Guidelines for the ESM of POPs Wastes
Environment Canada
General Technical Guidelines for Environmentally Sound Management of Wastes Consisting of, Containing or Contaminated with Persistent Organic Pollutants
18 January 2004 Draft
Environment Canada Guidelines for the ESM of POPs Wastes
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Environment Canada would like to express their appreciation to the following consultants for their assistance in preparing the General technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of wastes consisting of, containing or contaminated with persistent organic pollutants. They are as follows:
Thomas ConwayRFI - Resource Futures International
858 Bank Street, Suite 103
Ottawa, ON
Canada
K1S 3W3 / Sections 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 plus overall editorial oversight
Craig Wardlaw
Headwater Environmental Services Corporation
2681 Jerseyville Road
Jerseyville, ON
Canada
L0R 1R0 / Sections 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10 and 4.11
Edward Lloyd
SNC-Lavalin Engineers and Constructors Inc.
2200 Lake Shore Boulevard West
Toronto, ON
Canada
M8V 1A4 / Section 4.7
January 18, 2004
Environment Canada Guidelines for the ESM of POPs Wastes
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction 1
1.1 Scope 1
1.2 About POPs 2
2.0 Relevant provisions for POPs wastes in the Basel and Stockholm Conventions 2
2.1 Basel Convention 2
2.1.1 General provisions 2
2.1.2 Provisions with regard to POPs wastes 5
2.2 Stockholm Convention 7
2.2.1 General provisions 7
2.2.2 Waste related provisions 8
2.3 Other Conventions 10
3.0 Provisions of the Stockholm Convention to be addressed cooperatively with the Basel Convention 11
3.1 Low POP content definition 11
3.2 Levels of destruction and irreversible transformation definition 12
3.3 Methods that constitute environmentally sound disposal 14
3.3.1 Destruction or irreversible transformation methods 14
3.3.2 Other disposal methods when the POP content is low 15
3.3.3 Other disposal methods when destruction or irreversible transformation does not represent the environmentally preferable option 15
4.0 Guidance on Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) 16
4.1 General considerations 16
4.1.1 Basel Convention 16
4.1.2 Stockholm Convention 18
4.1.3 OECD (core performance elements of ESM for government and industry) 18
4.2 Legislative and regulatory framework 19
4.3 Waste prevention and minimization 23
4.4 Identification and inventories 24
4.4.1 Identification 24
4.4.2 Inventories 24
4.5 Sampling, analysis and monitoring 27
4.5.1 Sampling 27
4.5.2 Analysis 28
4.5.3 Monitoring 29
4.6 Handling, collection, packaging, transportation and storage 31
4.6.1 Handling 31
4.6.2 Collection 31
4.6.3 Packaging 32
4.6.4 Transport 33
4.6.5 Storage 33
4.7 Environmentally sound destruction and disposal 33
4.7.1 Pre-treatment 33
4.7.2 Destruction and irreversible transformation methods 33
4.7.3 Other disposal methods when the POP content is low 33
4.7.4 Other disposal methods when destruction/irreversible transformation does not represent the environmentally preferable option 34
4.8 Remediation of contaminated sites 34
4.9 Health and Safety 34
4.9.1 High-volume, high-concentration or high-risk situations 34
4.9.2 Low-volume, low-concentration sites or low-risk situations 35
4.10 Emergency response 35
4.11 Public participation 36
Appendix 1: Stockholm Convention Annex C provisions 38
Appendix 2: Provisional definitions of low POP content submitted by Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greenpeace, Japan and others 41
Appendix 3: Environmentally sound methods of destruction or irreversible transformation suggested by Germany and Japan 49
Appendix 4: Quality Assurance and Quality Control 51
Appendix 5: Basic Principles of Safe Storage of POPs Waste 54
Appendix 6: Relevant documents and guidelines/references 56
Appendix 7: Destruction methods that are currently operating on a pilot or test basis 60
Abbreviations and Acronyms
ADI Acceptable Daily Intake
ANZECC Australian and New Zealand Environment Conservation Council
AOP Advanced Oxidative Process
ASTM American Society for Testing of Materials
ATSDR Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
BAT Best Available Techniques
BEP Best Environmental Practices
COP Conference of the Parties
CPE Core Performance Elements
DDT 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethane
DE Destruction Efficiency
ESM Environmentally Sound Management
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization
HCB Hexachlorobenzene
IATA International Air Transport Association
IMO International Maritime Organization
INC Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants)
NIP National Implementation Plan
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
PAH Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon
PBBs Polybromated biphenyls
PCBs Polychlorinated biphenyls
PCTs Polychlorinated terphenyls
PCDD Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins
PCDF Polychlorinated dibenzo-furans
POPs Persistent Organic Pollutants
PPBppb Parts per bBillion
ppmPPM Parts per mMillion
pptPPT Parts per tTrillion
PRTR Pollutant Release and Transfer Register
QA/QC Quality Assurance/Quality Control
TDI Tolerable Daily Intake
TEF Toxicity Equivalency Factor
TEQ Toxic Equivalent
UNEP United Nations Environment Programme
UNESC United Nations Economic and Social Council
VOC Volatile organic compound
WCO World Customs Organization
WHO World Health Organisation
Units of concentrationsmeasurement
mg/L: Milligram(s) per liter. A measure of the concentration of an analyte in a given liquid medium. Occasionally referred Corresponds to as parts per million (ppm) by volume.
