The EU has struck a deal to stop ships of waste plastic landing in ports of poor countries.
European lawmakers and member states agreed on Friday to ban exports of plastic rubbish to countries outside the OECD group of mostly rich countries from the middle of 2026. The deal comes as diplomats meet in Nairobi, Kenya, to hammer out a global treaty on plastic pollution.
“The EU will finally assume responsibility for its plastic waste by banning its export to non-OECD countries,” said Pernille Weiss, a Danish member of the European parliament with the centre-right EPP group, who was in charge of the proposal. “Once again, we follow our vision that waste is a resource when it is properly managed, but should not in any case be causing harm to the environment or human health.”
Why 2026 and not 2024 or even 2025?
They should implement things like this rather sooner than later.
Ideally, I agree with you. But with the scale of waste that we’re talking about here, countries need time to plan and implement alternatives.
They shouldn’t have done this for years so they don’t need time to plan. Saving the planet is expensive and you shouldn’t cheat or you just have to pay.
My own country, Germany, does this and it is really appalling to me that this was legal for so many years.