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Rules and regulation for cross-border waste shipments

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The EU has common rules for transporting waste within and beyond EU borders. If you plan to transport waste from Sweden you need to find out if you are required to notify the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or if it is sufficient for an information document to accompany the waste shipment.

A few things to think about when transporting waste across borders:

  1. Find out if it is permitted to export and import the waste.
  2. Find out whether or not your waste is subject to the notification requirement.
  3. Give yourself plenty of time.
  4. Notify the agency in the country where the shipment will start.
  5. If no shipment notification is required under the regulation, a waste information document must accompany it, and a contract must be signed with the recipient of waste for recovery.

Illegal waste shipments

A shipment of waste that is dispatched without the necessary approvals for cross-border waste shipment is considered an illegal shipment and may result in fines or imprisonment for the actor responsible. The same applies to waste that is subject to an export or import ban.

Notification or information on cross-border waste shipments

If you plan to transport waste from Sweden, you need to know whether or not you need to notify the Swedish EPA of the shipment or if it is sufficient to provide information in a specific document. This depends on the kind of waste (which waste-codes are suitable?), where the waste will be shipped and how the waste will be processed (recycling or disposal?).

Legalisation

Transboundary waste shipments are regulated by Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 on shipments of waste, which is based on the Basel Convention and the OECD decision on the movements of waste. EC regulations apply directly and in their unabridged form in all member states.

Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2006 on shipments of waste

How to notify the Swedish EPA of a cross-border waste shipment

This page was last updated:

From: Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth

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