Guy Thiran

This article is part of the Mining and Metals project of Spinwatch

Guy Thiran is Secretary General of Eurometaux the main lobbying body for the non-ferrous metals industry in Europe. He previously worked for the International Council on Metals and the Environment.

He is quoted in a 1999 article for Scrap Magazine talking about the International Council on Metals and the Environment (ICME)'s attitude to the recent Basel Convention, which banned the shipment of hazardous wastes across borders:

ICME’s objective is to minimize barriers to the international trade of recyclables. To achieve this, the group is taking two approaches:

• It is working outside the convention and being aggressive. It is convincing countries not to ratify the Basel export ban; presenting a position paper offering economic, trade, and environmental arguments against the ban; and seeking endorsement from international commerce organizations, Thiran noted.

• ICME is also working inside the convention and being constructive. In this regard, it’s working to ensure that international free trade in recyclables can continue even if the export ban is implemented, he explained.

In the longer term, the key to protecting such trade will be to make environmentally sound management, or ESM, the basic requirement—that is, companies can only receive recyclables if they can guarantee environmentally sound management of the material, Thiran said.