Understanding the BIR’s role in global recycling

Recycling seldom makes the headlines, but it shapes the underlying story. A car with more recycled aluminum, copper, and steel has a smaller environmental footprint. A building that uses recycled aluminum and steel has a smaller energy bill before a single light is turned on. Every ton of recycled metal that returns to productive use means fewer raw materials are mined, less fossil energy is used, and less carbon is released. None of this happens by accident. It depends on efficient collection systems, clear specifications, and trade rules that transport materials across borders without compromising environmental safeguards. This is where a global federation earns its keep.

As the industry gathers in Bangkok for the World Recycling Convention and Exhibition, the on-stage conversations are only the visible part of a longer cycle. The themes are structural rather than seasonal. How do we unlock more high-quality secondary materials? How do we align data and documentation so that buyers trust what they are paying for? How do we design policies that protect the environment while keeping trade lanes open for supply and demand? The answers to these questions will determine whether the circular economy remains an aspiration or becomes the norm.

Why the BIR matters now

The pace at which supply chains are asking for lower-carbon metals is faster than legacy systems can match. Automakers want low-carbon steel and aluminum for car bodies and battery housings. Construction companies are incorporating climate commitments into their bids. Consumer brands are setting recycled content targets that affect smelters, recycling facilities, and collection yards. The constraint is not a lack of interest, but physics. Products remain in use for many years before reappearing as end-of-life material. Collection and sorting infrastructure varies widely by region. Quality is uneven. Documentation is often incomplete or inconsistent.

In these conditions, a federation is not a luxury. It is a coordination engine. BIR aggregates market intelligence, enabling small- and mid-sized operators to access information that large multinationals already track. BIR brings together specialists to refine specifications and the data fields that accompany a shipment. BIR engages with regulators early on so that the rules governing shipments and classifications reflect how trade actually works. When the language of standards aligns with the language of policy, friction decreases. When friction falls, investment follows.

From waste to climate lever

Historically, end-of-life materials were considered waste. However, that view no longer aligns with the facts. For example, in steel production, using one ton of scrap avoids emitting more than 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide, as well as significant quantities of iron ore, coal, and limestone. In aluminum production, recycling saves about 95% of the energy required for primary metal and delivers similar reductions in emissions. This is why procurement teams now request verified recycled content and carbon intensity, in addition to chemistry and delivery terms. Attributes that once sat in the appendix of a contract have moved into the main text.

BIR translates this climate logic into practical applications. Commodity divisions and committees transform the language of quality into shared definitions. The federation represents industry positions when waste shipment regulations and product carbon footprint rules are drafted and updated. BIR brings together traders, processors, and consumers so that the demand for verified attributes can be met with truly auditable supply. The result is a faster learning cycle and a fairer market.

Supply, quality, and confidence

The world does not lack metals. What it lacks is the right metal, of the right quality, in the right place, at the right time. Steel tied up in buildings and heavy machinery takes decades to come back at the end of its life. The availability of post-consumer aluminum depends on collection practices and municipal budgets. Even when materials are plentiful, they must be sorted and upgraded to consistent specifications. This is why information is as important as inventory. A bale or bundle is only as valuable as the confidence attached to it.

Confidence rests on three pillars. First, there are common specifications that reduce ambiguity. Second is data that is accurate and shareable from origin to quality to environmental attributes. Third is predictable policy. When rules diverge across jurisdictions or change without warning, shipments slow and working capital gets trapped. While BIR cannot change physics, it can shorten the distance between policy intent and operational reality. This translation function is its comparative advantage.

Trade risk and policy reality

Recycled metals, now often referred to as secondary raw materials, have become part of the geopolitical conversation. Some countries view them as strategic and critical resources that should remain at home. Others rely on imports to support growing smelting and remelting operations. While environmental safeguards are essential, circularity often requires cross-border movement. The Basel Convention establishes guidelines for many waste streams. The European Union has updated its waste shipment regulations. National classifications and enforcement practices add another layer. The interaction among these rules can facilitate or hinder responsible trade.

BIR sits at this intersection. It provides lawmakers with real-time industry intelligence on unintended consequences. For example, it alerts them when a classification designed for hazardous waste also captures clean industrial material. The federation advocates for enforcement that targets bad actors without impeding legitimate trade. The federation helps its members understand compliance, ensuring that the correct paperwork accompanies the appropriate materials. The goal is coherence. Environmental objectives and market mechanics should reinforce each other.

Digital trust and the role of marketplaces

The next step in increasing efficiency will come from digital workflows that increase transparency and reduce the cost of trust. Suppliers should be able to share specifications and assay data in a format that buyers can quickly parse. Documentation should only need to be generated once and can then be reused for customs, finance, and insurance purposes. Environmental attributes must be recorded in a way that allows auditors to verify them. When this occurs, negotiation cycles shorten, credit risk decreases, and the total cost of a transaction decreases.

