Scrap Beat: November/December 2008

November/December 2008

GAO Wants EPA to Tighten E-Scrap Export Controls
A report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office finds that the U.S. EPA (Washington, D.C.) needs to better control and regulate the export of used electronic devices.

The EPA began regulating the exporting of cathode-ray tubes in January 2007. In its report, the GAO examined the fate of exported used electronics; the effectiveness of regulatory controls; and options to strengthen federal regulation of the exported used electronics.

The report states that U.S. hazardous waste regulations have not deterred exports of potentially hazardous used electronics because existing EPA regulations focus only on CRTs; companies easily circumvent the CRT rule; and EPA's enforcement is lacking.

The report suggests the EPA expand hazardous waste regulations to cover other exported used electronics, such as computers, printers, and cell phones; submit legislation to Congress for ratifying the Basel Convention, an international agreement governing the import and export of hazardous wastes; and work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other agencies to better identify and track exported used electronics.

Visit www.gao.gov. 

Solid Waste Definition Revised to Encourage Recycling
A final rule under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act streamlines the regulation of hazardous secondary materials when they are recycled for reuse. The streamlined regulation applies to specific, legitimate recycling activities.

The U.S. EPA rule excludes materials from the federal hazardous waste system that are generated and legitimately reclaimed under the control of the generator; generated and transferred to another company for legitimate reclamation under specific conditions; or determined by the EPA or an authorized state to be nonwastes on a case-by-case basis via a petition process.

The rule also determines what recycling activities are legitimate under the new exclusions and nonwaste determinations. The exclusions do not apply to materials that are considered inherently waste-like, used in a manner that constitutes disposal, or burned for energy recovery.

The EPA estimates the rule could affect about 5,600 facilities that handle about 1.5 million tons of hazardous secondary materials, most notably metals. Recyclers of such materials could save about $95 million per year, the EPA estimates.

Visit www.epa.gov. 

Nucor Develops Supplier Code of Conduct
Nucor Corp. (Charlotte, N.C.) has developed a supplier code of conduct that reflects principles the company expects of itself and its suppliers. The code states that suppliers must avoid employee harassment, coercion, abuse, or discrimination; not use involuntary, prison, or child labor; pay at least local minimum wage and benefits; comply with health, safety, and welfare laws; provide safe workplaces; strive to minimize their impact on the environment and comply with environmental laws; follow high business standards and ethics laws; and document their adherence to the code.

Visit www.nucor.com. 

Wal-Mart Commits to Reducing Plastic Bag Use Wal-Mart Stores
(Bentonville, Ark.) plans to reduce its plastic shopping bag consumption by an average of 33 percent per store by 2013, which would eliminate more than 135 million pounds of plastic consumed globally, the company reports. The 33-percent drop includes a 25-percent reduction at U.S. stores and a 50-percent reduction at international operations.

To achieve its goal, Wal-Mart plans to use less plastic in its bags; give out fewer bags by filling them more and encouraging the use of reusable bags; and give consumers the opportunity to recycle plastic shopping bags.

The retailer is developing its plastic bag reduction strategy with the Environmental Defense Fund (New York). It estimates it could eliminate the equivalent of 9 billion plastic bags per year from its existing stores.

Visit www.walmartstores.com or www.edf.org. 

Mergers and Acquisitions

• Schnitzer Steel Industries (Portland, Ore.) plans to acquire Ponce Resources (Salinas, Puerto Rico), which collects, processes, and sells ferrous and nonferrous scrap metal at four locations in the commonwealth. Schnitzer expects to close the acquisition during the first quarter of its 2009 fiscal year. Johannes Schoo, Tjerk Spijkerman, and Lennox Garden Investments are selling the business.

  Visit www.schnitzersteel.com.

• Cycle Systems (Roanoke, Va.) has acquired Coiners' Scrap Iron & Metal (Charlottesville, Va.), a scrap metal processor founded in 1907. The acquisition provides more scrap metal for Cycle Systems' shredding and shearing operations in Roanoke and Lynchburg, Va. The facility will retain its 10 employees and immediately begin operating under the Cycle Systems name. Cycle Systems, founded in 1916, operates eight locations in Virginia.

