Top Stories

March/April 2008

Top Stories

Steel Production Grows 7.5 Percent

World steel output reached 1.3 billion mt in 2007, a 7.5-percent increase from 2006 and the fifth consecutive year that world crude steel production grew more than 7 percent, the International Iron and Steel Institute (Brussels) reports. Though 2007's overall output remained high, growth did slow throughout the year, with year-on-year growth peaking at the end of the first quarter in nearly all the major producing countries and regions.

China's 2007 steel production reached 489 million mt, a 15.7-percent increase from 2006. This is a smaller year-on-year increase than China had in previous years, but the country remains the driver of world steel production figures: Without China, world crude steel production would only have grown 3.3 percent. Other BRIC countries maintained moderately high growth; India and Brazil experienced 7.3-percent and 9.3-percent increases, respectively. Russian production grew 2 percent.

Though U.S. steel production fell in the first three quarters of 2007, it turned around in the fourth with three consecutive months of growth. Total U.S. crude steel production last year was 97.2 million mt, a 1.4-percent decrease from 2006. EU steel production, at 210.3 million mt, grew 1.7 percent from 2006.

In other IISI news, the organization reports that the steel can is still the world's most recycled packaging material, according to 2006 data. During that year, 35 countries reported recycling 6.6 million mt of steel cans, preventing approximately 11.9 million mt of carbon dioxide emissions, IISI said. The can recycling rate grew from about 65 percent in 2005 to 67 percent in 2006.

The United States recovered 1.3 million mt of postconsumer steel cans for recycling, while China, a first-time survey participant, recycled an estimated 1.2 million mt. The 27 member countries of the European Union recycled 2.5 million mt of cans that year.

Four Cities Honored for UBC Collections

Recycling approximately 19 pounds of aluminum cans per resident, Des Plaines, Ill., was one of four winners of the fourth annual Cans for Cash: City Recycling Challenge, sponsored by Novelis (Atlanta), the U.S. Conference of Mayors (Washington, D.C.), and Keep America Beautiful (Stamford, Conn.). Des Plaines, with a population of 58,720 according to the most recent census, recycled 1.12 million pounds of aluminum cans to win its population division. The other division winners were Milwaukee (1.39 million pounds recycled), Fontana, Calif. (774,614 pounds), and Richmond, Ind. (43,381 pounds). Each city received a $5,000 award. More than 50 cities competed in the October 2007 contest, collecting a total of more than 4.5 million pounds of aluminum.

Visit www.novelis.com.

Alcoa Raises the Bar for Aluminum Recyclers

Alcoa (Pittsburgh) wants to raise the used beverage can recycling rate in North America from 52 percent to 75 percent by 2015, the company says. About 800,000 mt of an annual 1.5 million mt of used beverage cans is currently recycled in the United States. After peaking at 68 percent in 1992, the U.S. UBC recycling rate has fallen steadily, Alcoa reports. The global average is 60 percent.

The company outlined several possible approaches to increasing North American aluminum can recycling rates, including encouraging behavior changes, making recycling and collection more convenient, creating technical improvements for processing coated materials, and enhancing commercial alliances across the industry. Further, it is spending $22 million to expand the recycling capacity of its Knoxville, Tenn., operations by nearly 50 percent.

Visit www.alcoa.com.

New EPA Standards Address Mercury Switches

U.S. EPA issued standards Dec. 20, 2007, that require U.S. electric-arc furnace steel mills to purchase scrap only from recyclers participating in the National Vehicle Mercury Switch Recovery Program, which requires participants to remove certain mercury-containing switches from scrap vehicles before they are flattened, shredded, or melted. EPA estimates that the new requirement will prevent the release of 5 tons of mercury emissions each year.

Rechargeable Battery Recycling Up in 2007

U.S. and Canadian residents recycled more than 6.3 million pounds of rechargeable batteries in 2007 through the Call2Recycle program, up 12 percent from 2006, according to the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp. (Atlanta). The program collects and recycles old cell phones and used rechargeable batteries from cordless electronic products, including power tools, two-way radios, cordless and cellular phones, laptop computers, digital cameras, and camcorders. The program attributes the increase in collection numbers to several efforts, including Circuit City's expanded recycling campaign, a new New York City rechargeable battery recycling law, New Mexico's recycling awareness month, and RBRC's 10-year anniversary in Canada.

Mallin Marks 80th Birthday

Mallin Bros. Co. (Kansas City, Mo.) is celebrating its 80th anniversary as a metal recycler this year. Beginning in 1928, Harry Mallin led a horse-drawn wagon through Kansas City, buying recyclables such as bottles, rags, magazines, copper, aluminum, and scrap iron. Over the years, the company expanded under the direction of Harry's son and current CEO, Larry Mallin. Today, the firm has a shredding operation and one of the country's largest copper and aluminum wire-processing facilities. Harry Mallin's grandson, Jeffrey Mallin, now serves as the firm's president.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Visit www.nucor.com.

