Industrial waste management in the CEEC

The article sums up the state of play in industrial waste management in the CEEC.

Poland is the largest producer of industrial waste in the CEEC region with nearly 120 MT in 2002, followed by Romania (69 million tons), Bulgaria (43.5 million tons) and Hungary (21.5 million tons). The mining industries and those which use large amounts of coal, in particular for electricity generation and metallurgy, are the main producers of industrial waste. Nevertheless, the investments made in favour of clean technologies and the closing of several contaminated sites have made it possible to reduce the amount of waste produced in Romania to a fifth of its original quantity, from 335 M T in 1995 to 69 M T in 2001. And in Hungary it dropped from 34.6 M tons in 1990 to 21.5 M T in 2000, with the aim of producing 18 M T in 2008.

However, recycling remains insufficient and waste reprocessing poor. Moreover, most of the units specialising in the treatment of hazardous waste still do not conform to European standards. Officially, Poland recycles the major part of its industrial waste (more than 75%) and the market, which is operated by several hundred small local companies, achieved a turnover of 40 M € in 2002. In Bulgaria, there is a high rate of recycling in ferrous and non-ferrous metals (90%), paper (87%), glass (62%) and waste from the food-processing industry (61%). In Slovenia, the quantity placed in dumps represented only 32% of the total waste produced and much hazardous waste is still stored illegally. In Romania, recycling and reprocessing are for the moment only applied to 15% of its industrial waste and only 5% is treated through approved units (only 30% of the industrial dumps have an operating licence). In Latvia, only 3% of the hazardous waste is incinerated and only 50 to 60% is collected.

There is therefore a great need for investment. All the acceding countries, except Estonia, have negotiated transitional periods, from 2005 to 2009, for packaging waste (Directive 94/62/EC). As regards landfill sites (Directive 1999/31/EC), Latvia has until the end of 2004 to meet the standards; Estonia has until the end of 2009 and Poland until the end of 2012.

According to the Polish Ministry of Environment, which forecasts a total waste production of 172 million tons by 2014, the investment necessary for dump construction and modernisation, organising waste collection and modernising the processing of hazardous waste, is estimated at 2.5-3 bn €. In Bulgaria, the requirement is estimated at more than 2 bn € in order to meet European standards by 2007. In Hungary, the finance required for the industrial waste (excluding agricultural and food industry waste) management programme between 2003 and 2008, would be of the order of 230 M €.

Industrial waste management is funded from different sources. Money comes mainly from national budgets, often coupled with tax incentives, environmental funds and European funds: pre-accession assistance (in particular from the ISPA and PHARE programmes) and, from May 2004 onwards, cohesion funds. EBRD and EIB loans can also complete the financing of projects eligible for Community funds. In Bulgaria, for example, the whole environmental sector accounts for about 2.5% of GDP in the 2004 budget, which will be complemented by EU grants (about 52 M € coming from ISPA and close to 20 M € coming from the Phare programme). In Latvia, the government has introduced tax reliefs to encourage the use of recycled products and the undertaking of ecological investments by waste-producing companies. Over and above the investments which cannot be undertaken without the aid of external finance, technical assistance (such as help in the choice of waste management techniques and a legal and administrative framework for the projects) must be provided for local authorities.

For more analyses of the EU’s enlargement process, see the

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