Serious conversations

When delegates assemble in Berlin in late May and early June for this year’s BIR (Bureau of International Recycling) World Recycling Convention, the state of the global commodities market will be one of several subjects that will keep the dialogue open and active.

The convention includes commodity-specific BIR division and committee meetings as well as guest speakers and council sessions that look at wider economic or geopolitical trends.

As it has at its conventions in the past, the BIR also will offer its delegates networking opportunities that take advantage of the history and culture of the host city.

CORE COMMODITIES

The BIR schedule in Berlin includes four division and three committee meetings that are commodity specific, plus other committee and council meetings dedicated to specific end-of-life products or processing techniques.

The division meetings, taking place Monday, May 30, and Tuesday, May 31, will cover ferrous and nonferrous metals, recovered fiber and textiles.

Committee and council meetings, which take place those two days plus the morning of Wednesday, June 1, will cover plastics, electronic scrap, stainless steel and special alloys, shredding, scrap tires, international regulations, international trade and the Latin American market.

BIR Communications Director Elisabeth Christ says delegates will have no shortage of critical issues to report on and to discuss at the sessions. “Raw material prices, overcapacity, trade barriers, environmental legislation impacting the recycling business, the Circular Economy package in Europe and its impact on the global circular economy” are all topics that will be in play, she says.

Christ says the dialog that occurs not just in the meeting rooms but also before and after meetings and during networking events is highly valued by BIR delegates.

“BIR conventions remain the most international and diversified gathering for any business [manager] active in recycling at an international level,” she comments.

National recycling associations—many of them BIR members—play a critical role in the industry, but “BIR’s international agenda and its international governance ensure that businesspeople from any country will see their interests represented,” Christ says.

Commodities and regulations are not the only topics on the schedule, however.

Guest speakers and networking events add unique touches that distinguish the May 2016 World Recycling Convention in Berlin from previous and succeeding events organized by BIR.

INSIDE ACCESS

Two guest speakers in Berlin will provide insight into Germany’s steps to create a circular economy and into the multiple forces influencing global commodities markets.

The convention’s keynote speaker is Klaus Töpfer, a former German government minister and secretary general of the United Nations Environment Programme. From 2001 until 2010, Töpfer was a member of the German council for sustainable development (Rat für Nachhaltige Entwicklung), Christ says.

He became founding director of the German Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in 2009 and served as the city of Shanghai’s advisor on the “future city” display at that city’s Expo 2010.

In 2011 the nuclear power plant incident in Fukushima, Japan, “shook up the world,” Christ says. “Consequently, the German government installed the Commission for Assured Energy Supply and assigned its chairmanship to Klaus Töpfer.”

Another guest speaker in Berlin will be familiar to past attendees of Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) conventions. Economist and author Jason Schenker of Austin, Texas-based Prestige Economics will address delegates at the Ferrous Division meeting May 30.

In the first quarter of 2016, Schenker’s book Recession-Proof has been labeled as a “No. 1 Best Seller” by online retailer Amazon.com Inc.

“With U.S. recession risks rising, this seemed to be an ideal time to write a book to help inform and prepare individuals—whether the next recession starts in two months, two quarters or two years,” Schenker says of his book.

He is a frequent speaker or panelist at ISRI conventions and roundtables, providing commentary on either general economic conditions or specific metals, such as nickel and copper.

Recession-Proof presents “a series of proactive strategies to help [readers] survive and thrive in the next downturn.” Schenker says he “reveals strategies usually reserved for CEOs, central bankers and ultra-high-net-worth individuals.”

Schenker, who was the keynote speaker at the BIR 2014 spring convention in Miami, “also will participate in a ‘fireside’ discussion at the Stainless Steel & Special Alloys Committee,” Christ says. That committee also has invited a senior representative of the Toronto-based Nickel Institute, who will give the main presentation.

“We also will offer a workshop on the London Metal Exchange’s Ferrous Scrap Futures and more in-depth insight into shipping and insurance issues, together with container safety, in the framework of our International Trade Council,” Christ says, referring to a council meeting that will take place May 30.

UNIQUELY BERLIN

For its welcome reception, which is the evening of May 30, BIR has selected the Adlon Hotel near Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate as the location.

“The Adlon Hotel is a symbol of luxury and the rise of Berlin’s importance as a capital,” Christ says. She adds, “Kaiser Wilhelm II was personally involved in the creation of the original hotel, and subsequently it attracted royalty and celebrities throughout its existence.”

The original hotel opened in 1907, when the kaiser was striving to attain for Berlin “the same stature as, for instance, Paris or London,” Christ says. From its beginning, she says, “it was one of the most famous hotels in Europe.”

The original hotel “was largely destroyed in 1945 in the closing days of World War II, though a small wing continued operating until 1984,” she says.

“The current hotel, which opened Aug. 23, 1997, is a new building with a design inspired by the original.”

Family members of conference delegates who are less involved with the industry—or delegates who simply wish to explore Berlin—can choose from several city tours offered through the BIR registration process:

• a “Sightseeing Tour of Berlin” that includes several historic and architecturally significant sites, including the Reichstag and two palaces;
• a “Berlin by Boat” tour along the Spree River, which passes under several architecturally significant bridges and includes an audio guide;
• a “City of Contrasts” tour that examines the city’s Cold War past, including the Checkpoint Charlie crossing between the former West Berlin and East Berlin, as well as a 0.8-mile stretch of the Berlin Wall that has become a memorial painted over by artists from around the world; and
• a “Trabi Tour and Currywurst Museum and Tasting,” through which delegates can discover Berlin by means of the East German-made Trabant, Cold War-era East German cars with 26-horsepower engines. The tour concludes at the German “Currywurst Museum Berlin.”

More information on registering for the BIR World Recycling Convention in Berlin can be found at www.bir.org/convention website/berlin2016/home.

The author is editor of Recycling Today and can be contacted at btaylor@gie.net.