Project Kaisei Links with BIRThe Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), Brussels, has become an official sponsor of Project Kaisei’s effort to assess the impact of and techniques for removing marine debris from the Pacific Ocean. Through the program, Project Kaisei, based in Sausalito, Calif., sent a two-boat expedition to study the issue from the U.S. West Coast.
Project Kaisei seeks to study the North Pacific Gyre and the marine debris that has collected in this oceanic region to determine how to capture the material and detoxify and recycle it into diesel fuel, according to the organization’s Web site.
"We are very excited to be supporting Project Kaisei’s first research expedition to the North Pacific Gyre," says Dominique Maguin, president of BIR. "The Project Kaisei team has ambitious plans, which are fully in line with BIR’s mission to increase recycling and recyclability. Our members across the globe are providing industry with nearly 50 percent of the raw materials needed, and we can still increase this figure. The collection of waste can be improved, and the recycling activities are indispensible for saving energy, gas emissions and natural resources. It is of paramount importance to leave a safe, clean and welcoming planet for future generations. Project Kaisei represents an innovative constructive approach to addressing a problem that would not have been there if recycling had been promoted and implemented by all nations. We believe that by collaborating together, it will bring benefits to both of our organizations, as well as for the whole planet."
Doug Woodring, Project Kaisei co-founder and project director, says,"We are very fortunate to have garnered the financial support of BIR and we are delighted that they have become one of our main sponsors. Together with the scientific endorsement and ongoing collaboration of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, BIR’s sponsorship provides us with the necessary resources to carry out our mission this summer. We hope to be able to come back with answers to the many questions surrounding the large volumes of waste in the ocean, the damage it causes to the ocean ecosystem and the ways to fight it."
India Implements new Measures to Control Recyclables Imports On July 21, 2009, the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) issued a notification with immediate effect regarding the control of recyclables imports, despite ongoing efforts made by the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), Brussels, and BIR Ambassador for the Indian Sub-Continent Ikbal Nathani. The BIR and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI), Washington, D.C., made a joint visit to authorities in Delhi in May to try to avoid the implementation of inappropriate controlling measures for non-hazardous recyclables. The new regulation requires the exporter to fill out a form and to produce a pre-shipment inspection certificate issued by an inspection agency in the case of import of the following Basel non-hazardous materials (which the Indian MOEF unilaterally considers to be hazardous): • B 1010, all ferrous and non-ferrous metals scrap; • B 1040, electrical materials scrap not contaminated; • B 1050, mixed nonferrous scrap, uncontaminated heavy fraction scrap; • B 1100, metal-bearing material from smelting and refining; • B 1230, mill scaling from iron and steel manufacture; and • B 3020, all paper and cardboard scrap. The BIR immediately alerted the BIR ambassador in India and the ISRI leadership for further action. Questions have already been raised at the E.U. Commission and with UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) as to the incompatibility of these new unilateral measures with the E.U. shipment regulation and the Basel Convention (which do not consider the above materials to be hazardous). The business confidentiality aspect raised by the regulations and their immediate enforcement (without prior notice) also have been addressed, according to the BIR.
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