Page 52 from: March 2016
52 March 2016
When David Chiao was elected last year as president of the BIR non-ferrous metals division, he broke new
ground by becoming the first person of Chinese origin to attain such a lofty position within the world recy-
cling organisation. But while he is proud of achieving this industry ‘first’, he is not one to let such accolades
go to his head. Instead, he remains focused on the task in hand, as Recycling International discovered.
Can you tell us a little about your back-
ground and how you came to join the
recycling industry?
‘I was born in a city in Southern Taiwan called
Ping Dong and then, in 1977, I went to the Uni-
versity of Tennessee in the USA before getting
married. After that, I was working in the logis-
tics industry and one of my clients at that time
was the Uni-All Group, which I went on to join
in 1984. Based in the US city of Atlanta, Geor-
gia, the company began by trading mainly in the
American market. In 1996, we started physical
operations in China but shifted back to trading
again after 2005 because China’s new employ-
ment laws did not favour our labour-intensive
processing.
I am president of Uni-All and oversee all daily
operations. We buy and merchant metal scrap
and also plastics scrap, and our average monthly
turnover is around 150 containers worldwide.
Our headquarters remain in Atlanta and we also
have branch offices in Canada (Toronto) and in
China (Guangzhou and Ningbo).’
So does this mean spending a lot of
time in China?
‘Typically, I spend about two-thirds of my time
in the USA and the remaining third travelling,
mostly to China.’
When and why did you first become
involved with the BIR world recycling
organisation?
‘The Uni-All Group became a member of BIR
in 1988 but I started getting more involved in its
activities in the early 1990s owing to the Basel
Convention controls over the transbound-
ary movements of materials in which we were
dealing. The regulations were affecting our
shipments into Asia and, when I read them
in English, I realised that they were not being
interpreted correctly into Chinese. This was
leading to serious misunderstandings within all
departments dealing with the Basel Convention.
By joining BIR, this enabled me to keep a very
close eye on latest developments relating to the
Convention while also gauging the opinions of
industry experts from around the world. Over
the course of succeeding years, my involvement
with BIR and with its members worldwide has
provided me with important insights into a
whole range of subjects, all of which has proved
very useful to me personally and to my business
in its day-to-day operations.’
How has your life changed since
becoming president of the BIR non-
ferrous metals division?
‘I don’t see any major differences, although per-
haps one of the bigger changes is that I now need
to be more diplomatic when I’m answering ques-
tions! I am conscious now that I am no longer
representing just myself but rather the entire divi-
sion and non-ferrous scrap sector. Fortunately,
I’m not doing any of this on my own: I am very
glad to have a great team around me on the non-
ferrous metals board, all of whom are so talented,
energetic and very professional. We also receive
tremendous backing from the BIR secretariat
in Brussels. I should also acknowledge the solid
platform built by my predecessor as divisional
president Bob Stein, from which we can look
to develop even more services and benefits for
members of the division.’
Are there any service upgrades you
would mention in particular?
‘While I am honoured to be the first BIR divi-
sional president of Chinese origin, I know
there is so much for us to do. We on the board
are certainly looking for opportunities to add
more value to some of the existing, even long-
established services to members. For example,
we have been producing the BIR World Mirror
on Non-Ferrous Metals for many years and it
has proved to be very popular among members
and beyond as a regular, authoritative insight
into what’s going on in our sector all around
the world. As part of this, we have always
looked to reflect latest legislative developments
that could have an impact on our members’
business operations, and so we have recently
added policy and regulatory updates from the
highly-important Chinese market, which are
supplied by our extremely experienced con-
sultant in Beijing, Mr Ma. In our most recent
February issue of the World Mirror, for exam-
ple, he outlined some of the latest thinking in
China regarding AQSIQ licensing covering
the country’s imports of materials designated
I N T E R V I E W By Ian Martin
David Chiao: managing the non-ferrous ‘kitchen’
