BIR Gothenburg 2026 – International Trade Council: Free trade remains the bedrock of a healthy recycling environment
One of the constant messages delivered by the global recycling industry over its long history has been the need for free and fair trade. And against a backdrop of increased protectionist activity, this same sentiment was hammered home once again by industry experts addressing the latest meeting of BIR’s International Trade Council (ITC), staged in Gothenburg on June 1.
The USA produces a surplus of recycled materials across all the commodities and so having global market access is “critical”, insisted Robin Wiener, President of the Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) in the USA. ITC Chairman Emmanuel Katrakis, Director of Public and Regulatory Affairs at Galloo in France/Belgium, reinforced the same point: “There will always be - or very often be - a mismatch between what we are going to recycle and what our neighbour needs, and thus, to bridge that gap, we need to have access to local and global markets.”
But while the recycling industry itself fully understands that any attempt to manipulate the market constitutes a threat to its well-being and to its environmental contribution, it is important to have data to support this case, Ms Wiener went on to stress. To this end, ReMA has conducted a study that confirms the available US end-of-life recycled copper supply significantly exceeds domestic consumption. “In 2025, it was a three and a half times ratio,” she explained. “And the other good news is that the tonnage of US end-of-life copper recovered is expected to continue to increase into the future and will certainly exceed supply for at least the next 15 years.” Meanwhile, a similar ReMA study into recycled aluminium revealed a supply that is four and a half times current demand needs.
Although a substantial amount of welcome investment is being made in the USA at present on the industrial consumer side, ReMA’s research confirms that the available domestic recycled supply will continue to exceed this increasing demand into the future, according to Ms Wiener. “So the conclusion,” she declared, “is that there is no justification for those trade restrictions.”
The good news in the USA, Ms Wiener went on to explain. is that the attempt at export controls for recycled copper was defeated in July last year while latest indications suggest the US administration is not placing a priority at present on the pursuit of export controls for aluminium.
Ms Wiener emphasised that customers need a strong and reliable recycling industry that has the ability to invest in new equipment and processes so that it can maintain and develop its important place in the supply hierarchy. She also noted a trend among the recycling industry’s customers in the USA towards more investment, starting in 2022 and supplemented by the introduction of tariffs.
The argument supporting the need for a profitable recycling industry was echoed by Mattias Rapaport, Managing Director of Stena Metal International in Sweden: “We have to have an economically viable environment. We are investing heavily in our own industry. If we are restricted from a level playing field of a global market where material can find its best value, it will be harmful for us and actually harmful to our customers.”
Recycled material logically seeks out its closest furnace, according to Mr Rapaport. “We want to supply our local furnaces,” he insisted, “but we also have to have access to other markets when the demand is not there. The material that finds its place in Europe will stay in Europe because that is the most logical business there is. Exporting is a greater effort.”
Fellow guest speaker Fernando Acosta, Director of Economics and Environment at the International Copper Study Group, placed recycling in the wider context of total copper supply while emphasising its environmental and economic importance. Recycling provides
an efficient method of reintroducing a valuable material into the economy, he stated, while also requiring less energy and producing fewer emissions.
The copper recycling rate stood at 33% in 2024, with concentrates typically accounting for more than half of global supply while recycled material usually represents about one third. “Higher recycling rates are not necessarily associated with higher income levels because what is relevant is the presence or the existence of a developed market,” Mr Acosta pointed out to delegates. Looking to the future, he expects countries to continue to strengthen their supply chains as they invest more in smelting and refining capacity “in order to process more complex scrap domestically”.
Assuming the world will be able to meet net-zero targets by the middle of the current century, which in the case of copper translates into supply being able to meet an expected demand of about 50 million tonnes, the market for recycled copper could have a value of “about US$ 1.7 to US$ 2 trillion during this period”, he projected. “So it seems that recycling, in the case of copper, is not only relevant from an environmental perspective but it’s also an interesting business opportunity.”
However, Mr Acosta joined his fellow guest speakers in sounding a note of caution about market distortion and uncertainty. Larger trend analysis by the OECD has shown that trade restrictions have been increasing over time. “The problem is that these policies can have unintended or unexpected consequences,” he lamented. In particular, these can act against “the need to have clear and predictable policies in the long term to attract investment”.