The Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) has welcomed the European Parliament’s decision to block proposed legislation that would have reclassified when paper becomes ‘waste’.
Proposals put before parliament yesterday (10 December) sought to change the end-of-waste (EoW) criteria for paper so that waste paper could be classed as ‘recycled’ when collected, rather than once actually recycled.
CEPI warned that this amendment could ‘end paper recycling’ and see quality standards set by paper collectors and sorters, rather than the mills themselves.
Indeed, so opposed to the new criteria was CEPI, that earlier this year it barricaded the European Commission (EC) headquarters in Brussels in protest.
However, following on from the decision of the specialist environment committee to reject the initiative, the European Parliament plenary yesterday voted against the amendments to the criteria by 606 votes to 77 (with 10 abstentions).
Commission had not assessed the impacts
MEPs argued that the European Commission had not properly assessed the impacts of its draft regulations on paper recycling and in shipments of waste paper to third countries, or any country that is not part of the European Union.
It was also said that the proposal was not compatible with the aim and content of the EU's basic framework directive on waste and exceeded the implementing powers conferred on the commission by that directive.
Speaking after the vote, Teresa Presas, Director General of the Confederation of European Paper Industries, said it was a “good decision”, adding: "We are glad to see the European Parliament remembered that the original purpose of defining when something is no longer to be considered a waste was to facilitate recycling not to obstruct it.
"If this proposal had become law, it would also have burdened the global environment with needless additional energy use and emissions.”
CEPI also argued that had the legislation been passed, it would have ‘relaxed the EU's waste management rules and triggered a flight of waste paper out of the EU to Asia, pushing up prices in Europe and undermining the quality of waste paper available for the European recycling sector’.
It said that as a result, paper recycling in Europe would ‘likely have dropped from about 47 million tonnes per year to 37 million tonnes, leading to closures of mills, including many small and medium-sized operators’.
Now that the European Parliament has voted, the commission will decide to proceed with the legislation as is, or rework it.
Jori Ringman-Beck, CEPI Recycling and Product Director, said: “We are delighted that the voice of reason has finally emerged. We now hope that the commission's environmental protection department will reflect on the content of this resolution and revise the criteria for determining when used paper is waste and when it's not.”
Read the European Commission’s proposal on the end-of-waste criteria for paper.
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