âFree, fair and sustainable trade of RMR is absolutely essential to boost high-quality recycling in Europe and ensure the recycling industry remains competitive,â says Emmanuel KATRAKIS, Secretary General of EuRIC.
âEuropeâs recycling industry is powered by SMEs and large companies, who directly employ over hundreds of thousands of Europeans, and indirectly many more. As stressed in the recent letter signed by 300 European national recycling federations and companies, subjecting RMR – which are still classified as non-hazardous waste – to export restrictions will, in the absence of secured end-markets for circular materials in the EU, pose a vital threat to European recyclers, be them SMEs or large multinational companies, and undermine the creation of green industrial jobs in Europe.â
âWith only 12% of raw materials used by the EUâs industry coming from recycling, binding requirements to use RMR in industrial value chains are urgently needed to ensure the excess supply of RMR, that would remain captive in Europe under these proposals, donât end up in landfills. In the Commissionâs toolbox to boost the transition towards a circular economy, binding recycled content targets have proved to be the most efficient yet least utilised instrument, with the exception being for plastic packaging.â
EuRIC looks forward to working with the European Parliament and Council to better distinguish trash from RMR and ensure a fit-for-purpose regime applies to curb exports of problematic waste streams without closing frontiers to the most resource-efficient and carbon-neutral materials needed to achieve EUâs and global climate objectives.
EuRIC also looks forward to working with the co-legislators to further increase the ambition of proposed measures to ease intra-EU waste shipments for recovery and end-use in circular value chains, which are essential to achieve a well-functioning market of raw materials from recycling and level the playing field with extracted raw materials.
