As the Salon des Maires gets underway, the Revue des Collectivités locales looks at the consequences of changes to the status of excavated soil and sediments.
Here’s an excerpt from Danièle Licata’s article in the Revue des Collectivités, dated November 13, 2019, which relays Uned’s strong concern.
Indeed, the French Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition plans to use regulations to remove excavated soil – whether polluted or inert – from its waste status. To facilitate their re-use.
UNED Vice President Reda Semlali confirms that :
“Uned remains absolutely in favor of easing the conditions for removing waste from the waste stream, to encourage a second life for inert soil. But we must ensure that a step forward for the circular economy does not become a step backwards for the environment”.
For Uned, this exit :
“remains highly uncertain as to the guarantees needed to ensure environmental and health protection”.
In response, Uned has put forward several proposals to guarantee land traceability:
- The procedure for declaring waste is simplified and facilitated, but remains the responsibility of the ICPE operator, who assumes full administrative and criminal liability.
- The operator is the guarantor of the upstream traceability of the soil and the purpose of its reuse.
- Soil reuse is promoted with environmental and health guarantees.
- Identifiable and solvent liability (of the ICPE operator) is
maintained.
