BIR Textiles Division makes important contribution to worn clothing/waste debate

Following a meeting at BIR headquarters in Brussels late last month, the world body’s members are being urged to seek support at government level for “Annex IX listing application for used clothing and accessories as collected”.

The BIR Textiles Division meeting in Brussels on March 26 discussed “when worn clothing becomes wastes” and heard of two countries where there is legal certainty when those clothing wastes “cease to be waste” and become products again. The controls on transboundary movement of wastes, waste shipments regulations, their waste listings and customs codes were also debated.

The French and German legal text and guidance, respectively, are provided on the BIR website so that members may use the internet facilities for translating into their own languages. BIR advises that internet translations can assist understanding but are not accurate enough for legal purposes.

The meeting concluded by drafting the “Annex IX listing application for used clothing and accessories as collected” here attached. In order to be adopted by the United Nations Basel Convention as a new waste list entry in its Annex IX, the application will need to be transmitted to the Secretariat of the Basel Convention by a country that is a Party to Basel Convention. Subsequently, after discussion and possible amendment, the Parties would need to agree the change at their Conference of the Parties, the next of which begins on April 29 2019.

BIR members are requested to ask their government’s circular economy, reuse and recycling experts to support the application and transmit it to the Secretariat of the Basel Convention so that it may be considered by the Parties.

*Minutes of the Textiles Division meeting, including hyperlinks to all the documents presented, are available in the members-only section of the BIR website at www.bir.org