Bureau of International Recycling launches new initiative

The BIR is to launch a World Council of Recycling Associations to support the recycling industry

On May 31, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) announced plans to launch a ‘world recycling council’ initiative, which would consist of the heads of worldwide recycling organisations and associations.

The BIR World Council of Recycling Associations would bring together world recycling leaders and experts to create an association which would work ‘to tackle the challenges facing the global trade of recyclables’ by promoting ‘free and fair trade of recyclables with minimum regulatory controls’.

The BIR, based in Brussels, was founded in 1948. It works to support companies and associations involved in the global recycling and waste material industry.

Currently, the BIR has almost 800 member companies worldwide from the business sector and national sector, which trade internationally in recycled metals, paper, plastics and textiles.

Ranjit Baxi, the president at BIR, compared the proposed World Council of Recycling Associations to a “United Nations of recycling”. He hopes the new council will attract yet more companies and associations to BIR from more countries.

Currently, BIR member companies represent 70 countries across the globe, but Mr Baxi would like to see this increase to ‘80 to 90 of the world’s more than 200 countries’.

During the 2016 World Recycling Convention and Exhibition, which was hosted by BIR between May 30 and June 1 in Berlin, Mr Baxi also said he hoped the bureau’s World Recycling Day ambitions would be realised by 2017, which would help promote the importance of recycling and the recycling industry.

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