Page 3 from: August 2015
V I E W P O I N T
January: The best meal ever
Late in the month, Recycling International is in the
United Arab Emirates for interviews and company
visits as part of our special on recycling in the Mid-
dle East. Gulf Rubber Recycling is the name of a
tyre processing plant located in the middle of the
desert, two hours by car from Dubai. Following a
tour of the facility and as we are making our way
back to Dubai, I invite my driver for lunch. He
stops at a restaurant in the desert city of Al-Ain
(part of the emirate of Abu Dhabi) where we enjoy
a delicious Arabian meal and the best food I have
ever had: Chicken Mandi.
February: A passage to India
After a 25-year absence, I am back in the amazing
and colourful land of 1.2 billion souls. In 1990, I
had backpacked throughout southern India, sleep-
ing in cheap and often dirty guest houses. This
time I wear a suit, carry a Samsonite suitcase
and stay in the Mumbai Renaissance Hotel to
attend the MRAI metal recycling confer-
ence. Much may have changed for the bet-
ter in India during the past quarter of a
century and its middle-class population
has grown rapidly, but the contrasts still
couldn’t be bigger: my tranquil, luxu-
ry retreat set on the banks of Lake
Powai is surrounded by the poorest
of poor slums.
April: Meeting The Lotzkars
Recycling International has read-
ers and subscribers in 125 coun-
tries. Every month, some 7000 copies of the mag-
azine – as well as hundreds of mailings and
invoices – are sent out from our headquarters in
the Netherlands to our customers all over the
world. One of these subscribers is Mark Lotzkar,
the third-generation
owner of Pacific Metals,
a company based in Van-
couver – the green, clean
and laid-back pearl on
Canada’s West Coast. I
visit Mark, his daughter
Jacqueline and son Brad
at their scrap yard while in Vancouver attending
the ISRI Convention & Expo. Nice people, real
entrepreneurs and with a true environmental
heart. Read their story on page 26 of this issue.
June: Returned to sender
A poignant reminder of what it can sometimes
mean to be a truly global business. A courier arrives
at the door to our offices and hands over a package
sealed in transparent plastic with a battered enve-
lope bearing the Recycling International logo. The
envelope contains an invoice which had been sent
out almost a year earlier to a customer in Malaysia
but which had never reached its destination. Here
is why: on July 17 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight
MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed
in eastern Ukraine, costing the lives of 298 people.
On board, there were some 1000 kg of parcels and
letters – of which around 50 kg had been recovered
from the crash site, including the Recycling Inter-
national invoice.
The recovered postal items were initially held back
as possible evidence for the team investigating what
may have caused the crash but these have now been
returned to their senders, most of whom are in the
Netherlands.
Returned to sender
Martijn Reintjes
Chief Editor, Recycling International
Manfred Beck’s column has moved
to the back of the magazine.
It is under a new name (Beck’s),
but with the same author – and
humour – as ever. Check it out
on page 63 of this issue.
A courier arrived at the door and handed
over a package sealed in transparent
plastic with a battered envelope.
Half-way through the year, the summer break offers a
good opportunity to look back at events and highlights of
the past six months. Let me share some of mine with you.
RI-6 Column MR.indd 3 05-08-15 09:45
