TL;DR:
- In a move to meet carbon reduction goals, the EU started to recycle aluminium.
- Chinese buyers now snapping up aluminium scrap, smelting it an sell it back to Europe as new metal
- Novelis, the industry’s largest recycler, calls on the EU to curb exports of metal scrap to China and the US
The EU’s recycling system is being weaponised against the bloc by Chinese buyers snapping up aluminium scrap, smelting it and exporting it back to Europe as newly produced metal, according to the industry’s largest recycler.
Emilio Braghi, executive vice-president of Novelis, [said] the sector risked what he described as terminal decline unless Brussels acted on its pledge to curb the export of scrap to Asia and the US.
“We have lost primary production. Now we are at risk of losing aluminium scrap,” he said, noting that Europe would be unable to meet its own environmental goals if this was the case.
EU producers pay energy prices up to four times those of their competitors, so have shifted to remelting scrap which is more energy efficient.
The recycling drive is part of EU efforts to reduce its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, and to retain more critical materials in the bloc to avoid dependence on Chinese imports.
Unlike other parts of the world, Europe is unique in consumer behaviour and its willingness to pay more for recycled products out of a concern for the environment and climate change, Braghi said.
“We see that pull from consumers, whether they are buying a new car or they are buying an aluminium can, based on high recycled content. We don’t see that elsewhere.”
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I really hope Im misreading something here. Are they complaining that others recycle what theyre “supposed to” so they cant do the recycling themselves? Thats like complaining someone washed your dishes because now you have to do some other chores that you dont like as much.
The complaint seems to be that we dont do it ourselves which is our fault. The chinese companies are doing exactly what theybare supposed to and recycling the material back into the industry.
The complaint is that it’s being sold as new material but at cheaper prices, which puts local production at full disadvantage and disincentives local production entirely, which would then cause the EU to depend on foreign sources for aluminium as local production would begin to shut down and scrap would begin to dry up.
there is really no difference between recycled aluminum and virgin aluminum.
The recycling industry is a cartel. Its basically owned by the mafia.