Global Recycling Day
Next: March 18, 2027
Not waste, the Seventh Resource.
The story
Where it comes from
Global Recycling Day was created by the Bureau of International Recycling, the world federation of the recycling industry. Its president, Ranjit Baxi, announced the idea at his inauguration at the industry's 2015 convention in Dubai, and the first day was held on 18 March 2018. The date is the Bureau's own birthday: it was founded on 18 March 1948, so the first Global Recycling Day was also its 70th. The day calls recyclables the 'Seventh Resource', after water, air, coal, oil, natural gas and minerals.
How it's celebrated
Recycling firms, councils, schools and community groups hold clean-ups and campaigns, and everyone is asked to see what they throw away as a resource rather than as waste. The organisers say more than 13 million people took part in the first one. At home it is a good day to sort the bins properly, and to mend something instead of replacing it.
Did you know
- The day is now run by the Global Recycling Foundation, which the Bureau set up in 2018.
- UNIDO, the UN's industrial development agency, has recognised Global Recycling Day.
- One of the first day's events was a clean-up in Orange Farm, Johannesburg, run by young people from a local waste co-operative.
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