Scrap Beat: March/April 2010

March/April 2010

Steel Recycling Hits New High in '08
The U.S. steel recycling rate reached a new high in 2008—83.3 percent, or 82 million tons of domestic steel scrap, according to the Steel Recycling Institute (Pittsburgh). The data show high levels of scrap production and scrap use in the United States during the first three quarters of 2008 as well as record steel scrap exports for the year. Recyclers processed more than 1.5 million tons, or 65.2 percent, of steel containers and 14.8 million tons, or 106 percent, of automobile steel. Appliance and structural steel recycling rates remained stable at 90 percent and 97.5 percent, respectively, while rebar recycling increased slightly to 70 percent. Visit recycle-steel.org.

Recyclers Get 90 More Days to Process Vehicles
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (Manassas, Va.) has given automotive recyclers an additional 90 days—for a total of 270 days—to crush or shred vehicles turned in under the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save program. The final rule amends regulations implementing the CARS program—also known as Cash for Clunkers—that initially were published on July 29, 2009.

BIR Touts Recycling During UN Climate Conference
The Bureau of International Recycling (Brussels) took part in the Bright Green exhibition, a showcase for solutions to climate change that ran alongside the United Nations conference on climate change in Copenhagen Dec. 12-13. BIR's exhibit explained the carbon dioxide emission reductions as well as the energy and water saved through recycling and the use of recycled materials. More than 15,000 people attended the exhibition, BIR said. Visit www.bir.org.

Palfinger Forms New Distribution Company
Palfinger North America Group (Niagara Falls, Ontario) has formed Paltec Truck Equipment Co. (Birmingham, Ala.) by integrating the group's Tiffin Loader Crane Co. (Tiffin, Ohio) and Omaha Standard Distribution (Council Bluffs, Iowa) companies. The new distribution company will be managed and operated independently from Palfinger, the company says. Paltec will maintain existing OSD and Tiffin branches in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Charlotte, N.C.; Atlanta; Birmingham, Ala.; Nashville, Tenn.; Louisville, Ky.; Indianapolis; Dallas; Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Tiffin, Ohio. Visit www.palfinger-northamerica.com or www.fontaine.com.

Paper Machine, De-inked Pulp Plant Idled
Catalyst Paper (Richmond, British Columbia) has idled two of its plants in British Columbia—its No. 1 paper machine in Crofton and a plant in Coquitlam that supplies the Crofton paper machines with de-inked pulp. The company made the changes due to weak demand for newsprint and directory paper, it says. The machine, which produced 140,000 mt of commodity grades annually, was temporarily idled in December 2009 for the holidays. Visit www.catalystpaper.com.

Smurfit-Stone Closes Two Mills
Smurfit-Stone (Creve Coeur, Mo.) closed its Missoula, Mont., and Ontonagon, Mich., mills, effective Dec. 31, 2009. The mills produced 620,000 tons of liner and 280,000 tons of medium a year, respectively. Visit www.smurfit-stone.com.

Columbia Steel Redesigns Logo
Columbia Steel (Portland, Ore.) has chosen a new look to convey its message and services, retiring its previous logo after 35 years. The new logo features a stylized foundry ladle shaped like a large letter C with molten metal pouring from it. It reflects the company's expertise in engineering and production of steel and alloy castings, the firm says. Visit www.columbiasteel.com.

Companies Support Haitian Relief Efforts
Columbus McKinnon Corp. (Amherst, N.Y.) has contributed more than $40,000 worth of products to aid recovery efforts in Haiti, including chain, load binders, assemblies for moving heavy equipment, and manual hoists to help remove debris.

SiCon Germany (Hamburg, Germany) and SiCon America (Venice, Fla.) have made a $1,250 donation to the American and German Red Cross to help with the relief efforts. Visit www.cmworks.com, www.sicon-gmbh.de, or www.en.sicontechnology.com.

New Bins Promote Recycling at Southern California Aquarium
The American Chemistry Council (Arlington, Va.) has donated eight recycling bins to the Aquarium of the Pacific (Long Beach, Calif.) decorated with images of marine life and educational messages promoting recycling as a way to keep the ocean and beaches clean. The aquarium recently joined the state's recycling awareness campaign, "Plastics. Too Valuable to Waste. Recycle," which began in 2008 through the California Department of Parks and Recreation (Sacramento, Calif.), ACC, and Keep California Beautiful (Sacramento, Calif.). Visit www.2valuable2waste.com or www.

americanchemistry.com.

ISO Adds Ship-Recycling Standard
The International Organization for Standardization (Geneva) has created a new standard for ship recycling, ISO 30003:2009. The standard certifies organizations that audit and certify ship recycling management systems to instill confidence that their process is competent, consistent, and reliable. ISO also is developing other standards in the ISO 30000 ship-recycling series, such as best practices for ship-recycling facilities, guidelines for selection of ship recyclers, guidelines for implementing ISO 30000, information control for hazardous materials in shipbuilding and ship operations, guidelines on surveying ships for hazardous material and amount to be reported, methods to remove asbestos in ships, and yacht recycling. Visit www.iso.org.

