BIR Announces the World’s First Ever Global Recycling Day

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has established Global Recycling Day to help achieve its goal of greater international recognition of the benefits of recycling. Setting a day each year to mark the vital role that recycling plays in preserving the wellbeing of our planet is an effective way of focusing worldwide attention on the concrete steps urgently needed to help safeguard the earth.

Global Recycling Day is the vision of the President of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Ranjit S Baxi, who first announced his desire to launch such a day at his inauguration at BIR’s convention in Dubai in 2015.

The first Global Recycling Day will take place on 18 March 2018. On this day BIR also celebrates its 70th anniversary. During the course of 2017, BIR will be announcing a number of initiatives to mark Global Recycling Day. These will include global partnerships and calls for action. As an international trade association, BIR has at its disposal a network of national recycling associations and member companies that can help spread this action across the globe.

BIR is also calling upon supranational organizations such as the United Nations, more in particular UNESCO and the United Nations Environment Programme, to include Global Recycling Day in the official calendar of internationally celebrated days.

One of the overriding missions of Global Recycling Day is to shift the focus from ‘waste’ to resource. BIR wants people to recognize the value in the materials all around us, and to recognize the recycling industry’s – and our own – role in using, and reusing them.

In line with this mission, Global Recycling Day is introducing the world to the Seventh Resource. There are six major natural resources: water, air, coal, oil, natural gas and minerals. Recyclables should be recognized as the Seventh most important resource. Global Recycling Day wants to raise awareness amongst the public regarding the Seventh Resource and enhance the perception that recycling is about creating a clean and sustainable environment for us and for future generations. We must also acknowledge that without the huge skills and expertise of the recycling industry, much of this Seventh Resource would not have been accessible.

Climate change is the major issue of our time and the single greatest challenge facing environmental regulators. It is a growing crisis, with economic, health and safety, food production, security and other dimensions. Therefore, it is imperative to promote a sustainable solution, which will turn this challenge into an opportunity.

The cost of failure to raise awareness around recycling would be high for our planet with detrimental effects not only to the environment but also to our health and the global economy. Some regions, particularly Europe, are taking the lead by setting ambitious recycling targets and putting the right framework in place to make recycling an indispensable part of their societies and economies.

However, in other parts of the world such as Africa and Asia, recycling is less entrenched in everyday life, and much work remains to be done, particularly in terms of education and recycling infrastructure and legislation. Otherwise, the very real danger is that CO2 emissions will increase exponentially together with the population of these areas. This time bomb is bigger than one or two continents can defuse alone: a global approach is required.

Everybody involved in the climate change discussion must simply start to recognize the huge untapped potential of recycling as a green partner. The reduction of CO2 emissions is of paramount importance in the fight against climate change.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world’s time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions – income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion – whilst also promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are succeeded by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which represent a new set of 17 measurable goals, ranging from ending world poverty to achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls by 2030.

Global Recycling Day will highlight a number of these goals, and demonstrate that the industry is working to address a number of urgent issues. Vast – international – recycling combats climate change head-on, helps boost local employment and conserves primary resources. To this end, in the EU alone recycling has generated 300,000 local jobs. Across the globe 1.6 million people worldwide are active in the industry.

A key BIR objective is to promote recycling globally – showcasing its benefits to industry, policy makers and the wider community. It is calling on supranational organizations such as the UN to include Global Recycling Day in the official calendar of internationally celebrated days.

Courtesy: https://wasteadvantagemag.com