BIR Reaffirms Commitment to
Free and Fair Trade Amid Policy Shifts and Protectionist Pressures
At the BIR World Recycling Convention
in Bangkok, the Bureau of
International Recycling (BIR) reiterated its support for free and fair trade in
recycled materials, even as growing global protectionism — especially in Europe
— threatens to reshape recycling markets.
Opening the session of
BIR’s International
Environment Council (IEC), Chairman Olivier François warned that
global recycling is at a crossroads.
While BIR has long championed open markets, François said the European recycled plastics sector
is increasingly calling for trade
barriers to protect local producers from cheaper imports.
“Many in Europe argue
that recycled plastic produced in Europe should stay in Europe,” he noted. “Yet
the EU’s export bans and import pressures are pushing plants to closure —
around one million tonnes
of recycling capacity has already been lost.”
François described this
as a policy contradiction,
with regulators invoking environmental protection while inadvertently damaging
Europe’s circular economy leadership.
Introducing the European Steel and Metal Action Plan
(SMAP), BIR’s Trade
and Environment Policy Officer Olatz Finez Maranon explained
that although SMAP has no
legal standing yet, it signals a trend toward export restrictions on recycled metals
such as steel, aluminium,
and copper.
François warned such
measures could “have
significant global consequences”, given the EU’s reliance on
metal exports amid sluggish industrial demand. Maranon added that recyclers
should remain alert to regulatory
shifts in EU trade and industrial policy, which could impose tonnage limits or export fees,
even as the bloc expands support for low-carbon
technologies and circular economy initiatives.
“It’s a great
opportunity for recyclers to become part of the policy decision-making,” she
said, calling on members to engage in EU and global policy development.
François also revealed
that China has submitted a
proposal to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
for a new recycled steel
classification, prompting BIR to form an internal working group
to respond.
BIR Trade and Environment
Director Alev Somer cautioned that China’s draft fails to
acknowledge long-standing
global standards like the EFR European and ISRI/ReMA references,
potentially creating market confusion.
Somer also highlighted
the unintended fallout
from recent amendments to
the UN Basel Convention, which now place all end-of-life electronics
— hazardous or not — under the Prior
Informed Consent (PIC) procedure.
This change, she said, has created major
customs confusion, with non-hazardous materials like washing
machine motors and shredded metals being wrongly
impounded as hazardous waste.
“We have concrete
examples in Southeast Asia of significant disruption,” Somer reported, noting
that classification now
depends on the source of material rather than its composition.
BIR is now working with
a UN Basel Convention
review group to correct the overreach of these amendments.
Somer outlined BIR’s
growing data-driven
advocacy, including partnerships with:
·
UNITAR on the Global
E-Waste Monitor 2027
·
International
Copper, Lead, and Zinc Study Groups
·
A global trade flow study
for recycled copper, aluminium, lead, and zinc
Bianca
Mannini,
BIR’s Trade and Environment Policy Officer, closed the session with an update
on the stalled UN Global
Plastics Treaty, where talks collapsed in August amid a divide
between two blocs:
·
The “High Ambition Coalition”,
pushing for a full
lifecycle, legally binding approach to plastic pollution
·
The “Like-Minded Group”, led
by oil-producing countries, seeking to limit
the treaty’s scope to waste management and voluntary
commitments
Mannini said BIR’s
priorities focus on production,
design, recycling, and circularity, noting that many
governments’ desire to curb plastic use complicates efforts to expand recycled
plastic markets.
“We will need strong
industry engagement to provide technical inputs, especially on current
challenges and barriers to recycling of different polymer types,” she urged.
As global recycling
faces regulatory uncertainty, BIR reaffirmed its mission to defend open markets, prevent protectionist backsliding,
and position recyclers as
co-designers of future circular economy policies.
“We aim to represent
recyclers not as an afterthought,” François concluded, “but as partners shaping climate, trade, and
circular economy resilience worldwide.”
Free
and fair trade around the world is a challenging principle to defend when sectors
such as Europe’s struggling recycled plastics industry are appealing for protection,
a senior member of the Bureau of International Recycling has told its Convention
in Bangkok, Thailand.
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.”