EU Parliament votes to adopt WSR revision

The European Parliament on Tuesday voted to adopt a proposal for a revision of its Waste Shipment Regulation (WSR) that will impose controls on exports of scrap metal from the EU to non-OECD countries.

Members of the European Parliament voted through the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety's position on the WSR, approved in December, as the basis for the Parliament's negotiating position with EU governments on final adoption of the legislation.

Under the amended WSR, exports of non-hazardous waste for recovery — which, under EU law, includes ferrous and non-ferrous scrap metal — will be allowed only to non-OECD countries that apply for consent and demonstrate their ability to treat waste sustainably through third-party audits.

The European Commission will monitor waste exports to OECD countries to ensure that shipments are managed in an environmentally sound manner in line with EU regulation, and to ensure that they do not adversely affect the management of domestic waste in their country.

The legislation will have the greatest impact on sales of aluminium, copper and ferrous scrap to Asia.

Europe's recycling trade associations continued to maintain that the WSR revision will negatively impact the continent's metals recycling industry and eventually impact overall recycling rates.

"The unspecified audits for buyers of copper, aluminium or steel scrap on non-European markets will again increase the density of reporting requirements and unnecessarily complicate trade, which will harm the recycling industry," German trade group VDM said.

European recycling trade association EuriC said that a survey of its members showed that up to 80pc of metals recyclers expect a loss in turnover as a result of the WSR revision, with up to 50pc anticipating that it could lead to job losses.

Trade groups fear that the non-specific commitment to monitor exports to OECD countries leaves a window open for further restrictions on EU scrap metal exports in the longer term.

European steel trade association Eurofer on Tuesday said that greater steps must be taken to ensure scrap is only exported to consumers that have equivalent environmental standards to the EU.

The next steps of the WSR legislation should implement stronger monitoring of exports to OECD countries and outline a "more granular and harmonised definition" of waste processing facilities, so that the audit system — which is a key part of the WSR — can be more rigorously enforced, Eurofer said.

By Ronan Murphy