International

Member of Parliament Remi Poppe and Euro-MP Kartika Liotard this afternoon presented the SP's report ‘Afval heeft toekomst’ ('Waste has a future' ) to Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer. The report's main conclusion is that waste which has been carefully separated in the Netherlands for recycling or appropriate disposal is often simply dumped over the country's borders.

The processing of our waste by low-cost foreign firms which pay little attention to environmental considerations can result in serious damage to human health and the environment, even in cases where an export permit has been applied for and the waste movement is entirely legal. The minister, a member of the social democratic PvdA (Labour Party), said that she shared the SP's concerns and expressed her astonishment at the difference between the reports she had received from her inspectors and the SP's findings. She promised to subject this difference to thorough analysis as well as to give a written reaction to the report, enabling it to be discussed in a parliamentary session.

“The biggest question is how we can stop illegal transports,” Remi Poppe said. “As things stand there is still no answer to the way in which waste simply leaks away over the land borders.” The minister should endorse this conclusion and add her name to the recommendations which call for an improvement in enforcement of the laws governing waste disposal at European level, an area in which the Netherlands already takes the lead.

“It's good that this new minister wants to bring the problem of enforcement of the laws on waste transport before the EU's Council of Environment Ministers,” Kartika Liotrad added. “She will certainly have the SP's support.”