ISRI’s 2021 Summer Board of Directors and Committee Meetings began Tuesday, July 13, and ended Friday, July 16. Here are some highlights from the Trade Committee meeting on Thursday, July 15.
At the July 15 Trade Committee meeting, Adina Renee Adler, ISRI’s vice president of advocacy, gave an update on Malaysia’s guidelines for importing recycled materials. She walked through the scope, eligibility, and criteria. The enforcement date is unclear. ISRI will provide more information once it’s available.
Adler also updated members on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) working paper on Resource Productivity and Waste. The OECD’s global plastics outlook includes everything about plastics from production and consumption to end-of-life management. ISRI has provided input and the latest draft was released a few weeks ago.
Darrell Kendall, executive director of RIOS™, gave an update on the Market Asset Working Group’s progress to develop an export certification, which essentially would ensure importers understand the right processes and procedures for producing material that complies with a country’s requirements for imports. He reviewed what the group has already accomplished, and aspects that still need to be included, including a list of definitions; guidance documents; certification rules; business model; and in-country acceptance of the standard. Kendall took questions from ISRI members.
Adler noted the Bureau of International Recycling will have a hybrid fall event Oct. 25-26 in Brussels. She shared the EU’s recent announcement to adopt a plan to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030. Part of the EU’s European Green Deal, the plan calls for Europe to be the world’s first carbon-neutral continent by 2050. The EU will place a carbon price on imports of certain products. It targets iron, steel, and a range of unwrought aluminum and aluminum products, but not recycled metal. This could have implications for ISRI members’ customers who trade steel and aluminum going into the EU. ISRI will provide updates on the EU climate plan as more information becomes available.
Image courtesy of ISRI.
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