Olivier François, Chairman of BIR’s International Environment Council (IEC), told attendees on 27 October that free and fair trade had long been a core principle for BIR. But the international situation was changing dramatically quickly. There were members in the recycled plastics industry who advocated that “recycled plastic produced in Europe should stay in Europe and be protected from the import of cheap plastics from abroad.” This is particularly true, he added, when EU authorities ban the export of recycled plastics for “environmental” reasons.
Mr François said this was because Europe was alone in the world in having created a strong market for recycled plastic. “Naturally, if all the plastic from abroad goes only to this market, it creates a very big problem for the people recycling plastics in Europe. Many recycled plastic production plants are now closing or bankrupt.” According to Mr François this policy is causing the EU to lose around one million tons of recycled plastics capacity, which illustrates the failure of authorities to produce regulations without a global picture of the goals pursued. It meant that protection was now being sought for the beleaguered plastic recyclers – an obvious dilemma, given BIR’s mission to advocate for free and fair trade.
The Chairman’s comments came ahead of introducing the session’s first topic, the European Steel and Metal Action Plan, which was published in March. Mr François pointed out it considers possible export restrictions on recycled metals such as steel, aluminium and copper. “Such measures could have significant global consequences”, he advised. He stressed that this structural imbalance, which the authorities, particularly in Europe, appear to be surprisingly unaware of, exists despite an always increasing recycling production—a trend linked directly to GDP growth. This dynamic, coupled with an unfortunate decline in local industry demand, solidifies the EU’s position as one of the world’s most important recycled metals exporters.
Elements of the plan, known as “SMAP”, were set out by Olatz Finez Maranon, BIR Trade and Environment Policy Officer. She explained it had no legal standing, because it had yet to be considered by the European Parliament and the Council, but “recyclers must be alert to upstream regulatory shifts in industrial and trade policy that may alter the playing field for recycled materials”.
Looking ahead, Ms Maranon thought that measures on exports, such as tonnage limits or fees, were possible while EU producers could be protected from high-carbon imports. She also expected greater support for clean energy and low-carbon technologies and updated EU circular economy legislation to boost markets for recycled materials.
“It is a great opportunity for recyclers to become part of the policy decision-making,” she said.
BIR is emphasising the need for open and fair trade in recycled materials and would promote circularity success stories: “Your success stories”.
“We hope that we’ll be able to represent recyclers so that we’re engaged, not as something adjunct, but as co-designers of EU and global policies towards climate, industrial and circular resilience,” she concluded.
After the presentation, Mr François mentioned that China had during the summer introduced a document at ISO level for recycled steel classification. In response, the International Organization for Standardization had issued a technical report for consideration by a working group, with the probable goal of upgrading it to an ISO Standard. BIR Trade and Environment Director Alev Somer said BIR had established its own internal working group and appealed for members with technical expertise to help frame an official response. The main problem for BIR was that the Chinese initiative did not take into account existing standards that have been used worldwide for decades, such as the EFR European and ISRI/ReMA references.
Ms Somer then set out BIR’s efforts to eliminate the unwanted consequences of amendments to the UN Basel Convention on the movements of hazardous waste. Since January, all end-of-life electronics, whether hazardous or not, have been placed under the Prior Informed Consent procedure (PIC). The procedure prohibits exports unless the receiving country – or countries en route – have agreed to the trade in advance and have satisfactory treatment facilities.
She used the example of a washing machine and its motor. The whole item, the motor component, and shredded motors are all non-hazardous. However, under the new Basel e-waste amendments, these materials now fall under the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure, creating confusion as metal fractions – normally listed as B1010 or B1050 – can also be classified as Y49. The consequences are very real, with reports of customs officials impounding containers of Zorba, claiming they had been “mis-declared.”
“We have a very concrete example in Southeast Asia where there has been significant disruption,” Ms Somer said. “This amendment did not impact only electronics traders, but also non-ferrous traders because of the very specific situation. The classification is determined according to where it comes from, not according to its composition.”
The UN Basel Convention has now established a working group to review e-waste technical guidelines. BIR is actively involved, arguing the result of the amendment is far beyond the intention of what the Basel Convention intended – “although we alerted them several times.”
Finally, Ms Somer listed examples of BIR’s “data-driven” advocacy include partnering with UNITAR on the Global E-Waste Monitor 2027, working with the International Copper, Lead and Zinc Study Groups, and conducting a study on global trade flows of recycled copper, aluminium, lead and zinc.
The final speaker was Bianca Mannini, BIR Trade and Environment Policy Officer, who updated members on the UN’s global plastics treaty which had stalled when negotiations broke down in August. Although there was no consensus on a treaty text, Ms Mannini said there was renewed urgency for an outcome in December to overcome a split between two group of participants.
“On the one hand is the ‘high ambition’ coalition, advocating a full lifecycle approach to addressing plastic pollution. On the other, the ‘like-minded’ group of mostly oil producing countries wants to limit the scope of the treaty to waste management and voluntary commitments rather than a legally binding text.”
She said BIR’s priorities at the negotiations centred on production, design, recycling and circularity. In parallel, it is co-chairing a group at the Basel Convention looking to improve the recycling of plastics.
One of the difficulties the recycling plastics industry has to face is that many countries want to reduce the use of plastics and their production: advocating for more recycled plastics uses is challenging.
“For this work, we will need strong industry engagement to provide technical inputs, especially on current challenges and barriers to recycling of different polymer types.”
