The EUDIN interface

The EU project EUDIN

The goal of the EU project EUDIN (European Data Interchange for Waste Notification-System) is to create a standardized interface convention. EUDIN determines how the electronic data will be exchanged internationally between four initial EU states as required by the European Waste Shipment Regulation 259/93 EC. The project will work out an initial version of an internationally valid and useful interface for the transmission of data relevant to waste and the environment.

The purpose of EUDIN is to define a unified IT-supported system for the administrative processes of registration, approval, and monitoring of international waste transport, and to develop the first application prototypes.

EUDIN is oriented to the responsible officials of the participating states as well as to all participants in any international waste management. These are primarily waste producers, waste transporters, and waste disposal companies.

Consist ITU is represented in an advisory capacity in the working groups of EUDIN and is participating in the formulation of the standard.

The process in brief

Any international waste management is regulated by

• the Basel Convention (BÜ) on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal of 3/20/1989,
• the decision of the OECD on the Monitoring of International Transport of Wastes for Reuse of 3/30/1992 (OECD),
• EG Regulation 259/93/EWG for Monitoring of the Control of Transport of Wastes in, into, and out of the European Union of 2/1/1993 (EUV),
• as well as in Germany by the Waste Transport Ordinance (AbfVG) as Article 1 of the implementation ordinance of the Basel Convention of 9/30/1994.

In order to export waste, the waste owner must register the waste stream with the responsible agencies in the export and import states and in the transit states, and obtain permits. For this General Notification, the offices have between 20 and 70 days – depending on the role of the agency and the type of state – to issue a permit or to deny the application.

For each individual waste transport in an approved waste stream, three additional notifications must be issued to the responsible agencies: the registration, the notification of receipt, and the notification of disposal. The three last notifications are performed on the consignment note which must accompany the transport along with a copy of the General Notification. 

The current state of the art generally consists of the transmission of faxes between the notifying parties and the agencies involved. There is a significant and multiple data entry overhead associated with the transmission of notification data into current IT systems, with the risk of entry errors, misuse, and multiple changes of media.

The purpose of EUDIN

EUDIN's purpose includes the simplification, unification, and acceleration of the notification process. The EUDIN project addresses companies with regular international waste transports as well as those with only a few such transports per year.

For the group of regular users, a data exchange interface is offered which can be used to transmit notifications for checking and approval to the responsible agencies using EDI.

The advantages of EUDIN for agencies lie

• in the direct import of notifications into back-office systems,
• in the faster receipt of notifications, and
• in the ability to check the request at the earliest possible point in time.

The companies participating in the waste transport profit

• from the direct transmission of notifications from back-office systems,
• from the need for only a single form for each notification,
• from partially prefilled forms, and
• from the ability to have forms validated at the earliest possible time.