‘We do it to be profitable – not just to be green’

Susie Burrage, president of both the Bureau of International Recycling and the British Metals Recycling Association, has a day job as a fourth-generation metals trader running Recycling Products. Halfway through her expected stint as the head of BIR, she’s been telling Recycling International how she started out in metals – and what’s next.  

It’s been quite a journey. From joining her family’s traditional scrap business in London to becoming one of the most prominent women in international recycling, Susie Burrage is rightly proud of her success.

Indeed, pride crops up throughout the conversation with Recycling International in the homely office at Recycled Products yard at Chesham, outside the capital. Pride at being the fourth generation of her family in the industry; pride at heading the British Metals Recycling Association and the Bureau of International Recycling; and pride at receiving a British honour from the Royal Family for her work. And all that’s before you add the achievement of a woman getting to the top of a traditionally male world.

Being the great-granddaughter, granddaughter and daughter of metal traders didn’t guarantee that Burrage would follow in the business but – as a lover of horse-racing – the odds were certainly short.

In the blood

‘We had a small sort of auxiliary yard out the back of our house. Every morning, I’d hear the chains banging on the side of a skip as they went off to work. And, you know, five o’clock they’d be coming back in again. I liked taking screws out of plugs and things. I don’t think I was supposed to do it, so I used to sneak in there to take things apart. Dismantling and recycling was probably in my blood then.’

By the time her father was in the business the emphasis was on clearing metal scrap left over from manufacturers such as the toolmaker Black & Decker. At that time, the manufacturing sector in the UK was much more significant that it is today and production scrap was a lucrative business. But by the 1990s, manufacturing was in steep decline and Burrage had settled on studying chemistry at Southampton University. She never got there.

‘I ended up coming to help my father during my gap year and never looked back. I’d have probably been better to have done a degree in business or something but hindsight is a great thing.

Going solo

‘It was a terrible time, economically, in the UK and a lot of businesses, manufacturing in particular, were going out of business. We used to go and buy lock, stock and barrel from (bankrupt) manufacturing companies. It was quite upsetting when you went in and people’s personal things were still on their desks. But it was also quite an exciting time in that we were in a different place every week.’

Then, at the turn of the century, Burrage struck out on her own under the guidance of her father who was looking to retire. He became ill soon after but still mentored the early years of what is now Recycled Products.

‘A friend of ours came up with the name. Obviously, he saw things well before the rest of us. Now, everything’s about recycled materials as recycled products but then it wasn’t a well-known phrase.’

People working in scrap often say they were green before it was fashionable, a view Burrage signs up to as well – but with a key qualification.

‘We all entered this industry to be profitable – we didn’t do it just to be green. I think that’s sometimes confusing for regulators because they seem to think we should recycle this or that, and it should be of this quality or that, but it must also have value. If there’s no money in it, we’re not going to do it.

‘However, it’s a great advantage that we are seen as green and we are a cornerstone of the circular economy. Without recycling, there is no circular economy.’

Read the full interview in our latest issue >>