May/June 1998
For 50 years, the Bureau of International Recycling has been the voice of the international scrap recycling industry. This abbreviated history tells its story.
By Kristina Rundquist
Kristina Rundquist is an associate editor of Scrap.
While it may be true that there's no place like Paris in the springtime, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) is holding its spring convention there for a much grander reason. It will be celebrating its golden 50th anniversary.
From May 24-27, Paris—the City of Lights—will help the BIR shine a spotlight on its five decades as the voice of the scrap recycling industry around the world. From its humble beginnings as a federation of four European national recycling associations, the BIR—which was conceived in Amsterdam but officially established in Paris—has grown to nearly 600 member companies and national associations from more than 50 countries.
Such growth reflects not only the BIR's reputation as an authority in the global recycling industry, but also the importance of its three-part mission of promoting recycling and reclamation, protecting natural resources and the environment, and achieving free-trade status for secondary materials.
At its May meeting, the group will hold its grand celebration at the sumptuously refurbished Chateau de Chantilly, built in the 1700s to house some 240 horses and 500 hounds belonging to Louis-Henri de Bourbon, the seventh Prince of Condé. In this setting befitting royalty, the BIR will toast its milestone achievement with its members and their guests during an evening of fine dining and what promises to be spectacular entertainment.
This retrospective of the BIR’s history, accomplishments, challenges, and key figures shows why this group has ample cause for celebration.
Birth of an International Organization
First, some history.
It was March 18, 1948, that the Dutch scrap firm B.J. Nijkerk N.V. hosted a party at the Amstel Hotel in Amsterdam to celebrate its 125th anniversary. In addition to the firm's co-presidents—Hugo and Marinus "Bob" Nijkerk—the event's attendees included representatives from the national recycling trade associations of Belgium, France, and England.
At this festive event, Hugo and Bob "said to the Belgian association representative, 'Everyone in Europe is trying to unite. The Benelux is already founded, so we're thinking of a Benelux of recycling corporations. Why don't we form an international organization?'" recalls Fred Nijkerk, Bob's son, who was a high school student when he attended the historic event.
By the end of the evening, they'd decided to do just that—form an international federation composed of their national recycling trade associations.
The catalyst behind this idea was the desire to foster international cooperation, says Nijkerk, founder and former editor of Magazine Recycling Benelux, as well as author of theHandbook of Recycling Techniques. Even more, it was designed to provide scrap recyclers with a bourse, or marketplace, where they could exchange ideas and information, something unique for a global organization at that time. "Normally, international organizations have an idealistic goal, not a business and trade goal," he notes. "This combination of education, marketplace, and congress was rare."
Paramount to the new group's creation was the issue of gaining free-trade status for secondary materials. At that time, just three years after World War II, European nations were experiencing shortages of many products and raw materials, including scrap. In fact, scrap had become so important during the war that, even after the war, most countries had banned scrap exports altogether.
In the United Kingdom, for example, members of the Federation of Scrap Iron, Steel, and Metal Merchants could only export material after British steel mills had all the scrap they needed. When the neophyte group met again in June, it decided upon the name Bureau International de la Recuperation—the Bureau of International Recycling—and elected Emile Savigner of France as its first president and Jaap Caron of the Netherlands as secretary general, working out of Amsterdam.
And so it began.
The Early Years
The BIR's early years were marked by many challenges, including political infighting. As new members joined, there was a clear, growing need for standard rules and regulations as well as standards of mediation and arbitration. During this time, a permanent secretariat committee dealt with the BIR's administrative functions while the secretary general implemented its decisions.
The late 1940s were also a time of management turmoil for the BIR. The organization’s second president, Belgian Joseph Dohmen, resigned during his first year, followed quickly by the departure of Secretary General Caron, who had planned only a short tenure because he was due to become secretary of two major Dutch recycling associations.
After Caron's departure, the BIR decided that the secretary general position would from then on be filled by someone with no ties whatsoever to the industry. Charm, a familiarity with office administration, fluency in at least two languages, and a good personality became the criteria by which candidates were judged. Jacques Valton from France fit the secretary general bill and continued to do so for the next 20 years, establishing and working from the BIR offices in Paris.
As the 1950s began, the United Kingdom's Gerald Keith was elected president. Despite his efforts, spreading the gospel of the BIR wasn't easy, as many countries were still wary of looking beyond their borders. Even so, the idea of attending the biannual BIR meetings was appealing. These meetings were fast becoming known as the place to be because they offered a combination of fun and business in fashionable international locales.
During this period, the BIR grew to 10 member recycling federations, including those of Germany, Sweden, and the United States.
