November/December 1989
Louis Cohen & Son’s Charles Medico is a man with a mission: to build the image of the recycling industry by telling people the facts.
By Susan Crissinger
Susan Crissinger is associate editor of Scrap Processing and Recycling.
Some Pennsylvania residents know him as one of "the original ecologists." Others know him as the guy who pays them for their used aluminum cans. There are those who know him as a recycler who's helping keep their environment clean. But lots of people know who he is.
Why? Because Charles Medico tells them who he is. The president of Louis Cohen & Son, Inc., in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, has produced television commercials about his company, has been on radio, has appeared at public forums on municipal recycling, has served on the local economic development council and on educational forums for state legislators, and has participated in a program promoting state products and industry.
"We're doing a vital job for the public," he says, "and we've been doing it for a long time. The only thing is, people don't know it." Medico's theory is that if recyclers get the public to realize what they're doing, many of the legislative challenges they are now facing could be eased. "If we got to the general public 20 years ago, we wouldn't have the problems we're having today," he believes, "because people would know what we do. People would realize that we're conserving and we're keeping the environment clean, that we are doing the right thing. And it would have changed the whole complexion of our industry-it would have changed the way people look at us."
For now, he says, a good dose of positive image building is in order. He tells of a statewide program to promote goods and services aimed at attracting new industry to Pennsylvania called "Buy Pennsylvania First." The program is involving many of the state's media and businesses, including Medico's company. A television commercial about Louis Cohen & Son offers a little history of the 100-plus-year-old firm and shows its scrap processing equipment in action. As part of the state promotional campaign, the TV station runs contests in which it shows commercials like these--but without identifying the companies--then challenges viewers to write in and guess the company name. Judging by the "tremendous response" of viewers that recognize Louis Cohen & Son, says Medico, people are paying attention to his ads.
Taking advantage of local opportunities is part of Medico's promotional game plan. Another example: Wilkes-Barre passed an ordinance mandating that citizens remove aluminum used beverage cans (UBCs) from their trash. They can place the cans at curbside for the city waste haulers to collect. Medico reasoned that if people are going to the trouble of separating the cans from their garbage for free, why not give them monetary incentive to bring them to his facility for recycling? He put together a television commercial soliciting UBCs, and his can business almost quadrupled. "By the city passing the law making people take the cans out of their trash," he says, "they made them available to people like me. It was a tremendous opportunity and it worked. TV really brought the material in."
Tell Them the Truth
Along with promoting his company and recycling through television and local print media, Medico keeps a hand in legislative activity that affects his industry. He made sure the recycler's voice was heard as the state formulated its solid waste and recycling law. He served on forums for legislators of 20 counties to educate them on setting up recycling programs, promoting recycling centers, and considering the availability of markets for the material collected.
At one public forum at which Medico was asked to speak, he explained what Louis Cohen & Son does and how, and discussed the "Design for Recycling" concept promoted by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). This concept recommends that products be designed with future recycling in mind and be as free as possible of hazardous constituents. He received a standing ovation. "I told them the truth," Medico says. "It was very, very well-accepted. People really don't know what we're doing. And we're all guilty, all of us. If we just get out and tell them, they're gonna love it. "
Medico makes a point of keeping in contact with legislators and keeping abreast of legislation affecting recyclers. "I'm friendly with all of our state legislators. I know them all, they all know me. I've sat down and given them my opinion on legislation that could have an effect on our industry. I keep in touch with them on a daily basis." Prior to joining Louis Cohen & Son in 1963, Medico worked for a firm that manufactures missile warheads. Through that business--which deals with the government every day--Medico "became very well oriented to the importance of staying close to state and national legislators. So when I came into the scrap business, everybody already knew me."
In addition, Medico has a long history of service with ReMA and one of its predecessor organizations, the Institute of Scrap Iron and Steel (ISIS). At ISIS, he served in all offices of the then Central Pennsylvania Chapter, was chairman of the chapter presidents' group, was cochairman of the Processing and Equipment Committee, and was director-at-large from the eastern region. He has twice been a director of ISRI. "Our legislators know ISRI," Medico says. "They know some of us by first name because we work very hard at it." Crediting the family orientation of much of the scrap processing industry, Medico notes that ReMA President Richard E. Abrams's family--whose business is in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania--and his own family in the Wilkes-Barre area have been active in state legislative programs for decades. As a result, Medico says, recycling programs in Pennsylvania are among the most successful in the country.
A notable success occurred during the Johnson administration, when abandoned autos were littering the countryside. A bounty program was proposed whereby a state would pay someone for bringing an auto hulk to a scrap processing facility and would pay the recycler $50.00 for processing the car. Speaking on a forum aired on the local educational channel at the time, Medico told legislators, "You can't do that. You're creating a false market in an industry that runs on supply and demand." He believes what they were planning to do then to the iron market is similar to what's happening today with old newspaper collections: "There's no market left, and the value of the product will get even lower. I told them [then] that when the economy turns and the value of that product gets high enough, it will move to a scrap processing facility." His reasoning helped prevent the bounty law from passing in Pennsylvania. (Not long after that, he says, "the price of iron went through the roof!")
A more recent coup for recyclers involved ensuring state legislative language makes a distinction between scrap and waste, so legitimate scrap processors will be less likely to be categorized with waste haulers.
Forging Ahead
Now that municipal recycling legislation is catching on, says Medico, the recycler is getting a good deal of public attention. The problem is that scrap processors and waste haulers are both considered by these communities to be " recyclers. " "When [scrap processing and recycling industry members] say 'recycle,' we mean handling something that has value. When [the public] says 'recycle,' they mean getting out of the waste stream everything that might be reused. There's a difference."
As long as the public is willing to pay someone to recycle these materials rather than put them in a landfill, Medico says, the traditional scrap processor is missing out if he doesn't get involved. As a matter of fact, his business may depend on it. "People in our business have a tremendous opportunity to either jump in or get out. Because if they don't jump in they are going to eventually lose products to the waste haulers, who soon will have shears and balers and will leave the scrap processors with nothing to process."
Close involvement with legislators, knowledge of pending laws, up-front communication with the public, and awareness of business and media opportunities are what have built Louis Cohen & Son's image in the Wilkes-Barre area. From the 1982 article in the Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice in which he dubbed scrap processors "the original ecologists" to his current crusade to help forge fair and intelligent recycling legislation, Charles Medico is working to build a positive image of the industry.
If people have a poor perception of recyclers, he says, "it's only because we let it happen." His diligent campaign "is putting our industry--our people--in the position where they should have been a long time ago."•