News archive

EuRIC and BIR jointly express profound concern over the conclusions reached during the Summit on the Future of the European Steel Industry held in Paris on 27 February 2025.

President von der Leyen has convened key European industry leaders, social partners, and stakeholders for the launch of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the European Steel sector. This dialogue marks the start of an inclusive and collaborative process to address critical challenges faced by the sector and ensure its continued success as a key driver of the European economy.

Over 250 industry stakeholders gathered at EuRIC’s webinar on 4 March to address a critical question: How can Europe resolve its plastics recycling crisis? The discussion highlighted the pressing challenges faced by the industry and the policy measures needed to ensure its sustainability and competitiveness.

The new Ecoglass equipment from Picvisa incorporates Artificial Intelligence (AI), enhancing glass sorting and optimizing the recycling process.

With the Clean Industrial Deal (CID), the European Commission is strengthening its decarbonization strategy and emphasizing the importance of European raw materials as well as climate protection and the circular economy. The Commission also wants to specifically promote research and innovation. The FEhS Building Materials Institute believes that the planned measures, which would also effectively support the use of by-products from the steel industry, are the right ones.

Polymer chemists at ETH Zurich have discovered a surprising way to virtually fully break down PMMA plastic – commonly known as Plexiglas – into its monomer building blocks. The process remains unaffected by the presence of additives.

Waste management in remote areas, or where waste generation temporarily increases, makes it difficult to justify large-scale infrastructure development. To address this, the RECLAIM project has developed a low-cost, portable, AI-powered robotic material recovery plant, which will initially be deployed in the Greek Islands.

In 2022, employment in the environmental economy in the EU countries increased on average by 9.5% compared to 2021, measured in full-time equivalents.

The European Commission and the European Environment Agency (EEA) have published the second Zero Pollution Monitoring and Outlook report, which provides an overview of the EU’s work to meet the 2030 zero pollution targets. The Commission has also published its fourth Clean Air Outlook report. The reports show that EU policies have contributed to reducing air pollution, pesticide use and plastic litter at sea. However, pollution levels are still too high, in particular from harmful noise, microplastic releases into the environment, nutrient pollution and waste generation.

Watercycle Technologies has entered into a cooperation agreement with Primobius. As a joint venture, Primobius combines the process capabilities of Neometals Ltd and SMS group’s engineering expertise.

Ahead of the inaugural Strategic Dialogue on Steel and the upcoming Steel and Metals Action Plan, EuRIC, the voice of Europe’s recyclers has published a Circular Economy Action Plan for Recycled Metals to steer discussions on the future of the steel industry through the lens of decarbonisation and circularity.

To neutralise the human impact on the climate, excess CO₂ must be removed from the atmosphere. According to Swiss scientists, excess renewable energy can be used to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere and convert it to methane or methanol, which can then be processed into polymers, hydrogen and solid carbon. At the end of their life cycle, discarded building materials become the ultimate carbon sink. The article “Mining the atmosphere: A concrete solution to global warming” was published in “Resources, Conservation & Recycling”.