BIR World Recycling Convention 2025: Handling increasing e-scrap volumes

Speakers at the Bureau of International Recycling’s (BIR’s) Electrics, Electronics and Electric Vehicle Batteries (EEEVB) Committee plenary session discussed how the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) will impact the recycling industry and how to handle increasing electronic scrap volumes.

The meeting was part of the BIR World Recycling Convention & Exhibition in Valencia, Spain, May 26-28 and was led by Josephita Harry, vice president of sales at Miami-based Pan American Zinc LLC.

The session’s first speaker, Álvaro Rodríguez, Spanish Coordinator for The Climate Reality Project, highlighted how greenhouse gas emissions are changing the composition of Earth’s atmosphere, with cars accounting for one third of global CO₂ emissions. Some solutions include investing in alternative energy sources, like wind and solar, and replacing traditional vehicles with EVs. However, the rise in EV production comes with a rise in lithium-ion battery production.

“Electric cars are the new way of mobility,” he said. “Every electric car of today is a battery to be recycled or reused tomorrow. The amount of batteries to be reused and recycled will increase dramatically, and we will need to have the industry, the market and all the flows of these materials to do this in a proper way.”

Germán Agulló, CEO and co-founder of GDV Mobility, a Spain-based lithium battery reconditioning and recycling company, underscored the challenges battery recyclers face, such as the high cost of technology.

The battery recycling process includes three stages: sorting and disassembling the metal casing, wiring, nickel plated steel and cells; separating aluminum, copper and black mass; and purifying the black mass to reclaim cobalt, nickel and lithium. Agulló said GDV Mobility expects to operate battery recycling plants to handle black mass in Spain by November.  

The session then turned to legal matters with a presentation from Federica Guerra, environmental compliance and circular economy specialist at Italy-based Sider Rottami Adriatica SPA.

Guerra discussed recent changes made to the Basel Convention due to the introduction of the Y49 code for all electronic scrap.

As of Jan. 1, international shipments of electrical and electronic scrap for recovery or disposal are allowed only with the prior written consent of the importing country and any transit countries, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“The three biggest complexities are the risk of misclassification of the e-waste derived fraction, the excessive cost due to the excessive administrative paperwork and financial guarantees and the misalignment on the application of the Basel Convention,” she said.

Transporting Y49-classified materials requires prior notification and consent, which Guerra said imposes burdens that disproportionately affect small- and medium-sized businesses lacking robust administrative infrastructure.

Harry concluded the session by emphasizing the EEEVB Committee’s dedication to advocating for and addressing the challenges within the electronics recycling sector. She encouraged members to connect and collaborate, emphasizing the importance of mutual support in advancing various initiatives.