Commodities have a significant global impact

Washington, DC – Kicking off World Trade Week, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries extolled the important role scrap materials play in global trade, both for the U.S. and foreign countries. Scrap materials make up nearly two percent of the U.S.’s exports based on value, helping to supply the world’s growing demand for all commodities, including metals, plastics, electronics, rubber and more.

“Global trade is integral to the recycling industry. In any given year, 30 to 40 percent of scrap is processed for export. In 2012, commodity grade scrap products were exported to 160 countries worldwide, generating nearly $28 billion in export sales and significantly helping the U.S. balance of trade,” said Robin Wiener, president of ISRI. “Exporting scrap has resulted in hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in revenue, as well as a sharing of technology and best practices in recycling.”

Nearly 34 percent of the 460,000 jobs in the recycling industry in 2010 involved the process and sale of scrap for export. This amounted to nearly 162,000 workers, including 52,000 people processing and brokering materials, 44,200 suppliers of either materials, machinery, or services to the processors, and 66,000 suppliers of general goods and services to those working in the industry. In addition to job creation, the exporting of scrap creates revenue. On top of the nearly $28 billion in sales in 2012, scrap exports generated $3.6 billion in tax revenues for federal, state, and local governments. 

“The benefit of exporting scrap goes well beyond the U.S. economy,” said Wiener. “People in other areas of the world gain access to used electronic products that they might not otherwise have, new recycling technologies and best management practices are shared across borders, safe and responsible recycling infrastructures are being built in developing nations, and jobs are created in importing nations.”

World Trade Week began in 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the third week in May to be National Foreign Trade Week. It was an effort during the Great Depression to emphasize the importance of regaining foreign markets as a way to rebuild the American economy. Following World War II, it was renamed World Trade Week with importance placed on the role of foreign trade to the domestic economy.

###