EU ban on waste paper export to India will come in effect from mid-November

EU ban on waste paper export to India will come in effect from mid-November

-The export ban for B3020 (Recovered paper) will be effective 20 days after the publication, i.e export after the 10th November 2021. The ban will be on the full range of B3020.

-This ban may be withdrawn but it may take 4-5 weeks to actually happen from EU Countries.

-Strong lobby of the European paper mills and European metal industry, the European authorities are trying to ban all exports of recyclable materials out of the EU.

New Delhi | 27th October 2021 | The Pulp and Paper Times:

According to new rules for exporting green-listed wastes from the European Union (EU) to non-OECD countries has "caused quite a stir" in recovered paper circles. 

In the new EU Regulation 2021/1840 published in the Official Journal of the European Union last week, the entry for recovered paper (B3020) now appears in the annex’s column a) for India, indicating that shipments of that material from the EU to that country are to be banned. Until now, India has permitted recovered paper imports and has not signalled publicly that it was looking to reduce imports, let alone ban them entirely. 

Talking to The Pulp and Paper Times Mr. Marc Ehrlich, CEO, VIPA Group said that Regulation 2021/1840 is a routine update of regulation 1418/2007. Regulation 1418/2007 (Questionnaire to non OECD countries), based on regulation 1013/2006 (Waste shipment regulation), has the following principle: periodically, the EU Commission has the obligation to send a questionnaire to all non-OECD countries, asking for the consent to ship different streams of recycled materials. 

Talking to The Pulp and Paper Times, Mr. Ashok Bansal, Director at N.R. Agarwal Industries Ltd explain the whole matter says that as per market information, Every year EU countries sends letter to every countries about handling of Plastics and Waste as Waste Paper comes under code B3020 as per TRANSBOUNDARY MOVEMENTS OF HAZARDOUS WASTES Act. They send such letter to every Countries to whom such waste Paper is exported from EU and get confirmation from Every Country which is to be allowed or not.

                     

Mr. Bansal further says, “Indian Govt didn't reply to EU countries about the same and hence EU Govt issued notification dt 20.10.2021 about ban for Export of recovered paper to India.  Some are saying that there is typing mistake that it should be B3027 which is Self Adhesive Label instead of 3020 but which is not correct”

It was not the intention of the Indian government to ban recovered paper imports from the EU, and updates to an EU Regulation that will result in such a ban are indeed what they initially appeared to be – an unfortunate accident.

“Many stakeholders believe there has been a misunderstanding in the reply of the Indian Government and a quick correction is much hoped. This would solve this issue after the EU Commission can update the regulation, which should take a few weeks after reception of the response,” Mr. Marc Ehrlich said to The Pulp and Paper Times.

“There will be Amendment from Indian Govt on the following Ban which may take 10 days, 1 month or two months which no one knows. But there will be a correction as matter has been raised to Central Govt. by some mills owners,” 

“As per current information, there won't be any shipment of Waste Paper Grade w.e.f. 16.11.2021 from European Countries as per Notification of EU” Mr. Bansal informed. 

Mr. Ashok Bansal, Managing Director- Nikita Papers Limited says that this accidental ban will suck production standards of paper mills as we use to blend European OCC up to 30 to 40 percent with domestic waste paper for better strength value (BF) of paper. This ban will disrupt the psychology of domestic waste paper market. We have to tighten the belt as price of imported waste is bound to increase in coming months.

Mr. Marc Ehrlich explained the complexity of the whole issue and says, “due to a strong lobby of the European paper mills and European metal industry, the European authorities are trying to ban all exports of recyclable materials out of the EU. Their aim is to have cheap raw materials for themselves. To my opinion, this will have only short-term benefit for them as a ban on export would result in a crash of recyclable prices, resulting in low investment in the recycling industry and lack of incentive to recycle. On the medium term, volume of collection will decrease substantially. Besides, the taxpayers and the municipalities will have to bear the costs of low recyclables prices”

                     

India, as the primary non OECD market for both EU recovered paper and EU scrap metals will suffer a lot from this situation.

“The export ban for B3020 (Recovered paper) will be effective 20 days after the publication, ie export after the 10th November 2021. The ban will be on the full range of B3020,” Mr. Marc said. 

“it’s a temporary phase. We have to bear it till the government's new notification comes in effect. This ban may be withdrawn but it may take 4-5 weeks to actually happen from EU Countries” Mr. Bansal, Director at NR Agarwal said,

The European Union will now wait for confirmation in writing from the Indian Government and will then initiate a corrigendum process to correct the regulation.

B3020 =Paper, Paperboard, Paper product waste 

The following, materials provided they are not mixed with hazardous waste: 

-Waste and scrap of paper or paperboard.

-Unbleached paper or paperboard or of corrugated paper or paperboard

-Other paper or paperboard, made mainly of bleached chemical pulp, not coloured in the mass.

- Paper or paperboard, made mainly of mechanical pulp (for example newspapers, journals and similar printed matters)

-Other, including but not limited to 1) laminated paperboard 2) unsorted scrap.

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