Governance of hazardous additives in plastics

Abstract

On international level, inter governmental institutions, conferences and forums present a coherent development and build up of principles and measures in both the areas of chemicals and waste: from humble beginnings of only gathering information and evaluation of substances via risk assessment to an environmentally sound management approach based on full lifecycle assessment, all in the context of sustainability. A clear pattern emerged, reflected in increasing codification of environmental and health protection measures in international multilateral agreements,creating international environmental law. Soft law has trickled down into supranational and national level where it shaped environmental policy and subsequently has led to the implementation of the concepts contained in the international sources. In the aspect of international agreements, the thesis elaborated on the Basel and Stockholm Convention. On supranational level, the competences of the European Union increased in complexity and expanded into new regulatory areas, parallel to the developments on international level. As an international organization itself with full legal personality, the European Union has not only implemented but also shaped those developments. The governance of the hazardous additive decaBDE in plastics is a cross-sectional issue,the areas in which legislation can be found is product and chemicals regulation, but also in waste legislation. DecaBDE was found to be explicitly regulated under the Stockholm Convention, REACH, RoHS2, and POPS.