Commission finally proposes ban on hazardous waste exports

The new Environment Commissioner, Ritt Bjerregaard, has won her first major victory by persuading the European Commission to propose a ban on exports of hazardous waste for recovery in non-OECD countries from 1 January 1998. The proposal would bring existing EC rules on transfrontier shipment of waste into line with a decision taken by parties to the UN Basel Convention in March 1994. But a dispute about whether some "green list" wastes which are treated as hazardous under the Convention but not under EC rules should be subject to the ban remains unresolved.