End-of-waste

End-of-waste is the legal moment a material stops being "waste" and becomes a product — leaving waste regulation, waste shipment controls and waste stigma behind. The test, in essence: the substance is commonly used for a specific purpose, a market exists, it meets applicable technical and legal standards, and its use causes no worse impacts than the virgin equivalent.

For plastics, washed flake and reprocessed pellet with a full specification typically claim end-of-waste; clean single-polymer regrind from a documented industrial source often can. The stakes are practical: product ships on a commercial invoice under the polymer's HS heading, with no Annex VII and no interaction with import quota at the Turkish end. Because the assessment is jurisdiction-specific, serious traders state the classification per contract — assuming it is how loads get stuck.