The Bureau of International Recycling says it supports the recent initiative of its European member federation EuRIC regarding the potential impact of the upcoming European Waste Shipment Regulation on global free and fair trade of ‘raw materials from recycling’.
EuRIC, in an open letter addressed to executives of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Slovenian Presidency of the Council, calls for a clear distinction in the legal regime between ‘problematic waste streams’ and the raw materials from recycling (RMR). Nearly 300 European companies and national recycling associations co-signed EuRIC letter highlighting the potential disastrous effects of a blanket restriction of RMR exports.
“At the height of the pandemic in Europe, the recycling industry was almost universally regarded as “essential” and was therefore allowed to continue in operation,” says Tom Bird, President, BIR. “It is only by maximising the substitution of primary raw materials by raw materials from recycling that we will succeed in optimising the climate change mitigation effects of recycling. And what is true at a European level is even more true globally. Therefore, one of the first courses of action should be to engage with the recycling industry, listen to our arguments and create the circumstances in which our industry’s environmental potential can be fully unlocked. No circular economy can be seriously considered and achieved without a fluid global market for raw materials from recycling.”
