Paper Division Committee 

Francisco Donoso, General Director, Dolaf Servicios Verdes, moderated the Paper Division at the BIR Convention in Abu Dhabi on October 24. Ranjit S Baxi,  President, J & H Sales International, gave a presentation delving into the performance of the global paper industry and what the future holds for it. He highlighted how Artificial Intelligence and robotics technology could transform the paper recycling process in the coming years. He also spoke about the significance of carbon credit as the world looks to meet its Net Zero targets.  

Simone Scaramuzzi, Commercial Director, LCI SRL, painted a bleak picture for the European paper recycling industry. He said the demand for recovered fibre from the local markets remained low. However, they are being exported, because of which the industry is able to survive. Lower purchasing power, spike in transport cost and fallout from COVID-19 pandemic were some of the challenges highlighted by him.  

Atul Kaul, Director, Pulp & Paper, WARAQ, gave insights into the GCC paper market. He pointed out that the business has seen a paradigm shift after the COVID -19 pandemic. He highlighted some of the internal threats and external challenges. He said that acceleration in the recovery of fibre is not complementing the demand. He drew audience attention to how new regulations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries will influence the recovered fibre market in the coming years. 

The panel discussion, which also included Fátima Aparicio Rubio, Deputy director, REPACAR, also delved into the shifts in the Asian and other markets since the Chinese ban on import of waste.

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PLASTIC COMMITTEE 

Chemical recycling “must complement and not compete” with mechanical recycling

A robust defence of chemical recycling and its compatibility with mechanical recycling was set out during the Convention.

Speaking during the Plastics session on 24 October, Carlos Monreal, Founder and Chief Executive of Plastic Energy in Spain, insisted that “chemical recycling is not in competition with mechanical recycling. It’s not in a fight for feedstock”. 

“We have to remember that [the world] is manufacturing more than one million tonnes of plastic very single day and those volumes can only increase and are most likely to triple by 2050,” Monreal said. “Plastic is a great material – otherwise that demand would not be happening. But we have to address both the recycling rates and the carbon footprint of the industry.”

The CEO argued that mechanical recycling alone cannot cope with the growth in plastics, although chemical recycling was not “a silver bullet”. He pointed out that 30 million tonnes of plastic packaging were collected annually in Europe of which 10 million tonnes is mechanically recovered, producing 5-6 million tonnes of secondary plastics. The balance goes either to waste-from-energy plants or landfill. “After 25 years of mechanical recycling in Europe we have increased collection but still recycle only five million tonnes.”

Monreal insisted a crucial requirement was mandatory levels of recycled content in new packaging, regardless of the material involved. He said recyclers were doing their job well but market prices were low and inventories were high so “the market is not working properly”. 

Plastics Energy’s two plants in Spain, in Almeria and Seville, are plastics-to-plastics rather than plastics-to fuel and the speaker was adamant theirs was the future. Mr Monreal stressed the need for chemical recycling technologies to focus on hard-to-recycle, end-of-life plastics that cannot be processed by mechanical recycling, rather than opting for easier feedstocks such as post-industrial plastics that were better being mechanically recycled.

During questions, Plastics Committee member Max Craipeau (Greencore Resources, China) who chaired the session in the absence of Committee Chairman Henk Alssema (Vita Plastics, Netherlands) applauded Plastic Energy’s strategy and agreed the challenge came from chemical recyclers using plastics such as PET rather than low-value scrap. Alev Somer, BIR’s Trade & Environment Director, believed the focus should be on whether the two types of recycling plastic were competing or complementary. “Where we cannot mechanically recycle, we should continue with this [Plastic Energy],” she said. “We also need to raise concerns about those who are trying to cover their investments in chemical recycling by taking feedstock from mechanical recyclers.”

Another guest speaker, Jerome Viricel, General Manager of Veolia company Recapp in the UAE, spoke about its success in encouraging recycling through an app and website serving Dubai.

“This is a full digital ecosystem with interaction between the consumer and the recycler thanks to a digital tool,” Viricel said. The tool’s traceability, whereby every collection point, quantity and the identity of those providing the materials is pulled together, offered “an amazing database of consumption and behaviour”.

He explained how the collection of PET bottles and some other waste streams effectively provided a voluntary extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme for brands. “But the companies wanted more, so Recapp developed a voluntary deposit return scheme with rewards and incentives.” 

