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The European Plastics Converters (EuPC) association unanimously re-elected Michael Kundel as its president. Kundel, CEO of Renolit, is renewing his two-year term as EuPC President.

Describing India as the world’s fifth-largest producer of e-waste, BIR E-Scrap Committee member Surendra Patawari Borad explained to the body’s latest meeting in Berlin that the government had introduced an extended producer responsibility system for e-waste earlier this year which proposed a 30% collection target for the first two years, rising to 70% after seven years.

Some countries considered used clothing to be a product generated by expert sorting operations according to well-recognised market specifications. However, there is disagreement within EU member states as to whether used clothing/textiles should be considered waste in different circumstances and when such items cease to become waste. In addition, some countries in other parts of the world regard used clothing as a threat to new clothing production, thus giving rise to calls for a ban on used clothing imports.

Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI) delivers its Kompogas technology for Europe’s largest biogas plant for dry anaerobic digestion. The facility, built in the north of Italy, will process approximately 100,000 tonnes of organic municipal solid waste per year.

As discussions on the European circular economy package pick up speed, European Recycling Platform (ERP), a company of the Landbell Group, calls upon the European Parliament and the Member States to concentrate on enforcing EU waste Law in line with EU competition Law.

The Municipal Corporation of India’s Chandigarh has decided to close a garbage processing plant in the city as it calls for a new process for converting the entire waste of the city into energy.

Alba SE, publicly quoted subsidiary of Alba Group, was back in profit in 2015 and expects to sustain the positive trend in the current financial year.

India’s decision to ban plastic scrap imports had left the market “in limbo” and was likely to result in substantial job losses, not least among those of the country’s recycling units which relied on supplies from overseas, according to BIR Plastics Committee Chairman Surendra Patawari Borad of Gemini Corp.

Researchers have developed a technique to recover indium, an important raw material with limited supply, from liquid crystal display (LCD) screens. The method could contribute to a resource-efficient, circular economy.

Vehicle airbags constituted “a big issue for the shredder industry to worry about” and merited further scrutiny from the safety perspective, contended BIR Shredder Committee board member George Adams Jr of US-based SA Recycling. “All of us need to be really careful when handling airbags,” he insisted.

India had proved to be a particularly strong market for stainless steel scrap over recent months but mills’ buying interest had waned owing to difficulties in selling their finished stainless products against a backdrop of weak global demand. So said Jonathan Bower of ELG Haniel Metals in presenting his summary of latest market developments worldwide to the BIR Stainless Steel & Special Alloys Committee meeting in Berlin.

Container security and an update on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership were the headline topics of the first plenary meeting of the BIR International Trade Council (ITC) to take place under the chairmanship of Michael Lion of China-based Everwell Resources Ltd.