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Environment

Waste containing POPs

EU rules on waste containing persistent organic pollutants (POPs) aim to protect human health and the environment.

Overview

A tractor spraying pesticides on wheat field
© fotokostic | Getty Images

POPs are a group of organic compounds that have toxic properties, persist in the environment, accumulate in food chains and pose a risk to human health and the environment.

Because of their persistence, these chemicals have the potential to be transported across international boundaries far from their source - through air, water and migratory species.

Waste containing POPs can be especially harmful. When disposing of waste containing POPs above certain concentration limits, the POP content must be destroyed or irreversibly transformed so that it is no longer harmful.

Find a summary of the legislation here.

Objectives

The Regulation on persistent organic pollutants (POPs) entered into force on 15 July 2019.

It aims to ensure that waste containing POP substances is managed in an environmentally sound way, while minimising emissions of POPs to air, water and soil – with the ultimate aim of eliminating these emissions.

Law

The EU adopted the POPs Regulation to uphold the aims of the Stockholm Convention and the UNECE Protocol on POPs, after the international community came together to conclude these agreements to reduce and eliminate POPs.

The Stockholm Convention on POPs was adopted in 2001 and entered into force in 2004. It aims to protect human health and the environment from POPs. It promotes global action on these substances and requires parties to take measures to eliminate or reduce the release of POPs into the environment.

In addition, under the Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal, parties must ensure that waste is managed in an environmentally sound way.

POPs include pesticides such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), industrial chemicals such as polychlorinated biphenyls and terphenyls (PCBs/PCTs), and unintentional by-products of industrial processes, for example, dioxins and furans. The EU has developed specific rules to deal with some of these chemical waste streams.

Find out more about POPs and the EU chemicals policy.

Timeline

Key dates related to EU rules on waste containing POPs

  1. 28 October 2021
    Commission adopts proposal for a Regulation amending the annexes of the Regulation on persistent organic pollutants

    View the proposal

  2. 15 July 2019
    New Regulation on POPs enters into force, replacing the 2004 Regulation
  3. 20 May 2004
    Regulation on POPs enters into force

    View this Regulation

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Contact

For questions about EU environmental policy, please contact Europe Direct.

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