Oh thank God the SDMB is back! I was having serious withdrawal symptoms here… but at least I got some work done
BUT: to finish it, I need your help.
I´m translating a text on waste management from German to English and though there is a surprising amount of specialized dictionaries, I´ve still got a few questions.
So, here we go:
legal:
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when you cite a directive in a text, do you write Article 16 Section 2 (of Directive blah blah blah), or do you abbreviate them? Art. 16 Sec. 2? Upper or lower case?
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what is the correct term for the rationale behind a decision - umm, how do I explain this… the reasons/considerations the legislative body (the European Commission in this case) gives when passing a new directive - you know, they usually explain why they do it and what purpose it serves. rationale? considerations? something completely different?
and then the waste management questions… any experts around? chemists? people working in pharmaceutical companies? we´re talking hazardous waste here, so you might know… anyone?
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hazardous waste may not be disposed of just any old way, it has to be shipped to waste treatment plants and be accounted for. It can only be sent with an accompanying document - what is this document called? and is there a word for the obligation to do this - in German we have the nice adjective “begleitscheinpflichtig”, i.e. “obligatory to be shipped with an accompanying document” or whatever… any equivalent?
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if you have the facilities to treat/incinerate the waste in the company, could you call it an “in-house (waste treatment) facility”?
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sometimes certain types of waste that would be considered hazardous are proven to be non-hazardous, so you can dispose of them in another (cheaper) way. What would you call this process? The opposite of “classify/categorize as hazardous waste”.
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do you say “contaminated” or “polluted” soil?
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does the term “problem waste” exist? (not as bad as hazardous waste, but still problematic - can´t find that anywhere)
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old cars - just old cars as a waste category?
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what would you call a body that collects the data on hazardous waste (how much, where, normally based on those “accompanying documents”)
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and then there´s a really tricky one - could you/ would you say “environmental medium”? uggh that sounds too ugly… wait, I´ll try to explain. They say “Umweltmedium” in German, meaning air, water, soil, and for some reason waste as well. medium as in Merriam Webster´s definition 2 a (2) : “a surrounding or enveloping substance”. element, if you like. “environmental element” sounds a bit metaphysical to me, though.
I´ll give you a context: “separate plans that only focus on an isolated reduction of emissions into air, water or soil may simply shift the pollution from one <insert apropriate term here> to another instead of protecting the environment as a whole.”
They also have an “integrative, comprehensive (though this should be substituted by a word that includes the above term, if possible) approach” in their environmental protection programmes. (The funny thing is that this document I´m translating refers to this as EU policy, but I can´t even find the German expression in my EU terminology or legislation sources.)
So in case you don´t think this concept exists in English, what would you suggest? Any good ideas? does “environmental medium” sound completely ridiculous?
I might come up with a few more questions later, but for now I´d be really really thankful if anyone has any good suggestions…
Pleeeease?