Malta: How a Small Nation Deals with RoHS, WEEE
By John F. Mason -- EDN, April 27, 2006
Malta, a small island nation in the southern Mediterranean, only joined the European Union in 2004, and has had little time to figure out how to adjust itself to the overwhelming changes required by the EU's Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directives and to transpose them into Maltese law.
"Nevertheless, Malta has just transposed the RoHS directive into its national legal order, and the Commission is currently checking whether the measures taken conform to the requirements of the directive," an official from the environment department of the European Commission, the EU 's executive body, informed Electronic News.
Further, Malta¡¯s ministry has said that ¡°the transposition of WEEE to law is a work in progress not yet finalized. However, publication of the WEEE regulations transposing the directive to law is expected shortly,¡± according to a Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) spokesman.
"Both WEEE and RoHS directives entered into force on Feb. 13, 2003, and [EU] member states were supposed to transpose them into national law by Aug. 13, 2004," the official added. "The Commission started an infringement procedure against Malta, due to the non-transposition of the WEEE directive, which means that after two official warning letters, the Commission decided on Dec. 13, 2005, to refer the case to the European Court of Justice, and we are now waiting for its judgment.¡±
The 10 member states that joined the EU in 2004 have been granted a 24-month deadline extension for two aspects of the directives. Instead of having to ensure that 4kg of e-waste are collected per citizen per year by Dec. 31, 2006, they have until Dec. 31, 2009. The same extension is valid for industry for recovery, reuse, and recycling. The main deadlines are, nevertheless, the same as for all EU states, which means that Malta should have transposed both directives by Aug. 13, 2004.
Lack of compliance never results in trade sanctions or anything of that nature. The breach does -- and did -- result in the Commission's taking Malta to court. "We are presently waiting for a judgment by the European Court of Justice," the Commission official said. "If the European Count of Justice confirms that Malta is breaching EU legislation and Malta still doesn't fix the problem, we will have to send Malta two official warnings and can then ask the Court to impose a fine. However, it is very rare that a procedure reaches the final stage and that fines are imposed -- in the environmental field, it has been the case only two or three times."
WEEE, waste management of electrical and electronic products from cell phones to refrigerators, imported or brought in by tourists, as well as RoHS, restriction of hazardous substances used in the these products, have been transposed into the national legislation of almost all EU countries.
Since Malta's main industry is tourism, it produces a minimum of electric or electronic products. It is therefore more concerned with WEEE than RoHS. In fact, the two directives are managed by different government authorities. RoHS is the responsibility of the Malta Standards Authority (MSA), while WEEE is handled by the MEPA.
To be true, Malta is not idle. "We are having discussions between government and the commercial sector," a government official said recently. "In a small island state such as Malta, with a small fragile market, the government wants to ensure that the directives are implemented in a cost-effective way and with the least impact on the commercial sector. Many home appliances are already being taken back to the stores that sold them."
In spite of its pending transposition of WEEE to law, Malta has not been asleep regarding the problem of waste disposal. In November 2002, the government established a company, WasteServ Malta Ltd., to organize, manage and operate integrated systems for waste management including integrated systems for minimization, collection, transport, sorting, reuse, utilization, recycling, treatment and disposal of solid and hazardous waste.
Part of the organization's solution has been to export waste to destinations outside the Maltese islands.
Malta has felt secure with its waste management solutions because the authorities say they conform to the Law of Malta, as well as to internationally recognized waste management principles.
Last month, to speed up the process, the EU gave WasteServ Malta 400,000 euros to buy technical assistance from Germany. Germany started immediately sending WasteServ Malta technical advice on how to make Malta's actively functioning National Waste Management Strategy, which has been under way since 2001, conform to EU requirements.
The project consists of four main packages:
-The design of waste management strategies for all relevant fields. A number of experts will be visiting Malta to provide technical training and assistance to industry, retailers, wholesalers and other stakeholders that will be affected by the introduction of the Producer Responsibility Framework. Training will cover the various waste streams including packaging waste, waste oils, batteries and accumulators, end-of-life vehicles, waste electrical and electronics equipment and tires;
-41 WasteServ Maltese employees will participate in study tours to Germany, and cooperate with German experts in all relevant areas of waste management. Such visits will cover landfill management and operation, operation of composting/digestion plants, management of hazardous waste and management of civic amenity sites. Technical training will also be provided to various stakeholders on packaging designs, laboratory techniques, specifications of databases, trans-frontier movement of waste and eco-counselling;
-To further promote the Extended Producer Responsibility principle among all relevant administrative bodies, stakeholders and the public, the German group will provide guidance on the implementation of an awareness campaign and communication plan;
-And besides the project's relation to waste management, it also involves Malta's Mag©¤tab landfill. A contract has been awarded for helping in the preparation of the Aerial Emissions Programme; the work includes recontouring some of the waste within the site boundaries to form access tracks and level working platforms; movement of some of the inert material which was originally deposited to form a screen over the waste and moving material from one area to another.
As for Malta's current legal procedures regarding the EU Commission's directives, the Malta Standards Authority's Consumer and Industrial Goods Directorate, whose responsibility is the implementation of legislation dealing with the free circulation of products other than food, medicines, cosmetics and chemicals, has transposed directive 2002/95/EC (RoHS) through Malta's Legal Notice 396 of 2004. This was published in the Government Gazette of August 31, 2004.
This legal notice is currently being amended by Commission Decisions 2005/618/EC, 2005/717/EC and 2005/747/EC, specifying the substances that can be exempted from the ban.
"We regularly consult our local stakeholders," said Ing. Anthony Camilleri, head of consumer and industrial goods directorate, MSA. "The consultations usually run in parallel to the Commission's consultations or follow the publication of a new decision which amends the directive. To date, we have received no feedback on any difficulties encountered by Maltese economic operators that could arise from the adoption of the new technologies required in order to substitute the hazardous substances, apart from one case whose products are intended for large machines."
