EuRIC Position on the Revision of the Waste Shipment Regulation

One of the founding assumptions of the circular economy is that wastes are resources. Circular material flows require waste and secondary raw materials to circulate at the pace of businesses to be recycled and used to manufacture new semi-finished and finished products. 

The Waste Shipment Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 (WSR) causes substantial administrative burdens due to overly complex and outdated procedures which make it sometimes impossible for recycling companies to ship secondary raw materials from one EU-Member State to another. Incidentally, it fosters linear material flows as it is, from an administrative procedure, much easier to import raw materials mined or harvested outside Europe with much lower standards than to ship waste for material recovery within the EU.

Link to the EuRIC Position on the Revision of the Waste Shipment Regulation