mg/kg: Milligram(s) per kilogram. A measure of the concentration of an analyte in a given solid medium. Occasionally referredCorreponds to as parts per million (ppm) by massweight.
μg/L: Microgram(s) per liter. A measure of the concentration of an analyte in a given liquid medium. Corresponds Occasionally referred to as parts per billion (ppb) by volume.
μg/kg: Microgram(s) per kilogram. A measure of the concentration of an analyte in a given solid medium. Occasionally referred to as parts per billion (ppb) by weight.
25 January 18, 2004
Environment Canada Guidelines for the ESM of POPs Wastes
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Scope
1. This General Technical Guideline provides guidance for the environmentally sound management (ESM) of POPs wastes in accordance with provisions of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal and the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
2. Five categories of POPs wastes are addressed in this document:
1. polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)*, polychlorinated terphenyls (PCTs), and polybrominated biphenyl (PBBs);
2. the pesticide POPs aldrin, chlordane, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene (HCB)**, mirex and toxaphene
3. HCB**;
4. 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethane (DDT); and
5. polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDDs/PCDFs)
*PCBs include both intentionally and unintentionally produced PCBs.
** HCB features twice in the list to reflect its status as both an industrial chemical and a pesticide.
3. The guidance provided within this document is intended to serve as (1) a stand-alone general guidance resource, and (2) an “umbrella” guide to be used in conjunction with technical guidance documents that will be revised or developed for each of the five specific POPs wastes categories through separate initiatives under the Basel Convention.
4. To these ends, this General Technical Guideline provides:
1. general guidance on waste management, treatment and disposal practices for POPs wastes, including discarded/expired materials contaminated with POPs, such as waste stockpiles; wastes products and articles; residues captured during production and waste treatment processes; and materials in remediation sites, where these sites have been identified for cleanup; and
2. a framework for addressing unresolved policy issues pertaining to destruction/irreversible transformation of wastes in the Stockholm Convention that have been a subject of discussion since the initiation of negotiations in 1997 by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) or for which guidance is to be developed as expressed in Article 6.2 of the Stockholm Convention. The unresolved policy issues include:
· the establishment, as appropriate, of low POPs content concentrations levels in wastes, at or above which the waste is to be destroyed or irreversibly transformed as per Articles 6.2 (c) and 6.1(d) (ii). (See Section 2.3 of this guidance document on Stockholm Convention provisions pertaining to wastes for full text of these provisions);
· establishment of levels of destruction and irreversible transformation, as per Article 6.2(a);
· determination of when destruction/irreversible transformation do not constitute the environmentally preferable option; and
· determination of what constitutes environmentally sound disposal methods applicable to POPs wastes that do not require destruction/irreversible transformation (as per provisions of Article 6.1(d) (ii) of the Stockholm Convention).
5. Considerations pertaining to destruction and environmentally sound disposal of POPs wastes discussed in this guidance document include a discussion of pre-treatment and volumes of waste since these have to be considered for , given that these will have a bearing on waste concentration or low POPs content in wastes and may be important when deciding about the disposal pathway, hence on the required ‘routing’ for waste (destruction or environmentally sound disposal). This document also provides comment on reducing or eliminating releases to the environment from waste disposal and treatment processes given the significance of this topic to POPs waste management.
6. Guidance on best available techniques (BAT) and best environmental practices (BEP) under the Stockholm Convention as these apply to unintentional releases of POPs from industrial source categories and other human activities is under development by an Expert Group that was appointed for this purpose by the Stockholm Convention INC 6.
