Bureau of International Recycling

Attracts High Level Interest in Copenhagen

17 December 2009: Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, Danish Ministerfor the Environment Troels Lund Poulsen and the Swedish Ambassador inDenmark Lars Grundberg were among the hundreds of visitors to theBureau of International Recycling’s (BIR) stand at the Bright Greenexhibition in Copenhagen this past weekend.

The exhibition, a parallel event to COP15, the United Nations ClimateChange conference, presented state-of-the-art environmental technologyfor sustainable management of energy and resources, with a particularfocus on CO2 reduction. With over 15,000 visitors, includingrepresentatives of NGOs and others attending COP15, and 170 exhibitors,the Bright Green Exhibition demonstrated the huge public interest innew technologies that respond to today’s climate challenges.

BIR’s stand showcased the various commodities represented by theorganisation’s worldwide membership, making the case for theenvironmental benefits of recycling in terms of CO2 emission savingsand the reduction of energy and water consumption through the use ofsecondary materials.

“Today, any industry that wants to be taken seriously needs to show itsenvironmental responsibility,” says BIR Communications DirectorElisabeth Christ and points out the importance of achieving recognitionfor the recycling industry’s huge role in the protection of our planet.

Doug Woodring, one of the founders of Project Kaisei, an internationalinitiative to study and resolve the problem of ocean pollution throughplastic waste, also visited the BIR stand. His first mission into theNorth Pacific Gyre was sponsored by BIR in August 2009.

“Depending on the commodity, up to 50% of the world’s raw materialsneeds are already covered by our members, and this number will beincreasing,” adds BIR Treasurer Björn Grufman of Metallvarden, “Ourmembers are the future leaders of global raw material supply.”

“BIR’s recent study¹ on the environment benefits of recycling shows theimportant contribution our members make to energy, water and CO2savings,” says BIR Director General Francis Veys. “That studydemonstrated that our industry is responsible for 500 million tonnes ofCO2 reductions per year, a conservative estimate based on soundscientific analysis.”


Media contact:

Elisabeth Christ
bir@bir.org
Tel: +32 2 627 57 70


¹Report on the Environmental Benefits of Recycling, prepared by Professor Sue Grimes, Professor John Donaldson, and Dr Gabriel Cebrian Gomez, Imperial College London, October 2008.