ABSTRACT
The Community’s waste management strategy seeks to strike a balance between two important interests. Bearing in mind that the ECJ has determined that wastes must be regarded as “goods”, 1 and that a significant amount of cross-border waste movement takes place each year, efforts must be made to ensure that the functioning of the internal market is not distorted. 2 Equally however, there is an obvious need to attain a high level of environmental protection by discouraging the relentless generation of waste. The amount of waste generated within the Community continues to increase, the European Environment Agency indicating that
[r]eported total waste generation in OECD Europe increased by nearly 10% between 1990 and 1995. Approximately 2000 million tonnes of municipal waste was generated in 1995, equivalent to 420 kg/person/year. 3
