ReMA Discusses Advocacy Priorities at the 2025 E-Scrap Conference

ReMA participated in the 2025 E-Scrap Conference, held October 27-29 in Grapevine, Texas, one of the leading events for electronics recycling professionals. ReMA organized and led two key sessions: the workshop "Advocacy Priorities for ReMA's Electronics Division" and the panel "Washington Watch: What's Ahead for Electronics Policy."

ReMA's Kristen Hildreth, Natalie Betts, and Erin McCoy spoke on the panels, highlighting the Association's policy priorities and discussing the latest federal, state, and international developments shaping the future of electronics recycling.

"It was really cool to hear people respond well to ReMA as an entity that people know about in the electronics sector but may not know the breadth of what we do and connection to other commodities," said Natalie Betts, ReMA's Assistant Vice President of Sustainability. "Also, the importance of data centers - the speed at which data centers are going to need to recycle materials because of AI demands that was a big theme, the life cycle of those is reducing so there is greater need for more capacity to process that material and for us to get ahead of it in terms of planning."

The E-SCRAP conference is important for ReMA to attend because it welcomes people from around the world with everything from smaller to larger businesses and newer to older. They are interested in and understand the importance of membership, particularly membership that is commodity specific. There is so much to know about every commodity so even though each person has their own expertise, it is vital to go to a specific commodity event because you learn things about how the business is operating and how it's affecting members in one division versus another.

"E-SCRAP shows how global the electronics recycling industry is and why trade matters so much and there was a lot of emphasis on the critical raw materials they can get from these products," said Erin McCoy, ReMA's International Trade Policy Analyst. "Almost every new trade deal has some type of need to invest into critical raw materials and give the US competitive access to it."

A key theme of this conference was the importance of reuse in E-SCRAP, but it is invaluable for us to be knowledgeable about the reuse parts of the business because it is a crucial part of the business model for many electronics providers and for IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) providers.

At the conference, ReMA staff were able to discuss the latest trends, technologies, and policy shifts impacting the electronics recycling sector. As regulatory frameworks evolve rapidly around issues such as critical minerals recovery, product stewardship, and market access, staying current enables recyclers to anticipate changes, ensure compliance, and advocate effectively for policies that support sustainable and market-driven recycling.