Europe
is one step closer to getting end-of-waste (EoW) criteria for paper.
Last
week, the draft legislation was approved by the Council of Ministers and will
now continue through the legislative process, including being heard in the
European Parliament. If the criteria are adopted, the regulation under which it
falls would apply from January 1, 2014.
The
proposal on EoW criteria for paper recommends that waste paper complying with
all the criteria laid out in the draft can lose its waste status prior to being
recycled. This means that the operations prior to the re-use of the material -
sorting, separating, cleaning or grading - are considered as the completed
recovery process, a fact that is dividing the paper sector. While the
merchanting side of the market welcomed the fact that the point at which paper
ceases to be waste would change from its current position at the paper mill to
an earlier stage, the paper production front did not hold back on its criticism
of the draft.