Cities Compete in Can Recycling
More than 40 cities collected more than 125 million used beverage cans in October 2009 during the sixth annual Cans for Cash: City Recycling Challenge sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Mayors (Washington, D.C.), Novelis (Atlanta), and Keep America Beautiful (Stamford, Conn.). The competition recognized cities that collected the most pounds of cans per capita as well as cities with innovative public education and awareness campaigns. First place for the most cans collected went to Milwaukee; second place, Mobile, Ala.; third place, Fontana, Calif.; and fourth place, Bowling Green, Ky. Three cities received recognition for innovation. First place went to Irvine, Calif.; second place, Canfield, Ohio; and third place, Wellington, Fla. Visit www.usmayors.org, www.kab.org, or www.novelis.com.

Mergers and Acquisitions

• Metalico (Cranford, N.J.) has purchased Youngstown Iron & Metal and Atlas Recycling, both located in Youngstown, Ohio. The acquisition includes all inventory, equipment, and real estate owned by the sellers and their affiliates and used in their businesses. Visit www.metalico.com.

• Waste Management (Houston) has acquired the assets of City Wide Recycling (Milwaukee), which processes construction and demolition scrap. City Wide founders John Hansen and Eric Konik will become consultants to Waste Management. On Jan. 1, Wisconsin began requiring construction contractors on state projects to recycle at least 50 percent of leftover construction materials on projects of $5 million or more and on all demolition projects.

• WM also has become the official waste and recycling sponsor of Live Nation (Los Angeles). The multiyear agreement covers Live Nation's 66 venues, concerts, tickets, and online platform. Under the agreement, WM will work to minimize waste and promote recycling at all Live Nation venues. To kick off the program, the companies launched Recycling Rocks, a marketing campaign to promote and encourage recycling to live music fans nationwide. Live Nation's Web site also provides recycling information. Visit www.wm.com or www.livenation.com/recyclingrocks.

• TST (Fontana, Calif.) has acquired the principal operating assets of Alpase (Downey, Calif.), a cast aluminum plate producer. Visit www.tst-inc.com.

• AbitibiBowater (Montréal) has sold its recycling facilities in Arlington, Houston, and San Antonio, Texas, to Waste Management (Houston) for $12 million. The company will continue operating its recycling programs in the three cities as well as in 20 other North American metropolitan areas, but Waste Management will process the recyclables collected through AbitibiBowater recycling programs—Paper Retriever and EcoRewards—at the Arlington, Houston, and San Antonio facilities. Visit www.abitibibowater.com.

• Stay Safe Shred and Recycle (El Dorado Hills, Calif.) has acquired the document destruction business line of Pride Industries (Roseville, Calif.), including Pride's shredding and recycling ser­vice vehicles and equipment. Visit www.staysafeshred.com.

• Staroba Plastics (Holland, N.Y.) has acquired Carlisle Construction's (Charlotte, N.C.) EcoStar division, which makes roofing tiles from recycled rubber and plastic, according to news reports. The new company, EcoStar (Holland, N.Y.), will have full control of manufacturing, marketing, and selling the EcoStar line. Visit www.starobaplastics.com.

• Horsehead Holding Corp. (Pittsburgh) has acquired International Metals Reclamation Co. (Ellwood City, Pa.), which operates the only secondary smelter in North America that recycles nickel, chrom­ium, and other metals from hazardous and nonhazardous material, the company says. INMET­CO also processes nickel-cadmium batteries. Visit www.horsehead.net or www.inmetco.com.

• MITL Acquisition Corp. (Lincoln, Mass.) has purchased GPX International Tire Corp.'s (Malden, Mass.) solid tire business, which includes manufacturing operations in Maine, Pennsylvania, and Hebei, China, as well as various North American distribution and retail networks. The company will operate under the name Maine Industrial Tire (Gorham, Maine). Bryan Ganz will serve as chief executive officer, Troy Kline as president and chief operating officer, and Phil Fitzgerald as director of China operations. Visit www.gpxtire.com.

• Ritchie Bros. (Vancouver, British Columbia) has acquired the auction business and certain assets of Martella Auction Co. (Tipton, Calif.), an equipment auctioneer. Ritchie Bros. will lease Martella's 65-acre auction site for unreserved public auctions. Jeremy Martella will stay on as the area manager for the site. Ritchie Bros. also has opened two new auction sites—a 60-acre site in Grande Prairie, Alberta, which includes an 800-seat auction theater and an equipment refurbishing facility, and a 16.5-acre site in Narita, Japan, which has a facility for washing equipment. Ritchie Bros. sold $3.5 billion of equipment at 327 unreserved auctions worldwide in 2009, including nearly $830 million sold online. Visit www.rbauction.com.

Openings and Expansions

• River Metals Recycling (Crescent Springs, Ky.) has opened a nearly 8-acre feeder yard at 1951 State Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45204. The yard will operate from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7:30 a.m. to noon Saturdays. The new yard's phone number is 513/244-2134. The yard buys household ferrous and nonferrous scrap metal. The facility sorts the items on site and then transports them to the company's Newport, Ky., plant. The yard has a truck scale and an unmanned payment station. Visit www.rmrecycling.com.