  Visit www.cyclesystems.com.

• Sims Group (New York) has acquired Weinert Recycling Co., a ferrous and nonferrous scrap processor that has locations in Middletown and Liberty, N.Y. Sims also has purchased Global Investment Recovery (Tampa, Fla.), an electronics recycler with locations in Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, and South Carolina.

  Visit www.sims-group.com.

• A. Tenenbaum Co. (Little Rock, Ark.) has formed a new subsidiary and acquired three Arkansas recycling centers. The subsidiary, Tenenbaum Recycling Group, will own and operate the Tenenbaum Recycling Center in Little Rock; Tom-Bar Recycling Centers in Harrison and Berryville; and the Hummelstein Recycling Center in Jonesboro.

  In related news, the company also has purchased a Metso 98/104 shredder and acquired land in Rogers, Ark., for a Metso 80/104 shredder.

  Visit www.atenco.net.

• SA Recycling (Anaheim, Calif.) has acquired a 70-percent interest in Silver Dollar Recycling (Las Vegas).

  Visit www.sarecycling.com or www.sdrlv.com.

• Waste Management Recycle America (Houston) has purchased Gulf Coast Recycling, a company with two facilities in Houston and one in Beaumont, Texas. GCR opened in 1974 as Golden Triangle Paper Stock Co., which provided recycling services in the Beaumont area. The company, which changed its name in 1989, provides front-load and roll-off recycling collection services, bale pick-up and trailer drop-off services, and commodity brokerage services. GCR President Alan Stein will remain with Recycle America in a management position.

  Visit www.wm.com or www.gcrl.net.

• Tube City IMS Corp. (Glassport, Pa.) has acquired Hanson Resource Management (Scunthorpe, England) and its subsidiary Hanson Support Services, which operate throughout the United Kingdom. The acquisition will aid Tube City in expanding its customer base in Belgium, France, Serbia, and Slovakia, the company reports. The more than 600 Hanson employees, including its management team, will remain with the company.

  Visit www.tubecityims.com.

• GreenMan Technologies (Lynnfield, Mass.) expects to sell two of its subsidiaries, GreenMan Technologies of Minnesota and GreenMan Technologies of Iowa, for more than $26 million to Liberty Tire Services of Ohio (Minerva, Ohio), a subsidiary of Liberty Tire Services (Pittsburgh). GreenMan anticipates closing the deal by the end of 2008.

  Visit www.greenman.biz or www.libertytire.com.

• Case Construction Equipment (Racine, Wis.) has acquired select assets of Western Power & Equipment (Vancouver, Wash.), now named Case Power and Equipment. Its eight dealerships in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington will sell, rent, and service Case construction and industrial equipment. Case plans to upgrade the existing facilities and infrastructures as well as add a full range of rental construction equipment.

  Visit www.casepower.com.

• Manitou (Ancenis, France), a French manufacturer of material handling equipment, plans to acquire Gehl Co. (West Bend, Wis.) for $30 per share in a transaction valued at $450 million. Manitou is Gehl's largest shareholder.

  Visit www.gehl.com or www.manitou.com.

Metso Begins Domestic Shear Production
Metso Minerals (Helsinki, Finland) has assembled its first Lindemann LIS scrap shear in North America at its new northeast Ohio facility. The assembled unit weighs 70 tons. Metso expects to complete another LIS scrap shear in December and a third in the first quarter of 2009. The LIS comes in stationary or semimobile configurations and can process up to 20 tons of scrap metal per hour. The new facility near Brunswick, Ohio, has a crane capacity of 80 tons and should double the fabrication capacity of Metso Minerals' Ohio operations, the company reports.

Visit www.metsominerals.com. 

Openings and Expansions

• Tube City IMS (Glassport, Pa.) has opened its first trading office in Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City. The company also has offices in Beijing; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Singapore. Thao Nguyen will lead the operation as chief representative.

  Visit www.tubecityims.com.

