At the 4th European Recycling Conference held by the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC) in Madrid on June 15, Tom Bird the president of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) said that the revision of the EU waste shipment regulation is presented as a tool to protect the environment and public health, but in reality it is a tool to keep the material in the EU to strengthen the domestic economy. He added that the potential revision will only cause excess supply in the EU market as there is not enough capacity to recycle such quantities, while also resulting in a lack of margins that it would have been possible to invest in further treatment capacities.
Mr. Bird also said that the circular economy is not local but rather it is global, mentioning that the EU is importing metals and products from countries where human rights and other standards are way below those of the EU, but it is now considering banning exports. He said one cannot artificially rig the market to keep material in, adding that European companies do not want to export just for the sake of exporting. If the market is strong enough to keep the material in, no one would export and the material will stay in, he said.