• Cycle Systems (Roanoke, Va.) has opened a feeder yard at 9306 Winterberry Ave., Covington, VA 24426, to help supply its metal shredding and shearing operations in Roanoke and Lynchburg, the company says. Visit www.cyclesystems.com.

• Mervis Industries (Danville, Ill.) has formed Illini Castings, also in Danville, to recondition railroad castings. John Widmer will serve as president, Ray Johnson as vice president and general manager, and Mike Marriott as quality assurance and safety manager. The company will refurbish couplers, yokes, site frames, and bolsters of retired railcars. Visit www.mervis.com.

• Polyflow (Akron, Ohio) announced in November it is working with Chemstress Consultant Co. (Akron, Ohio) and Niagara Systems (Perry, Ohio) to open a plastics and rubber recycling plant in the Cleveland-Akron metro area, according to news reports. The plant will be able to process up to 5,000 pounds an hour of mixed and dirty polymers, including plastics, rubber tires, carpet, and plastic foam, through a continuous-feed commercial processor. Visit polyflow.uuuq.com.

• Precision Recycling Industries (Cornelius, N.C.) has opened Precision Recycling Industries of Virginia, a glass recycling plant in Chester, Va. The plant initially will have the capacity to recycle 50,000 tons of mixed glass a year for reuse in abrasives, architectural products, and filtration systems. PRIVA will recycle bottles and other glass products from curbside recycling systems, recycling drop-off centers, and manned recycling centers in Virginia and the surrounding region. The plant will supply material to Precision and Novetas Solutions (Philadelphia), the manufacturer of New Age Blast Media. Visit www.precisionrecycling.com.

• Hilex Poly (Hartsville, S.C.) has expanded its plastic bag-to-bag recycling facility in North Vernon, Ind. Visit www.hilexpoly.com.

• Umicore (Brussels) plans to build a €25 million industrial-scale recycling facility for end-of-life rechargeable batteries in Hoboken, Belgium, which should open in the first half of 2011. The facility will have the capacity to process 7,000 mt a year, which is about 150,000 hybrid electric vehicle batteries or 250 million mobile phone batteries. Visit www.umicore.com.

• Steinert Elektromagnetbau (Cologne, Germany) is constructing a new production building and other facilities at its Widdersdorferstrasse site in Cologne. The additions will increase production space from 5,000 to 7,500 square meters. Visit www.steinert.de.

• SGM Magnetics Corp. (Sarasota, Fla.) has opened a sales office at 815 Crocker Road, Suite 8, Westlake, OH 44145. The phone number is 440/871-7900, and the fax is 440/871-7901. Visit www.sgm-magnetics.com.

• Envirosure Solutions (Tempe, Ariz.), an environmental, health, and safety compliance management company, has opened an office in Warren, R.I., which Senior Environmental Scientist Leon Vannais will oversee. Visit www.envirosure.com.

• The engineered products group of ESCO Corp. (Portland, Ore.) has launched its first Australian entity, ESCO Holdings (Victoria, Australia), with Johan Nienaber as director of sales. ESCO Corp. also announced that it does not plan to renew or extend a license agreement that ends June 2011 with Bradken (Waratah, Australia) to manufacture and sell ESCO products in Australia, New Zealand, and Papua, New Guinea. Instead, ESCO will take over its own sales and support for those regions. Visit www.escocorp.com.

• Jindal Steel & Power (New Delhi, India) plans to build a 1.8 million-ton-a-year coal gasification-based Midrex (Charlotte, N.C.) direct-reduction plant in Angul, Orissa, India. The endeavor pairs Lurgi gasification technology with a 7.15-meter Midrex shaft furnace to produce direct-reduced iron for meltshops. The plant will produce cold and hot DRI for a new greenfield meltshop that SMS Siemag (Düsseldorf, Germany) will supply. The syngas produced in the gasification plant is the reducing agent that converts iron oxide to DRI for melting in an electric-arc furnace. Visit www.jindalsteelpower.com or www.midrex.com.

Electronics Recycling Roundup

• TechTurn (Austin, Texas) has become the first facility to achieve R2/RIOS certification. This new standard is a stringent set of requirements for electronics recyclers that covers environmental, worker health and safety, and data security practices. ReMA developed the R2/RIOS Certified Electronics Recycler program for its electronics recycling members. Visit www.techturn.com.

• LifeSpan Technology Recycling (Newton, Mass.) has begun RIOS, R2, and ISO 14001 certification of its North American processing facilities. Auditing began in January, and the company expects to complete the process within the year. Visit www.lifespan

  recycling.com.

• Creative Recycling Systems (Tampa, Fla.) has signed a multilevel sponsorship agreement with the boy band WOW. The deal, which includes tour support as well as print and online media, began with WOW's performances in Toronto and Montréal on Jan. 15-16. CRS sees the group as a way to connect to the teen/tween market to promote the recycling of electronic devices, the company says. Visit www.crserecycling.com or www.wowthegroup.com.

