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Minister Gormley Signs New Regulations on the Registration of Waste Brokers and Dealers

28/04/08

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr. John Gormley T.D. today (28  April 08) announced new regulations to tighten controls on the export of waste abroad for recycling and recovery.

The Waste Management (Registration of Brokers and Dealers) Regulations 2008 provide a registration system for waste brokers and dealers and will better facilitate controls on such persons who arrange shipments of waste. The system will be administered by Dublin City Council and will allow the Council to certify those involved in the business but also to remove those found to have breached the rules.

In making the announcement, the Minister said:

“These Regulations are in the first place a further transposition of EU waste law into our national legislation. The new regime will place another level of control on the shipments of waste and thereby further ensure that waste is moved without harm to our environment. At present 83% of the waste in Ireland collected for recycling or recovery is necessarily exported. This includes almost all cardboard, paper and plastic collected at our recycling facilities around the country. The movement of such large volumes of waste needs to be properly policed and controlled to prevent illegal waste activity.  We need to have maximum information available on this waste and the registration system will assist this.”

The Minister added: “I am confident that the industry will welcome these regulations for the reasons I have already indicated. I am also confident that there will be no unnecessary administrative burden placed on the industry as a result.”

In introducing the new regulatory arrangements, the Minister also took the opportunity to praise the new role taken on by Dublin City Council, since July of last year, as the national authority responsible for the implementation of the EU Waste Shipments Regulation. In this context the Minister said: “The Council has done a tremendous job in regulating the export of our recycling waste and I am confident that they will carry out this additional role in a similar fashion.”

ENDS


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