September/October 1989
Recyclers are dealing with shredder fluff disposal difficulties, new and more vigorous environmental legislation, and supplemental markets for recycled goods. At the recent CARI convention in Quebec City, they heard why preparation is crucial.
At the Canadian Association of Recycling Industries' (CARI) conference June 18-20 in Quebec City, more than 250 delegates heard speakers discuss issues and challenges facing recyclers. The theme: "Recycling—Being Prepared."
CARI President Albert Adelstein, Sam Adelstein & Co., Ltd., St. Catharines, Ontario, commended CARI members for moving with the times by handling materials safely and responsibly. "We have to be prepared" to comply with legislation such as the Canadian Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System [WHMIS], "which sets the stage for more prosecutions and punitive actions," Adelstein told members. "We need to have our own houses in order."
He said 1989 has been a very busy year for CARI, the peak achievement being the Canadian Alliance for Recycling and the Environment (CARE) symposium in Ottawa that joined CARI members with government environment officials and public interest groups. "We need these bridges of understanding between CARI members and the cause groups and government if we are to play a major role in the future of recycling."
At the general meeting June 18, CARI Executive Director Stan Parker told attendees that, following the success of the CARE symposium, CARI must "refocus on the issues our members face-all the environmental factors created by hazardous materials, workplace safety requirements, and the public preoccupation with landfill."
Parker announced the Nominating Committee's choices for the CARI 1990 board of directors: Larry Leibov, Metropolitan Steel, Inc.; Bernard Ziff, Bonus Metal Canada, Inc.; Larry Kummer, London Salvage & Trading Co., Ltd.; Harry Goldblatt, Hagarsville Recycling and Auto Wrecking, Ltd.; Stephen Lax, Lax Iron E, Steel Limited; Dennis Ditlove, Inland Steel Products, Inc.; and Gary Ketler, Blackfoot Metals, Ltd.
CARI Treasurer Jack Rosen, Rosen Industries Limited, Kitchener, Ontario, said that while CARI has had financial losses for the past few years, membership did not decline this year. He anticipates that 1989 will not show a loss.
Environment Committee Chairman Max Zalev, Zalev Brothers Limited, Windsor, Ontario, stated that the most serious problem the scrap processing industry faces is disposing of shredder fluff. Some landfill owners' refusal to accept fluff has caused shredders in Canada, the U.S., and other countries to cease operation. "The potential adverse impact ... would be the loss of millions of tons of available recycled steel scrap annually, and our countryside and cities would be littered with junk automobiles." He said CARI's response has been to establish a Shredder Subcommittee—chaired by Jack Lazareck, General Scrap & Car Shredder, Ltd., Winnipeg, Manitoba—and to retain a legal advisor who will develop an action plan on the issue. Zalev noted that CARI is working with waste management agencies and municipal officials to develop a solution. Zalev discussed CARI's efforts toward helping its members comply with the "onerous administration and training requirements" of WHMIS.
Consumer Education Can Drive Recycling
Adelstein opened the luncheon that afternoon by announcing the new CARI Executive Committee: first vice president, Larry Kummer; second vice president, John Kis, International Iron & Metal Co.; third vice president, Dennis Ditlove; treasurer, Jack Rosen; and secretary, Bernard Ziff. Adelstein will continue as president.
The CARI president emphasized that market demand should lead efforts to increase the use of recycled materials in products: "Once consumers say 'yes, we'll give preference in our buying to products with recycled content,' manufacturers will quickly find ways to recycle more and more. ... Manufacturers would start eliminating from their production those materials that cannot be recycled.
"The result is easy to see," he went on. "Educated consumers are the most potent force to move our society into a stage where we can start planning for close to zero waste. Consumer education is the ideal way to drive recycling."
He expressed his concern that recycling will be approached by "the big stick rather than by education. It looks simpler and faster to legislate goals in recycling and impose penalties. What this fails to recognize is the total picture. ... If recycling is met by buyer demand, we will see a sharp, fast, and progressive decline in the use of materials that are not recyclable. Recycling must be practical.
As [Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Executive Director] Herschel Cutler recently stated at the Bureau International de la Recuperation convention," Adelstein said, "recycling has changed permanently, and the industry now will commit as much, if not more, time and assets to managing environmental risk as it does to purchasing and sales."
Recyclers Must Speak Up, Reach Out
Keynote speaker at the luncheon was Peter Regenstreif, of the Toronto public affairs firm Policy Concepts. Regenstreif said that because recyclers are such a high-profile group, both in the economy and in the political arena, CARI is uniquely positioned to achieve its objectives. "You've made important strides in achieving recognition from government and from the public," he said. "What remains now is to become the political force you should be.
"Remember, politics is a game of numbers. A measure of your effectiveness in the political process is your ability to mobilize others to your side."
In a question-and-answer session following his address, Regenstreif was asked about the recycler's response to political action that negatively affects him. He answered, "don't just complain, but do something about it"; call or visit your representative or write a letter stating how the legislation adversely affects the environment or the consumer.
"As a recycler, your job is to make sure that all the players in the arena know what you stand for," Regenstreif went on. "You are your own best spokesperson."
Nonferrous Markets: Be Prepared for Changes
At the Nonferrous Meeting, Han Spoel, Shredmet, Inc., Montreal, Quebec, discussed aluminum fundamentals and termed the market finely balanced. He said there is little spare capacity in the primary aluminum industry. "If the world economy continues to run as it has for the last two or three years, then we will have a renewed shortage of aluminum despite the present steady, relaxed situation."
He anticipates that no smelters will shut down until aluminum drops below 65 cents a pound, and believes few will shut down until it drops below 50 cents.
