Halfway through 2009, the European Union finally established classification criteria applicable to waste facilities within the extractive industry in compliance with Directive 2006/21/CE, as well as the technical requirements for their characterization based on the definition of inert waste.

This characterization and definition of extractive industry waste aims to make available information that allows for its evaluation and the monitoring of its properties, characteristics and behavior, in such a way that it is guaranteed through a management plan, in accordance with the governing authority, of long term environmental security conditions and mitigating their possible effects.

The EU member states will be in charge of characterizing their own waste, in accordance with the definition of predicted inert waste in Decision 2009/359/CE, through various criteria, such as the possibility of approving a definite list, for each state, of waste that can be exempt from certain geochemical testing, listed that it should be technically supported by bodies of well-known prestige.

In Spain, the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade is coordinating the formation of said list with the extractive sector, including COMINROC (Confederation of Industrial Rocks and Minerals Extractive Industries) which the Spanish Federation of Natural Stone (FDP) is part of. The FDP is in charge of, with the support of its member associations, the formation of the list as regards natural stone, on the understanding that it is a necessary project for the continuity of this sector.

This is a crucial moment for the extractive sector and for the advisory bodies of the public administrations involved in this area, such as the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade and the Ministry of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs, to collaborate with each other and, in turn, work alongside the extractive industries that are affected by this issue in order to achieve a reasonable result. This result should be agreed upon and based on logical criteria that facilitate the activities of companies in this industry, avoiding the difficulties that they currently have to face.