Ms Blees is a lawyer in Germany and holds a Master of Law degree from George Mason University (USA). Before joining EuRIC, she worked at a Brussels-based consultancy, advising multinational companies on environmental, health and safety matters.

EuRIC is a confederation which represents the interests of European recycling industries within the EU. It spans the majority of waste streams, and so can facilitate cooperation between national recycling and resource management federations and companies from over 23 European countries, operating both locally and globally.

EuRIC represents:

• 5 500+ companies generating an aggregated annual turnover of about €95 billion, including large companies and SMEs involved in the recycling of and trade in various resource streams
• 300 000 local jobs which cannot be outsourced to non-EU countries
• a million tons of waste recycled each year (metals, paper, glass, plastics, WEEE, ELVs, tyres, textiles, construction & demolition, etc.).

By turning waste into resources, recycling loops recycled materials back into value chains. Recyclers play a key role in bridging resource efficiency, climate change policy and the industrial transition.