BIR receives FER Mother Earth Award

The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), Brussels, has been awarded the Spanish Federation of Recovery and Recycling (FER) Mother Earth Award. Susie Burrage, newly appointed BIR president and the first female president in its 75-year history, and Director General Arnaud Brunet accepted the award during FER’s National Congress. 

“I was absolutely delighted to receive the Mother Earth Award as one of my first official duties as BIR president,” Burrage says. “I am passionate about the links between recycling and the environment and our industry’s commitment to sustainability–indeed it was central to my campaign to become BIR president. We need to tell the world, more explicitly and more loudly than we have ever done before, just how integral the international recycling industry is to the circular economy and the long-term health of our planet. Awards such as this one not only underpin the work we are all doing but spur us on to greater heights. On behalf of everyone at BIR, I wholeheartedly thank FER for this incredible recognition.”  

FER’s board of directors, led by President Ion Olaeta and Director General Alicia Garcia-Franco, says it wanted to recognize BIR’s pioneering legacy and future commitment to sustainability and the environment during its 75th anniversary year. 

“We granted our Mother Earth Award to BIR to highlight its strong commitment and firm defence of environmental protection and recycling, as well as its important contribution in the sharing of environmental values across society,” Garcia-Franco says.  

Olaeta says this award is a celebration of BIR’s consistent work over the last 75 years.  

“Across its 75-year history, BIR has continually represented and defended the interests of the recycling industry on the international stage,” Olaeta says. “It has done so steadfastly and with great professionalism, helping raise the critical issues of sustainability and the protection of our ‘mother earth’ around the world. This award thanks the BIR leadership for their tireless efforts, exceptional contributions and outstanding initiatives over the past 75 years and we eagerly look forward to more consolidated actions by BIR and its members.”