Study on the selection of waste streams for end-of-waste assessment : final report

The revised Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC) introduces the possibility that certain waste streams that have undergone a recovery operation can cease to be waste, if they fulfil certain criteria - so-called End-of-waste (EoW) criteria. These criteria have to be developed, and they are to ensure that the waste streams fulfil a number of conditions spelled out in the Directive, including existence of a commonly used specific applications, existence of a market or a demand, fulfilment of technical requirements for the specific applications, meeting existing legislation and standards applicable to the products the waste streams substitute, and absence of any overall adverse environmental or human health impacts. This report is a contribution to the development and implementation of the concept of End of waste (EoW) in EU legislation. The report presents a list of waste streams currently traded in the EU27 that are suitable candidates for a detailed assessment of EoW criteria. Suitability has been evaluated against a number of operational and transparent, mainly quantitative selection criteria, which have been developed to reflect to the extent possible the fulfilment of the conditions of market, specific applications, legislation and standard compliance and environment required by the Waste Framework Directive.