EU recycling traders&#39 future under serious threat, BIR warns

As the European Council considers tightening controls on the export of waste materials to developing countries, the BIR has objected to proposals put forward by the European Commission.

In particular, it is objecting to a “notifier hierarchy” the Commission wants to introduce, which would mean that from 2006 the responsibility for notifying authorities about waste shipments would shift from the exporters to the waste producers.

”No dealer, trader or broker would be allowed to arrange export to industrialising countries which require notifications.“
– BIR statement
Without change, this hierarchy would “damage currently well-functioning markets” by effectively banning licensed collectors and registered dealers, traders and brokers from arranging exports to industrialising countries, the BIR said.

In a statement issued on Friday (30/01/04), the BIR along with European metals and paper recycling federations EFR, EUROMETREC and ERPA, said: “(Under the notifier hierarchy) no dealer, trader or broker would be allowed to arrange export to industrialising countries which require notifications, and no dealer, trader or broker would be allowed to arrange export to Latvia, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia, these requiring notification through the Accession Treaty arrangements.”

The BIR statement said the loss of the “specialist” knowledge of dealers, brokers and traders in the recycling industry would be like taking estate agents out of the home-buying sector.

Controls
As well as damaging business, the BIR said the restrictions could have serious environmental implications by encouraging “industrialising countries wanting (recycled) materials, yet requiring notification, to drop their controls”.

The proposed changes to the Waste Shipment Regulations passed its first reading in the European Parliament in November 2003, and has now been submitted to the Council. But, the BIR said the Commission had “never publicly justified” its notifier hierarchy restriction, which had “slipped through the EU Parliament's first reading”.

The BIR and the European federations have been working to combat the proposed changes for some time, recently highlighting the issue at its 2003 World Recycling Convention. But in Friday's statement, the Bureau warned that “the text persists and time is running out”.