(Washington, DC) – Communities and individuals around the world are coming together today to celebrate the second annual Global Recycling Day. As a sponsor of the event again this year, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) is calling on businesses, communities, policymakers, and individuals to increase their commitment to recycling and recognize scrap as an important resource. Recyclable materials are valuable commodities that play a pivotal role in environmental protection, energy conservation, and sustainability.
“ISRI is proud to play a leading role once again in Global Recycling Day,” said Robin Wiener, president of ISRI. “As a society, it is imperative that we start considering recyclables to be the planet’s seventh and most important resource. Recyclables are a resource that can be used over and over again so that we do not exhaust our natural resources.”
Global Recycling Day is an initiative of the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR). The event aims to encourage policymakers around the world to recognize that scrap is a resource and not waste. Recyclable commodities are a “seventh resource,” along with the six primary resources that need to be conserved: water, air, coal, oil, natural gas, and minerals. Global Recycling Day is also a day of action, calling on consumers to make at least one change to their recycling habits to improve the environment.
“With an increasing global population and growing levels of consumption, conserving our resources is more important than ever before,” said Wiener. “Whether the focus is ocean plastics, climate change, energy consumption, or other environmental concerns, recycling is a solution. Recycling transforms plastics, metals, paper, glass and other such scrap commodities into new materials, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saving energy through reduced consumption and providing valuable feedstock in the manufacturing process.”
The theme of this year’s Global Recycling Day is ‘Recycling into the Future,’ focusing on the power of youth and education in ensuring a better future for our planet. Through its youth outreach program, ISRI offers a number of free resources to teachers to educate children on the science of recycling. Information and resources, including standards-based, K-12 curricular experiences are available on the ISRI website.
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The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. (ISRI) is the "Voice of the Recycling Industry™." ISRI represents more than 1,300 companies in 21 chapters in the U.S. and more than 40 countries that process, broker, and consume scrap commodities, including metals, paper, plastics, glass, rubber, electronics, and textiles. With headquarters in Washington, DC, the Institute provides education, advocacy, safety and compliance training, and promotes public awareness of the vital role recycling plays in the U.S. economy, global trade, the environment and sustainable development. Generating nearly $117 billion annually in U.S. economic activity, the scrap recycling industry provides nearly half a million Americans with good jobs.