• WM Recycle America (Houston) has implemented the U.S. EPA's Responsible Recycling (R2) program for electronics recyclers. Waste Manage­ment's Minneapolis eCycling facility is one of the first facilities in the industry to receive R2 certification, and the company is in the process of certifying all of its electronics recycling facilities, it says. Visit www.recycleamerica.com.

• LS-Nikko (Seoul, South Korea), a copper smelter, has become a minority investor in Electronic Recyclers International (Fresno, Calif.). ERI will send copper and precious metals reclaimed from electronics recycling to LS-Nikko for smelting. Visit www.electronicsrecyclers.com or www.lsnikko.com.

• The San Diego Venture Group has chosen ecoATM (San Diego) as the winner of the 10th annual Pitchfest business plan competition, which was open to Southern California-based companies that raised less than $2 million in institutional venture capital. The company, which received a $20,000 grand prize, pitched its business plan for self-service kiosks for used electronic device buybacks to a panel of venture capitalists and to the audience at the Pitchfest dinner. Visit www.ecoatm.com.

• Computer Recycling USA (Holliston, Mass.) is collecting and refurbishing laptops from corporations nationwide for use in hospitals by wounded servicemen and women via the Laptops for the Wounded program (Cody, Wyo.). The program provides a way for these military members to contact family and friends via e-mail, instant messaging, or live conversations using Webcams. Computer Recycling accepts the laptops, erases the data on the hard drive, refurbishes the equipment, and ships them to Laptops for the Wounded, which places them at eight hospitals nationwide that participate in the program. The company also accepts other technology, such as servers and networking equipment, and a portion of the proceeds from the equipment's sale goes to the program. Visit www.computerrecyclingusa.com or www.laptopsforthewounded.com.

• Siemens Energy (Orlando, Fla.) and Materials Processing Corp. (Mendota Heights, Minn.) have partnered to recycle end-of-life electronic components for the electric utility industry. The service will pick up components for secure on-site destruction such as computers for supervisory control and data acquisition, energy management systems, remote terminal units, protective relays, and meters. Siemens then transports the equipment to MPC's center for recycling, with nothing going to a landfill, the company says. Visit www.siemens.com or materialsprocessing.com.

• The U.S. EPA (Washington, D.C.) has fined two Lakewood, Wash., companies—Ziliang Zhu, doing business as W and E International Trading, and SM Metals, currently doing business as Better PC Recycle—more than $21,000 for illegally exporting computer monitors to Hong Kong in April 2009. The Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department intercepted the shipment and returned it to the port of Tacoma, Wash., in May. The companies agreed to pay the fine and dismantle the CRTs at a permitted U.S. facility. Violations included improperly packing, labeling, and marking dangerous waste and failing to notify the EPA of their intent to export it. The companies also failed to obtain consent from the destination country. Visit www.epa.gov.

• Goodwill Industries (Rockville, Md.) and Dell (Round Rock, Texas) have added 445 more ReConnect drop-off sites for computers and computer accessories in Arizona, Georgia, Maryland, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Tennessee, bringing the total to 1,900 nationwide. Visit www.reconnectpartnership.com or www.goodwill.org.

• Motorola (Schaumburg, Ill.) has established a take-back recycling program for its U.S. enterprise mobility solutions customers. The program covers Motorola-branded EMS equipment such as mobile and portable two-way radios, handheld mobile computers, bar-code scanners, imagers, in-vehicle mobile workstations, accessories, network infrastructure equipment, computers, laptops, and monitors. Consumers must remove batteries from the equipment before shipping them with the items. They can arrange online to send smaller, more portable items to one of Motorola's e-scrap recycling partners or have a Motorola e-scrap partner pick up larger equipment. Freight charges apply in some cases. Motorola audits its recyclers to ensure they comply with electronic equipment disposal laws. Visit www.motorola.com/recycle.

• KOM Networks (Ottawa, Ontario), a data storage firm, and the OEM division of Dell (Round Rock, Texas) have launched the Junk-A-Juke program, which collects and recycles obsolete and legacy optical "jukeboxes" and other data storage equipment and then donates proceeds from recycling them to Feed the Children. The program is available to those who replace their old archive and storage system with a KOM networks system, which is free with a three-year maintenance contract. KOM has partnered with Technology Conservation Group (Lecanto, Fla.) to pick up and recycle the equipment. Visit www.komnetworks.com.

• Oregon residents can no longer dispose of their computers, laptops, monitors, or TVs in landfills, transfer stations, or incinerators as of Jan. 1. Through its Oregon E-Cycles program, the state provides free recycling of these items at 220 collection sites. Violators could receive up to a $500 fine for each item improperly disposed of. The law does not cover computer peripherals such as keyboards or mice nor does it cover other types of electronics. Visit www.oregon.gov.

