From January 2021, the EU will ban the export of unsorted plastic waste to poorer countries. Trash importers and exporters will need to agree on how to handle hazardous shipments.
The new rules amending the bloc’s 2006 Waste Shipment Regulation will ban exports of unsorted plastics to less industrialized nations which are outside the OECD.
This follows the ban by China in 2018 ban on plastic imports. Waste was therefore ending up in other Asian nations, such as Malaysia, and then being dumped into ocean waters.
