CEMBUREAU, the European Cement Association, welcomes the upcoming review of the Waste Shipment Regulation (WSR).

The European cement industry is a large user of waste and by-products utilizing approximately 36 million tonnes per year to replace fuels and raw materials. In the EU, the sector substitutes on average 48% of its fossil fuel thermal energy consumption with secondary materials such as non-recyclable waste or biomass waste.

As explained in our Carbon Neutrality Roadmap, our industry has high ambitions to increase this number in the coming years. The replacement of fossil fuels by non-recyclable and biomass waste, and the use of alternative raw materials, will deliver 15% of the emissions reduction in the cement industry between now and 2050. In 2018 alone, 21.7 million tonnes CO2 emissions were avoided through the use of alternative fuels in the European cement industry. There is no technical impediment to increasing significantly the use of non-recyclable waste and biomass waste in cement production, and several cement plants across Europe already run on 90-100% alternative fuel share.

When it comes to the review of the WSR, CEMBUREAU fully supports the Commission’s approach to support the re-using and recycling of waste, were possible, and to minimise the export of waste outside of the EU. We also would like to highlight the advantages brought by co-processing for waste which are not recyclable and would otherwise be incinerated or landfilled.