• E.L. Harvey & Sons (Westborough, Mass.) has broken ground on a $20 million recycling complex in Hopkinton, Mass., which will include a material recovery facility and a C&D recycling facility with a combined maximum capacity of 600 tons per day as well as a maintenance garage. E.L. Harvey & Sons is a full-service waste hauling, transfer, and scrap recycling operation.

  Visit www.elharvey.com.

Industrial Services of America (Louisville, Ky.) has relocated its ISA Logistics and Waste Equipment Sales and Service Co. division. The new Louisville location will provide room for maintenance equipment related to the installation of its new shredder, the company says. The company expansion also includes two recycling facilities in New Albany and Seymour, Ind.

Visit www.isa-inc.com.

• Ferrous Processing & Trading Co. (Detroit), an affiliate of Soave Enterprises (Detroit), is expanding into the Southeast to compete for business in an area with a growing number of auto manufacturing facilities. Bill Sulak, account executive, will oversee Nissan and related accounts in Tennessee.

  Visit www.fpt1.com.

• Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies (Springdale, Ark.) has begun construction on a 70,000-square-foot plastic recycling facility on 60 acres near Watts, Okla. The state-of-the-art plant will wash, clean, and separate polyethylene materials such as food packaging and wrapping films. AERT expects the facility to open in the first quarter of 2009.

  Visit www.aertinc.com.

• C3RS plans to enter the tire recycling business by opening a $4 million facility in Louisa, Va., that will house its headquarters and a recycling plant. The company expects the new facility to create 35 new jobs.

• Allied Waste Services (Phoenix) has opened an $8 million C&D recycling facility in Chicago that can manually and mechanically process up to 1,500 tons of recyclables per day and recover 90 percent of all recyclable material it receives. The facility can process commingled loads of materials generated during construction, renovation, and demolition of buildings, roads, and bridges. The recycling center will provide chipped wood for boilers at a renewable energy plant that provides power to the Chicago metropolitan area.

  Visit www.disposal.com.

• Waste Pro USA (Longwood, Fla.) has partnered with SP Recycling Corp. (Atlanta) to open a MRF at Waste Pro's new Bradenton/Sarasota trucking and customer service facility in Florida. The facility will allow each company to offer additional commercial and residential recycling programs in the area.

  Visit www.wasteprousa.com or www.sprecycling.com.

• Auto Recycling Nederland (Tiel, Netherlands) has broken ground on a post-shredder technology plant. The company expects the facility to help it meet EU regulations, which require recycling 95 percent of the weight of

  a car by 2015 by further separating plastics, fiber, and sand and processing them to make them more marketable. ARN expects to open the facility by late 2009.

  Visit www.arn.nl/engels.

• Marathon Equipment (Vernon, Ala.) has created an autonomous business unit for its NEXGEN product line due to the growth of the company's recycling division. The unit will have service technicians and manufacturing specialists dedicated to NEXGEN balers, conveyor systems, mobile scrap choppers, and wire processors. Gene Laminack, Marathon chief financial officer and NEXGEN business unit director, will lead the expansion; Joe Szany will continue to lead the sales team as director.

  Visit www.nexgenbalers.com.

• The Lincoln Electric Co. (Cleveland) has finished modernizing the continuous cast aluminum rod mill at its Canadian subsidiary, Indalco Alloys (Mississauga, Ontario). The upgrade updated technology used in the casting process and the electrical controls and user interface from the rod mill. The facility manufactures high-alloy aluminum rod and welding wire.

  Visit www.lincolnelectric.com.

Milestones and Achievements

• Schupan & Sons (Kalamazoo, Mich.) is celebrating 40 years of service in the metal and plastic recycling industries. The company has seven processing facilities throughout Michigan and one in Indiana as well as a Chicago brokerage office. The Michigan Business and Professional Association listed it as one of "West Michigan's 101 Best & Brightest Companies to Work For" for 2008.

  Visit www.schupan.com.

