The Federal Cabinet today approved the Draft of the Waste Wood Ordinance submitted by Federal Environment Minister Trittin. This Ordinance harmonises and specifies the requirements for recyclingand energy recovery and the disposal of waste wood. It is based on the Closed Substance Cycle and Waste Management Act (Kreislaufwirtschafts- und Abfallgesetz). Minister Trittin made the followingstatement: "The requirements for the management of waste wood are standardised nationwide for the first time with this Ordinance. It also provides binding ecological standards. This is a crucial steptowards guaranteeing environmentally sound processes for waste wood management. The Ordinance promotes the use of waste wood, and the removal of pollutants from the substance cycle."
At present there are no national standard requirements for waste wood management. Instead the Bundesländer have their own individual regulations. Various recycling and energy recovery pathsare followed; disposal occurs thus far by means of incineration or landfilling. There is need for regulation at national level as there is some doubt regarding the environmental compatibility ofcurrent recovery paths, and as regulations vary from Land to Land.
The new Ordinance identifies current recovery paths for waste wood and provides for binding ecological standards. In future, waste wood must be disposed of by means of a thermal procedure;landfilling is prohibited. Waste wood contaminated with PCB must be disposed of in accordance with the PCB/PCT Waste Ordinance.
A particularly important element of the Ordinance are the requirements regarding the processing of waste wood for the manufacture of derived timber products that are ultimately integrated intocommodities, for example chipboard in furniture. For this reason, binding pollutant limit values are set for wood chips generated from waste wood.
This Ordinance still requires approval from the Bundestag and Bundesrat. It is expected to enter into force at the beginning of 2003. Germany is breaking new ground with this Waste Wood Ordinance,as there are no European regulations in this field at present.