The company had developed an awareness programme in 89 local schools with free workshops and collection boxes sponsored by big brands. The app had 70 000 people accessing it over the past two-and-a-half years and their response helped decide in which areas the scheme operated. “Everything is improved because the digital tool allows us to talk to people and make them aware,” he said, adding Recapp was looking to expand the scheme to Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Craipeau introduced BOTOL, an initiative recently launched in Vietnam. The patented Singaporean Reverse Vending Machine (RVM) recycles PET bottles on-the-spot into colour sorted rPET flakes eligible for food-grade recycling. It also meant a tenfold reduction in CO2 emissions from transport, he said. Aligning with net-zero targets, the company is the first RVM member of Vietnam's Packaging Recycling Organisation and is expanding to Indonesia.

In her own presentation, Somer set out developments towards a proposed UN Plastics Treaty to develop a legally binding instrument to address plastic pollution. BIR contributes to the negotiations throughout the meetings and consultations, she explained, but conflicting interests meant little progress was made at the latest Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meeting in Paris in June.

The goal is for the treaty to be signed by 2025 but, with three meetings to go, Somer said “that seems ambitious”. A ‘zero draft’ has been proposed with no formal content, in an effort to shape the debate at the next negotiations meeting in November and to make some progress on the Treaty text, she added.

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STAINLESS STEEL & SPECIAL ALLOYS COMMITTEE

Strong future growth forecast in India for stainless ‘wonder alloy’

India’s vision to become a US$40 trillion economy by 2047, the year which marks 100 years of independence, will make it a major consumer of stainless steel into the future.

The country’s ambitious plans and its predicted growth in stainless steel production and scrap demand were set out at the BIR Stainless Steel & Special Alloys Committee session, during the global recycling organisation’s Convention in Abu Dhabi on 23 October. During his presentation, “Charting a Sustainable Future: stainless steel, industry trends and India Vision for tomorrow” Hitesh Agrawal, General Manager at Jindal Stainless (ARE), explained that India’s 2047 vision has put focus on infrastructure, construction and logistics.

India is currently the second largest global consumer of stainless steel, and its consumption is set to grow. Agrawal said: “The per capita consumption of stainless steel in India, which is approximately 2.83kg, is expected to go up significantly in the coming years. By 2025-2030 it is going to be in the range of 3.5-5kg and, significantly, it will go up to 8.5-11.5kg up to 2047.”

Agrawal set out predicted growth rates based on analysis from the Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA) and CRISIL Research: “Stainless steel demand is expected to grow at the rate of 6.5-7.5% until 2025 and then approximately 7-8% from 2025 to 2030. Demand, which currently is approximately 3.7-3.9 million tonnes, is expected to go up to 4.6-4.8 million tonnes by 2025, and then by 2030 this is expected to be around 6.6-6.8.”

Asked by Committee Chairman Joost Van Kleef where India would get the raw material for its needs, Mr Agrawal explained that stainless steel produced in India is largely scrap based, as it uses electric arc furnaces or induction furnaces.

A major challenge for India will be the availability of scrap, particularly due to “nationalism in scrap” where other countries do not want their scrap leaving their boundaries. “That will definitely continue to remain a challenge until India becomes self-sustainable on availability of scrap.”

Jindal Stainless foresees using a ratio of around 60-70% scrap in the next couple of years, with the remaining balance from nickel pig iron and ferro nickel.

Stainless steel was described by Agrawal as a “wonder alloy” with desirable properties: 100% recyclable, lowest lifecycle cost, better strength to weight ratio, naturally aesthetic, inert, hygienic, resistance at high temperatures, no toxic run off, easy to fabricate. Scrap, Mr Agrawal explained, was “a material which everybody would like to use because of its low carbon footprint”.

These attributes were echoed by Gerhard Pariser, Group Sales Executive & Head of Corporate Development at Oryx Stainless BV (NED), a processor which has operations in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Thailand and under construction in Malaysia.

Pariser explained: “Scrap is the commodity and the product that puts the ‘green’ into steel. There is no ‘green steel’ and no ‘green stainless steel’ without scrap.”

Use of scrap in steel production in the western world is around 70% today, while most major European producers now have recycled content of over 90% – including internal and external recycled waste streams.

Recent lifecycle assessment conducted by the German Fraunhofer Institute found that making grade 304 steel with 100% primary material generated 7.82 tonnes of CO2e per tonne of stainless, whereas with 70% scrap it drops to 3.62 tonnes, and with 100% scrap it is 0.8 tonnes.

Pointing out the shift for mills in Europe to produce green steel, Mr Van Kleef asked whether Jindal Stainless was also working on such products. Agrawal said the company was keen to move in this direction with green steel and reduced CO2 emissions. It has adopted major SDG targets, aims to be Net Zero by 2050 and is setting up India’s first green hydrogen plant due to be operational at the end of the year. But, he added, the challenge was the availability of scrap.

