Global Recycling Day

Today is Global Recycling Day, a day that is all about recycling and especially the need for it. The day was created in 2018 by the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) to raise awareness about the consumption of natural resources. As everyone knows nowadays, these resources are finite. Billions of tonnes of raw materials are consumed every year and at some point our resources will run out. The need for high-quality recycling is therefore immense!

The initiative

With Global Recycling Day, the initiators want to show that, in addition to the world’s six primary resources (water, air, coal, oil, natural gas and minerals), there is a seventh extremely important resource; namely, the materials that we can recycle! And from which we can recover raw materials. Often, this is done in a way that requires much less energy than when the same raw materials are obtained from primary sources. The Global Recycling Foundation (GRF) calls materials we can reuse the ‘Seventh Resource’.

According to the GRF, more than 700 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions are saved annually through recycling and this is expected to exceed 1 billion tonnes by 2030. This puts recycling at the forefront of many goals to give mankind and the planet a future.

Our contribution

This year’s theme for the awareness day is #RecyclingHeroes. This theme was chosen to recognise the people, places and activities that contribute to better recycling. We at Holland Recycling are proud of the (small) contribution that we, as a fully certified company, are making towards achieving important goals and the circular economy. By collecting electronics and metals and ensuring that these collected materials are processed in a high-quality manner, we are making sure that valuable raw materials are recovered properly and to the greatest possible extent. Holland Recycling mainly focuses on electronics and metal recycling, but within our group of companies, we also target many other waste streams.

Dutch Hardware Trading focuses on product reuse, Milieu Service Brabant focuses on all regular waste flows, including: residual, construction, demolition, small chemical and roofing waste. Wagenaars collects rubble, roofing gravel, sand and soil, and various waste streams are stored and transferred at EcoPark Breda before being offered to various end processors in ideal proportions. All companies work in accordance with the strictest standards using modern methods and technologies.

#RecyclingHeroes

In fact, we are all Recycling Heroes, or at least we can be. Whether private individuals or businesses, anyone who contributes to good recycling can call themselves a Recycling Hero. Separating waste at the source, sorting waste at the processor, disassembling electronics or removing hazardous components are all examples of this. One thing is certain, in order to achieve circular goals, everyone must contribute.