Baxi: Global Recycling Day ‘is a wake-up call to all of us’

Worldwide – London, Paris, Brussels, São Paulo, Washington DC, Delhi, Dubai’€¦.with just two weeks until the inaugural event, cities across the world are announcing their plans to celebrate Global Recycling Day. Initiated by the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), the first Global Recycling Day will be held on March 18.

The aim of Global Recycling Day is to unite people across the world, highlighting the need to conserve our six primary resources (water, air, coal, oil, natural gas and minerals) and celebrating what is described as ‘the seventh resource’ – the materials we recycle every day. Its mission is set out in the recently-launched ‘The Seventh Resource Manifesto’.

In Johannesburg, Global Recycling Day’s Manifesto will be launched along with a public clean-up campaign with the help of the Catholic Diocese and the City of Johannesburg. And at the head office of the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) in Sydney, over 50 academics and industry experts will gather to recognise Global Recycling Day and discuss cross-sector collaborations.

According to BIR, these events will encourage individuals to pledge at least one change to their recycling habits, as well as asking them to sign BIR’s petition calling for Global Recycling Day to be recognised by the United Nations.

Global Recycling Day will be focused on action aimed at a global approach towards recycling and calling on world leaders, international businesses, communities and individuals to make seven clear commitments in their approach to recycling.

T-shirts and frisbees

To help spread the message and to highlight to world leaders the importance of a global approach to recycling, Global Recycling Day T-shirts and frisbees will be handed out at events across the world. The T-shirts are sustainably sourced and made from organic cotton and, in the spirit of the Global Recycling Day, the frisbees are made from recycled plastic. Both the T-shirts and the frisbees can be recycled at their end of life.

On social media, supporters of the event will be encouraged to use #GlobalRecyclingDay and adopt an exclusive Global Recycling Day border to their profile picture. People are also being invited to share videos and images of recycling actions and celebrations.

The aim is to showcase how central recycling is to our day-to-day lives – whether it’s working with local recycling businesses or making personal recycling commitments.

Support from the USA

Meanwhile, the US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) has signed up as federation partner of Global Recycling Day, thus becoming the first trade association so to do. ‘We are delighted to announce ISRI as our first federation partner,’ comments BIR president Ranjit Baxi.

‘This is Global Recycling Day’s first year, and we know ISRI’s support will be invaluable in us spreading the word across the USA and throughout their global membership, and we are proud to champion them as a visionary organisation, one that is crucial to the success of the recycling industry.’

‘We must unite’

‘The world’s first Global Recycling Day is a vitally important new date in our global calendar,’ stresses Baxi. ‘To truly harness the power of recycling, we must adopt a global approach to collection, processing and use. It is time we put the planet first and all commit to spend 10 more minutes a day ensuring that materials are disposed of properly.’

Global Recycling Day is also ‘a wake-up call to all of us, wherever we live’, the BIR president continues. ‘We must unite with those involved in the industry – from workers on waste mountains to the world’s largest businesses – to help them to make the best use of what we dispose of, to make recycling easier, inherent even in the design of products, and to stop expecting countries to simply accept recyclables which are difficult and costly to process.’