The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has warned of serious disruptions to global recycling markets if the European Commission's draft delegated act under the EU Waste Shipment Regulation (WSR) is adopted later this year.
The act would establish a list of non-OECD countries authorised to import certain non-hazardous waste from the EU.
The commission earlier this month withdrew its plan to impose a 15pc tariff on aluminium scrap exports in favour of a broad prohibition on exports of waste, including aluminium scrap to non-OECD countries. It then allowed non-OECD countries to formally request to receive specific waste streams, and proposed authorising these streams if the countries meet the WSR's requirements for environmentally sound management.
The commission then published a draft list of non-OECD countries that are authorised to receive specified non-hazardous waste, excluding a few major Asian countries from ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal import authorisation, including India and Thailand.
India imported around 582,000t of aluminium scrap from the EU last year, according to Global Trade Tracker data, while Thailand received around 181,000t. In total, the EU exported around 1.6mn t of aluminium scrap last year.
Europe generates more aluminium scrap than its current recycling capacity can absorb, BIR said, and warned that prohibiting exports to major customer nations could weaken rather than bolster the European recycling industry.
"BIR cautions that restricting exports would not automatically create the European demand or processing capacity needed to absorb the affected grades and volumes," it said. "Instead, it could depress recycled material prices, weaken collection incentives and undermine the investment needed to maintain future supplies."
