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A trend towards the “unilateral imposition of regulations” was bemoaned by BIR World President Ranjit Singh Baxi of J&H Sales International during the world recycling organisation’s latest Paper Division meeting, held in Barcelona on May 28.

2018 was proving to be “a very challenging year” for the scrap industry, according to BIR Non-Ferrous Metals Division President David Chiao of the Uni-All Group in his opening remarks to the body’s latest meeting, held in Barcelona on May 28.

Environmental legislation is now regularly discussed in every division and committee within BIR, thereby fully validating the decision of the world recycling association to form the International Environment Council (IEC) approaching two decades ago.

The Chinese government’s decision to suspend the issuing of inspection certificates for the month up to June 4 will cost US exporters an estimated US$ 400 million as well as a further US$ 100 million associated with market value and shipment diversions to other destinations such as India and South Korea, the latest BIR Ferrous Division meeting was told by its Interim President Tom Bird of Chiho Environmental Group in China.

Faced with China’s import ban on plastics scrap, processing operations have been moving to South East Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. However, these nations are also sharpening their focus on environmental controls, according to Dr Steve Wong of Fukutomi Co. Ltd and the China Scrap Plastics Association.

With its announcement No. 48 of 2018, the Chinese General Administration of Customs provided the Implementation Rules on the Supervision and Administration of Pre-shipping Inspection of Imported Solid Waste Used as Raw Materials, which take effect as of June 1, 2018.

In light of increased interest and demand for design for recycling guidance, Plastics Recyclers Europe decided to launch the RecyClass Platform, a key initiative aiming to provide specialized and dedicated guidance to those companies interested in increasing the recyclability of their plastics packaging.

Now that the last deadline to register existing chemical substances with the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has passed, the EU chemical industry is looking to the EU and member states to make sure REACH becomes a competitive advantage for the European industry.

“I couldn’t believe how far we managed to have outreach.” With these words, the world recycling federation’s President Ranjit Singh Baxi celebrated the “phenomenal success” of the first-ever, BIR-inspired Global Recycling Day, which was launched “in a very big way” on March 18 this year.