Glass Fibre Europe has responded to the European Commission’s consultation on proposed amendments to the Waste Shipment Regulation, welcoming the proposed addition of fibre-reinforced polymer composite waste to Annex IIIB.
The proposed new BEU06 entry, covering “fibre-reinforced polymer composite, such as glass fibre embedded in polymer resins” waste, responds to a longstanding need of the composites value chain: a clear and harmonised framework for shipments of non-hazardous composite waste destined for recycling.
Today, glass fibre waste is already covered by the green-listed GE020 entry. However, fibre-reinforced composite materials containing glass fibre have not benefited from an equally clear framework for shipments within the EU.
This has led to inconsistent classification practices across Member States and, in some cases, disproportionate notification requirements for non-hazardous composite waste destined for recycling. The resulting administrative burden and costs can hinder cross-border shipments and make it more difficult for waste to reach specialised recycling facilities.
The proposed BEU06 entry would help remove this barrier. By providing greater legal certainty and simplifying intra-EU shipments, it would make it easier to direct composite waste towards appropriate recycling solutions across Europe.
This is particularly important for the development of a circular composites economy. Recycling facilities need access to sufficient and reliable waste volumes to operate at scale. Facilitating cross-border shipments can help aggregate these volumes, support specialised recycling capacity and create better conditions for investment in innovative recycling technologies.
Glass Fibre Europe therefore strongly supports the addition of BEU06 to Annex IIIB of the Waste Shipment Regulation as a concrete and necessary step towards more circular composite materials in Europe.
A green-list entry, however, should not be the end of the process. Glass Fibre Europe calls on the European Commission to address this remaining regulatory gap through the forthcoming Circular Economy Act and related waste legislation.
Combining a green-list entry for shipments with dedicated EU waste codes would provide the regulatory clarity needed to better identify, collect and move end-of-life composite materials towards recycling. It would also give recyclers and other actors across the value chain a stronger foundation for developing circular solutions at European scale.