• Brookfield Resource Management (Elmsford, N.Y.) announced in October it had removed 15,005 mercury switches from vehicles at its Elmsford facility in the past two years as a participant in the National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program, a collaboration among the U.S. EPA, automobile manufacturers, steelmakers, scrap recyclers, automotive recyclers, states, and environmental groups. The program's End of Life Vehicle Solutions Corp. recovers the mercury to prevent it from entering the environment when scrap cars are turned into new steel. The EPA estimates that furnaces that melt scrap metal from mercury switch-containing ELVs emit about 8 tons of mercury per year.

  Visit www.brookfieldco.com or www.epa.gov/mercury/switch.htm.

• Hank Wallace took the award for best driver in the ninth annual truck rodeo OmniSource Corp. (Fort Wayne, Ind.) held in September. The all-day event featured truck driving and DOT compliance skill competitions, attracting 37 truck drivers from OmniSource locations throughout the Midwest.

  Contestants competed in a series of tests, including driving through narrow alleys, backing into a confined dock area, and squeezing through a serpentine route while operating a tractor trailer with a 53-foot box trailer.

  Visit www.omnisource.com.

• City Carton Recycling (Iowa City, Iowa) and the Ockenfels Family Foundation raised more than $97,300 at their 14th charity golf outing, which raises money for American Cancer Society children's programs. The annual outing is held in memory of Deborah Ockenfels, daughter of Mort and Marcy Ockenfels, who founded City Carton Recycling.

  Visit www.citycarton.com.

• The Ontonagon, Mich., mill of Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. (Chicago) has received a Neighborhood Environmental Partners gold award through the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality for the fourth year in a row. Its community projects ranged from fish planting and habitat restoration to initiating community recycling programs and working with area schools.

  Visit www.smurfit.com.

• The Georgia Recycling Coalition (Atlanta) has recognized Pull-A-Part (Atlanta) as its first outstanding corporate leader at its 2008 Spirit of Green Awards. The award recognizes excellence in recycling and waste reduction in Georgia.

  Visit www.pullapart.com or www.georgiarecycles.org.

• Tri-Venture Group (Airdrie, Alberta) has earned a certificate of recognition from the Alberta provincial government's Partnership in Injury Reduction program. The voluntary program promotes injury prevention and the development of effective workplace health, safety, and disability management systems.

  Visit www.tri-venture.net or employment.alberta.ca.

• Genesis Attachments (Superior, Wis.) has named CLM Equipment (Lafayette, La.) its dealer of the year for the second time in three years. CLM topped other dealers in overall sales and rentals.

  Visit www.genesisattachments.com or www.clmequipment.com.

• Cascade Asset Management (Madison, Wis.) was named one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the United States. The company ranked 25 among Wisconsin companies and 2,809 overall, with three-year revenue growth of 129 percent. The 2008 list measures revenue growth from 2004 to 2007. Companies that are U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent as of Dec. 31, 2007, with at least $200,000 in revenue in 2004 and $2 million in 2007 qualified.

  Visit www.cascade-assets.com or www.inc.com.

• The U.S. EPA (Washington, D.C.) has commended Caterpillar (Peoria, Ill.) for meeting its greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal through the EPA's Climate Leaders program, the largest GHG goal-setting program in the United States. The program has 226 members, representing more than 10 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, who have pledged reductions equivalent to the emissions of 9 million cars annually, according to the EPA.

  Visit www.cat.com or www.epa.gov/climateleaders.

• The Aluminum Association (Arlington, Va.) celebrated its 75th anniversary at its October annual meeting at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. The meeting included speeches by aluminum industry executives and a video on the association's history from 1933 to 2008.

  Visit www.aluminum.org.

• The Bureau of International Recycling (Brussels) planted 3,500 oak trees in the Sonien forest in Belgium to mark its 60th anniversary and promote the recycling industry's efforts toward reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

  Visit www.bir.org.

Plastics Groups Partner on Outreach
The American Chemistry Council (Arlington, Va.) and the Society of the Plastics Industry (Washington, D.C.) have teamed up to create the Plastics Ambassador Program to promote the benefits of plastics and plastics recycling. A pilot program will promote plastic recycling through community events.

