A recent case of illegal waste exports from the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland to India and the Far East triggered a strong reaction from members at ERPA’s General Assembly, which was held last month in Brussels, Belgium. They unanimously agreed that exports of co-mingled paper from EU member states to non-OECD countries should be shipped according to EU procedures defined in shipment regulations, and not according to green list conditions currently applied by some waste management companies. The former require written notification and agreement by the relevant authorities in the exporting and importing countries, and often in transit countries.

ERPA has urged against such practices on the grounds that they are illegal and could lead to restrictions being imposed by the countries receiving this waste material, as well as to a tougher

stance at EU or UNEP (Basel Convention) level which would affect the whole recovered paper sector.

ERPA President Maarten Kleiweg de Zwaan also stressed that all recovered paper should meet the requirements of the List of Standard Grades of Recovered Paper and Board EN 643 and be shipped accordingly, to avoid legislation that could potentially damage the European recovered paper sector and the European paper industry as a whole.

The recent illegal waste consignment was described as a mixture of paper, plastic bottles, glass, cardboard and metal packaging - in effect, household waste. The first step in recycling is the segregation of such materials since exports of so-called co-mingled household or packaging waste is not permitted. This separation stage must take place as close as possible to the point where these household or packaging wastes are collected. Given that a considerable amount of food residue is likely to remain in such packaging waste, export of such mixed materials raises health and environmental issues.

Acknowledgement

For further information, consult ERPA’s website: www.erpa.info