• ReCellular (Ann Arbor, Mich.) has named the 10 most recycled phones in 2009. All 10 models are more than three years old. Four of the 10 phones came from Motorola, four from LG, and one each from Nokia and Samsung. Overall, phone recycling rates did not improve in the last year, the company says. Visit www.recellular.com.

• The Refinishing Touch (Alpharetta, Ga.), an on-site furniture refinisher and refurbisher, has launched a recycling program for television sets that its hotel customers replace during renovation projects. The company says it has instituted a no-landfill policy for the program. Visit www.therefinishingtouch.com.

New Ventures

• European Metal Recycling (Warrington, England) and Smith Industries (Capitol Heights, Md.) have formed EMR/Smith Industries, a holding company that owns EMR subsidiary Camden Iron & Metal (Camden, N.J) and Smith Industries (Capitol Heights, Md.). Paul Smith previously was the sole owner of Smith Industries. Visit www.emrltd.com, www.smithindustries.us, or www.camdeniron.com.

• Sonoco Recycling (Hartsville, S.C.) has received a two-year contract to haul, sort, and recycle residential and commercial materials for Durham, N.C. The company also will provide recycling educational programs, partner with local schools, and hold recycling events that target paper and electronics. Sonoco will deliver the materials to its Durham recycling facility before transporting them to the company's materials recovery facility in Raleigh. Visit www.sonoco.com.

• InfoSpi (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) has signed a contract with Little Lighthouse for exclusive rights to operate tire-to-oil facilities in Duval, St. Johns, Volusia, Brevard, Seminole, Orange, and Osceola, Fla. The company also plans to open its pilot plant in Pompano Beach, Fla., in early 2011. The 40,000-square-foot warehouse is expected to process 30 tons of used tires a day, recovering oil, carbon black, and high-grade steel. Visit www.infospiinc.com.

• Dart Container Corp. (Mason, Mich.) has opened a polystyrene-foam recycling collection center in Quitman, Miss. The site accepts No. 6 foam food ser­vice containers such as cups, plates, takeout containers, egg cartons, and shaped or molded foam. Visit www.dartcontainer.com.

• RecycleBank (New York) has expanded its services to nearly 32,000 Hollywood, Fla., households—each receiving a 95-gallon recycling cart with an identification tag the hauler scans to track recycling activity. RecycleBank converts the amount recycled into points the households can use for discounts at local and national retailers. The new program also means a move to single-stream recycling for the community, with pickups every other week. Visit www.recyclebank.com.

• The Coca-Cola Co. (Atlanta) and Keep America Beautiful (Stamford, Conn.) have launched the 2010 recycling bin grant program for government agencies, civic organizations, schools, and nonprofit groups to promote community recycling. Grant recipients receive donated recycling bins as well as information on how to set up recycling programs from Keep America Beautiful. The grant program is part of a $60 million investment by The Coca-Cola Co. in U.S. recycling initiatives. Visit www.thecoca-colacompany.com or www.kab.org.

• TerraCycle (Trenton, N.J.) has partnered with the Sharpie, Paper Mate, and Expo pen companies to reuse and recycle their products. Participants will collect pens, markers, and other writing instruments through "writing instrument brigades" set up at participating locales such as corporations and schools. For every item collected, a designated school, community group, charity, or other nonprofit receives two cents. TerraCycle will disassemble the items to make new products.

  The firm also has partnered with Elmer's Glue to increase participation in the Glue Crew Recycling Program. Schools can sign up on the TerraCycle Web site to become a collection point for recycling. Visit www.terracycle.net or www.elmersgluecrew.com.

• Harsco Corp. (Harrisburg, Pa.) has received two multiyear specialty metal processing service contracts with a combined value of $70 million from ATI Allegheny Ludlum for its Midland and Brackenridge, Pa., plants. Harsco also has received a multiyear contract worth more than $65 million as an on-site services partner at the 1,200-acre Ispat Dolvi complex in Maharashtra, India. The plant produces more than 3 million tons of hot-rolled coil a year and is part of Ispat Industries (Mumbai). Harsco recently opened a new Hyderabad, India-based services center for engineering and IT support. Visit www.harsco.com.

• Paladin Brands (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) has combined the Paladin Light Construction and Paladin Heavy Construction companies to form the Paladin Construction Group (Dexter, Mich.). The group will offer eight brands of couplers and attachments: Bradco, JRB, Sweepster, C&P, Custom Works, FFC, Harley, and McMillen. The new company has manufacturing and warehousing facilities in Dexter, Mich.; Akron, Ohio; Delhi, Iowa; and Ooltewah, Tenn. Visit www.paladinbrands.com.

Equipment Sales and Installations

• Azcon Corp. (Chicago) has installed a Wendt 82 heavy shredder powered by a 4,000-hp motor at its Alton, Ill., facility adjacent to the Mississippi River. The shredder can process up to 80 tons an hour. The shredder's nonferrous plant includes dual eddy-current separators and metal finders. Environmental features include a heavy-duty concrete and asphalt base, a closed-loop air system, and a stormwater treatment system. The company also installed inbound and outbound truck scales and radiation detectors and separate commercial truck lanes. Visit www.azcon.net.