1.2 About POPs
7. Most POPs are synthesized substances and only a very small quantities are , including by-products. Some of the unintentionally produced POPs can also occur naturally. However, human activity accounts for the greatest proportion of formation and release of these POPs.
8. The characteristics of POPs (toxicity, persistence and bioaccumulation[1]), the potential for their long-range transport, and their ubiquitous presence throughout the world in ecosystems and in humans were the impetus for the Stockholm Convention. As well, POPs, as noted in Section 2.1.2 below, are listed wastes in the Basel Convention.
9. Improper disposal of a POPs waste can lead to releases of the POP(s) and some of the disposal options may lead , in certain cases, to the generation and release of newly formed unintentional by-product POPs to the environment with subsequent potential for exposure.
2.0 Relevant provisions for POPs wastes in the Basel and Stockholm Conventions
2.1 Basel Convention
2.1.1 General provisions
10. The Basel Convention, which entered into force 5 May 1992, stipulates that any transboundary movement of wastes (export/import/transit) is permitted only when the movement itself and the ultimate disposal of the concerned hazardous wastes are environmentally sound.
11. Paragraph 8 of Article 2 (“Definitions”) of the Basel Convention defines environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes or other wastes as “taking all practicable steps to ensure that hazardous wastes or other wastes are managed in a manner which will protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects which may result from such wastes.”
12. Article 4 (“General obligations”) establishes a reporting procedure for prior informed consent with respect to import and export of wastes. Article 4.1 (a) states that “Parties exercising their right to prohibit the import of hazardous or other wastes for disposal shall inform the other Parties of their decision pursuant to Article 13” (“Transmission of information). Subparagraph b of 4.1 states that “Parties shall prohibit or shall not permit the export of hazardous or other wastes to the Parties which have prohibited the import of such waste when notified pursuant to subparagraph (a).”
13. Article 4.1 was subsequently strengthened in 1994 at the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention by Decision II/12 (known as the “Basel Ban”) to prohibit the export of hazardous wastes from OECD to non-OECD countries and, at COP-3 in 1995, the formal incorporation into the Convention of this Basel Ban by amendment via Decision III/1. The final language of the amendment of the ban on hazardous wastes exports for final disposal and recycling is from Annex VII countries (Basel Convention Parties that are members of the EU, OECD, Liechtenstein) to non-Annex VII countries (all other Parties to the Convention). The Ban Amendment requires ratification by three-fourths (62) of the Parties to enter into force. As of the date of this guidance document, the ban amendment has not yet entered into force.
14. Article 4.2 contains key provisions of the Convention pertaining to environmentally sound management, waste minimization, and waste disposal practices that protect or minimize adverse effects on human health and the environment:
Each Party shall take appropriate measures to:
(a) Ensure that the generation of hazardous wastes and other wastes within it is reduced to a minimum, taking into account social, technological and economic aspects;
(b) Ensure the availability of adequate disposal facilities, for the environmentally sound management of hazardous wastes and other wastes, that shall be located, to the extent possible, within it, whatever the place of their disposal;
(c) Ensure that persons involved in the management of hazardous wastes or other wastes within it take such steps as are necessary to prevent pollution due to hazardous wastes and other wastes arising from such management and, if such pollution occurs, to minimize the consequences thereof for human health and the environment;
(d) Ensure that the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and other wastes is reduced to the minimum consistent with the environmentally sound and efficient management of such wastes, and is conducted in a manner which will protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects which may result from such movement;
(e) Not allow the export of hazardous wastes or other wastes to a State or group of States belonging to an economic and/or political integration organization that are Parties, particularly developing countries, which have prohibited by their legislation all imports, or if it has reason to believe that the wastes in question will not be managed in an environmentally sound manner, according to criteria to be decided on by the Parties at their first meeting;
(f) Require that information about a proposed transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and other wastes be provided to the States concerned, according to Annex V A [Information to be Provided on Notification, to state clearly the effects of the proposed movement on human health and the environment;
(g) Prevent the import of hazardous wastes and other wastes if it has reason to believe that the wastes in question will not be managed in an environmentally sound manner; and
(h) Co-operate in activities with other Parties and interested organizations, directly and through the Secretariat, including the dissemination of information on the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes and other wastes, in order to improve the environmentally sound management of such wastes and to achieve the prevention of illegal traffic.