March/April 1994
By bridging the gap between traditional and postconsumer recycling and employing a progressive management philosophy, thisVirginia company strives to be a recycler of tomorrow.
By Kent Kiser
Kent Kiser is an associate editor of Scrap Processing and Recycling.
Bruce Brenner believes he has seen the future of scrap recycling, and for his company, at least, that future is one of “multimaterial” processing. Responding to this vision, Bruce, president of Cycle Systems Inc. (Roanoke, Va.), has helped guide the firm beyond its 78-year-old tradition of recycling industrial ferrous, nonferrous, and paper scrap to process nontraditional, postconsumer recyclables such as glass, plastics, and steel cans.
You might say Cycle Systems started making the multimaterial transition in the late 1960s. At that time, the firm--then named Roanoke Scrap Iron & Metal Co.--entered the waste hauling business by founding Waste Automation Systems, giving itself an “in” in both the old and emerging recycling fields. Though the company sold its waste hauling operations to Waste Management Inc. (Oak Brook, Ill.) in 1992--“We simply decided we were better processors than haulers,” says Jim Conner, the firm’s controller/general manager--the commitment it built over the years to multimaterial recycling hasn’t wavered. In fact, the local Waste Management and Browning-Ferris Industries haulers continue to bring their postconsumer recyclables to Cycle Systems for processing, and the firm also gathers material through community drop-off boxes at its three Virginia plants, located in Roanoke, Lynchburg, and Chester. These efforts mean the company draws material from “every municipality surrounding the Roanoke and Lynchburg market,” says Jim. “We’re a regional center of postconsumer materials.” Combine that with its sizable role in Virginia ’s traditional scrap recycling industry and it seems clear that the company is sticking with its premonition.
For Bruce, the decision to go multimaterial was logical. “There are a great deal of similarities in servicing and processing these materials,” he says, “and we try to build on this knowledge.” Moreover, Cycle Systems read the recycling writing on the wall: With disposal fees escalating in Virginia and the state mandating a 25-percent recycling rate by 1995, the opportunities in postconsumer recycling seemed sure to grow. The choice was--and remains--clear. “Either we’re going to do it,” says Richard Lerner, general manager of the Lynchburg plant, “or somebody else is going to do it, and it may be our competition. You either get on the bandwagon or you’re going to get left behind.”
Far from being left behind, Cycle Systems has resolved to be out front in the multimaterial race, as is evident in its glass processing plant, opened in Chester in 1992. When glass maker Owens-Brockway (Godfrey, Ill.) decided to phase out is in-house processing operations in Virginia and seek firms to process cullet for it, the scrap recycler made a bid for the business. And in the end, Owens-Brockway selected Cycle Systems to be its sold third-party processor in Virginia, responsible for supplying furnace-ready cullet to its production plants in Toano and Danville, Va., and Winston-Salem, N.C.
While glass processing is certainly a stretch from traditional scrap processing, Bruce sees it as just the type of activity that forward-thinking recyclers should be delving into, if not for immediate financial gain, then to secure their piece of the future recycling pie. As Jim remarks, “The multimaterial approach may not be the most profitable way to operate at the moment, but we feel it’s the operation of the future. You have to get started, and you have to get experience.”
The Coworker Concept
The company’s attention to nontraditional recycling isn’t the only progressive strategy at work at Cycle Systems. Another obvious one is revealed whenever you make the mistake of using the word “employee” around Bruce, who’ll politely as you to instead refer to his 140 or so employees (oops) as coworkers, fellow associates, or, simple, people. While this may seem like a picky distinction, Bruce thinks such terms better express the firm’s personnel philosophy. “We consider ourselves to be a team company,” he says. “The contributions of everyone--from those who work in the plants to the office personnel are significant.” Jim--and every other Cycle Systems coworker, it seems--couldn’t agree more, asserting, “We feel everybody here has a job to do, and there’s no distinction between whether you’re a controller or a sorter. Both are jobs that need to be done, and every person demands respect for a job well-done.”
Without a doubt, this is one company that believes in being people-oriented--not just for warm-hearted reasons, but also business and logic. As Bruce notes, “It’s costly, not time-efficient, and in some cases very disruptive to have to replace people.” Then he adds, “Often this can be avoid by being conscious of every person’s individual needs and development.”
