point (a) or point (b), the body that has been designated as the competent authority by the country or region concerned or, in the absence of such designation, the regulatory authority for the country or region, as appropriate, which has jurisdiction over a shipment;

(10) ‘competent authority of dispatch’ means the competent authority for the area from which the shipment is initiated or from which it is planned that the shipment will be initiated;

(11) ‘competent authority of destination’ means the competent authority for the area to which the shipment is carried out or is planned to be carried out or in which waste is loaded prior to recovery or disposal in an area not under the national jurisdiction of any country;

(12) ‘competent authority of transit’ means the competent authority for any country, other than the country of the competent authority of dispatch and the competent authority of destination, through which the shipment is carried out or is planned to be carried out;

(13) ‘country of dispatch’ means any country from which a shipment is initiated or is planned to be initiated;

(14) ‘country of destination’ means any country to which a shipment is carried out or is planned to be carried out for recovery or disposal therein, or for the purpose of loading prior to recovery or disposal in an area not under the national jurisdiction of any country;

(15) ‘country of transit’ means any country, other than the country of dispatch or destination, through which a shipment is carried out or is planned to be carried out;

(16) ‘area under the national jurisdiction of a country’ means any land or marine area within which a state exercises administrative and regulatory responsibility in accordance with international law as regards the protection of human health or the environment;

(17) ‘overseas countries and territories’ means the overseas countries and territories listed in Annex II to the TFEU;

(18) ‘customs office of export’ means a customs office of export as defined in Article 1, point (16), of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 (⁷);

(19) ‘customs office of exit’ means a customs office of exit as determined in accordance with Article 329 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 (⁸);

(20) ‘customs office of entry’ means the customs office of first entry as defined in Article 1, point (15), of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446;

(21) ‘import’ means any entry of waste into the Union but excludes transit through the Union;

(22) ‘export’ means any exit of waste from the Union but excludes transit through the Union;

(23) ‘transit’ means a shipment through one or more countries other than the country of dispatch or destination;

(24) ‘transport of waste’ means the carriage of waste by road, rail, air, sea or inland waterways;

(25) ‘shipment’ means a transport of waste destined for recovery or disposal from the location from which the transport starts until the receipt of the waste by the facility that carries out the disposal or recovery in the country of destination and which is carried out or planned to be carried out: (a) between a country and another country; (b) between a country and an overseas country or territory or other area under that country’s protection; (c) between a country and any geographic area which is not part of any country under international law; (d) between a country and the Antarctic; (e) from one country through any of the areas referred to in points (a) to (d); (f) within a country through any of the areas referred to in points (a) to (d) and which originates in and ends in that same country; or (g) from a geographic area not under the national jurisdiction of any country, to a country;

(26) ‘illegal shipment’ means any shipment carried out: (a) without notification to the competent authorities concerned pursuant to this Regulation; (b) without the consent of the competent authorities concerned pursuant to this Regulation; (c) with consent obtained from the competent authorities concerned pursuant to this Regulation through falsification, misrepresentation or fraud; (d) in a way which is not in accordance with the information contained in the notification document or contained in or to be provided in the movement document, except in case of minor clerical errors in the notification or the movement document; (e) in a way which results in recovery or disposal in contravention of Union or international law; (f) contrary to Article 4(1), Article 4(3), or Article 37, 39, 40, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50 or 52; (g) in a way which, in relation to shipments of waste as referred to in Article 4(4) and (5), is not in accordance with the requirements referred to in Article 18, paragraphs 2, 4, 6 and 10, or with the information contained or to be provided in the Annex VII document, except in case of minor clerical errors in the Annex VII document;

(27) ‘inspection’ means any action undertaken by an authority to check compliance with the requirements set out in this Regulation;

(28) ‘waste hierarchy’ means the waste hierarchy referred to in Article 4 of Directive 2008/98/EC;

(29) ‘routing’ means the point of exit from and the point of entry into each country concerned, including customs offices of entry, exit and export;

(30) ‘route’ means the itinerary between the location where the shipment starts in the country of dispatch, via the point of exit from and the point of entry into each country concerned, to the treatment facility in the country of destination.

