Associations call for practical design of the legal framework for handling construction and demolition waste containing asbestos

The handling of asbestos found in fillers and tile adhesives discussed in the National Asbestos Dialogue and the urgently needed legally binding regulation on the handling of these building materials expected so urgently were the basis for a vote by nine associations, including the DA, on the practical design of the legal framework for handling construction and demolition waste containing asbestos, so that in future it will also be possible to recycle materials with a low level of contamination.

The proposal made by the Federal Ministries BMI, BMU and BMAS within the framework of the National Asbestos Dialogue to use the results of the building survey also decisively for the classification and labelling of waste also requires, from the point of view of the associations, that the building owner – and only the building owner – is clearly defined in the Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management Act as the waste producer of the demolition masses originating from his possession.

In the draft published by the BMU on 5 August 2019 on the “Amendment to the Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management Act to transpose the Waste Framework Directive into national law”, it was missed again to clearly define the responsibility of waste producers. According to the definition in paragraph 3 (8) KrWG-E, the building owner is unfortunately only one possible responsible waste producer.

If no correction in the above sense is made, the efforts within the framework of the National Asbestos Dialogue to find a consensus among society as a whole are pointless.

The associations’ statement of 30 August 2019 can be found here.