Electronics
A year of increased visibility and widened spheres of influence
Putting policy into practice is not always a smooth process. More than a year after the UN Basel Convention’s E-waste amendments came into effect, early implementation has not been without its significant challenges.
The amendments make shipments of end-of-life electronics between Basel signatories subject to prior informed consent (PIC) procedures. As explained at our Valencia meeting by Federica Guerra of Sider Rottami Adriatica in Italy, the three main concerns are: risk of misclassification of e-waste-derived fractions; excessive costs relating to administration and to financial guarantees; and misaligned application of the rules with, for example, financial guarantees set at national level.
This increased bureaucracy disproportionately affects small and medium-sized enterprises that don’t have limitless funds or a highly flexible administrative infrastructure.
Navigating the complexities of the Basel amendments
An alternative perspective was supplied to our subsequent Bangkok meeting by Dylan Roman of Niu Niu Resources in Mexico. PIC should be embraced, he noted, because it offered a competitive advantage through legal, traceable and responsible material flows. At the same time, he acknowledged that the challenge was to keep bureaucracy to a minimum without compromising visibility and verification.
On issues as important as the Basel amendments, BIR’s advocacy machine kicks into top gear. BIR Trade & Environment Policy Officer Federico Zanotti represents our industry at the UN through working groups on improving PIC procedures and electronic approaches to PIC. In Bangkok, he said the new Basel Convention coding “looks only at where the material comes from, not at what it actually is”, thereby prompting customs authorities at many ports to claim material had been mis-declared. Confusion and inconsistent interpretation have led not only to delays in clearing containers but also to a shift towards a more worrying narrative in countries such as Malaysia and Thailand.
BIR also participates in the UN Basel Convention Expert Working Group (EWG) mandated to develop a guidance document on the distinction between what is now classified as end-of-life electronics under code Y49 and what should remain classified under already existing Basel Convention codes, such as recycled metals. And our Committee has gone a step further by launching an internal working group to support Federico’s work at EWG level. Furthermore, BIR’s dedicated Business Digest offers members a practical tool to navigate these legislative changes.
Advocating for clarity in a shifting regulatory landscape
Our Valencia meeting last year focused on an important and growing area of our work, namely electric vehicle batteries. Álvaro Rodríguez of The Climate Reality Project underlined the need for our sector to prepare for the massive influx of batteries that will be coming forward for reuse and recycling; Germán Agulló of lithium battery reconditioning and recycling company GDV Mobility outlined the pressures facing his business, notably high technology costs; and Javier Cervera Alonso, responsible for energy transition within leading Spanish shipping company Baleària, showed how regulations and penalties are influencing developments in his sector as failure to reduce emissions can attract fines payable to the International Maritime Organisation.
As well as two impactful plenary sessions, our work in 2025 reached a global audience in other ways. I represented the EEEVB Committee at the E-waste Expo in Germany while BIR Trade & Environment Director Alev Somer detailed EEEVB’s advocacy work at the Asia Steel Conference in Japan. Meanwhile, our specialist policy officer Federico represented the industry/Committee at the Basel Convention working groups covering: the development of new technical guidelines on the environmentally sound management of end-of-life batteries; and the updating of existing technical guidelines on end-of-life lead-acid batteries, on which topic he also represented the industry at the Basel Convention’s COP meeting in May last year.
The list of Federico’s involvements is extensive and impressive, not least his elevation to the position of Co-Chair of the Basel Convention’s PACE II Project Group 2 on the development of a guidance document on the environmentally sound management of TV screens and audio/video equipment. This position has significantly increased BIR’s visibility at the UN, consolidating an already strong relationship between our two organisations.
Elevated visibility through global strategic partnerships
Also reflecting BIR’s increased visibility and spheres of influence, 2025 brought the tremendous news that our world organisation will work alongside the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) to develop the next issue of the prestigious Global E-Waste Monitor, dubbed “the textbook for end-of-life electronics policy”. In Bangkok, UNITAR’s Dr Kees Baldé said BIR would help deepen the data and also the understanding of how secondary raw materials can be recovered from electrical and electronic products.
Dr Baldé highlighted the importance of good data. From our perspective too, quality statistics are essential when dealing with legislators and policy-makers as they add factual weight to our arguments proclaiming the massive environmental and economic contribution of our industry.
“This increased bureaucracy disproportionately affects small and medium-sized enterprises.”
Josephita Harry
RECYCLING PROCESSES
Depollution: Before material recycling, certain countries require best-practice depollution of scrap electrical and electronic equipment in order to remove hazardous components or materials to enable their environmentally sound management and to ensure they do not contaminate subsequent recycling processes or recycled materials.
Sorting: Scrap electrical and electronic equipment is generally hand-sorted and dismantled in order to separate out materials and components for reuse, repair or material recovery. The aim is to obtain the most value from the equipment as a whole, or from its components, or from its materials.
Shredding: After required pre-treatment, large electrical appliances such as cookers and washing machines are commonly shredded in large hammermills together with other metal scrap and pre-treated end-of-life vehicles. After the required pre-treatment, small electrical goods may be fed into smaller dedicated shredders using a variety of shredding methods. Depending on national laws, pre-treated refrigerators, freezers and cooling equipment may be shredded in dedicated enclosed shredders in order to capture gases used in their manufacture and use.
Recyclers aim to find a secondary raw materials market for plastics, glass from inside refrigerators and other non-metallic materials separated from scrap electrical and electronic equipment.
Media separation: Further separation is achieved using eddy-current separators, or high-pressure air flows or flotation systems using liquids of varying densities. Other processes may be necessary to separate materials from each other, recycling them separately.
Melting: The recovered metals are melted in a furnace. The melting, refining and alloying process is determined by the standardized composition necessary for the future applications of the metal alloys. The molten metal is then poured into moulds or cast into shapes. Later, they can be rolled into flat sheets used to manufacture new products.
Steering Committee