Visit www.americanchemistry.com or www.plasticsindustry.org. 

Electronics Recycling Roundup

• In September, Illinois enacted a law that requires electronics manufacturers to collect and recycle or reuse electronic products at no cost to consumers. The law authorizes using a combination of incentives and mandates to reduce the amount of electronic scrap that goes into landfills. It also gives manufacturers flexibility in how they meet their goals, such as through partnerships with retailers and local governments to sponsor collections. Manufacturers, recyclers, refurbishers, and collectors must register each year with the Illinois EPA. Effective Jan. 1, 2012, the state will prohibit landfills from accepting any of the covered electronic devices.

• Kentucky has awarded a contract to Creative Recycling Systems (Tampa, Fla.) that should result in the recycling of more than 5 million pounds of electronic scrap from its agencies and educational institutions. The contract requires that CRS destroy data and recycle the material in an environmentally sound manner, with 5 percent or less going into landfills. CRS will make payments to the agencies and institutions based on the value of the scrap it receives. Kentucky's executive, judicial, and legislative branches; school districts; postsecondary education institutions; and other public and nonprofit entities can participate in the program. CRS plans to establish an electronic scrap sorting and processing facility in Kentucky.

  In related news, CRS and Plastinum Polymer Technologies Corp. (Los Angeles) plan to jointly process mixed plastic from electronic scrap in Tampa using Plastinum's proprietary mechanical and chemical process, Blendymer.

  Visit www.plastinum.com or www.crserecycling.com.

• Redemtech (Columbus, Ohio) has launched a sustainable computing initiative, which includes services and education programs to help organizations reduce the environmental impact of information technology systems. Redemtech released a white paper, "Beyond Power: IT's Roadmap to Sustainable Computing," that addresses achieving sustainability through environmental, social, and security goals. The initiative emphasizes reducing the demand for new technology by extending equipment life cycles; reusing, reselling, or donating equipment; and adopting a strategy without landfilling, export, incineration, or prison labor recycling.

  Visit www.redemtech.com/beyondpower.

• M&K Recovery Group (North Andover, Mass.) has purchased a $2 million facility in North Andover to expand its electronics and precious metals recycling operations. The move marks the company's third and largest upgrade since 2000. The expanded facility will house its upgraded degausser and shredder.

  Visit www.mkrecoverygroup.com.

• Over the next year, Dell (Round Rock, Texas) plans to transition from fluorescent lamps to light-emitting diodes in its laptop computer screens. The mercury-free displays should lower energy costs and carbon emissions, the company reports. Dell also estimates that at least 80 percent of its new laptops will have LEDs as standard back-lit displays by the end of 2009 and 100 percent will by 2010.

  Visit www.dell.com.

• LG Electronics (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.) has expanded its drop-off electronics recycling program to all 50 states. The company launched the program in August with Waste Management Recycle America (Houston). Products accepted free of charge at the 160 Waste Management eCycling centers nationwide are LG, Zenith, and Goldstar televisions, monitors, audio equipment, videocassette players and recorders, DVD players, combination TV/VCR and TV/DVD units, set-top boxes, and accessories associated with these products. Consumers may recycle other electronic products at the centers for a fee. Consumers also can mail no-fee items to locations in Minneapolis, Denver, Oklahoma City, and Springfield, Mass.

  Visit www.lgusa.com, www.recycleamerica.com, or www.wm.com.

• Nokia (Helsinki, Finland) topped a list of electronics brands that are making significant progress in reducing the environmental impact of their products, according to Greenpeace's latest "Guide to Greener Electronics." Nokia scored seven out of 10 points as a result of its improved take-back practices in India, and its use of less toxic materials in its products, though it scored poorly on recycling. Samsung (Seoul, South Korea) took second place by using fewer toxics, reporting recycling rates, and using recycled materials. Fujitsu Siemens Computers jumped to third place from 15th place last year. The company plans to eliminate PVC plastic and brominated flame retardants in its products by late 2010.

  Visit www.greenpeace.org.

