Page 43 from: May 2013

43May 2013

ate an enormous amount of work not only for

the recycling industry but also for many other

industries. It will certainly be a significant cost

burden. I often wonder what Brussels does with

all this information it gathers. Countries like the

USA, China, India, Turkey and Russia don’t have

the regulations that the European industry has,

and that makes EU operators less competitive.

In addition, the global industry has never been

so affected by so many outside forces, including

currency fluctuations, availability of finance,

political unrest, wars and even weather events.’

What has been the most fundamental
change to the structure of the recycling
markets in the last decade and a half?
‘Globalisation has led to the creation of interna-

tional mega-companies with massive resources;

these control extremely large volumes of scrap

and the flows from continent to continent. And

there has also been consolidation in Europe’s

steel industry, led by Arcelor-Mittal which has

become a price-setter for scrap and for steel

products. Also, there are now a much larger

number of potential markets for our material,

enabling us to iron out the bottoms of cycles to

some extent and to invest more money in our

businesses.

Another fundamental change has been that the

container industry has grown beyond all rec-

ognition. Most non-ferrous metals are shipped

in containers these days, and a large proportion

of ferrous too. Not only do large companies

have big deep-sea port facilities and installa-

tions, but also every small company can have a

container in their yard and send scrap in it to

every part of the world that has a container

port. This has led to the creation of thousands

of new “internal ports”. This means that, more

than ever, companies must have expertise in

international logistics and transport.’

What have been the major lessons for
the industry in the last 15 years?
‘Several years ago, I had a conversation on a

plane with Roger Brewster, managing director

of UK-based Metal Interests Ltd, which led to

major research on the recycling industry’s car-

bon footprint. This was carried out at Imperial

College in London, the same body I had used for

research into the eddy current concept many

years earlier (see below). It was learned that the

recycling of seven metals – aluminium, copper,

ferrous, lead, nickel, tin and zinc – and of recov-

ered paper produced global carbon dioxide

emission savings of 551 million tonnes per

annum, which is equivalent to almost 2% of

worldwide fossil fuel emissions. This is a con-

servative figure and the industry’s actual contri-

bution to emission savings could be nearer one

billion tonnes. This is something we don’t pro-

mote hard enough; it shows the recycling indus-

try’s tremendous environmental contribution.’

For you, what have been the most in-
spiring speeches of the last 15 years?
‘The first was made by former US president

Ronald Reagan at the Institute of Scrap Recy-

cling Industries’ Convention in Los Angeles. He

had obviously done his homework and spoke

lucidly about all aspects of industry and foreign

policy, mentioning the importance of recycling

and trade in general.

Also, there was Lord Stern’s speech to the BIR

General Assembly in Monte Carlo five years ago

in which he said that our industry has got a great

story to tell because most people still do not

know enough about our environmental

achievements. He described the recycling indus-

try as “the heroes of the story” and our environ-

mental contribution as “the best-kept secret”.

And he’s right: we are still the best-kept secret.

I also thought the whole tone of the speech

made by Ralph Oppenheimer (executive chair-

man of Stemcor) at last year’s BIR Convention

in Barcelona was spot on. He predicted, for

example, that ferrous scrap values would be

helped in the longer term by continuing invest-

ment in new electric furnaces in many countries

and by scrap availability becoming ever shorter.’

Has the general public’s attitude to
recycling changed in the last 15 years?
‘The recycling industry during its life has always

had a problem with image but now recycling has

become popular and the word can be used as an

accolade. The public are now more interested in

recycling and ask questions about it. People are

recycling in most households, so our business

now gets admiration rather than derision.’

What is your opinion of recent moves in
some countries to control or even ban
exports of scrap and other recyclables?
‘BIR and all the other founding federations came

about to champion the freedom to trade processed

scrap across frontiers. When economies get into

difficulty, they often fall back on protectionism –

but it never works because other countries adopt

counter-measures. There are great dangers ahead

for free trade in Europe. The copper lobby, for

example, is trying to get statutory support for

export controls on our industry, and yet there is

not a scrap shortage of either ferrous or non-fer-

rous within the EU. This is a price matter and the

manufacturers are really trying to reduce the price

they pay for their recycled raw materials as they are

not prepared to pay export prices while, ironically,

prices for European scrap delivered to European

foundries and mills are cheaper than the consum-

ers in third countries pay delivered to their plants

for the obvious reasons of higher freight costs.

The steelmakers are also lobbying for controls

on scrap exports from Europe to third coun-

tries and yet there is as much scrap in Europe

as is needed; consumers just need to pay the

world market price.’

You have always been keenly interested
in recycling technology. So what has
been the most eye-catching techno-
logical advance over the last 15 years?
‘Yes, the Bird Group of Companies developed the

first eddy current to be used in scrap separation

in the world and this was accredited by the Royal

Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineers.

It won the Prince of Wales Award for Industrial

Innovation and Production in 1985. Eddy current

separators are now used in nearly every recycling

plant in the world and are also a key component

these days of post-shredding technology, which

is gaining increasing importance in the recovery

of metals and polymers previously lost to landfill

in shredder waste.

There are many new developments being

offered to the recycling industry and much

research money is being spent on developing

new technology. One has to be careful, of

course, in the in-house development of tech-

nology that one is not spending large sums of

money on reinventing the wheel which I have

seen happening in some instances.’

‘Globalisation has led
to the creation
of international

mega-companies.’

Tony Bird OBE:
recycling industry still
‘ the best-kept secret’

RI_4-Interview-Tony Bird.indd 43 03-05-13 13:58