Battery event includes presentation by BMR president

Salam Al Sharif, chairman of the United Arab Emirates-based Sharif Group, was among the speakers at the Eighth International Battery Expo and Recycling Conference (IBRX), which was held at Marriott Resort in Goa, India, on 9-11 January 2017. The event at the seaside property was organized by the New Delhi-based Battery and Recycling Foundation International.

The foundation bills IBRX India as a three-day event that includes exhibition space for battery manufacturers along with buyer-seller networking opportunities. The event is designed to bring together battery manufacturers along with experts from the waste management and recycling industries from around the world. The conference in January 2017 drew participants from India, the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia, including from China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Middle East.

Sharif, who also is president of the Bureau of Middle East Recycling (BMR) and an officer with the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), delivered a presentation on lead recycling in the Middle East. He said lead acid battery recycling can be considered as a form of urban mining, and said a once “primitive” recycling sector had become a world-leading example.

Now, said Sharif, lead acid batteries were being recycled at nearly a 100% rate in in facilities with environmental compliance. This practice was converting post-consumer and end-of-life lead acid batteries into the same products, which he called a perfect example of a circular economy.

At the event in India, Sharif also took the opportunity to invite the delegates to the sixth edition of the BMR International Conference, which will be in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates 4 and 5 March 2017. He also promoted the BIR’s 2017 conventions, which are in May in Hong Kong and in New Delhi in October.