Analyzing markets for aluminum, Spoel said the area that is seeing considerable growth is the packaging market. "Japan is taking off. A few years ago, penetration was quite small there. Can stock is growing, ... and they've turned from being net exporters to North America to importers." He said this affects North American exports of shredded and baled can scrap to Japan. "From their point of view," he explained, "imports of scrap, if acceptable from a quality [standpoint], are just as good as primary ingot. ...The Japanese will always be prepared to buy what is available at some discount from primary ingot imports."
Summarizing the directions the aluminum market can take, Spoel predicted, "For the next two years, if industrial production keeps climbing at its present rate, there will be no surplus of aluminum--there's nowhere for it to come from. If industrial production drops off, we'll have a few hundred thousand tons of stocks and we're going to see another 20-cents-per-pound drop in aluminum prices."
Robert A. Stein, Louis Padnos Iron & Metal Co., Holland, Michigan, discussed the changing market for copper, scrap. He said merchants must understand the changes in the industry "in order to assess our role and, simply put, to be prepared.
"The increasing amount of information to which industry members have access is making them more knowledgeable and is changing the way they do business—and with whom." He said the consumption side of the copper and brass scrap markets has experienced a contraction over the past decade that may continue. He predicts more consolidation in this sector as old capacity is not rebuilt and, as foreign copper-producing nations become more adept at producing value-added semifabricated products.
Stein believes consumers will be more demanding in their quality requirements in the coming years, which will have a significant impact on scrap processors. "A more astute level of awareness of the functions of commodity markets among both dealers and consumers, once the merchant's greatest strength, has led to a diminishing of the merchant's role. The merchants of the future will depend largely on what they can offer their clientele. Those with a good working knowledge of the physical business ... will benefit as they have in the past. Those that have nothing more to offer than a good price will flounder. I believe we'll see fewer merchants.
"Our industry has become affluent in information," Stein concluded, "and with a sound understanding of all the effects of our knowledge and a clear concept of the need to be prepared, we are to prosper. The key will be quality."
Fred Loftin, the Loftin Group, Toronto, discussed how employers can comply with the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System. He suggested employers establish company policy for identifying all hazardous materials produced or used in the workplace, obtain or prepare labels and material safety data sheets prior to product use in the workplace, implement safe working procedures, and make a corporate commitment to willing compliance.
Loftin also reviewed the "due diligence defense," or the attempt to prove that there was no negligence in a particular case by showing that all reasonable care was taken. This can include training supervisors and managers to check documentation, training employees to read labels and safety markers identifying controlled substances and dangerous goods, establishing spill and accident procedures, maintaining shipping files, and keeping records of compliance expenses.
Buoyant Markets Pull Ferrous Scrap
Speaking at the Ferrous Meeting, Robert C. Varah, Dofasco Inc., Hamilton, Ontario, predicted "good levels of steel production through 1995." For the present, he anticipates a drop in steel imports to Canada in 1989 and expects total mill shipments to drop only slightly in 1989 from 1988 levels. While Varah forecasts some softness in North American steel consumption in 1989-90, he sees "good growth in the future."
He said the drive to produce quality steel has caused a reduction in home scrap generation resulting in a 14-percent increase in purchased scrap tonnage over the past four years. Varah also sees buoyant world steel markets pulling U.S. scrap.
John LeBoutillier, SIDBEC, Montreal, said the "future of the ferrous scrap industry in Canada is very promising" and that "environmental problems should push the recycling of scrap."
He explained that SIDBEC uses 800,000 tons of direct reduced iron (DRI) and purchases about 800,000 tons of scrap to produce about 1.5 million tons of steel annually. He said the use of DRI is necessary because it is "almost impossible to produce flat materials with just scrap."
LeBoutillier expressed his concern with residuals in scrap and said that steel mills "want improvement in the quality of scrap." He said DRI is now cheaper than high-grade scrap and said he sees the demand for high-grade scrap growing rapidly.
Liability, Legislation Targeted by Environment Committee
At the environmental seminar June 20, Roderick M. McLeod, of Miller, Thompson in Toronto, offered insight on liability for polluted land. He discussed the recently published guidelines of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment on decommissioning sites in Ontario. He said that while the guidelines are not law, the government may find some other way to prosecute someone who does not follow them.
The first phase of the guidelines suggests the senior management of a firm give a directive on the process, submit a plan to the Ministry of the Environment, set up a public communication strategy, inventory potentially hazardous materials at the facility, and take other preparatory actions. The second phase involves design and implementation of a remedial work program. Suggested approaches include on-site treatment, storage, or control and/or thermal destruction (the approach favored by the Ministry of the Environment); removal for off-site treatment, storage, or disposal; and on-site isolation. The third phase involves a verification and monitoring program, and the fourth phase covers ministry confirmation that the decommissioning has been completed.
McLeod commented on proposed federal legislation that appears to duplicate powers given to the Ministry of the Environment. He explained that the legislation states that if a province has in place provisions to meet the minimum rules for the country, the federal statute doesn't apply. He added that the bill contains a provision that when two citizens complain in writing to the ministry about a company's operations, the ministry is required to conduct an investigation.
Environment Committee Chairman Max Zalev, acknowledging that environmental problems are in the forefront of business today, said, "The benefits of our industry to Canada must be told to all who will listen." •
—Susan Crissinger, James E. Fowler, and Gerry Romano
Recyclers are dealing with shredder fluff disposal difficulties, new and more vigorous environmental legislation, and supplemental markets for recycled goods. At the recent CARI convention in Quebec City, they heard why preparation is crucial.