Abstract
The concept of sustainable development was introduced in Europe by the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) and was extended to waste management in the Waste Framework Directive. In order to achieve sustainable development, hazardous waste (HW) must be managed safely and in accordance with regulations. This also applies to worldwide HW transport, especially when HW is shipped for disposal. The United Nations, through the Basel Convention, aims to prevent the export of HW from developed countries to developing countries for disposal. In Europe, HW shipments are regulated by Regulation (EC) No. 1013/2006 of the European Parliament and by the Council of 14 June 2006 on shipments of waste. Additionally, all HW shipments must be in accordance with two principles contained in the Waste Framework Directive: proximity and self-sufficiency. Using data from 2014 and network analysis methodology, this paper fills the gaps in the scientific literature by looking at how shipments of HW travel for disposal in Europe, how the regulations affect these shipments and how GDP per capita influences the shipment of waste. The results show that countries with a high GDP per capita play an important role in the network (having the highest in-degree) and that the absence of landfill taxes for HW does not influence HW shipments for disposal. Therefore, countries in the EU act in accordance with the proximity and self-sufficiency principles.
Highlights
Sustainable development is a fundamental objective of the EU and was included in the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam [1]
This research uses network analysis to determine the relationships among nodes and uses Gephi to show the relevance of these nodes in the network or the communities formed by the countries, in the framework of hazardous waste (HW) exports for disposal among EU Member States
The network analysis was performed with the disposal data obtained through Eurostat for the year 2014
Summary
Sustainable development is a fundamental objective of the EU and was included in the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam [1]. Sustainable development includes waste management as the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) urges Member States to “promote and support sustainable production and consumption models” and introduces the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in its objectives, showing the relation between waste management and sustainability. Sustainability is an aim of the European Union, the European waste management industry shows a weak model of sustainability [2]. The study of efficient hazardous waste (HW) management in relation to legislation can be a driving force towards the achievement of sustainable development [3]. It should be noted that, in order to achieve sustainability, certain regulations and directives must be met and fulfilled to ensure safe and environmentally sound practices are implemented
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