EU’s outbound scrap regulations focus of BIR session

Scenarios involving the revised and published European Union Waste Shipment Regulation will be the focus of discussion at a Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) session in Copenhagen next week.

The BIR’s International Trade Council (ITC), led by veteran trader Michael Lion, has been subtitled “Adjusting to a new regulatory world.” Although the word “waste” is in the regulation’s name, it has been applied to recycled materials with well established global markets and frequently high prices.

The BIR and its ITC have lined up several speakers and panelists for the May 27 discussion on the new regulation’s global ramifications for the recycling industry.

Some nongovernmental organizations and legislators backing the new export rules position them as a way of protecting people in nations with developing economies from receiving potentially hazardous or problematic materials from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

Most EU nations and the EU itself are OECD members, while scrap importing nations such as India, Malaysia or China are not. Recyclers in OECD scrap export nations largely have objected to materials such as copper, aluminum, steel and old corrugated containers (OCC) being categorized as “waste” and as hazardous.

Martyna Robakowska of the European Commission Directorate General for Environment will deliver a presentation titled “The future of waste exports under the new Waste Shipment Regulation (WSR).” She will focus on key details, consequences and enforcement of the WSR.

A subsequent panel discussion will include Julia Blees, secretary general of the Brussels base European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC), an organization that has closely monitored and tried to influence the WSR as it has taken shape.             

An industry perspective from the Middle East will be supplied by Ibrahim Aboura, managing director of the United Arab Emirates-based Aboura Metals, who will address the crucial importance of effective communication of WSR-related developments with the recycling industry, the BIR says.

Completing the panel will be John Sacco, president and co-owner of California-based Sierra International Machinery and producer of the docuseries “Repurposed.” Sacco is expected to discuss the global repercussions of the new WSR and highlight the major practical concerns that the regulation has raised among recyclers.    

“Given that the revised WSR is now an established fact, the session will also examine how BIR can best promote a cooperative approach with the EU to ensure not only fulfilment of the regulation’s objectives but also creation of a practical and flexible compliance system that ensures uninterrupted international flows of recyclables, and thus safeguards the recycling industry’s vital contribution to the global circular economy," the BIR says.