Green list waste

"Green list" is the category of wastes considered low-risk enough to cross borders for recovery without prior written consent from the authorities — moving instead under Article 18 with an Annex VII document and a recovery contract. Plastics enter the green list through entry B3011; paper, many metals and glass have their own entries.

Green-list treatment is a privilege with conditions, not an absence of regulation: the destination must genuinely recover the material, records must be retained, and countries may impose stricter national controls on what they accept — Türkiye's licensing-and-quota system layered on top of green-list plastics is the governing example in this corridor. The practical test a trader must pass every time: would this bale, opened at a port, still look like the single-polymer, sorted, near-clean material the green list demands?