This report is the JRC-IPTS contribution to the development of the end-of-waste criteria for copper and copper alloy scrap in accordance with Article 6 of Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on waste (the Waste Framework Directive).

The purpose of end-of-waste criteria is to avoid confusion about the waste definition and to clarify when certain waste that has undergone recovery ceases to be waste. Recycling should be supported by creating legal certainty and an equal level playing field and by removing unnecessary administrative burdens. The end-of-waste criteria should provide a high level of environmental protection and an environmental and economic benefit.

The recitals of the Waste Framework Directive identify scrap metals as a possible category of waste for which end-of-waste criteria should be developed. Consequently, the Environment Directorate-General requested from the JRC-IPTS a study with technical proposals on end-of waste criteria for copper and copper alloy scrap.

This report delivers the results of the study. It includes

a possible set of end-of-waste criteria and shows how the proposals were developed based on a comprehensive techno-economic analysis of copper and copper alloy recycling and an analysis of the economic, environmental and legal impacts when copper scrap cease to be wastes.

The report has been produced by the JRC-IPTS based on the contributions of experts from Member States and the stakeholders by means of a TWG. The experts contributed in the form of written inputs and through participation in a workshop organised by the JRC-IPTS in July2009. The report also used the results of previous research carried out by the JRC-IPTS from 2006 to 2008 and described in the reports ‘End-of-waste criteria’ and ‘Study on the selection of waste streams for end-of-waste assessment’.

Source: http://ftp.jrc.es/EURdoc/JRC64207.pdf