On January 17, the European Parliament voted to adopt the revision of the Waste Shipment Regulation, which will impose stricter control measures on waste exports, including ferrous and non-ferrous metal scrap, to non-OECD countries.

According to the amended regulation, exports of non-hazardous waste are allowed to non-OECD countries that explicitly give their consent to receive EU waste and demonstrate their ability to treat in an environmentally sound manner, and exporters’ facilities for shipping waste should be audited by a third party.

The adoption of the revised Waste Shipment Regulation is a welcome step towards a more sustainable way of waste shipments to third countries. However, the European Steel Association (EUROFER) urged that some critical loopholes needed to be closed to avoid circumvention of the new measures and ensure environmental and social standards could be tightly equivalent to those of the EU.