Skip to Search Skip to Content Skip to Footer
Sims Lifecycle Services
  • Locations
  • Blog
  • Client Portal
  • Contact
  • English
    • Deutsch
Menu
  • For Data Centers
    • Overview
    • Cloud Data Center Services
    • Colocation Data Center
    • Ultimate Decommissioning Guide
    • SLS plays a key role in helping companies manage ongoing technology shifts in data centers. Our record of success includes working with businesses, data centers and major cloud companies to provide periodic decommissioning of older data center equipment.
  • For Businesses
    • Overview
    • ITAD Services
      • RFP Template for ITAD
    • IT Asset Recovery
    • Data Destruction
      • On-Site Data Destruction
      • Bulk Data Destruction Services
      • Storage Device Types
      • Data Destruction Standards
      • Vendor Selection
    • On-Premise Data Center Decommissioning
    • E-Waste Recycling
    • ITAD Reporting and Portal
    • Logistics
    • Equipment We Process
    • SLS provides secure and compliant global IT asset disposition (ITAD), e-waste recycling and data center decommissioning services for businesses. We refurbish, repair and restore materials for continued useful life. In addition to facilitating reuse of equipment, SLS also recycles discarded electronics, transforming waste to raw material. Recycling diverts material from landfill or incineration and provides a feedstock for making next generation products.
  • For Manufacturers
    • Overview
    • Returns Management
    • Refining
    • Certified Destruction
    • Defense Contractors
    • Recycling
    • Extended Producer Responsibility
    • Portal and Reports
    • Recycling Innovation
    • How Computers Are Recycled
    • We work with manufacturers to manage reverse logistics and recover value from returned equipment. We resell whole units, manage spare parts recovery and responsibly recycle obsolete equipment. We also work with manufacturers in managing their extended producer responsibility requirements.
  • Global
    • Overview
    • Compliance
      • GDPR FAQ
    • Client Sustainability
      • Sustainability Reporting
      • Circular Economy Explained
    • International Associations
    • Consumer E-Waste
    • Leading companies trust SLS to provide a globally coordinated e-waste recycling and ITAD single solution with a high focus on data security, regulatory and corporate compliance, value recovery and sustainability.
  • About Us
    • Overview
    • Certifications
    • Sustainability at Sims
    • EH&S
    • Equipment We Process
    • Careers
    • As a business division of Sims Limited, SLS has the global reach, expertise, and infrastructure necessary to ensure to our customers that all electronic devices are processed in a secure and environmentally responsible manner.
  • News
    • Blog
    • Videos
    • Resources
    • Infographics
    • Press Releases
    • Backed by a global network of IT asset disposition and e-recycling facilities, SLS is a leader in compliant disposition and recycling of electronic equipment. Stay up-to-date with our press releases, blog, newsletter, case studies, white papers, tip sheets, infographics and videos.

NEW! - HOW TO GUIDE: Template for Developing IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) RFP

Get Your Copy

Representatives from Sims Lifecycle Services (SLS) discuss implications of Basel Convention Amendments at BIR’s World Recycling Convention

plastic-recycling-plant
Menu
  • Locations
  • Blog
  • Client Portal
  • Contact
November 13, 2020

Patricia Whiting, senior international policy analyst and Jan-Hein Stiens, global plastics manager presented and exchanged views on a panel hosted by the Bureau of International Recycling’s (BIR) Plastics Committee during its annual World Recycling Convention Week, Oct. 12-16, 2020. BIR conducted the Convention virtually due to COVID-19. The virtual event consisted of cross-commodity sessions of overarching interest to the recycling community, and commodity webinars.

Whiting provided an in-depth review of the implications of Basel Convention amendments which enter into force January 1, 2021. She explained that most plastic waste had previously fallen outside the scope of the Basel Convention, whereas the new criteria would affect all but a few types of scrap plastic shipments. She pointed out that this new trading burden would likely result in “negative implications” for the circular economy through “limits on plastic waste available as inputs for recycling facilities, and limits on the availability of recycled plastics”.

She explained that requirements on shipments lack legal clarity, as they were drafted in a manner that remained open to interpretation – for example, that they should consist “almost exclusively” of a single polymer and should be “almost free from contamination”. She noted that this would result in confusion for both the regulators and their regulated stakeholders seeking to comply with the new provisions – as competent authorities would therefore be left to grapple, for example, with what levels of contamination would be acceptable.

In this context, she noted that both her and Stiens are participating in the Basel Convention’s Public-Private Partnership on Plastic Waste (PWP). She pointed out that with a view toward facilitating implementation and compliance with the plastics amendments, the PWP is seeking information concerning existing national or international specifications developed by countries or companies related to “almost free from contamination and other waste types” and “almost exclusively” for shipments of plastic waste destined for recycling.

Steins explained the significant challenges that the Basel plastic waste amendments, and the consequential growing patchwork of national and international laws and regulations governing the transboundary movement of plastics, poses to SLS. He acknowledged the desire to be 100 percent compliant as of January 2021, however, we are operating in a climate of great regulatory uncertainty in terms of a plethora of differing interpretations of the amendments.

He also explained that stricter regulations governing overseas shipments were prompting many recyclers to move their production operations nearer to the sources where plastic inputs were becoming available. On the positive side, he added, that OEMs had already built recycled materials into their long-term strategies and so would continue to offer a consistent demand.

Finally, he discussed the increasing importance of plastics from the perspective of circular economy opportunities within the electronics recycling market – especially through closed-loop and open-loop plastics recycling technologies. In this light, he stressed the importance of recyclers and manufacturers working together to achieve circular economy and sustainability goals, in terms of plastics.

In addition to SLS, other panelists that discussed plastics in the context of recycling and trade included:

  • Dr. Steve Wong, Fukutomi Co. Ltd and Executive President of China Sustainable Plastics Association;
  • Max Craipeau, Greencore Resources Ltd;
  • Sally Houghton, Plastics Recycling Corporation of California;
  • Henk Alssema, Vita Plastics in the Netherlands and BIR Plastics Committee Chair; and
  • BIR Director General Arnaud Brunet, BIR Director.

BIR is the international trade association of the recycling industries. Around 70 countries are represented through their national trade associations and individual companies, which are involved in recycling. BIR comprises four commodity divisions: iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, paper and textiles, and has four commodity committees dealing with stainless steel and special alloys, plastics, tires and rubber and e-scrap. BIR’s primary goal is to promote recycling and recyclability, thereby conserving natural resources, protecting the environment and facilitating free trade of secondary raw materials.

Posted in: Sustainability
Previous Post Next Post

Circular Newsletter

Data Center Services

Learn More

Regions

  • Americas
  • Global
  • EMEA
  • APAC

Topics

Archives

Sims Lifecycle Services
  • Corporate Information
    • About Us
    • Certifications
    • Locations
  • Services
    • For Data Centers
    • For Businesses
    • For Electronics Manufacturers
    • Data Destruction
    • Global Services
  • Contact
    • Email
    • News
    • Blog
  • Sims Limited
    • SLS is a business division of Sims Limited. Discover how Sims Limited plays an integral role in the circular economy by making resources available for future use.
      Visit the Sims Limited Website
  • Other Business Divisions (external websites)
    • Sims Metal
    • Sims Resource Renewal

Sign up for our newsletter

  • Visit Us on Instagram (opens new window)
  • Visit Us on Facebook (opens new window)
  • Visit Us on LinkedIn (opens new window)
Copyright © 2025 Sims Lifecycle Services, All Rights Reserved.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal
  • Terms of Use