Baxi: Recycling ‘crucial’ for the planet

Global – The carbon dioxide emission savings gleaned from recycling are substantial and ‘on the rise’, the BIR world recycling organisation has insisted.

Ranjit Baxi, BIR’s world president, has re-emphasised the environmental benefits and huge potential of recycling in the fight against climate change during an event organised by the French recycling association Federec to coincide with the COP21 meetings in Paris. ‘My personal evaluation is that the recycling industry saves up to 700 million tonnes of (carbon dioxide emissions) per year, which adds up to several billion tonnes over past decades,’ he stated.

The early findings of BIR’s updated report on the environmental benefits of recycling indicate that CO2 savings achieved via recycling rather than the primary route amount to 92% for aluminium, 65% for copper and 58% for ferrous. BIR’s initial report, published in 2008, had concluded that 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions were saved every year through recycling – equivalent to the emissions of the global aviation industry.

It was stressed at the time, however, that this figure was probably a conservative one. Elected BIR world president in May, Baxi has underlined his intention to spread the message about the benefits of recycling as widely as possible. ‘We as citizens of this planet Earth need to start understanding and realising that recycling is crucial for all of us and that it can really benefit our planet.’

He said support for recycling and, by extension, for the recycling industry was a crucial step towards climate protection, arguing that governments should understand the need to encourage and foster recycling by facilitating free trade of recyclables internationally.