Pariser also highlighted challenges for the sector: economic cycles, balancing demand and supply, and the circular economy. Partnership working between customers and suppliers was important to manage economic cycles, he believed, while regional and international trade was the balancing mechanism between areas of scrap surplus and shortage. He noted a recent trend towards regionality in the EU.

Stainless recycling was the “poster boy for circularity” according to Dr Pariser, who was optimistic for the future: scrap is a sought-after product needed in the circular economy and carbon reduction journey, it is a fluid commodity, and the recycling industry is a key facilitator in ensuring the optimum quality and volume flows of this desirable material.

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ELECTRICS, ELECTRONICS AND EV BATTERIES COMMITTEE

New look for BIR electrics, electronics and battery experts

The final session of the BIR World Recycling Convention in Abu Dhabi marked the arrival of a new, forward-looking group. Formerly known as the E-Scrap Committee, BIR’s Electrics, Electronics and EV Batteries Committee (EEEVB) has come into being to reflect the changing nature of the industry.  

The EEEVB session on 24 October was headed by the new Chairwoman, Josephita Harry, Vice-President, Sales at Pan American Zinc LLC in the USA. Welcoming delegates, she repeated the new name for emphasis. “You will notice I didn’t use the word scrap or waste. It’s a very small change in the name but I consider it a very big step forward in the direction to acknowledge the importance of the work we do as an industry that recycles important materials and brings it back into the value chain.”  

The first presentation was on black mass product derived from battery recycling, delivered by first guest speaker Leah Chen, Editor and Senior Pricing Specialist Non-Ferrous Metals at S&P Global Commodity Insights Singapore office. She explained how black mass is produced from the shredding process and contains valuable metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel. The two main processes for treating black mass used in the industry today are hydrometallurgy or pyrometallurgy.  

Chen noted that the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act and the Inflation Reduction Act in the US were significant drivers for battery recycling while Japan is developing a domestic recycling system and, in South Korea, car giant Hyundai has a private sector alliance with major battery makers. “In China they have this ‘white list’ with about 57 battery manufacturing and recycling companies,” she said. ‘Major manufacturers have publicly declared they will work only with companies on the list and the qualification to be on it is very stringent. For example, the required combined recovery rate for manganese, cobalt and nickel is no lower than 98%.”  

Chen said only about 5% of lithium-ion batteries were being recycled and her analytical team was forecasting that by 2030, 15% of lithium would be from either recycled batteries or scrap; 12% for nickel and 44% for cobalt, which can be secured from a wider range of products. Nearly two-thirds of black mass would come from NMC or LFP batteries, currently the dominant types. Ms Chen said Platts had launched nine black mass prices for China and Europe at the start of the year and in September established four more in the USA.   

The second guest speaker, BK Soni, Chairman and Managing Director of Ecoreco in India, pointed out that global sales of electrical and electronic equipment is about US$ 3,750 billion. The cost of recycling the global e-waste generation of 75 million tonnes is US$ 75 billion while the recovered content would be worth US$ 150 billion. “So why do producers still hesitate to put in 2% of their sales value into the EPR system and ensure that the entire model gets recycled properly?’ Mr Soni asked. He thought the capex costs for recycling infrastructure was hampering investment in developing economies. He also pointed out that per capita waste of 10kg cost US$ 10 to recover and so “a nominal investment” would guarantee improved health, safety and environment.  

“It is not cost-effective for the developed economies to recycle completely and for the developing economies it will take some more years to recycle up to the level of developed nations. I personally believe that by 2030, 50% of the global generation of e-waste will get recycled. The question arises, why not 100%?” Soni said it was because of a “viability gap” between the cost of recovering commodities and the value of commodities recovered. Viable EPR schemes were essential to create the markets, he argued.   

BIR’s Trade & Environment Director Alev Somer set out an impending change to the Basel Convention which covers transboundary movements of e-waste – as it is called under the convention. Starting from 1 January 2025, all e-waste moved across the international borders of the 191 parties to the convention will be subject to a strict control procedure and governments will decide if they want e-waste imports from other countries – known as prior informed consent (PIC). 

Somer advised that recyclers had to be prepared in advance to get the PIC procedure in place but she cautioned the system was neither harmonised nor electronic worldwide. She said BIR was pushing both Basel and the OECD to simplify transborder arrangements. “We should hammer the message from the business side how important it is to have an electronic and simplified PIC procedure,” she concluded, adding it was under consideration by a Basel working group but it would take several years to reach a result.