At the recent Conference of Parties in Geneva, changes to the categorisation of plastic waste were agreed that from 1 January 2021, will restrict the export of plastics under green list.
The principle change is the movement of the list of plastic waste types into a Y48 category under Annex II. This means that they must be classed as hazardous UNLESS tthey fall under a revised B3011 code that is more restrictive in the quality and destination requirements than current.
Although this has not gone as far as the Norweigian proposal had requested which included a ban on the export of all mixed plastics – the revised text also gives members the option of applying tigter controls. It is expected that the EU will do this over the next 18 months and that the UK is likely to apply the EU requirements.