Confederation of the European Paper Industry (CEPI) has expressed concern that the European Commission’s proposal on end-of-waste (EoW) criteria for paper fails to address the objectives of increasing the quality and availability of paper for recycling and will have an adverse impact on making Europe a resource efficient recycling society.
CEPI therefore organised a press action on 11 September 2013 in front of the Berlaymont with the title: End-of-Waste = end of recycling?
They displayed seven bales of paper for recycling worth 2000 euros in front of the main European Commission building – the Berlaymont in Brussels from 7 am to 7 pm.
In a statement, CEPI notes that paper has become the single most important raw material for the European paper industry with some mills being completely reliant on it for their feedstock. But for how long?The Commission proposal threatens Europe’s ability to maintain its recycling rates for paper, let alone improve them.
According to CEPI, the European Commission’s End-of-Waste criteria for paper move the recycling and EoW point from its current location at the paper mill to an earlier stage in the collection. As a result of this move ‘recycled paper’ will be unusable without further reprocessing.
