The European Commission has requested China to consider a longer transition period for tighter controls relating to the import of waste for recycling.
And, the Bureau of International Recycling has today (8 November) written to the Chinese authorities suggesting changes to the GB Standards produced by China which set down the rules and percentages for exports of recyclables to the country.
A spokesperson for EU trade markets and trade commissioner, Margrethe Vestager told letsrecycle.com that she was aware of the new legislation to be implemented by China.
The EU’s Competition Commission Margrethe Vestager
In a statement, the Commissioner’s office said: “China notified its WTO partners of that legislation and we are currently in touch with the Chinese authorities to clarify the exact timing and scope of the measures.
“Yes, the EU is still hoping that a longer transition period might be possible. However, the impact of the measures and any further EU action can be better assessed once we have full clarity in this respect.
“Protection of environment at the global level is our common priority. The Commission stands ready to cooperate with China to achieve these objectives within WTO rules.”
BIR letter
Separately, in its letter to Chinese authorities, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), the world federation of recycling industries, today asks clarification about and suggests changes to the GB Standards that accompanied the Chinese WTO notifications on 15 November 2017.
BIR says authorities should differentiate between garbage and processed scrap
In its letter, BIR said it supports once again all efforts to protect human health and the environment.
It notes that while China has stated that for environmental and health protection purposes its intention is to prohibit imports of ‘foreign garbage’, there is a necessity to differentiate ‘foreign garbage’ from inclusions in proessed scrap.
BIR said: “Inclusions are generally controlled in commercial specifications so they do not harm human health or the environment and do not hinder the use of the recycled raw materials by manufacturing industries. Hence, the main concern of BIR is the extremely high thresholds for inclusion or ‘carried waste’ in the GB Standards. BIR also points out the difficulty in processing very large tonnages to such very high qualities and the resultant cost increase in the processed secondary raw materials.”
Lastly, BIR requests equal treatment, i.e. that domestic Standards for the same purpose have the same thresholds.
Definitions
BIR requests that the Chinese Government re-defines ‘carried wastes’ in each of these GB Standards
Letter to Chinese Government
Bureau of International Recycling
In its conclusions, BIR requests that the Chinese Government re-defines ‘carried wastes’ in each of these GB Standards so as not to include materials that may be separated and recycled. ‘Carried wastes’ should be defined as wastes which are only fit for landfill or incineration. BIR suggests against using quality thresholds in these GB Standards as pass/fail trade controls specifically where there is no significant human health or environmental impact from ‘carried waste’ and the ‘carried waste’ does not affect the onward recycling processes or utilisation of secondary raw material in manufacturing.
While BIR supports the efforts China has taken to protect its Environment it points out that the Chinese GB Standards threshold for inclusion or ‘carried waste’ in their 2005 version were already extremely high when compared to generally adopted Commercial Specifications (with thresholds of 2 – 5% more common). BIR proposes to first strictly enforce the GB Standards from 2005 to gain experience of using such Standards.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Plastic
