Page 9 from: December 2016
9December 2016
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www.recyclinginternational.com N E W S
World Steel Association
The World Steel Association has published its 2016 Steel Statistical Yearbook which
presents a cross-section of steel industry statistics for the years 2006 to 2015,
including trade of scrap. The statistics were collected from various international
organisations and also members of the WSA, which together represent approxi-
mately 85% of the world’s steel production. www.worldsteel.org
NAPCOR/APR
The United States managed a recycling rate of 30.1% for polyethylene terephtha-
late (PET) plastic bottles last year, according to the National Association for PET
Container Resources (NAPCOR) and the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR).
The total volume of PET bottles collected was 1,797 million pounds in 2015, while
the volume of PET bottles in the marketplace and potentially available for recycling
increased to 5,971 million pounds. www.plasticsrecycling.org
LÉKO
Dubbed LÉKO, a new system for the collection and recycling of packaging materi-
als is to be launched in France in 2018. Initiated by Valorie SAS, the French sub-
sidiary of recycling and service provider Reclay Group, LÉKO aims to simplify and
modernise France’s recycling infrastructure. Until now, the packaging collection
system in France has been organised on a monopoly basis – to the dissatisfaction
of many of the parties involved. www.reclay-group.com
BusinessBIR president
promotes
recycling
industry at UN
conference
Attending the United Nations’ latest
Conference of the Parties (COP22) in the
Moroccan city of Marrakesh, BIR president
Ranjit Baxi has advocated the establish-
ment of a Global Recycling Day to high-
light the benefits of recycling in climate
change mitigation. He also argued that
recycling should be added to the agenda
of future climate change negotiations.
Each year, he underlined, the recycling
industry prevents at least 700 million
tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions – an
estimate based on the findings of an in-
depth scientific study published at the
beginning of 2016. The industry’s contri-
bution is in line with the UN’s Climate
Neutral Now initiative, the world recy-
cling organisation points out.
Baxi has made it one of the main objec-
tives of his presidency of BIR to organise
a Global Recycling Day in co-operation
with supranational organisations, nation-
al governments and local communities,
supported by BIR’s network of national
recycling associations around the globe.
His presence in Marrakesh provided him
with the opportunity to meet with poten-
tial stakeholders and to encourage their
active support of the initiative.
‘The vital role that recycling plays in safe-
guarding our planet for future genera-
tions is little known,’ says Baxi. ‘That’s
why I’ve made it my mission to work with
national governments, local authorities,
our member associations and many oth-
ers to establish a Global Recycling Day. I
would also like to see recycling added to
the agenda of COP talks in future so that
it is embedded in the psyche of climate
negotiators.’
China slashes its demand
for US plastics scrap
A combination of lower virgin plastics
prices, a stronger US dollar and weaker
Chinese demand is being blamed for a
steep decline in America’s plastics scrap
export volumes to China.
Recent figures from the US Census
Bureau and US International Trade Com-
mission show that China received 502
960 tonnes of plastics scrap from Amer-
ica in the opening eight months of this
year compared to 628 176 tonnes in the
corresponding period of 2015. Over the
same time frames, US exports of plastics
scrap to the rest of the world were also
lower although the drop-off was far less
severe – from 798 836 tonnes to 777 077
tonnes – than for deliveries to China.
Rolling together these statistics, it emerg-
es that US plastics scrap exports to all
destinations slid around 10% year on
year from just short of 1.43 million
tonnes in the first eight months of last
year to a shade over 1.28 million tonnes
in the same period of 2016.
The silent treatment
A really tall and muscular guy with a bad stutter goes to a counter in a depart-
ment store and asks: ‘W-w-w-where’s the m-m-m-men’s dep-p-p-partment?’
The clerk behind the counter just looks at him and says nothing. The body-
builder repeats himself: ‘W-w-w-where’s the m-m-m-men’s dep-p-p-partment,
p-p-p-please?’ Again, the clerk doesn’t answer him.
The man asks several more times: ‘W-w-w-where’s the m-m-m-men’s dep-p-
p-partment?’ And still the clerk just seems to ignore him.
Finally, the man storms off in anger. The customer who was waiting behind
him in the queue steps forward and asks the clerk: ‘Why wouldn’t you answer
that guy’s question?’ To which the clerk replies: ‘D-d-d-do you th-th-th-think
I w-w-w-want to get b-b-b-beaten up?’
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