Information about the 17th Polish-German IGMNiR-VDM and Partners Meeting in Gdańsk on September 16-17, 2021

On September 16-17, 2021, a meeting of members and partners of the Chamber of Commerce for Non-Ferrous Metals and Recycling (IGMNiR) and Verband Deutscher Metallhändler (VDM) was held in Gdańsk. The meeting was attended by 214 participants representing 112 companies and institutions from 12 European Union countries. The meeting was opened by Kazimierz Poznański on behalf of IGMNiR and Kilian Schwaiger on behalf of VDM. The speakers at the meeting were representatives of domestic entities related to the recycling industry (KGHM Metraco S.A., TOMRA Sorting Sp.z o.o.) and foreign institutions (Kamila Słupek - Eurometaux, Carlos Risopatron - International Copper Study Group).

Kamila Słupek briefly presented future legislative changes at the European Union level resulting from the Green Deal, which will concern the recycling of non-ferrous metals. In the opinion of Kamila Słupek, new legal solutions will, on the one hand, be an opportunity for the development of the recycling sector, but on the other hand, they will require large financial outlays in order to meet the new, designed requirements.

Carlos Risopatron has presented a very detailed analysis of changes in the global copper scrap market in recent years. The International Copper Study Group has the most reliable data on the copper and copper scrap market in the world. The main topic of talks between the participants of the meeting was the change of approach to metal scrap.

The participants of the meeting emphasized that scrap metal is a valuable raw material for the economy, and not waste, as it is treated by legislators at the level of the European Union countries. Recycling of scrap of non-ferrous metals brings great benefits to the environment, because the production of metals from scrap is associated with a dozen or so times (even twenty times in the case of aluminum) lower emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in relation to the production of metals from metal ore.

Most of the meeting participants were against the postulated restrictions on the export of scrap non-ferrous metals outside the European Union. Currently, the European Union lacks sufficient resources to utilize all types of non-ferrous scrap.