In addition, the definitions of ‘waste’, ‘hazardous waste’, ‘waste producer’, ‘waste holder’, ‘dealer’, ‘broker’, ‘waste management’, ‘re-use’, ‘treatment’, ‘recovery’, ‘preparing for re-use’, ‘recycling’ and ‘disposal’, laid down in Article 3, points (1), (2), (5) to (9), (13) to (15), (16), (17) and (19) of Directive 2008/98/EC, respectively, shall apply.

TITLE II

SHIPMENTS WITHIN THE UNION WITH OR WITHOUT TRANSIT THROUGH THIRD COUNTRIES

Article 4

Overall procedural framework

Shipments of the following wastes destined for recovery shall be subject to the procedure of prior written notification and consent, laid down in Chapter 1:

(a) wastes listed in Annex IV;

(b) wastes not classified under one single entry in either Annex III, Annex IIIB or Annex IV;

(c) mixtures of wastes, unless listed in Annex IIIA;

(d) waste classified as hazardous in the list of waste established pursuant to Article 7 of Directive 2008/98/EC;

(e) wastes listed in Annex III or Annex IIIB and mixtures of wastes listed in Annex IIIA contaminated by other materials to an extent which: (i) increases the risks associated with the wastes sufficiently to render them appropriate for submission to the procedure of prior written notification and consent, when taking into account the list of waste referred to in Article 7 of Directive 2008/98/EC as well as the hazardous properties listed in Annex III to that Directive; or (ii) prevents the recovery of the wastes in an environmentally sound manner;

(f) wastes or mixtures of wastes containing or contaminated with persistent organic pollutants (POPs) within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2019/1021 in quantities meeting or exceeding a concentration limit indicated in Annex IV to that Regulation, which are not classified as hazardous waste.

Shipments of the following wastes destined for recovery shall be subject to the general information requirements laid down in Article 18, if the quantity of waste shipped exceeds 20 kg:

(a) wastes listed in Annex III or Annex IIIB;

(b) mixtures of wastes, provided that the composition of the mixtures does not impair their environmentally sound recovery and provided that such mixtures are listed in Annex IIIA.

By way of derogation from Article 4(1) and (2), shipments of waste explicitly destined for laboratory analysis or experimental treatment trials to assess either the physical or chemical characteristics of the waste or to determine its suitability for recovery or disposal shall be subject to the general information requirements laid down in Article 18 where all of the following conditions are fulfilled:

(a) the quantity of waste does not exceed the quantity reasonably needed to perform the analysis or trial in each particular case, but not more than 250 kg or any larger quantity agreed on a case-by-case basis by the competent authorities of dispatch and destination and the person who arranges the shipment;

(b) in the event a quantity higher than 250 kg is requested by the person who arranges the shipment, that person shall provide the information contained in Annex VII, to the extent possible, to the competent authorities of dispatch and destination together with the reasoned explanation why such a larger quantity is needed to perform the analysis or trial.

CHAPTER 1

Prior written notification and consent

Article 5

Notification

A notifier referred to in Article 3, point (6)(a)(ii), (iii) or (iv), may only submit a notification where the notifier has obtained a permit or is registered in accordance with Chapter IV of Directive 2008/98/EC.

Where a notifier submits a general notification for several shipments as referred to in Article 13, the notifier shall also comply with the requirements laid down in that Article.

Where a shipment is destined for a pre-consented facility pursuant to Article 14, the procedural requirements in paragraphs 12, 14, 15 and 16 of that Article shall apply.

Where a shipment is destined for interim recovery or interim disposal, Article 15 shall also apply.

The notification shall include the following documents:

(a) the notification document set out in Annex IA (‘the notification document’);

(b) the movement document set out in Annex IB (‘the movement document’).

The notifier shall provide the information indicated in the notification document and, where relevant, the information indicated in the movement document.

When the notifier is not the original waste producer as referred to in Article 3, point (6)(a)(i), the notifier shall ensure that the original waste producer or one of the persons indicated in Article 3, point (6)(a)(ii), (iii) or (v), where practicable, also signs the notification document. A dealer or broker shall ensure they have a written authorisation from one of the persons referred to in Article 3, point (6)(a)(i), (ii) or (iii), to act on their behalf, and that such written authorisation is included in the notification.

The financial guarantee or equivalent insurance as referred to in Article 7 or, if the competent authorities concerned so allow, a declaration certifying its existence in accordance with the form set out in Annex IA shall be provided to the competent authorities concerned as part of the notification document at the time of notification.