Author: Beatriz Santos
The European Council and Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on Nov. 17 to ban exports of non-hazardous plastic waste to countries outside the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of mostly rich countries. The proposed regulation builds on the provisions of the Basel Convention that already bans exports of hazardous waste from the EU to third countries. The European Council said in a statement that since the adoption of the regulation in 2006, exports from the EU to non-OECD countries have ‘increased considerably’. According to the Basel Action Network (BAN), EU plastic waste exports to non-OECD countries rose to 50 million kg/month in May 2023 from 28.1 million kg/month in May 2022, equivalent to 303 shipping containers per day.