Cycle Systems meets these individual needs, in part, by striving to make the company a secure and rewarding place to work. To this end, it offers such benefits as profit sharing, fully paid individual health insurance, a personal assistance program through a local hospital, a workboot subsidy, turkeys and hams at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and educational support for coworkers who earn a C or better. The company also has a “metal money” incentive program in which it pays a nominal per-pound reward to any of its people who recover nonferrous items from the ferrous inventory. And the firm constantly tries to improve the comfort and safety of its working conditions, whether that means moving more operations under cover, paving a larger part of its plants, or offering monetary safety awards. “We look to do anything we can do to make the business more bearable for our people,” says Terry Brenner, vice president and Bruce’s brother. “In the long run, I think that’s the best thing any company can do.”
Along these same lines, the firm encourages its supervisors and managers to attend at least one professional development seminar or training session a year. As Bruce explains, “We realize that we won’t continue to grow as a profitable operation unless we can inspire growth in our people.” Considering all of these efforts, it’s no wonder Jim asserts, “On a scale of one to 10, I think we’re an eight or nine as far as benefits packages go and the way we treat our people.”
If you want to see the payoff for the company’s people-oriented philosophy, take a gander at the plaque titled “Coworker Years of Service,” which hangs in the front office of the Roanoke headquarters. According to the plaque, 32 current plant coworkers have worked for the firm at least five years, 12 for 10 years, and eight for 15 or more years. “Some of our coworkers have grown up at our plants,” Terry says. On top of those years of service is the longevity of the firm’s supervisors and managers, most of whom have worked for the company for at least a decade or two. Tommy Keoughan, plant manager in Roanoke , Richard, and Jim, for instance, have been with Cycle Systems 23, 21, and 15 years, respectively.
Empowerment and the Stubborn Rock
Cycle Systems’s people take the company’s personnel concepts seriously. Just ask Jay Brenner, whose office is dominated by a rock--no, more like a mini-boulder--that takes up an entire corner, perched as it is about 2 feet off the ground on two sections of heavy I-beams. The explanation? It seems Jay, the firm’s railroad equipment experts and Bruce’s eldest son, got mad at some coworkers for being--in his judgment--stubborn and not creative in their thinking. Soon thereafter, he arrived to find the rock in his office, which forced him to ponder: How had the culprits moved the rock inside and mounted it without using heavy machinery? The task appeared to be impossible, yet there was the rock in all its grey, heavy glory. It seems Jay had underestimated the creativity of his coworkers, and the so-called stubborn rock still sits in his office as a reminder of what coworkers can do when they apply their minds to a task.
That anecdote provides a humorous example of one of Cycle Systems’s most serious goals--empowering its people. In essence that means eliminating top-down management in favor of delegating decision-making powers, management responsibilities, and problem-solving duties to coworkers at all levels. As Mark Taylor, operations manager inLynchburg , attests: “We don’t have a heavy-management arrangement around here.”
To see empowerment in action, look at the Chester plant, where three lead coworkers--not Steve Coe, division manager, or Neal Brenner, marketing manager and Bruce’s second son--set the shipping schedule, assign work duties, and decide which color glass to run. “They keep us advised about what’s going on,” Steve says, “but this way, everybody feels he’s doing more than just punching a timecard.”
Empowerment also means giving coworkers the chance to be heard, to not only offer their ideas but have them acted on. “It’s different perspectives that make a business,” Bruce remarks, and true to his statement, he and the other Cycle Systems supervisors and managers are good listeners. When you talk to Bruce, he offers comments like “That’s only my opinion,” then asks “Do you agree?” or “What do you think?”--the kind of open-minded, solicitous approach you might not expect from a successful company president.
Being Professional
Among the slew of aspiration Bruce has for Cycle Systems, one of the broadest is to make the company what he calls a “professional” operation in every way. This has meant undertaking such varied strategies as installing the best equipment available in its operations, opening top management opportunities to non-family members, and carefully presenting the company’s image through high-quality brochures and mailers that discuss its services, history, and recycling in general.
His idea of what it takes to have professional operations also requires Cycle Systems to be environmentally sound, Bruce says. Thus, all new concrete the firm pours has a 30-mil plastic liner underneath and is reinforced with double rebar to prevent cracking. The firm also adheres to a strict inbound inspection program, which includes having a “truck watcher” greet every scrap delivery to review the contents of the load and determine where the material should be deposited. “We’re extremely careful about what we let in here,” Jay says. The reason for such vigilance is obvious. “It’s no longer business as usual, environmentally or legislatively,” Richard says. “If you sit back and do nothing, you won’t have to worry about your existence--you won’t be here.”
