Global Recycling Day 2019 will be held on 18 March, and the Global Recycling Foundation (GRF) aims to use it to promote recycling as a way of reducing carbon emissions.
Recycling can save more than 700 million tonnes of CO2 every year, according to a study by the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR). Its president, Ranjit Baxi, is also founding president of the GRF; he applauded the recent COP24 agreement and held up recycling as a way to reduce carbon.
“It’s our responsibility and collective duty to protect our planet,” he said. “Recycling and the circular economy are crucial to achieving this and beating climate change.”
Because less energy is required to manufacture products from recyclable materials; fewer materials are incinerated; and less waste is sent to greenhouse-gas-generating landfills, recycling can both help fight climate change and promote economic growth, says Baxi.
“This is the reason Global Recycling Day was launched in 2018, to encourage the world to think ‘resource not waste’. And, as part of the Global Recycling Foundation’s mission to support educational programmes focused on the sustainable development of recycling, we are continuing to support its growth in 2019.
“Our second Global Recycling Day will take place on 18 March 2019, and we urge the world to support this movement,” he said.