Visit www.djj.com.

Icahn Enterprises (New York) has bought PSC Metals (Mayfield Heights, Ohio) from Philip Services Corp. (Houston) for $335 million in a cash transaction. In the 2007 fiscal year, PSC had revenues of approximately $776 million.

Alter Trading Corp. (St. Louis) has acquired Doggett Auto & Truck Salvage

(Laurel, Miss.). Doggett will expand its operations from solely car and truck processing to buying and processing all grades of ferrous and nonferrous metals. It will now be Doggett Recycling, a division of Alter Metal Recycling. Owner Jerry Doggett will continue his active involvement in the business, and Cody Waite, formerly manager of Alter's Norfolk, Neb., facility, will serve as facility manager at Doggett.

AMG Resources Corp. (Pittsburgh) has purchased Midwest Steel & Alloy (Cleveland), which has a commercial office in Yorkville, Ill., and a Youngstown, Ohio, 50-acre processing facility with CSX and Norfolk Southern railroad service. The company specializes in railcar dismantling and parts reclamation, mill roll processing, and heavy burning. Midwest President Bob Wallens will continue his responsibilities as head of the company, and AMG will operate the business as Midwest Steel & Alloy, a division of AMG. The company and its affiliates now operate 14 scrap metal processing facilities and 14 brokerage offices throughout the United States and United Kingdom.

Interseroh (Köln, Germany) has purchased a 25-percent share of ProTrade Group (Hudson, Ohio) in an agreement that allows it to increase the share to 75 percent in the future. With an electronic scrap shredder in Florida, two auto shredders in the Midwest, and several trading offices, ProTrade trades more than 1 million tons of scrap a year and has annual revenues of $250 million. Interseroh, which has more than 70 locations and nearly 1,700 employees in Europe, will use this acquisition to enter the U.S. steel scrap market with a volume of about 60 million tons a year.

Austin, Texas-based paper recycler Balcones Resources is merging with document destruction service provider Austin Shred (Austin). The new company, Austin Shred, a Balcones Resources company, will operate Austin Shred as the Central Texas arm of Balcones' secure document destruction operation. Austin Shred Vice President Shane Mericle will serve as vice president of operations for the new company, which will inherit Austin Shred's 350 customers and processing capacity of more than 1,000 tons a month.

Visit www.balconesresources.com or www.austinshred.com.

White Birch Paper Co. (Greenwich, Conn.) is purchasing newsprint producer SP Newsprint Co. (Atlanta) from Cox Enterprises (Atlanta), McClatchy Co. (Sacramento, Calif.), and Media General (Richmond, Va.) for $350 million in an all-cash transaction. The acquisition includes the firm's paper recycling division, SP Recycling Corp., and its mills in Dublin, Ga., and Newberg, Ore., which produce approximately 1 million tons of newsprint annually. White Birch is the second-largest producer of news-print in North America, with production totaling about 1.4 million mt.

KMR Group subsidiary KMR Stainless (Dordrecht, Netherlands) has acquired the stainless steel scrap operations of Capricorn Stainless from its owner, Fondel Commodities (Rotterdam, Netherlands). KMR will now operate its stainless business under the name Oryx Stainless. This acquisition reportedly makes the KMR Group the world's third-largest stainless steel scrap dealer.

AERC.com (Flanders, N.J.) has acquired the secure data destruction and disposal system operations, contracts, and management software of DynTek (Irvine, Calif.). The sale includes the transfer of DynTek's secure asset management software program and related intellectual property and the company's secure data destruction contract with Virginia. AERC says that DynTek's SSDS operations will complement its Com-Cycle electronics recycling subsidiary.

Meretec (London) has sold its East Chicago, Ind., plant, along with a 10-year license to use its dezincing technology in the Chicago area, to CMA Corp. (Sydney, Australia) for $17.5 million over 10 years. CMA will use the East Chicago plant and technology to sell and market steel and zinc in the United States. Meretec's Knowledge Center, which supports licensees of the dezincing technology and promotes new licenses worldwide, will continue to operate its research and marketing activities from the East Chicago facility, and Meretec will share in the plant's profits.

AbitibiBowater (Montréal) is selling its Snowflake, Ariz., recycled newsprint mill to Catalyst Paper Corp. (Richmond, British Columbia) for $161 million, excluding about $19 million of working capital AbitibiBowater is retaining. The Snowflake facility has the capacity to produce about 375,000 mt of newsprint annually. The U.S. Department of Justice mandated the facility's sale as a condition of the merger of Abitibi Consolidated and Bowater.

Visit www.abitibibowater.com or www.catalystpaper.com.

Sims Group's Sims Recycling Solutions division (West Chicago, Ill.) has purchased electronics recycler Accu-Shred (Mississauga, Ontario), positioning it for further growth in Canada, the firm says.