For Bruce, being environmentally sound is not only necessary, but also a wise business move. “Exceeding the environmental standards of today is one of our major selling points in maintaining and soliciting accounts,” he notes. Along these lines, he has set his sights on having Cycle Systems achieve ISO 9003 certification by 1996. Such a quality assurance program, which applies to the management, production, and environmental aspects of a firm, will give Cycle Systems one more way to show it’s a responsible recycler--an important distinction in this era of downstream liability concerns. “Both our suppliers and consumers need to have that reassurance,” Richard says.
Being a professional company also hinges on offering top-flight customer service. Though Cycle Systems sells a significant percentage of its material through brokers, Richard notes, “we ask the broker who he’s selling to, not to go around him, but because we want to make sure we’re making the right product for our consumers. Our thrust has always been customer service, and I think that’s been one of our strong points.”
Giving Something Back
For a scrap recycling company, Cycle Systems has what you might call a high profile, especially in its hometown of Roanoke. Part of this is because its Roanoke plant is located right in the city bordering a busy highway, affording motorists an elevated view of its operations. As a result--and as a good corporate citizen--the firm works hard to keep the plant neat and tidy, an eye-pleaser rather than an eyesore.
Aside from its public location, Cycle Systems is well-known for other reasons, with one of the biggest being the community drop-off centers at its plants. “The community drop-offs are a big identification for us in the towns we operate in,” says Jay. The centers are administered by local groups--the Clean Valley Council in Roanoke and Citizens for a Clean Lynchburg in Lynchburg--with Cycle Systems donating the space, containers, processing services, and proceeds.
On a more personal level, the firm contributes to many local and national causes, and it is a well-known supporter of the arts, as you can see by the numerous scrap-related artworks that adorn its office walls. Even more noticeable is the 30-foot-tall stainless steel fountain sculpture at the entrance to its Roanoke headquarters. The artwork, created by local sculptor Adam Cohen, was installed in 1993 as part of the firm’s 75th anniversary celebration and given as a gift to the city. From time to time, the company also reserves a block of seats at cultural events, as it did in 1992, when 300 of its coworkers, family, and friends enjoyed a performance featuring guitarist Chet Atkins with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra.
Cycle Systems also serves its communities in other ways, such as providing employment to more than two dozen Vietnamese and Laotian immigrants, which Tommy Keoughan has helped place through his work with the Catholic church. Equally important is the role the company and its leaders play as recycling educators in their communities, talking with local groups and offering plant tours. As Steve asserts, “The only way to get people to recycle for life is by continually educating them on what’s available now, what’s not, and what needs to be done.”
To be sure, these are people who believe in getting involved. On the state level, for instance, Richard is part of the Virginia House Joint Committee on the Privatization of Waste Management, while Steve is chairman of the Virginia Recycling Association and works closely with the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority. And nationally, Bruce, Jim, and Richard have been consistently active in the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (Washington, D.C.) and its predecessor organizations, serving as officers and active members of chapters, committees, and the board of directors.
Onward and Forward
For Cycle Systems, and especially for Bruce--the firm’s designated “visionary”--the future is filled with ambitious and expansive goals, such as its ISO 9003 aspirations. In the near term, its plans include installing a small wire chopper at the Roanoke plant and expanding the Chester facility’s services beyond glass to include ferrous and nonferrous scrap. “The goal here is to be a full-service operation,” Neal says.
Cycle Systems also plans to continue refining its in-house computer system, an IBM 400 mainframe system that serves 28 terminals throughout the three plants. The plan is to shift the mainframe-only system to a personal computer-based setup, which will enable coworkers to import mainframe information into their PCs to use in creating their own job-specific data bases. “We’ve got to learn more so that we can manage the information that we put into these electronic wizards,” Bruce says, “and then pull out and use what will benefit our operations the most.”
In the long term, perhaps the only way to describe Cycle Systems’s future is to borrow the title of its fountain sculpture: “Recycling in Motion.” That, at least, hints at the company’s constant movement and onward-and-forward philosophy. “We’re always looking at new opportunities when they arise,” Richard says, speaking for all his coworkers. “We have to be open enough and versatile enough to change when we need to change, adapt when we need to adapt, and expand when we need to expand. That’s the approach we have to take.” •
By bridging the gap between traditional and postconsumer recycling and employing a progressive management philosophy, thisVirginia company strives to be a recycler of tomorrow.