EuRIC says politicians still not getting it right

While the European Union has taken a leading position establishing circular economy policies, a Brussels-based recycling industry federation says the language used by legislators continues to inaccurately portray recycling activities.

The European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC) and its Secretary General Emmanuel Katrakis say that while they welcome the adoption of a recent report issued by the European Parliament, they are concerned by language in the report that refers to recycling as a form of destruction.

In early July, the European Parliament issued a report on the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), which passed with a vote of 473-110 with 69 abstentions.

The intent of the bill has EuRIC’s approval. “The ESPR will drive proper design that will not only allow for products to be easily repaired and reused, but it will also facilitate disassembly and recycling at the end of life,” Katrakis says.

According to EuRIC, about 12 percent of material resources in the EU are made with recycled materials. “The European economy remains largely linear up to this date and there is significant room for improvement through ecodesign criteria," the federation says.

Of the ESPR, Katrakis says, “Ultimately, it will boost the use of recycled materials back into products through ambitious recycled content targets that are essential to drive ecodesign and boost circular value chains.”

While welcoming the new legal framework, EuRIC says its concern stems from a provision that introduces recycling as a form of destruction within the framework of banning the destruction of unsold goods.

“We fully support the ban on the destruction of unsold goods and the emphasis placed on following the waste hierarchy, [we] strongly believe that equating recycling with destruction is conceptually wrong," Katrakis says.

EuRIC says where remanufacturing or preparation for reuse is not possible, recycling should not be excluded as an option to treat unsold goods, as recycling is also a recovery operation, unlike incineration and landfilling, which are both disposal operations.

The terminology used by EU politicians and regulators consistently has been the source of worries for the private sector recycling industry there. Previously, the word “waste” has been the source of grief, though now it is joined by “destruction.”

Nearly one year ago, EuRIC issued what it called a stark warning to European policymakers regarding “waste” shipment proposals the federation said would risk significant job losses and hampering investment in Europe’s pioneering circular economy sector.

This February, Katrakis spoke at the Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI) meeting and said those export regulation changes continued to loom, and would certainly be harmful.

EuRIC is joined in that sentiment by the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), the Berlin-based Association of German Metal Traders and Recyclers (VDM) and other recycling organizations.

The message from EuRIC and other recycling organizations remains consistent: While EU policymakers on the surface seem to be embracing the notion of a circular economy, labeling scrap materials as “waste” or recycling as “destruction” threatens to hold back investing in the very processes that can make a circular economy possible.