THE INTERNATIONAL MULTIMODAL TRANSPORT OF HAZARDOUS GOODS AND WASTE

Abstract

The international multimodal transport of hazardous goods and waste is a sector of remarkable economic importance. This transport activity is connected to several productive sectors and it can have conside rable repercussions on the environment and health as well as on the safety of the workers and third parties that study in the same field. A certain part of the tran sport of hazardous goods and waste is managed by organized criminals who can obtain enormous savings by neglecting the measures necessary to protect the environment and safety. The legitimate economy is thus damaged and, above all, the efforts the International Community has made since the fifties- sixties, concerning the regulation of the complex aspects of this activity, are undermined. Two disti nct judicial models exist at an international level concerning hazardous waste and goods: “transboundary movement” and “international transport”. The purpose of these models is to regulate a phenomenon which, although very complex and articulated, requires a homogeneous view. The international mult imodal transport judicial model is here examined in 3 subsequent stages: (1) the general aspects and th e details along the entire chain, starting from the loading operations, then going on to the transport itself and ending up with the unloading at its fina l destination; (2) the controls on the respect of int ernational legislation on this topic; (3) a study c ase is conducted pertaining to the extensive PCB category which, from a judicial point of view, in certain ca ses can be considered hazardous goods and in other case s hazardous waste. The aim of the study is to suppl y decision makers with indications that can be used to improve the efficacy and the effectiveness of the regulati ons at a UN level and of the cascading particular agreements fo r the various means of transport. The international multimodal transport judicial model suffers from the uncertain ties that were already encountered for the transbor der movement model, with particular reference to the la ck of a unique interpretation of what is waste and what are goods at an international, regional and national le vel. This difficulty, which was already present in the first model, has negative repercussions on the second one and di minishes the efficacy and effectiveness of the inte rventions put into place to solve the real problems of multim odal transport which, if considered separately, wou ld be valid. Even the controls, which are basically objectively complex and costly, come up against difficulties ri ght from the beginning. Finally, the study case of PCBs also sho ws that the lack of a solution to the fundamental p roblem reduces the various operations inherent to transpor t to almost just a heavy bureaucratic practice, whi ch suffers from practical implications that make it difficult to reach the objectives of protecting the environme nt and safety that the model has established. The attention of de cision makers should be concentrated on two fundamental aspects. The first concerns the fundamental theme o f the difference between goods and waste which, bei ng unresolved, weakens many parts of the two models and results in the amplification of the problems on t he second model. The second aspect regards the controls that should be conducted. The improvement of the technicaljudicial model requires the combined study of exper ts, from both the judicial and technical fields.