Dhawal Shah, Sr. Vice President, MRAI,  spoke about how the EU waste shipment regulation will affect the non OECD countries. The regulations will impede the global efforts to achieve circularity, he noted, “Circularity and sustainability are not just European agenda but global ones.” He pointed out that in the first seven months of this year, Europe has introduced five bills on carbon emissions, penalties, and, regulations related to waste shipments. “Once these bills are fully implemented, Europe is likely to earn anywhere between 500 to 800 billion dollars annually through its exchanges on carbon and penalties.” “If you're bringing in a product which has a higher carbon, then there's going to be a fine as well.” 

After explaining the concept of the Deforestation Regulation, he spoke in detail about the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which Europe will kick off in October this year. “Every product will have a carbon threshold to meet if you're selling to Europe. This has kicked off a big global standoff amongst countries because now every country wants to retaliate, having its own tariffs on carbon.” Going forward, there will be two kinds of worlds: One that has a CBAM scheme and one that doesn’t. 

“27 per cent of India’s exports on steel and aluminium go to Europe. When CBAM comes into effect, the cost will increase by 25 to 30 per cent. EU’s inclusion of shipping lines in the carbon trading scheme will also impact business.” He also spoke about the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation as a deterrent to trade. Other countries may follow suit. “Across the world, this policy is emerging: Your raw material resources are yours and they are best put to use within the country.”  The way forward to the recycling industry is, Shah suggested, “Chase harder for raw materials, because the demand for recycled products is going to grow multi-fold; Make carbon tracing and tagging as part of your routine processes, get your compliances done. External sourcing of raw materials is going to get complicated. So internal sourcing has to increase. Internal recycling rates have to increase.”