On August 18, 2026, the European Commission opened a four-week feedback period on a draft delegated regulation (Ares(2026)7981401) that green-lists specific waste streams for shipments to recovery between Member States. Adopted under the Waste Shipments Regulation (EU) 2024/1157, the draft also sets contamination thresholds that allow further waste types to qualify for the green list. Feedback closes on September 15, 2026, with Commission adoption planned for the fourth quarter of 2026.
The act bears directly on the operators who move waste across borders for recovery: shipment carriers, recovery and recycling facilities, and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) organisations. Under the WSR, green-listed non-hazardous waste destined for recovery in another Member State qualifies for a simplified shipment track, and this delegated act fills in which streams qualify and under what purity conditions.
The WSR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1157) recast and replaced the earlier Regulation (EC) No 1013/2006 and governs cross-border waste shipments inside the Union for recovery or disposal. Its green-listing mechanism is the practical gateway through which non-hazardous waste moves for recovery without the full prior-written-notification burden that applies to hazardous waste. This draft is the delegated act that operationalises that gateway.
What does the draft delegated regulation change?
The draft does two things. It lists specific waste streams as green-listed for intra-EU recovery shipments, and it sets contamination thresholds below which further waste can also be treated as green-listed. Green-listed waste destined for recovery between Member States benefits from the WSR's simplified shipment track, distinct from the prior-written-notification regime that applies to hazardous waste. The Commission published the draft, its annex, and a consolidated version for feedback on the Have Your Say portal on August 18, 2026.
Who must act on the green-listing thresholds?
Three groups carry direct exposure. Shipment operators and carriers moving waste across borders for recovery must reclassify streams against the new list and thresholds before each consignment. Recovery and recycling facilities receiving cross-border shipments rely on the green-list status to accept material under simplified checks. EPR producer-responsibility organisations, which finance and organise the recovery of the waste they place on the market, must align their downstream routing and contracts with the streams the delegated act confirms as green-listed.
Misclassifying a shipment as green-listed when it falls outside the list or above a contamination threshold exposes the operator to enforcement as an illegal waste shipment. The thresholds therefore function as the compliance boundary between the simplified recovery track and the full notification regime, and they are the detail most likely to shift between this draft and the adopted text.
What is the deadline, and what happens after feedback?
Feedback runs from August 18 to September 15, 2026, for four weeks. The Commission takes received feedback into account when finalising the text, and submitted feedback is published on the Have Your Say portal. After the window closes, the draft proceeds to adoption, planned for the fourth quarter of 2026.
As a delegated act under Article 290 TFEU, the regulation enters into force only if Parliament and Council do not raise an objection within their default 2-month scrutiny window, which can be extended by a further 2 months. The draft also sits alongside the future Circular Economy Act, which the Commission says this initiative complements. One feedback has already been filed, by the North Donegal Fishermen's Group (Ireland, NGO) on August 18, 2026.
Where does this sit in the EU circular-economy stack?
The green-listing act implements the WSR and complements the future Circular Economy Act, sitting alongside the packaging and ecodesign regimes (PPWR, ESPR) and the EPR schemes those frameworks extend. For EPR organisations in particular, the green list determines which recovered streams can move cross-border for recovery under simplified checks, tying producer obligations to downstream recovery logistics. Tracking the green list as it is finalised lets operators keep their recovery chains aligned with both the WSR shipment rules and the wider circular-economy obligations upstream.
| Stage | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Public consultation | July 2 to October 31, 2025 | Closed |
| Draft act feedback | August 18 to September 15, 2026 | Open, 4 weeks |
| Commission adoption | Fourth quarter 2026 | Planned |
| EP and Council objection window | 2 months after adoption (default, extendable) | Scrutiny |
Continuous, per-jurisdiction monitoring surfaces this kind of draft the moment it publishes on the Have Your Say portal.
Take advantage of this real-time watch
Next steps for exposed teams: confirm which of your waste streams appear on the draft green list and assess the contamination thresholds against current output; file feedback by September 15, 2026 if a listing or threshold affects your operations; and brief the EPR, logistics, and compliance functions before fourth-quarter adoption. Obsidian tracks this delegated act as it moves from draft feedback through adoption and into force.
