Waste – A Valuable Raw Material or Still Garbage? – The Analysis of Trade in Recyclable Raw Materials In EU-28

The increasing importance of sustainable development influences wastes management in the European Union. The post-covid-19 recovery seems a chance to implement changes on a large scale. The official goal is to achieve the circular economy in which the waste is treated as a valuable raw material. The purpose of this analysis is to check hitherto the situation of the trade in the raw materials in the EU-28. The analysis consists of the theoretical introduction, the examination of the legal waste regulations, and the empirical study of the trade in the recyclable raw materials in the EU-28 in the years 2004-2019. The aim of this paper was to show that the environmental changes should have been already visible in the EU waste trade. However, the analysis has shown the influence of sustainable development mostly on the EU regulations. In the actual waste trade, the changes are not visible. Contrary, it is noticeable that the country’s development is still correlated with the level of import and export of recyclable raw materials.