For decades, the world's wealthiest economies have quietly resolved their waste problem by shipping it elsewhere — to nations less equipped to refuse the burden. The European Union is now moving to close that door, proposing a ban on waste exports, including aluminium scrap, to countries outside the OECD bloc. The measure, still requiring parliamentary and member-state approval, would compel Europe to reckon with its own refuse rather than externalizing the cost to communities with fewer protections. It is, at its core, a question of whether prosperity entitles a society to export its conseque