In light of ongoing discussions on steel and aluminium, EuRIC warns against imposing any restrictions on scrap exports. Scrap exports have been keeping recycling businesses alive, serving as a counterbalance to the extremely low EU demand for recycled materials.

Closing the EU borders for scrap exports will have detrimental consequences to the environment, the economy and EU’s competitiveness. The prolonged decline of European steel and aluminium production is concerning for recyclers, as it threatens Europe’s competitiveness and ’green’ and digital transitions. Any calls by the European steel and aluminium industry to restrict scrap exports are completely unjustifiable and unacceptable, especially when the supply of recycled scrap has never been the reason behind any decreased activity of EU mills.

Trade challenges cannot be addressed through protectionism and protectionist measures must not work against Europe’s circularity backbone – the European recycling industry. We urge EU policymakers to preserve open trade and carefully consider the EU recycling industry’s contributions to the EU economy and sustainability, and to only endorse measures that encourage them to keep innovating and generating resources, instead of hampering them and threatening their very existence.