Other notable events in the 1950s included making French, German, and English the BIR's official languages. In 1953, the organization also elected its first American president and first non-European leader: James Flannery of James T. Flannery Co. (Jersey City, N.J.). Flannery's election—on his first visit to a BIR meeting, no less—proved positive for both sides. Being in the United States made it impossible for him to get involved in the daily workings of the association, of course, but his position did encourage U.S. recyclers to explore the international realm, especially Europe.
Representing the Industry
When Hugo Nijkerk was elected president in 1954, the BIR had already established four commodity divisions dedicated to iron and steel, nonferrous, textiles, and paper. Among its early achievements, the nonferrous division developed international specifications and codes for nonferrous scrap with input from U.S., Scandinavian, and British nonferrous recyclers. Around this time, the BIR also recognized the value of public relations and established a committee to promote the organization’s benefits and message.
But everything wasn't roses for the still-young federation. Members, especially those who weren't involved in exporting (either by choice or by law), were beginning to grumble about their dues, which they felt were unduly high.
The remainder of the 1950s and early 1960s found the BIR growing and gaining exposure as it began turning outward, disseminating press releases, annual reports, and the like. But it wasn't until 1966, when Lewis H. Hobday of the United Kingdom was elected president, that the BIR’s real growth began.
Hobday became the longest-sitting BIR president, serving six years through 1972, and was instrumental in increasing membership. It was largely his influence, for instance, that prompted Austria, Spain, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia to join the BIR. Moreover, his motto of "Don't take my word for it, come and see for yourself" motivated prospective members to attend BIR conferences to learn the benefits of membership.
The 1970s proved to be dramatic years of change for the BIR. The group moved its headquarters once again, this time from Paris to Brussels, which was increasingly seen as the hub of the European Economic Community.
Nonferrous trader Sidney Danziger became the BIR's second American president in 1970, and Marcel Doisy—then manager of B.J. Nijkerk's Brussels operations—became secretary general.
As the decade progressed, the BIR assumed a stronger presence in government affairs, promoting more-favorable trade conditions, and further expanded its communications role. By the mid-1970s, Europe in particular had developed a growing interest in environmental issues and pollution control, notes Nijkerk, and the views of the general public often were at odds with those of the recycling industry.
As the green movement took off, other issues challenged the scrap industry, including the oil crisis of the early 1970s. It was during this time that the BIR's stainless steel and special alloys committee was formed and that the BIR awarded the U.S. Bureau of Mines its first gold medal for outstanding performance in recycling. Also at issue was whether the BIR should accept U.S.-based specifications for international trade in ferrous and nonferrous grades. (Although never adopted officially, the U.S. standards are used internationally today, Nijkerk notes.)
The 1980s began with another management change at the BIR. In 1981, Marcel Doisy passed his secretary general duties to Francis Veys, who continues to lead the BIR as director general (a position created in 1997). As the BIR's influence grew through the 1980s, so too did its coffers, allowing the federation to lower its conference fees and eliminate them altogether for presidents and executive directors of national federations.
In the late-1980s, the BIR began undergoing several important changes, most notably related to its structure. When Jake Farber, chairman of Alpert & Alpert Iron & Metal Inc. (Los Angeles), became BIR president in 1987, "it was an organization of trade associations," he says.
Today, the BIR still welcomes national associations such as ISRI. "But we now insist that any company or business that wants to be involved with the BIR be a member," says Veys. "If a company wants to receive information or participate in our conventions, it must be a direct BIR member. It can't receive these benefits simply by belonging to its national association."
The Basel Era
In 1989, a significant threat to scrap trade emerged in the form of the Basel Convention, an international treaty designed to eliminate the shipment of "hazardous and other wastes" from developed to less-developed nations.
Among its problems, this accord is vague about what constitutes a "hazardous waste" and considers recycling to be a form of waste disposal. Initially, it threatened to ban the trade of some mainstream scrap recyclables. From the start, the BIR has fought—with much success—to exclude nonhazardous scrap recyclables from Basel's restrictions and prevent Basel-ratifying nations from imposing related legislation that restricts the trade of scrap.
More than any other issue, the Basel Convention focused a spotlight on one of the BIR’s charter issues: free trade. "It will continue to be more and more of a cause," acknowledges Veys, "and we can only defend it if we are successful in explaining that we aren't trading waste and hazardous materials. With the powerful influence of the environmental groups, ministries, governments, and green movements, if we don't succeed in convincing people of that, then we'll have a problem. But I believe we will be successful. The recognition of the importance of recycling as an industry and a business will help.It’s a golden opportunity, and we couldn’t be in a better position to sell the BIR and recycling."
In the 1990s, the BIR has had to deal with increasingly complex issues, such as that of radioactive scrap, especially in Europe since, as Nijkerk points out, "we're getting so much more imported material from Eastern Europe, especially from Russia, the Baltic States, and Poland."
Consolidation, too, has become a major issue in the United States and has spread to Europe as well—but with a twist. Notes Nijkerk, "What's absolutely new here is that mergers are now taking place across borders. We've had acquisitions and mergers for some time, but never before have companies in, for instance, France taken over ones in Belgium."
For his part, Veys recognizes the continuing need for small, family-run businesses, but views consolidation as a good trend for the BIR. "I'm pleased with this because it will give us more power financially and greater representation," he says, noting that "on the international level you need a strong voice."
Aside from consolidation, another notable change in the world scrap recycling industry is that, in the past 10 years, companies "have had to shift from being purely business-driven to more of a service industry," Veys notes. "When I started, everyone was only talking about prices and profit margins. Now people are including new aspects of service. The challenge is for a company to combine the two aspects without losing its identity."
The Next 50 Years
Looking back on the BIR's 50-year history as well as his own 17 years with the group, Veys has the perfect perspective on the group's past changes and its current directions.
For starters, he points out, the BIR has grown from "a European to an international organization," with members in far-off and formerly closed regions such as the Far East and Eastern Europe. Currently, the BIR has its sights set on improving membership in South and Central America. Also, the association's annual 20-percent increase in requests for membership shows, according to Veys, that it's not just scrap processing and trading companies that see the value in BIR membership, but scrap consumers such as steel and paper mills as well.
In the future, Nijkerk asserts, the growing environmental concerns and their effect on free-trade issues and trade limitations will help boost BIR membership.
"As the environmental issues become increasingly important," he explains, "other associations and companies will think to themselves, 'Gee, we have to join them, or we'll have to fight alone against the government office,'" he says. "I've seen many members who had initially resisted joining but then do because they realize they have to or they'll miss the boat. They fear being outcasts."
Internally, the BIR has been refining the changes made during its restructuring efforts. For instance, the organization has reorganized its committee structure, appointed a strong executive team (including an environmental officer and a communication officer), hired a membership consultant, streamlined its executive committee, and given itself greater flexibility in making decisions.
"Before, we had to ask the national associations, who in turn had to consult their members, any time the office wanted to make a decision," Veys says. "Now, we can go straight to the individual company members."
Over the years, even the nature of the BIR's biannual meetings has changed. According to Veys, the gatherings have added a technical side, whereas before they served only as meeting places for the member associations.
"When I became secretary general, my role dealt more with organizing conferences and assisting members rather than working externally," he notes. "People were much more interested in meeting twice a year to conduct business than in discussing technical or legal matters. The education part was limited."
And as further proof that the BIR is one association always on the move—literally—it relocated its offices March 30 to larger quarters at Avenue Franklin Roosevelt, 24, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium; 32/2-627-57-70 (fax, 32/2-627-57-73); or visit http://www.bir.org. In contrast to its past practice of renting its offices, the BIR is buying its new headquarters, a former embassy building.
Among the BIR's future goals, it hopes to develop an environmental code of practice by which its members must abide.
"If they don't, we don't want them as members," says Veys.
He adds, "In the immediate future, we must improve the industry's image and continue to make sure it's well-regarded. We must develop sound environmental practices people will follow and do everything in our power to make sure there are no black sheep."
Though he acknowledges that it'll be "hard to have a position statement representative of everybody," Veys sees the goal as achievable—one way or another. "If we keep doing what we're doing now, and if it doesn't work on a worldwide basis, it could still happen as each country works toward that goal on its own."
(The BIR already applies its own environmental standards to new membership applicants. If an applicant isn't a member of its national recycling association, the BIR asks the national group about the firm's reputation and track record. The goal is to avoid accepting companies that may have had environmental or other problems about which the BIR could be unaware.)
The BIR has other plans, of course—all with a focus on representing the interests of scrap recyclers around the globe. As the group embarks on its next 50 years, Jake Farber predicts a shiny future. "The organization is growing and growing," he says. "It's the only international trade association for the recycling industry so I think the future is very, very bright."
Veys couldn't agree more. "I'm optimistic, especially when I see what we've done even in the past 20 years," he states. "We at headquarters aren't here to be on our own, and we want input from the members. After all, we're an extended family and have the same objective even though we might use different words."
For 50 years, the Bureau of International Recycling has been the voice of the international scrap recycling industry. This abbreviated history tells its story.