European recycling industry calls for unhampered trade of raw materials from recycling

RECYCLING Magazine – 1 December 2022 – The procedures for the export of recycled materials still classified as waste laid down in the Waste Shipment Regulation (WSR) are burdensome, costly, and time-consuming, say EuRIC and FEAD.

European recyclers are therefore in favour of an ambitious revision of the WSR that effectively combats illegal shipments while levelling the playing field with extracted raw materials. In that respect, it is instrumental to simplify procedures for intra-EU waste shipments while ensuring free, fair, and sustainable access to international markets for raw materials for recycling (RMR) that are used directly in production processes. This is of particular importance for base metals, paper, or some plastics that have undergone a material recovery process and for which there is no sufficient demand in the EU.