ReMA Leadership Engage with Industry Partners and Stakeholders Around the Globe

The week of March 23, ReMA President Robin Wiener and ReMA Chair Colin Kelly traveled first to Brussels and then to Hamburg, Germany to participate in meetings focused on strengthening global collaboration and addressing emerging challenges facing the recycled materials industry.

In Brussels, Wiener and Kelly attended meetings at the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), where they met with the BIR leadership to discuss how ReMA and BIR can deepen their partnership and better align efforts to address key global issues. Then they joined leaders from the other national recycling associations around the world for broader discussions on the most pressing challenges facing the industry, particularly the importance of maintaining market access and the risks posed by export restrictions and other policy interventions.

From there, Wiener and Kelly traveled to Hamburg to attend the International Automotive Recycling Congress 2026 (IARC2026), where the pair spent two days engaging with a wide range of stakeholders across the automotive supply chain.

During the conference, Wiener delivered a presentation on the importance of market access and participated in a panel discussion moderated by Hyundai Motor Company focused on the EU's updated End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) regulations. The discussion highlighted the far-reaching implications these rules will have-not only on the EU automotive supply chain, but also globally. The particular focus was on how new closed-loop (auto-to-auto) recycled content mandates have the potential to reshape the flow of materials in the US and other regions producing cars that will be exported to the EU. Automakers within the EU are grappling with growing demand for recycled plastics, which are not available within the EU at the volume needed, and therefore they are looking at the U.S. and elsewhere for supply (but supply that will come with new requirements).

On Friday, Wiener and Kelly toured an automotive recycling operation outside of Hamburg, where discussions continued around how these EU regulatory changes could impact global material flows.

"The conversations we had over the week made clear just how interconnected global markets have become-and how policy decisions in one region can have far-reaching impacts worldwide," Wiener said.

Wiener and Kelly will share more detailed insights on these developments during the Shredders Committee and Plastics Division meetings in Las Vegas next month before the start of ReMA2026 - The Show.