European recyclers seek essential status

EuRIC calls on governments to allow collection of recyclables and suggests keeping material in Europe.

Brussels-based EuRIC (European Recycling Industries’ Confederation) has called on the European Union and applicable authorities from member states of the EU, plus Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, to acknowledge “the essential role of the waste management and recycling industry in collecting, sorting and recycling of [discarded materials] from household and industries to protect human health and the environment.”

The association says recyclers possess “strategic importance for the European economy as a provider of secondary raw materials , which are critical to downstream industries, some of them directly involved in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic.”

EuRIC also has asked governments and corporations to allocate resources so those in the waste management and recycling sectors (including haulers) “are provided with sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE), in line with national and European safety measures as well as to benefit from any schemes (such as child care) to adequately carry out their activities.”

The association includes in its letter a request for waste and recycling to be classified as a strategic sector and to “formally acknowledged” as such by EU member states.

EuRIC also suggests the EU and member states consider taking moves to “protect cross-border movement” of secondary raw materials, giving priority to “feed European production facilities (smelters, steel and paper mills, plastic converters, etc.).”

The association says it will keep monitoring the impact of COVID-19 on the waste management and recycling industry in Europe.

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