Government

EC consults on waste markets

On Friday (12 June), the European Commission (EC) launched a consultation ‘to obtain a better understanding of the nature and the extent of regulatory failures causing undue distortions to EU waste markets for recycling and recovery’.

The consultation forms part of the EC’s efforts to ‘facilitate the transition to a more circular economy’, and is being conducted alongside a broader public consultation on the circular economy, which will run until 20 August.

According to the consultation summary: ‘The EU's waste management industry has a high potential for growth and job creation. In order to fulfil such potential and facilitate the transition towards a more circular economy, it is important to deepen our understanding of EU waste markets, focusing in particular on possible regulatory failures.’

Goal to understand ‘regulatory failures causing undue distortions’

The explanation of the consultation’s objective continues: ‘According to existing rules, waste to be prepared for re-use, recycled or subject to other recovery activities should move freely within the EU, without any unjustified restrictions. In line with Article 12 of the Waste Shipment Regulation… only certain specific reasons may be used to restrict the free movement of waste for recycling and recovery (e.g. that the person shipping the waste has previously been convicted of illegal shipments). 

‘In some cases, however, the regulatory environment may hamper the efficient functioning of waste markets and fail to ensure optimal implementation of the waste hierarchy…

‘Such regulatory failures may result from policy and legislative actions taken at EU, national, regional or local levels. Some may arise in connection with the application and interpretation of EU legal requirements…; others may be the result of national, regional or local rules and requirements which are not directly linked to EU legislation…

The goal of this consultation is to obtain a better understanding of the nature and the extent of regulatory failures causing undue distortions to EU waste markets for recycling and recovery.

‘The information gathered will contribute to the finalisation of the above-mentioned study and will be taken into consideration in preparation of the new initiative on the “Circular Economy”.’ 

The consultation, which will run until 4 September, is available on the Europa website