Equipment Sales and Installations

• AAEQ Manufacturers and Recyclers (Las Vegas) has purchased the Scrap Dragon point-of-purchase system from Transact Payment Systems (St. Petersburg, Fla.). The system videotapes transactions, scans fingerprints, and assigns separate IDs to scrap sellers. The system helps distinguish legitimate sellers from people who steal and resell scrap to recyclers. Sellers will receive a coupon that they can redeem at an on-premise ATM.

  Visit www.aaeq.net or www.tranact.com.

• Management Science Associates' metals and advanced manufacturing division (Pittsburgh) has provided a meltshop optimization system to MetalTek International's Wisconsin centrifugal division (Waukesha, Wis.). The optimization models determine the most cost-effective mix of raw materials to meet chemical, schedule, and residual constraints.

  Visit www.msa.com or www.metaltek.com.

New Ventures

• CPower (New York), formerly Consumer Powerline, has created an energy conservation program for Marcal Manufacturing (Elmwood, N.J.). Marcal, which makes tissue products from recycled paper, plans to use CPower's demand-response system to cut electricity consumption by 18 mW when requested by PJM Interconnection, the regional transmission organization. CPower has designed a plan that should decrease the company's electrical use for 15 buildings.

  Visit www.cpowered.com.

• Rexam Prescription (London) has developed and is marketing a liquid prescription container made with 100 percent postconsumer recycled PET resin. Recyclers can re-recycle the containers, which the company expects to be available in November.

New Distributors

• Monsoon (Buffalo, N.Y.) has named Air One (Wareham, Mass.) a Northeast dealer for its line of dust suppression and odor control systems. Air One will sell the products in seven sizes and configurations nationwide to demolition, waste, construction, and scrap facilities.

  Visit www.aironeinc.com.

• Tigercat Industries (Paris, Ontario) has awarded Frank Martin Sons (Fort Kent, Maine) the exclusive full-line distribution rights for its machinery in Maine.

  Visit www.tigercat.com or www.f-m-s.com.

IISI Becomes worldsteel

The International Iron and Steel Institute (Brussels) has changed its name to the World Steel Association, or worldsteel, in an effort to reflect its development over the years and its role in the steel industry, according to the association.

Visit www.worldsteel.org. 

Resources

• The U.S. Department of Commerce (Washington, D.C.) has created the India Business Center online to help U.S. exporters with India's growing market. The site contains information on markets, regulations, duties, taxes, logistics, and more. The IBC also provides telephone counseling on the Indian market at 800/872-8723.

  Visit www.export.gov/india.

• The Bureau of International Recycling (Brussels) has published two books on recycling. Recycling Through the Ages, written by longtime industry participant Alfred Nij­kerk, covers 9,000 years of recycling history in 52 pages. Once Upon a Time: The Story of BIR 1948-2008 celebrates the organization's first 60 years. BIR is selling each book for E10 plus postage when purchased in sets of 10 or more.

  Visit www.bir.org.

Exhibit Shows Cool Recycling

The National Building Museum (Washington, D.C.) recently hosted "The Art of Recycling: The Coolest Show in Town" exhibit. Students, institutions, utility companies, private organizations, and individual artists nationwide turned old refrigerator doors into art as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Star "Recycle My Old Fridge Campaign."

Visit www.recyclemyoldfridge.com.  

Coca-Cola Works to Increase Recycling

Midwest Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (Eagan, Minn.) and Coca-Coca Recycling (Atlanta) have partnered with Holiday Stationstores (Bloomington, Minn.) to collect recyclable beverage containers at all 150 Holiday convenience stores in the Twin Cities area. The Recycling Association of Minnesota (St. Paul, Minn.) will help manage the program.

Each of the Holiday fuel islands should have a bottle-shaped recycling bin by the end of 2009. The recycling association will employ adults with disabilities to pick up and sort the items, and the bottling company will process and recycle the items into new cans and bottles.

Visit www.holidaystationstores.com, www.thecoca-colacompany.com, or www.recycleminnesota.org.

A report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office finds that the U.S. EPA (Washington, D.C.) needs to better control and regulate the export of used electronic devices.