The EU regulation 1013/2006 was incorporated in the EEA treaty the 6th of June 2008, and has now been transformed into Norwegian law as an amendment to chapter 13 of the waste regulation.

This means that the laws are now the same in Norway and the EU. For more information on the new regulation, please follow the links on the right hand side of this article to the Ministry of the Environment and SFT's own pages. Please notice that some of the content is in Norwegian only.

Applies to the EU and the EEA area

The decree applies for export from and import to the EU and for export and import to/from the rest of the world with transit in the EU. The regulations include the transport of waste from Northern Norway to Southern Norway with transit in Finland and/or Sweden. Rules for export/import of waste to/from the rest of the world remain unchanged as long as there is no transit in the EU.

Increased follow-up and supervision/inspection

The authorities must be notified in advance of all export and import of waste, and the authorities must give a written consent for transport. Certain waste transportations are exempted from this requirement, but must now be accompanied by a standard information document.

The new regulations entail that SFT's work on follow-up, inspections and control must be strengthened. For this reason, a new requirement has been included in §13-3 of the waste regulation concerning fees charged by the SFT for executive work. However, this requirement will come into force at a later date.

Inspections over the coming years

SFT supervises the import and export of waste and over the coming 2-3 years we will carry out inspections aimed at particular types of waste and stakeholders in this field. We will carry out an inspection campaign in 2008 on discarded electrical and electronic products, including export. SFT cooperates with the Norwegian Customs Directorate (TAD), and will carry out inspections on export of waste abroad in cooperation with TAD, focusing on Africa and Asia.

SFT will also establish a warning system in cooperation with TAD in order to prevent illegal export of waste. In addition, export and import of waste is also an important subject matter in SFT's inspections of the industry.