Open-Ended Working Group 3

UNEP/CHW/OEWG/3/INF/13

/

BC

UNEP/CHW/OEWG/3/INF/13
/ Distr.: General
29 March 2004
English only

Open-ended Working Group of the Basel Convention

on the Control of Transboundary Movements of

Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal

Third session

Geneva, 26-30 April 2004

Item 12 of the provisional agenda[(]

Work on hazardous characteristics

Draft paper on the hazardous characteristic H13 (Capable, by any means, after disposal, of yielding another hazardous material)

Attached is the draft paper on the hazardous characteristic H13 (Capable, by any means, after disposal, of yielding another hazardous material).

3

UNEP/CHW/OEWG/3/INF/13

Draft guidance document on the application of hazard characteristic H13 of Annex III
24 March 2004

Content

Introductory note 4

1. Introduction 7

2. Background 7

3. Criteria for use 8

4. Assessment approaches 9

5. Wastes to which H13 may be relevant 12

6. When is testing needed 12

7. Conclusions and recommendations 12

Appendix A: reported cases of transboundary movement of waste involving hazard characteristic H13 14

Appendix B: examples of approaches to H13 by selected Parties 17

Inleiding 3

1. Doelstelling en uitgangspunten 4

2. Beschrijving van het systeem 5

3. Plan van aanpak 10

Bijlage A: Stroomschema 12

Introductory note

The purpose of this document is to provide the Parties to the Basel Convention with guidance on the application and use of H13 of Annex III of the Convention to determine the hazard properties of wastes.

Under the Basel Convention hazardous wastes are defined according to a list of substances (Annex I – categories of waste to be controlled) and their characteristics. One of these characteristics is H13 which is defined in Annex III as:

‘Capable, by any means, after disposal, of yielding another material, e.g., leachate, which possesses any of the characteristics above.’

Based upon the material provided by Parties in reply to the two questionnaires substantive information on the interpretation and application of H13 by Parties was obtained. These material as well as other contributions received until end 2003 were reviewed and the following observations can be made.

·  The largest part of the information referred to leachate and testing procedures for leachate. The generation of leachate, which possesses one of the characteristics, H1 to H12 is a clear indication that the waste possesses the characteristic H13. Several Parties have developed assessment approaches using leachate tests to determine if a waste possesses hazard characteristic H13. Typical examples are the systems in place in Canada and Austria.

·  Several contributions indicated the need to apply H13 as an intrinsic property of the waste. The Basel Convention considers the hazard characteristic of wastes from the definition in Article 1.1(a) that distinguishes those wastes that ‘possess’ the characteristics and those that do not. This characteristic of the waste therefore is not be depending on the treatment the waste undergoes or will undergo. The definition of the Convention considers the hazardous characteristic of wastes without taking into account the treatment the wastes will undergo. It is not the intention of the definition in the Convention that a waste could be e.g. hazardous when incinerated and non-hazardous when recycled. Neither does the characterisation of the waste depend on the effectiveness of the treatment in reducing impact on the environment.

Since H13 makes reference to leachate and other substances yielded after disposal this may cause confusion on this point. It could be understood in a way that the Convention considers waste as hazardous due to the fact that inappropriate treatment of a waste may cause environmental damage. It should be noted however, that in those cases the environmental damage is not a result of the intrinsic properties of the waste only, but of the combination of the properties of the waste and the way the waste is treated. If H13 is applied in this way a risk-based approach to the characterisation of waste would be introduced. Such a risk-based approach was already rejected in a number of other cases and is therefore also not appropriate when applying H13. The Convention makes a clear distinction between the characterisation of waste as hazardous or non-hazardous and the choice of the appropriate treatment of each waste, leading to environmentally sound management.

·  The definition of the characteristic H13 indicates very clearly that leachate is only an example and also the wording ‘by any means’ suggests that the approach should not be limited to formation of leachate alone. Therefore the first questionnaire requested information on the interpretation of the characteristic. Several Parties and BAN indicated in their replies on this questionnaire and the subsequently submitted materials that H13 should be interpreted in a way that emissions and residues could be factors that may be relevant for the determination of H13. In the second questionnaire Parties were explicitly asked if they assessed emission and materials generated in thermal treatment processes or in physical-, chemical- and biological treatment processes to determine whether the waste submitted to the process possessed hazard characteristic H13. It also requested which testing procedures they applied in these cases.

In the replies on the second questionnaire several Parties indicate that they apply H13 in relation to formation of leachate but also to emissions and residues of incineration and physical- chemical- and biological treatment processes in the context of H13. Some of these Parties explained that they test the residues of incineration and other treatment. In the case of incineration these tests e.g. are used to verify if hazardous organic pollutants have been destroyed effectively during the thermal treatment. For physical- and chemical processes that aim at solidification or stabilisation of hazardous waste the tests are used to verify the effectiveness of the treatment in view of the subsequent use of the waste or its disposal in a landfill.

In some other reactions it was mentioned that the incineration process concentrates certain pollutants, in particular dangerous metals and metal compounds, in the residues. These metals were present in the original waste but in lower concentrations and often also in a form in which they may have a different leaching behaviour. In most cases it is very difficult to establish the relation between the characteristics of the residue and the characteristics of the input material. Incineration often involves a multitude of different waste types treated in the same installation. The characteristics of the residues may therefore be completely different from those of the original waste. The Convention identifies these waste streams in Annex I (Y18 residues from industrial waste disposal operations) and in Annex II (Y47 residues arising from the incineration of household waste). These residues could also be assessed as such on their hazardous characteristics. The contributions from Parties did not make clear how the hazardous character of these incineration residues was taken into account when assessing the properties of the original waste that had entered into the incineration process. Also it was not made clear that the consequence of the production of a hazardous waste in the incineration process was that the original waste that was incinerated would consequently be regarded as a hazardous waste. These examples therefore do not provide for a solid basis to develop an assessment strategy for H13 in this context. None of the contributions of Parties or others contains specific information on how the assessment of H13 for the original waste would take place in the case the waste may generate a hazardous residue during incineration or what type of tests are used to demonstrate the hazardous character of a waste due to emissions or generation of hazardous residues.

