Politics
Research challenges highest recycling rates
| A new report published by environmental consultancy Eunomia Research & Consulting Ltd with the support of the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) reveals that the world’s leading recycling nations may be overstating the level of real recycling they are achieving.
BIR responds to China WTO notification
| The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR)today asks clarification about and suggests changes to the GB Standards that accompanied the Chinese WTO notifications on 15 November 2017.
18th International Automobile Recycling Congress IARC 2018
| The 18th International Automobile Recycling Congress IARC 2018 organized by ICM AG will be held from March 14 – 16, 2018 in the hotel Marriott in Vienna, Austria.
IMPACTPapeRec announces final conference
| The Horizon 2020 IMPACTPapeRec Project will come to an end in January. To this end, a final conference will be held at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels on the morning of 24 January 2018.
New contaminants thresholds for China confirmed
| BIR has been informed that China has officially notified the WTO of its intent to adopt the GB 16487 Environmental Protection Control standards for a certain number of wastes.
Ambitious push measures need to be accompanied by pull measures
| In view of the upcoming trilogue meeting on the Circular Economy Package on 25 October, FEAD members call on the EU institutions to maintain the ambitious legally binding targets for recycling and landfill diversion, which are a central part of the revised package.
BIR: No health risk from crumb rubber
| “Extremely negative” publicity continues to surround the use of tyre-derived crumb rubber in synthetic turf despite all studies worldwide having arrived at the conclusion that there is no risk to human health.
Vote on renewable energy confirms commitment to circular economy
| According to Zero Waste Europe, with yesterday's vote on the Renewable Energy proposal, the ENVI Committee took an important step to realign renewable energy policy with the EU waste legislation, and reconfirmed its commitment to achieve ambitious circular economy targets.
One dead in South Asia shipbreaking
| There were a total of 227 ships broken in the third quarter of 2017. Of these, 124 ships ended up on beaches in South Asia for dirty and dangerous breaking [1]. Between July and September, one worker lost his life at a shipbreaking yard in Alang, India. Another worker was reported seriously injured in Chittagong, Bangladesh.
BIR: China needs to understand “we are the good guys”
| BIR’s International Environment Council (IEC) meeting in New Delhi was devoted almost entirely to the issue that is preoccupying great swathes of the recycling industry: China’s import ban affecting certain secondary raw materials.
Paper recycling with quality issues
| China’s proposed import restrictions on lower grades of recovered fibre will require major investments by suppliers in quality control processes and technology, according to Andreas Uriel.
Aluminium recycling in India has a great future
| India’s demand for secondary aluminium will increase by 8-10% per year, mainly boosted by the country’s rapidly-growing automotive industry, according to Akshay Agarwal.
Textiles recycling: Rising pressure on India’s recyclers
| India’s textiles recycling sector employs more than one million people and, each year, turns over around US$ 2 billion in processing some 5 million tonnes of material
Uncertainties persist despite improved market conditions
| India ranks as the world’s number one importer and consumer of stainless steel scrap not only because of the amount of stainless steel produced in India (it is second only to China) but also because of the very high proportion of scrap to primary use in its production mix, it was underlined at the latest meeting of the BIR Stainless Steel & Special Alloys Committee.
