EU court: Dutch eco-regulators go too far in saying what's garbage

DUTCH environmental regulators went too far in declaring that a diesel fuel consignment was waste product after it had been rejected by a customer despite the fact that the supplier had plans to re-sell it, ruled the European Court of Justice.

The ruling has been welcomed by suppliers of fuel oil and bunker, said Rotterdam law firm AKD after Shell disputed the Dutch regulator's (ILENT) decision, reported London's Tanker Operator.

By insisting the fuel was waste, ILENT invoked many of domestic and EU regulations for handling waste, which imposed "disastrous and unnecessary costs on the bunker industry", said AKD law partner Carel van Lynden.

"The problem is that when off-spec bunkers are defined as waste, all sorts of environmental regulations kick in. For storage, transportation, blending and recycling of waste, and prior permission from ILENT is required," he said. 

"Such permission will only be given to a licensed waste collector, or processor. A regular bunker supplier cannot take the bunkers back unless it has licenses, which, of course, it has not. So the value of the bunker to the supplier drops to nil and extensive costs have to be incurred for de-bunkering and processing," he said.

ILENT became involved when the diesel had been delivered to the buyer in Belgium. The buyer wanted it taken back. Shell did so and took it to the Netherlands for up-blending. ILENT found out and called it waste.

The EU court said that in determining whether a substance is waste, one should take into account whether it is still of value to the holder. 

The fact that it retained considerable value was of importance, the court ruled. Shell took it back for the purpose of up-blending and thus, waste legislation does not apply to cases where the substance can and will be resold for considerable value said the court.