European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety ENVI has voted to adopt new regulations that will place restrictions on exports of scrap metal from the EU to non-OECD countries but resisted pressure to adopt similar restrictions on exports to OECD importers. Although Turkey which is main importer, scrap exports are on the safe side for now but some big buyers such as Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh are at risk as they are not members of OECD. ENVI adopted a position on revisions to the European Waste Shipment Regulation that was largely unchanged from the initially proposed legislation in November 2021. Under the amended WSR, exports of non-hazardous waste for recovery, under which classification ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal falls under EU law, will be allowed only to non-OECD countries that apply for consent and demonstrate their ability to treat waste sustainably via third-party audits. European Steel Association EUROFER said “The changes brought to the Waste Shipment Regulation are a welcome step in the right direction to ensure that environmental and social standards equivalent to the EU’s are met when waste is exported to third countries. However, significant issues remain largely unaddressed with room for further improvement, in particular by strengthening monitoring for OECD countries and by pre-empting circumvention which risks to weaken the effectiveness of the new measures.”
European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety ENVI has voted to adopt new regulations that will place restrictions on exports of scrap metal from the EU to non-OECD countries but resisted pressure to adopt similar restrictions on exports to OECD importers. Although Turkey which is main importer, scrap exports are on the safe side for now but some big buyers such as Egypt, Pakistan and Bangladesh are at risk as they are not members of OECD. ENVI adopted a position on revisions to the European Waste Shipment Regulation that was largely unchanged from the initially proposed legislation in November 2021. Under the amended WSR, exports of non-hazardous waste for recovery, under which classification ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal falls under EU law, will be allowed only to non-OECD countries that apply for consent and demonstrate their ability to treat waste sustainably via third-party audits. European Steel Association EUROFER said “The changes brought to the Waste Shipment Regulation are a welcome step in the right direction to ensure that environmental and social standards equivalent to the EU’s are met when waste is exported to third countries. However, significant issues remain largely unaddressed with room for further improvement, in particular by strengthening monitoring for OECD countries and by pre-empting circumvention which risks to weaken the effectiveness of the new measures.”