This is the lens through which we at METYCLE approach the market. We focus on the practical details that facilitate smoother, safer transactions. Clear specifications. Reliable quality signals. Streamlined compliance. Faster settlement. Digital technology does not replace relationships. It strengthens them by removing unnecessary friction. In an industry that rewards reliability, the ability to prove your delivery is a competitive advantage.

For readers outside the sector, how does the BIR affect the real world? How does it impact policy, transparency, standards, and the flow of recycled materials?

BIR is the sole global federation representing the recycling industry — uniting over seventy countries and thousands of companies active in collecting, processing, and trading recyclables of every kind. Our mission is to ensure that recycling is not treated as waste management, but recognised as a key industrial pillar of the circular economy and a driver of climate action.

Our impact is felt wherever policy, trade, and sustainability intersect. We engage directly with the world’s major international organisations — such as the United Nations, the OECD, the World Trade Organization, and the Basel Convention — to make sure the recycling industry’s voice is heard when global rules are written. This includes, for instance, BIR’s contributions to the UN Environment Programme’s discussions on waste trade and circular economy, our active participation in OECD workshops on material value chains, and our ongoing dialogue with the European Commission and the WTO on trade and environmental measures.

We are particularly vocal in defending free and fair trade in recycled materials. When countries introduce export restrictions or excessive administrative burdens, we work with governments and international bodies to demonstrate how such measures disrupt global material flows, raise costs, and ultimately delay decarbonisation. BIR’s policy papers and advocacy campaigns have helped policymakers – in Europe, Asiaand beyond – better understand that recycling depends on open markets, and that open markets are essential for a truly global circular economy.

At the same time, we are deeply involved in the technical work that underpins trust in the sector. Working with ISO and other standardisation bodies, our experts contribute to defining what constitutes a recycled material, how its quality and traceability should be assessed, and how environmental performance can be measured consistently across borders. These standards are the foundation for transparency, compliance, and international confidence.

Through our Communications team, we also run awareness campaigns to clarify the difference between waste and recyclables, to highlight recycling’s positive climate footprint, and to promote recognition of recyclers as climate actors. This combination of advocacy, data, and communication allows BIR to influence both policy and perception — helping recyclers worldwide operate within a more predictable, transparent, and supportive regulatory environment.

In short, BIR acts as the bridge between industry and global policymakers — ensuring that ambitious environmental goals are matched with practical solutions that keep secondary materials flowing, fairly and efficiently, across the world.

What will the BIR focus on over the next three to five years to improve trust, data, and standards across the ferrous and nonferrous secondary metals markets? How do you see a company like METYCLE in this context?

Over the next few years, BIR will continue strengthening the foundations of trust and transparency that make global recycling work. Reliable data, clear standards, and consistent definitions are the cornerstones of an efficient circular economy — and we are investing significant energy in each of these areas.

At the policy level, BIR is closely monitoring with its National Federations Members the ISO working groups that are setting international standards for the classification and quality of recycled metals,. We also contribute to OECD and UN discussions on traceability and carbon reporting across value chains. Our goal is to make sure that the technical definitions, quality criteria, and carbon accounting rules applied to secondary metals are harmonised globally — so that recyclers, smelters, and traders can operate under fair, comparable conditions.

Beyond standards, we are developing more robust market intelligence. Through our global recycling statistics and dedicated commodity divisions reports, BIR gathers and analyses data from across the industry to build a more accurate picture of material flows, prices, and regional trends. This data is increasingly being used by policymakers and financial institutions to guide investment decisions and to measure recycling’s contribution to decarbonisation. Over the coming years, we intend to expand this effort further, with improved transparency tools and more detailed environmental metrics.

In parallel, BIR is encouraging digitalisation and AI implementation across the recycling value chain. Digital platforms such as METYCLE illustrate how innovation can bring global trade to a new level. By connecting buyers and sellers of secondary metals, providing real-time market insights, and enabling digital documentation and traceability, such platforms support the same objectives BIR pursues through advocacy: more transparent, secure, and efficient markets. Ultimately, trust in recycling will come from the convergence of three forces — sound regulation, verified data, and digital tools that make compliance and trade seamless. BIR’s role is to ensure these forces work together, across regions and materials, to build a recycling industry that is transparent, competitive, and recognised as a cornerstone of the low-carbon economy.

How should the industry balance open and fair trade with environmental safeguards as policymakers tighten shipping and product carbon footprint regulations?

This is one of the central policy challenges for the recycling industry today — and one where BIR’s advocacy is both active and consistent. Environmental safeguards are indispensable; we fully support the need for robust rules ensuring that materials are handled responsibly and traceably. But these measures must be based on science and facts and data, proportional to the actual risks, and designed to enable rather than obstruct circular trade.