• Hawkeswood Metals (Nechells, England) has installed an 80x104 super heavy-duty shredder from American Pulverizer Co. (St. Louis) and Hustler Conveyor Co. (O'Fallon, Mo.). The companies supplied the mill and the undermill oscillator. The shredder does not have an operator control room over the motor control building. Instead it uses infrared and closed-circuit cameras to allow remote monitoring from a spot near the infeed conveyor.

  In other news, American Pulverizer has purchased its third CNC lathe in the last year and a half. The addition will aid the company with emergency rotor rebuilds, it says. Visit www.

  ampulverizer.com, www.hustler-conveyor.com, or www.scrapmetalrecycling.com.

• Louis Padnos Iron & Metal Co. (Holland, Mich.) has equipped its Wyoming, Mich., recycling center with 636 solar panels, which cover 15,000 square feet of rooftop. As of December, it was reportedly the state's largest commercial solar-panel installation. Cascade Renewable Energy (Grand Rapids, Mich.) and Swanson Electrical Services (Grant, Mich.) installed the $1.27 million system. Cascade predicts the system will pay for itself in eight years, in part due to incentives from the company's electric utility. Visit www.padnos.com.

• MeWa Recycling Maschinen und Anlagenbau (Gechingen, Germany) built a plant to process refrigerators, freezers, and electrical scrap for Viridor (St. Helens, England). One line of the plant can process more than 100 refrigerators an hour. The second line can process 7 mt to 9 mt of electronic scrap an hour. Visit www.mewa-recycling.de or www.viridor.co.uk.

NMHG Adds Two Distributors
NACCO Materials Handling Group (Green­ville, N.C.) has named Northland Industrial Truck Co. (Wilmington, Mass.) a Hyster dealer for Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and parts of Vermont and Massachusetts. NITCO also will remain the Yale dealer in Maine, New Hampshire, and part of Massachusetts. NMHG also has named Alta Equipment Co. (Wixom, Mich.) a Hyster dealer in the western Michigan and Chicago markets. Alta acquired Hyster dealer Mid-State Industrial Services (Eaton Rapids, Mich.) in Michigan and acquired Aurora Lift (Montgomery, Ill.) in Illinois, which will now be the exclusive Hyster dealer in the Chicago market. Visit www.nmhg.com, www.nitco-lift.com, and www.altaequipment.com.

REM Moves to New Facility
Recycling Equipment Manufacturing has moved to a new site in Priest River, Idaho. Its new mailing address is P.O. Box 310, Priest River, ID 83856. The new location doubles the company's manufacturing floor space and provides a smoother work flow and large lay-down area for larger pieces of equipment and systems, it says. Visit www.remfg.com.

Awards and Milestones

• Trademark Metals Recycling (Tampa, Fla.) has received the Florida/United Safety Council Award for workplace health and safety in the category of businesses with one to 500 employees. This is the fourth time in five years that TMR has received this award, the company says. The council selects the winners by reviewing company health and safety programs for accident rates, inspection programs, employee training and involvement, management support, and continuous improvement. Visit www.tmrecycling.com.

• Manitoba Corp. (Lancaster, N.Y.) has achieved recertification to the ISO 9001:2008 quality management standard, with this new certification valid through January 2013. Manitoba, a nonferrous scrap recycling company, earned its first ISO certification in December 2003.

• MBA Polymers (Richmond, Calif.) has received the 2009 Most Unique Offering award from Cleantech Connect, a gathering of clean technology companies organized by investment bank GP Bullhound. MBA Polymers also was identified as one of the fastest growing clean tech companies in Europe. Visit www.mbapolymers.com.

• Greenberg Engineering Co. (Bala Cynwyd, Pa.) is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. The company develops equipment for scrap processing and metal smelting.

• Carpet America Recovery Effort (Dalton, Ga.) has received a 2009 project merit award for sustainability and resource protection from the Environmental Business Journal. CARE received the award for its market-based solutions for recycling and reuse of postconsumer carpet, which have diverted more than 1.3 billion pounds of carpet from landfills since 2002, it says. Visit www.carpetrecovery.org.

• The Arkansas Recycling Coalition (Fordyce, Ark.) has chosen the Camden, Ark., facility of Lockheed Martin (Bethesda, Md.) as the Arkansas Corporate Recycler of the Year. The award recognizes businesses or organizations that have successful waste reduction programs, which includes reuse and recycling as well as purchasing recycled products. Visit www.recycleark.org.

Recycled Products

• Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems (Santa Cruz, Calif.) is converting its bottled vitamin line to sustainable EcoGuard bottles made from 100-percent recycled plastic. Visit www.rainbowlight.com.

• LTR Products (Pittsburgh), a subsidiary of Liberty Tire Recycling (Pittsburgh), is manufacturing Pinnacle rubber mulch made from scrap tires. Visit www.ltrproducts.com.

