BIR Supports European Recycling Industries’ Position

A recently proposed revision of the European Union’s waste shipment regulations has led the European metals and metals recycling industries to the publication of a joint position paper. As these EU regulations affect trade in secondary raw materials worldwide, BIR has been actively supporting the action of the European federations, in parallel to its involvement in the work on regulating trade in materials for recovery and recycling within the OECD.

EFR and the European Federation for Non-Ferrous Metals’ Recycling, both daughter federations of the Bureau of International Recycling, teamed up with EUROFER and EUROMETAUX to comment on the revision of Council Regulation No 259/93 on the supervision and control of shipments of waste within, into and out of the European Community.

According to the BIR, the regulations intend to be more severe than those in use within the OECD area, which is likely to further hamper trading conditions of the European recycling industry.

The revision contains the call for further administrative restrictions, suggesting the introduction of a new form to be filled in for any transport of unprocessed and processed ‘Green Waste’. As some EU authorities are known to publish details of commercial transactions, the disclosure of information claimed on this form could lead to breach of commercial confidentiality and a distortion of competitiveness.

Also, the flagrant lack of a clear distinction in the EU legislation between unprocessed waste and processed secondary raw materials in the revision represents a danger for the recycling industry and their customers.

BIR is concerned that non-hazardous materials are being subjected to further restrictions whereas they should be exempt from the 259/93 Regulation’s control procedures and not be overburdened with regulations, as initially stated in the original legislation from 1993.