Global Recycling Day: Recycling as the seventh resource
The BIR (Bureau of International Recycling) has proclaimed March 18, 2018 as World Recycling Day. The day is to be used to draw attention to the importance of recycling worldwide. Of the Earth's natural resources, we generally consider six to be the most important: water, air, oil, natural gas, coal and minerals. These resources form the basis of our existence. All our food, all our livelihoods, all our possessions ultimately come from these six elements. Without them, mankind cannot survive today.
We are shortsightedly and recklessly consuming the earth's natural resources without thinking about what will take their place, while billions of tons of waste end up in landfills every year. The simple solution to this is recycling - the "seventh resource" that can be used again and again. In principle, we should produce much less waste than we do now - in the best-case scenario of a 100% circular economy, there would be no more waste, just like in nature. Until then, however, recycling is an important step towards reducing our mountains of waste.
Here you can take a closer look at Austria's waste generation up to 2021, which amounted to 77.4 million tons at that time. On the website of the German Federal Environment Agency, you can see a comparison of the current status and where we want to go for individual types of recycling (such as batteries), with data from 2015.
The seventh resource
In order to establish recycling - alongside water, coal, oil, gas and mineral raw materials - as the so-called seventh resource, a catalog of measures with seven demands was formulated on the occasion of the first edition of Global Recycling Day, which can be downloaded here.
Recycling fulfills many important tasks:
In the fight against climate change
- Recycling of recyclable materials saves over 700 million tons of CO2 emissions every year
- It offsets all CO2 emissions caused by the aviation industry every year
Promoting local employment around the world
- Around 1.6 million people worldwide are employed in the processing of recyclable materials.
- The annual contribution of the recycling industry to global GDP is estimated at over 400 billion dollars over the next 10 years.
- Every year, the industry invests 20 million dollars in creating jobs, improving recycling efficiency and environmental sustainability.
Conserving the earth's six precious primary resources
- Humans have consumed more resources in the last 50 years than in the whole of previous history
- The seventh resource (recycled materials) covers 40% of the global demand for raw materials
"Recognition for the youth"
This is the theme of the new Global Recycling Day competition in search of recycling heroes.
Following the example of COP28 in Dubai, the Global Recycling Foundations is searching for the innovators of tomorrow by looking for young entrepreneurs who are helping to reduce waste, pollution and carbon emissions while promoting recycling and employment.
The Global Recycling Foundation (GRF) is now seeking nominations for Recycling Heroes 2024 from young entrepreneurs, individuals and individuals to business leaders, individual entrepreneurs to multinational companies, and cities and communities cities that have actively promoted recycling as the world faces the challenge of meeting the
climate targets by 2050.
