EU proposes sweeping changes to waste export regulations

The European Commission has proposed a set of regulatory changes for the export of waste, to prevent member states from sending their trash to poorer nations to avoid having to dispose of it domestically.

The bill suggests an overhaul on current restrictions, new digital reporting tools and state obligations in a bid to reduce overall pollution and ensure waste textiles, plastics and metals are reused and recycled rather than thrown away while also hoping to encourage its 27 member states to increase capacity to reuse waste at home.

The bloc also hopes the scheme will fit squarely within the parameters of the EU's "Fit for 55" scheme, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030.

Read more: EU lays out "Fit for 55" goals to cut carbon emissions

According to official EU estimates, the bloc exported 32.7 million tonnes of refuse to non-EU countries in 2020 alone. The global waste trade reportedly reached around 182 million tonnes with a value of roughly €80 million.

The report released with the proposal also claims the EU imports around 16 million tonnes of waste annually, and roughly 67 million tonnes are shipped between member states per year.

Furthermore, waste exporting to non-OECD countries has reportedly increased by 75% since 2004, the bloc revealed.

The Commission is also proposing an EU-wide system to electronically exchange documents and information, which would allow authorities to better monitor waste streams.

The proposal still needs ratification from the European Parliament and its member states before it comes into law.

If approved, the digital sharing clause could become active within 24 months of ratification.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, the Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, said: "The goal is to make the EU take greater responsibility for the waste it produces. That's not the case today and that's what needs to change."

Under the proposal, any non-member state needs must notify the bloc when it wishes to import waste, and that they can reuse or dispose of it in an environmentally-friendly way, as laid out by the criteria in the proposal.

Materials not on the EU's green list that are to be reused will also require written consent and approval from the relevant authorities for both exporting and importing.

The proposals define recycling as “any recovery operation by which waste materials are reprocessed into products, materials or substances whether for the original or other purposes. It includes the reprocessing of organic material but does not include energy recovery and the reprocessing into materials that are to be used as fuels or for backfilling operations", as laid out by the Commission's 2008 directive.

However, NGOs have criticised the proposals, suggesting it does not do enough to mitigate the consequences of the EU's waste exports.

“Shipping waste outside the EU is not only an unfair delegation of our duty to manage our own waste and an obstacle to waste prevention, it is also a missed opportunity to turn waste into secondary raw materials, reducing our dependence on imported natural resources, and eventually making the EU a secondary raw material exporter", Stéphane Arditi, the Director of Policy Integration and Circular Economy at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) said in a statement.

Read more: 8.4 million tonnes of plastic waste generated by Covid-19, study finds

The organisation warns the revision may end up temporarily diverting a bit more waste to OECD countries than non-OECD ones, but will not make it more difficult to export waste, nor ensure valuable materials remain within the EU.

Instead, it calls for a ban, which it claims would be easier to enforce and "create additional pressure to cut waste generation and virgin resource consumption in the EU".

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