• Electrolux Floor Care and Small Appliances (Stockholm, Sweden) has chosen MBA Polymers Austria (Kematen, Austria) as its postconsumer ABS supplier for AEG-Electrolux UltraActive Green vacuum cleaners. The machines are made of 55 percent postconsumer recycled plastics. Visit www.mbapolymers.at.

Resources

• The World Steel Association (Brussels) has launched a news update service using the Twitter social networking Web site. Users can receive updates via the Web site or via mobile phone text messages in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, Indonesia, and New Zealand. The group also has a page on Facebook and YouTube. Visit www.worldsteel.org.

• Earth911 (Scottsdale, Ariz.) has released the newest version of iRecycle, a free application for the iPhone and iPod Touch with which users can locate recycling locations for a wide variety of materials nationwide. This version also provides information on green events and news. Visit www.earth911.com/iphone.

• WasteCap Resource Solutions (Milwaukee) has created a new online recycling documentation Web site, WasteCap TRACE, to track and document the reuse and recycling of construction, deconstruction, and remodeling project materials. Users register to enter project data online, and the program monitors, calculates, and documents project-recycling results. Contractors also can create and export construction waste management plans. Companies with multiple projects can aggregate companywide results and generate reports. Visit www.wastecap.org or www.wastecaptrace.org.

• Marcal Manufacturing (Elmwood Park, N.J.) is offering free lesson plans and classroom activities to teach students about recycling. Visit www.marcalsmallsteps.com.

• Moore Recycling Associates (Sonoma, Calif.) has launched a free, nationwide online directory of plastic scrap that links buyers and sellers of processed and unprocessed plastic scrap. Users can search the site by material type and form, company type, postconsumer or postindustrial, and truckload or less-than-truckload quatities. Companies that process scrap plastic can add their business details to the database through a link on the home page. Moore vets all information before it goes live. Visit www.moorerecycling.com or www.plasticsmarkets.org.

• The National Demolition Association (Doylestown, Pa.) has revamped its Web site, which includes online safety training and certification courses. The members-only feature provides more than 7,000 training courses ranging from fall protection to excavator safety to safe driving. Members pay just once for each course and may view the course as many times as they want for up to one year. Visit www.demolitionassociation.com.

• The American Forest & Paper Association (Washington, D.C.) has updated its free paper recycling guides for commercial property owners and managers. One guide provides tips for establishing workplace recycling programs as well as educating and motivating employees. The community guide provides tips for educating residents about recycling. Visit www.afandpa.org or www.paperrecycles.org.

• The International Scrap Directory 2009 has more than 1,250 listings of ferrous and nonferrous scrap processors and traders, including 500 new listings. It lists companies in 72 countries with information on each company's activities—for example, international trade, works clearance, demolition, dismantling, or briquetting—as well as products handled and key management contacts. The memoranda section lists industry associations, abbreviations, and ferrous and nonferrous specifications. It's available for $897 from MetalBulletin Directories. Visit www.metalbulletinstore.com.

• 1-800-Recycling.com (Fresno, Calif.) has added UsedCardboardBoxes.com to its nationwide network of recycling resources. The latter company recovers and sells used boxes from large manufacturers. Visit www.1800recycling.com or www.usedcardboardboxes.com.

• The Northeast Recycling Council (Brattleboro, Vt.) has launched the Reuse Marketplace, a seven-state materials exchange network for businesses, government agencies, and nonprofits to find markets for disposing of unwanted materials. NERC operates the site in partnership with eight materials exchanges in Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Participants offer unwanted items at below retail cost or for free on their state's participating materials exchange. Visitors to the site then browse listings from all eight exchanges at once. Visit www.reusemarketplace.org or www.nerc.org.

• From Waste to Resource: World Waste Survey 2009 offers a comprehensive look at waste and recycling issues and statistics around the globe. The 452-page softcover book begins by defining waste, quantifying world waste generation, discussing the recovery of recyclables from the waste stream, and touching on the legal and regulatory framework for waste management and recycling internationally. Much of the book is dedicated to examining the waste and recycling statistics for more than 40 countries and four regions: Europe, America, Oceania/Asia, and Africa/Middle East. The final chapter provides a brief overview of the global scrap market, with a focus on the recovered fiber niche. The book wraps up with a five-page glossary. Veolia Environmental Services, a waste management and recycling company, and CyclOpe, a commodity-focused research institute, jointly produced World Waste Survey 2009, which was written by Philippe Chalmin, chairman of CyclOpe and professor at Dauphine University (Paris), and environmental law expert Catherine Gaillochet. Available free by request. Visit www.cercle-cyclope.com.

  CyclOpe also has released the 2009 edition of its World Commodity Yearbook. The 768-page softcover publication is divided into two parts, with the first reviewing general market trends, with a focus on the 2008 economic crises, and the second providing an in-depth look at specific commodity markets, from art to zirconium, including most metals, paper, automobiles, chemicals, and energy. The book is chock full of graphs and tables, which provide multiyear information on trends in most markets. Available for $180 from The Brookings Institution. To order, visit www.brookings.edu/press.