BAN gave several examples they consider relevant to illustrate approaches for H13 based upon other criteria than leachate. These examples include: the burning of waste wood, treated with pentachlorophenol in a wood furnace; the processing of waste transformers containing PCB (below 50 ppm) with handheld blowtorches; open air grinding of waste brake pads containing asbestos and use of grinded slag from copper smelting as material for school playgrounds. These are clear examples where the management practises of these wastes create serious environmental problems. However, these examples mainly illustrate the existence of management of certain waste types (whether hazardous or not) that are not in compliance with the requirements of environmentally sound management. It also shows the importance of hazard characterisation and designation of environmentally sound management as two essential and complementary approaches. The contribution of BAN therefore provides a clear signal of the existence problematic waste management practises but provides limited information that can be used to develop an assessment procedure for H13 as an intrinsic property of wastes.

It is therefore concluded that the correct interpretation of H13 is that it should address other issues than leachate formation only that for the time being its practical application is limited to leachate, due to lack of assessment approaches for other materials that may be yielded after disposal.

A first discussion document was produced in 2001 and was elaborated on the basis of material submitted by Parties in reply to two questionnaires as well as on an analysis of information submitted under Article 13 of the Convention. As a reaction to that document some additional information was received which was used to produce this consolidated version of the guidance document.

On the basis of the analysis of this material it can be concluded that:

·  The number of Parties that frequently use H13 is limited and approaches differ between Parties.

·  The practical examples of use are limited to approaches using testing procedures based upon leachate. None of the Parties provided concrete information regarding approaches concerning other materials yielded after disposal.

·  The document contains practical information on leachate tests which could be used by Parties to develop a national approach for H13.

·  At this stage there is no harmonised approach that could be adopted for use for the Convention, neither on the approach for leachate, nor on the other aspects relevant for the application of H13.

There are several options to develop a harmonised approach for the Convention, if such approach is desirable:

·  To choose one of the national approaches on leachate presented in Appendix B and use the results from that method as one of the elements for decisions for the inclusion of a particular waste in Annex VIII or IX.

·  To develop a harmonised approach for a leachate test for the Convention. The recommended approach to harmonisation includes the following steps:

1.  defining the worst-case scenario simulated by the testing procedure;

2.  defining the most vulnerable part of the environment and the level of protection to be aimed for. The guidelines for drinking-water quality developed by the WHO might be a good starting point for this discussion.

3.  choice of a set of parameters and calculation of limit values for the evaluation of a test based upon model calculations taking into account the worst-case scenario and the necessary level of environmental protection.

4.  The choice of the test method and the preparation of the samples could be agreed upon on the basis of the evaluation criteria as developed in step 3.

This approach has proven to produce results in the context of the development of acceptance criteria for landfills (based upon leaching behaviour of the waste) in the EU, where 15 Member States, that previously applied different national approaches had to agree on a harmonised approach under the EU landfill directive.

·  When approaches based upon other materials then leachate become available these could be included in a future version of the guidance document.

1. Introduction

1.  The purpose of this document is to provide Parties to the Basel Convention (referred to as the Convention) with information on the application of hazard characteristic H13 of Annex III to the Convention.

2.  An assessment procedure should be suitable for several purposes including:

·  consideration of wastes to be allocated to Annexes VIII or IX of the Basel Convention (Lists A and B);

·  determination whether a particular waste on a case by case basis, should be treated as hazardous waste.

·  providing guidance to Parties regarding the application of H13 in national policies and strategies for environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes.

The first is the main purpose in the context of the Convention. It should allow the Convention to decide, based on an assessment of all hazard characteristics, including H13, if a waste should be listed as hazardous waste in Annex VIII or as non-hazardous waste in Annex IX.

The second and third may be relevant for Parties to decide on a case by case basis what type of management for a particular waste could constitute environmentally sound management or this could be relevant for certain cases of transboundary movement.

2. Background

3.  Under the Basel Convention hazardous wastes are defined according to a list of substances (Annex I – categories of waste to be controlled) and their characteristics.

4.  The hazardous characteristic H13 is described in Annex III to the Convention. It defines this characteristic as:

‘Capable, by any means, after disposal, of yielding another material, e.g., leachate, which possesses any of the characteristics above.’

5.  The Convention itself does not give further elaboration of the characteristic or guidance how this characteristic should be assessed for individual wastes. This is made clear in the footnote to Annex III, headed ‘Tests’ which states that:

‘The potential hazards posed by certain types of wastes are not yet fully documented; tests to define quantitatively these hazards do not exist. Further research is necessary in order to develop means to characterize potential hazards posed to man and/or the environment by these wastes. Standardised tests have been derived with respect to pure substances and materials. Many countries have developed national tests which can be applied to materials listed in Annex I, in order to decide if these materials exhibit any of the characteristics listed in this Annex.’

6.  The characteristic H13 falls into this category. Opinions vary as to how this characteristic should be interpreted and applied. A number of parties have already adopted measures to provide a basis for declaring a waste to be hazardous according to H13. Others make very little or no use of it.