EU Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius promised "the most ambitious" rules on waste exports but revealed few details in recent comments on the upcoming revision of the EU Waste Shipment Regulation. The specifics of the restrictions sought by the Commission are now due out on 17 November, according to a tentative agenda released yesterday.
Speaking at an event in Brussels organised by numerous environmental NGOs on 29 September, Commissioner Sinkevičius had said that exports of waste from the EU will be "basically banned”. However he noted that there would be exceptions for shipments to destination countries that were willing to accept the waste and had the necessary treatment capacity.
Environmental groups such as the Break Free From Plastic movement, the Rethink Plastic alliance, Zero Waste Europe, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and European Environmental Bureau (EEB) are calling for a complete end to plastics exports from the EU. In Brussels last week, they handed over a "Plastic Waste Trade Manifesto" endorsed by more than 60 NGOs and 36 members of the European Parliament to Mr Sinkevičius.
You can read our full reports on Commissioner Sinkevičius' remarks and calls by NGOs for further restrictions on plastic waste shipments in EUWID Recycling & Waste Management20/2021 out 6 October 2021. Our online subscribers can read them now in our E-Paper edition:
