May/June 1992
Under the leadership of President Jean-Pierre Lehoux, the BIR aims to increase its profile and better represent the recycling industry worldwide.
If the Bureau International de la Recuperation (BIR) (Brussels, Belgium) can be likened to an orchestra of recycling organizations around the world, then Jean-Pierre Lehoux is its conductor. Lehoux, BIR president, has been directing the international association for the past year, helping it address the industry's current difficulties. At the same time, he has been ushering the BIR into the future, backing a plan to revamp its structure to serve members better, increase its profile, and help it reach full tempo.
Disucssion of the proposed new structure will be just one of the highlights at the BIR 's spring convention, set for May 18-21 at the Hotel Meridien Etoile in Paris. The convention will also look at the state of world recycling markets, review environmental issues, and examine international regulations that affect recycling, such as the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous and Other Wastes.
Seeking a Common Message
Since its founding in 1948, the BIR has been the voice of the recycling industry on the international level. Lehoux, also executive director of FEDEREC, the French scrap recycling federation, sees the BIR as the link between today's "two main occupations of mankind: industry and environmental defense." The association's main obligations, he explains, are to represent the world recycling industry and be "present," not only at industry conventions but "wherever something concerning our business is discussed" to prevent decisions from being made that hamper the industry. Another BIR role, Lehoux notes, is to gather and distribute recycling information and statistics to members as well as to government officials to illustrate the benefits of recycling.
The BIR has come a long way since its inception, but Lehoux says that today's economic and legislative climate is prompting the organization to assume a much higher profile. "The BIR is not well-known enough," he states, "but I can say that it is better known today than it was before." In the past, he points out, "a lot of people in this business thought that to live happily was to live hidden." Now, the industry must move quickly to protect its interests. "In fact, we are starting a little bit too late," Lehoux says, "so we have to run faster than the others to catch up."
One of Lehoux's goals is to establish the BIR 's reputation as the international recycling expert so "when questions about recycling are discussed, decision makers will ask us our opinion. We don't pretend to think that our opinion will always be accepted 100 percent, but we have to let them know we exist."
Key to the international organization's success is ensuring that its members have a "common message everywhere in the world" and speak with one voice to their governments, environmental groups, and neighbors back home. "We have to be very simple and very clear," Lehoux notes, "because the issues are complicated." As in advertising and marketing, he says, "If you wish to catch the attention of people and put an idea in their heads, you must always say the same thing, everywhere, but only very simple things. It's like a hammer and nail. It's the only way to succeed."
A good approach, he suggests, is to provide figures that show the scrap recycling industry's important economic and environmental role. For example, BIR member companies alone employ more than a million people around the world, contribute $40 billion to the international economy, and divert 400 million tons of materials from the waste stream, he notes. "We must not forget that we are transforming a potential waste into a raw material, so we are very important to society."
In addition to knowing precisely what the BIR is, Lehoux has a clear sense of what the association is not. The BIR 's worldwide scope prevents it from being a lobbying organization in each of its 52 member countries. "We are not big enough and we are not wealthy enough," he says. Instead, it is the responsibility of the BIR 's national federation members, such as the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) (Washington, D.C.), to "go to the fight" in their respective countries.
Restructuring for the Future
Despite the BIR 's ever-broadening responsibilities, Lehoux does not see the organization's staff growing much beyond its current seven employees. "When a machine is too heavy," he explains, "a lot of strength and possibilities are lost inside." Thus, instead of centralizing activity at BIR headquarters, Lehoux seeks to empower BIR 's national associations to solve recycling problems at the grass-roots level. "All the national associations must bring to the BIR not only money but their help," he says. "When they bring this help, they are helping themselves because they are one part of a larger body."
National federation members are also responsible for providing accurate and complete market information to the BIR for use in its promotional efforts. "To be efficient we need to have good information," Lehoux says. Expanding cooperation between members and continually improving the BIR 's efficiency are central themes of Lehoux's administration. "It is my personal wish that everybody be very conscious that we are trying to go in the same direction for the profit of all," he remarks.
In keeping with his plans to increase member activity on the grass-roots level, Lehoux is actively supporting the BIR 's reorganization plan, which would provide individual companies with voting rights—a privelege reserved for national federation members.
His reasoning behind this move is simple: Individual companies are more numerous than national associations and they are becoming a larger part of BIR 's budget, so "it would be quite normal that individual members would be represented in all BIR situations." He is quick to point out, however, that national associations will continue to be theBIR 's foundation and that the international group will not represent the personal concerns of individual companies.
In his remaining year as BIR president, Lehoux hopes that his goals will be achieved, enabling him to leave behind an improved BIR , "a more efficient tool at the service of the profession." And in the likely event that he is reelected next year for another two-year term, he will certainly have new goals for the BIR , all based on the same idea—"to try to be more efficient and to be able to react more quickly."
Setting Business Aside
Looking beyond the upcoming convention's business concerns, Lehoux is pleased to welcome BIR members to Paris , his birthplace. Inside the Hotel Meridien Etoile, attendees can choose from four restaurants, a jazz club and piano bar, a nightclub, boutiques, and a beauty salon and sauna.
If that's not enough, what could be better than Paris in the springtime? The hotel, located at Porte Maillot, is just a few minutes from several Paris landmarks, including the Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. Attendees can navigate their own course through the city's historic and vibrant rues and boulevards, or sign up for a few of BIR 's eight sightseeing excursions, which encompass tours of the city, visits to the Picasso Museum and the Louvre, as well as a survey of the people and places of the Impressionist movement. —Kent Kiser
BIR Paris Convention Schedule
All events will be held at the hotel's convention center and are open to all registered attendees. Divisional luncheons and social events are ticketed and require advance registration. Other meetings for board or committee members and their guests are by invitation only and are not detailed here.
Monday, May 18
10:30 a.m.Ferrous Division/Shredder Committee
12:30 p.m.Ferrous Division Luncheon
2 p.m.Stainless Steel and Special Alloys Committee
Tuesday, May 19
10:15 a.m.Nonferrous Technical Planning Committee
12:30 p.m.Nonferrous Division Luncheon
2 p.m.Nonferrous Division
8 p.m.Annual Dinner at the Conciergerie
Wednesday, May 20
10 a.m.General Assembly
2 p.m.Environment Committee
3:30 p.m.Municipal Waste Committee
7 p.m.Cocktail Reception at the Pre-Catelan
Thursday, May 21
9:30 a.m.Paper Stock Division
10 a.m.Charity Collections Roundtable
11:30 a.m.Plastics Roundtable
1 p.m.Paper, Textiles, Plastics, and Glass Division Luncheon
2:30 p.m.Textiles Division
4 p.m.Glass Committee
Upcoming BIR Meetings
1992
Oct. 19-21
Copenhagen, Denmark (Sheraton Hotel)
1993
May 24-27
Washington, D.C. (J.W. Marriott Hotel)
Oct. 25-27
Dusseldorf, Germany (Hilton Hotel)
Under the leadership of President Jean-Pierre Lehoux, the BIR aims to increase its profile and better represent the recycling industry worldwide.