E-Scrap Goes for the Gold, Silver, and Bronze
For the first time in Olympic history, the medals produced for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Games were made partially from metal reclaimed from electronic scrap. Teck Resources (Vancouver, British Columbia), the official metal supplier for the medals, used gold, silver, and copper recovered from circuitboards and other end-of-life electronics at its smelter in Trail, British Columbia, and at Umicore facilities in Belgium. The company mixed the recycled material with virgin metals from its mining and smelting operations and provided it to the Royal Canadian Mint, which produced the medals.

Teck reported that 1.52 percent of the gold came from e-scrap, as did 0.122 percent of the silver and 1.11 percent of the copper. The gold was electroplated over a sterling silver base for the gold medals; the silver medals also are sterling silver (92.5 percent silver mixed with 7.5 percent copper). The company did not specify the exact composition of the bronze medals.

Visit www.teck.com.

A First-Person Tale of the Asian Scrap Boom
In 1993, Pittsburgh native Stephen Greer, then in his mid-20s, arrived in Hong Kong and slept on a friend's couch while getting his start trading stainless steel scrap. Over time Greer developed an extensive scrap collection and processing business, Hartwell Pacific, which he sold in 2005 to Australia's Smorgon Steel (now OneSteel), among other companies, for an undisclosed sum. In Starting From Scrap, Greer describes his journey and ultimate success in the "bare-knuckle world of scrap metal recycling" in Asia and relates his own story to the bigger context of the Asian scrap industry during that period.

This fast-moving story throws some light on a less-than-transparent industry not often covered by business writers as well as gives an authentic look into what's still a private business. Greer's account is both inspiring and—as I had to keep reminding myself—true. Readers will be awed by his enormous personal drive, evidenced by his dozen years of hard work across time zones and continents, and the extraordinary perseverance he used to propel his business forward despite a slew of adversities. Along the path from his first back-to-back sales of stainless to his construction of an organization with its own network of yards around Asia, Greer made his share of mistakes, which he describes in considerable detail. Overexpansion forced the company to regroup, as did its failed efforts to build supply lines from the eastern United States and western Mexico. Clearly, supportive customers and a healthy dose of luck in timing the commodities markets provided a nice tailwind. Ultimately the company's success attracted Smorgon, which melded Greer's company into its larger network in its drive toward worldwide integration of markets.

Though not meant as a how-to guide for novice merchants or processors, Greer does provide savvy business advice on the art of trading; bringing quality, efficiencies, and inventory control to individual yards; and in scaling up a metal recycling business so that it can exploit synergies of multiple markets and geographic arbitrages.

In between all the tough trading and long nights in the yards, the book offers a great deal of poignancy, which gives it a very special, human feel. For example, Greer's business pays for a life-saving surgery for the wife of an unscrupulous local yard manager in Mexico. At a number of critical junctures in his business, Greer consults with his father, a retired executive living in Pennsylvania, and sometimes his grandfather. He describes long flights between Hong Kong and the United States, where he says he always gets a window seat so he can look over the Canadian mountain ranges while he contemplates, Zen-like, any number of weighty decisions awaiting him upon landing.

Starting From Scrap: An Entrepreneurial Success Story, by Stephen Greer, published by Burford Books (2010), will be available in late March.

Barry Parker is principal of bdp1 Consulting, a New York-area firm that advises shipping clients on freighting and maritime business issues.

Wine Bottles Get a New Life
The Cowhorn winery (Applegate Valley, Ore.) has found a way to make the most of its used bottles. In January, the winery sent its first shipment of 1,000 bottles to the Green Glass Co. (Weston, Wis.), which will turn the used wine bottles into goblets, pitchers, tumblers, vases, and votives. The winery also collects the soft metal bottle cap that covers the cork and invites customers to bring in torn tins from any winery for recycling. Visit www.greenglass.com or www.cowhorn.com.

WeRecycle! on the Great White Way
WeRecycle! (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) and the Broadway Green Alliance (New York) held an electronics recycling collection event Dec. 16 in Times Square. As people dropped off their items, cast members from Broadway shows Finian's Rainbow, Guys and Dolls, Mamma Mia!, 9 to 5, Phantom of the Opera, Ragtime, South Pacific, The Little Mermaid, and Wicked performed hit songs for them. Composer John Mercurio created a song especially for the event, and Broadway performers ad-libbed songs about the hazards of mismanaging end-of-life electronics. WeRecycle! transported the used electronics to its facilities for recycling. Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (New York), spoke to the crowd about the potential dangers of electronic scrap. Visit www.werecycle.com. •

The U.S. steel recycling rate reached a new high in 2008—83.3 percent, or 82 million tons of domestic steel scrap, according to the Steel Recycling Institute (Pittsburgh). The data show high levels of scrap production and scrap use in the United States during the first three quarters of 2008 as well as record steel scrap exports for the year. Recyclers processed more than 1.5 million tons, or 65.2 percent, of steel containers and 14.8 million tons, or 106 percent, of automobile steel. Appliance and structural steel recycling rates remained stable at 90 percent and 97.5 percent, respectively, while rebar recycling increased slightly to 70 percent.