BIR’s position is clear: a sustainable circular economy cannot exist without open and fair trade in secondary raw materials. When countries impose export bans or complex licensing systems under the banner of environmental protection, they often end up creating unintended consequences — stockpiling, informal processing, and reduced availability of high-quality recyclables where they are most needed. Such restrictions fragment supply chains and slow down global decarbonisation.

That is why BIR continues to work actively with the World Trade Organization, the OECD, and the Basel Convention to advocate for risk-based, non-discriminatory trade rules. We engage directly with the European Commission, national governments, and other regional blocs when needed to ensure that new measures — such as carbon-footprint reporting, due-diligence obligations, or shipping regulations — remain compatible with the principles of free and fair trade. Our message is simple: environmental responsibility and trade openness are not mutually exclusive; they reinforce each other when framed correctly.

We support traceability systems, certification schemes, and digital documentation tools that can demonstrate compliance and environmental performance without closing borders. The recycling sector is already part of the climate solution: as mentioned earlier in this article, every tonne of recycled metal reduces emissions dramatically compared to virgin production. BIR estimates that the savings in annual CO2 emissions through recycling activity as a whole equate to well over 1 billion tonnes per year. The right policy framework should therefore facilitate — not constrain — the international movement of these materials.

In short, balancing open trade with environmental safeguards is about building trust, not barriers. BIR’s role is to ensure that policymakers worldwide understand this reality, and to help design regulations that protect the environment while keeping the circular economy truly global.

Today, Asia already accounts for more than two-thirds of metals production and remains the center of gravity for further growth. What will this mean for collection, processing, and trade routes, as well as for quality and specification convergence?

Asia’s dominance in metal production naturally positions it at the core of future recycling growth. As demand for low-carbon inputs accelerates, Asian economies are investing in advanced recycling infrastructure and stricter quality standards, driving a global convergence in material specifications and environmental expectations.

For recyclers worldwide, this means adapting to more harmonised standards and digital traceability requirements. Trade routes are also evolving: new regional hubs are emerging in India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, diversifying flows that were once Europe- or China-centric.

BIR’s role is to connect these regions — ensuring that quality definitions, sustainability metrics, and trade frameworks align. Through its divisions and policy work, BIR facilitates dialogue between producing and consuming markets so that recyclers everywhere can operate within a coherent, trusted, and efficient global system.

The circular economy is the only way forward.

Complete the sentence: By 2030, successful recyclers will …

… have understood that sustainability, transparency, and global cooperation are not optional — they are the essence of competitiveness.

By 2030, successful recyclers will win because they will combine global reach with local responsibility, digital agility with industrial know-how, and environmental integrity with commercial excellence.

And because, at last, the world will recognise that recycling is not the end of waste — it is the beginning of manufacturing. It is the industry that makes circularity real.

The work ahead

The recycling industry rarely seeks applause. It asks for predictability. It asks for clear, enforceable rules. It asks for investments in collection and sorting, as well as space to compete based on quality. The prize is real. Clean energy needs copper, aluminum, and steel. Clean mobility requires aluminum, copper, and nickel. Sustainable buildings and infrastructure require lower-carbon materials that can be traced and verified. A circular supply chain is the only way to produce all of these things on a large scale without pushing the planet beyond its limits.

BIR won't build a shredder or tap a furnace, but it can influence outcomes by maintaining an honest conversation and a fair playing field. Markets move when information is credible and trust is inexpensive. The federation has delivered on that for decades. The next decade will demand even more.

Where METYCLE fits

METYCLE was founded to simplify and secure the secondary metals trade. We help buyers and sellers transition from promises to proof by providing clear specifications, usable data, and documentation that seamlessly travels from yard to furnace to finance. We are proud to stand with the BIR community and contribute to a future where circular materials are the norm.

Sources and further reading

• Bureau of International Recycling – Overview and Membership

• BIR World Recycling Convention & Exhibition Bangkok – Innovate Integrate Recycle

• BIR Upcoming Events

• Centara Grand Bangkok – BIR Recycle Expo 2025 Venue

• Director General Arnaud Brunet – New Year Message and Confirmation

• World Steel Association – Scrap Fact Sheet (1.5 t CO₂ avoided per t scrap)

• World Steel – Climate Action and Steel Production

• International Aluminium Institute – Recycling Saves 95 % Energy

• IAI – Recycling Emissions Reduction (95 % GHG savings)

• World Steel – Scrap Availability Projections 2030 & 2050

• EU – New Waste Shipments Regulation 2024

• EU – Waste and Recycling Shipments Overview

• Basel Convention – Overview

• OECD – Global Scrap Steel Market Policy Paper