Umicore (Brussels) has acquired Imperial Smelting & Refining Co. (Toronto), which currently employs 70 people and generated revenues of $8.5 million in 2006. Umicore will integrate the company into its jewelry and electroplating business unit, which has locations in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and Asia. Imperial will continue to trade under the same name. The purchase gives Umicore an entry into the North American jewelry market, the company said.

Visit www.umicore.com.

Coca-Cola Sets Aluminum Recycling Target

Building on its previous goal to recycle or reuse 100 percent of its PET plastic bottles, The Coca-Cola Co. (Atlanta) announced a long-term target to recycle or reuse 100 percent of its aluminum beverage cans in the United States. The company currently uses an average of 60 percent recycled aluminum in its beverage cans. By the end of this year, the company expects to recycle more than 100 million pounds each of aluminum and PET.

Cronifer Is Now Cronimet

The CRONIMET Group (Karlsruhe, Germany) will integrate CRONIFER (Moerdijk, Holland) under the CRONIMET Holding umbrella and operate it under the CRONIMET name.

Visit www.cronimet.com.

Openings and Expansions

Blaze Recycling & Metals (Norcross, Ga.) will open its second yard in Alabama on a 22-acre site in Montgomery. The company will operate a full-service ferrous and nonferrous buying yard, possibly adding an automobile shredder in the future. The yard will provide access to southern Alabama and northern Florida markets and will serve as a feeder yard for the company's shredder under construction in Phenix City, Ala.

AA Midwest (Chicago) has begun constructing a new 80,000-square-foot auto-dismantling facility in Blue Island, Ill., to help meet increasing export demand for vehicle parts. The company will dedicate more than 50,000 square feet

of the space to its automotive recycling business, which processes about 40 vehicles a week.

Sonoco (Hartsville, S.C.) has relocated its Charleston, S.C., recycling operation to a new, 30,000-square-foot building on a 5-acre site 1.5 miles away in North Charleston. The new facility, which will have an annual capacity of approximately 250 million pounds of recyclables, accepts and processes most OCC and other paper grades as well as metals and plastics. It will accept public drop-offs and offers flatbed pickup of baled material; van service for loose, palletized, or baled material; and roll-off service for 30- to 40-yard open- and closed-top containers.

Visit www.sonoco.com.

Xstrata Copper (Brisbane, Australia) plans to double its electronic scrap recycling capacity at its Horne smelter (Rouyn-Noranda, Québec). Once completed, the smelter will have an annual capacity of 100,000 mt. The company expects the expansion's first phase to be up and running by January 2009 and the second phase by January 2010.

Visit www.xstrata.com.

Allied-Gator, a manufacturer of hydraulic attachments and other tools for material handling and processing, is constructing a 469,000-square-foot manufacturing facility (below) just behind its headquarters in Youngstown, Ohio. With a workspace nearly 40 times larger than the firm's current facility, the operation will span nearly 11 acres under its roof. It will house 22 overhead cranes ranging in capacity from 10 to 120 tons, the largest of which will span 130 feet with a 336-foot runway and maximum rail height of 47 feet. The first section, which will open in May 2008, will host warehouse, assembly, machining, and heavy machining bays. The second section, scheduled to open by the end of 2008, will house fabrication and heavy fabrication, plate burning, detailing, and heavy-equipment modification bays.

Vecoplan (High Point, N.C.) will add approximately 15,000 square feet to

its Shred Truck manufacturing facility in Archdale, N.C., to keep up with demand for the company's VST-32 shred trucks. The company is also expanding to accommodate new technologies it plans to add to its mobile document destruction systems line.

Carrier Vibrating Equipment (Louisville, Ky.) has opened an 8,400-square-meter manufacturing facility in Shanghai to enhance its ability to serve its Pacific Rim clients. The state-of-the-art facility will support local service and sales personnel that have operated in China for more than 20 years.

Tube City Combines Subsidiaries

Tube City IMS Corp. (Glassport, Pa.) has merged its Tube City and International Mill Service operating subsidiaries. The newly merged company is Tube City IMS. The new company will continue to operate under the trade names Tube City Division, Tube City IMS, and IMS Division, Tube City IMS. The company has renamed its Canadian subsidiary from International Mill Service to Tube City IMS Canada. The firm's existing operations and structure are not affected.

New Ventures

Nini Krever, president of scrap paper export brokerage company Traders International Corp. (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.), will manage export sales for Wilmington Paper/Recycling Management Systems (Wilmington, Del.), a scrap paper company that handles fiber from folding carton plants across North America and Europe. Krever will run this new division from the Traders office in Florida.

Visit www.wpcrms.com.

European Metal Recycling (Warrington, England) and MBA Polymers (Richmond, Calif.) are building and operating a state-of-the-art plastic recycling facility in the United Kingdom under the name MBA Polymers UK. MBA will be majority owner of the company, which will recover plastics from upgraded automobile and electronic shredder residue. Scrap processors around the world dispose of more than an estimated 10 million tons of plastics from shredders annually, the company says. Under the new venture, EMR will concentrate the plastic fraction of the shredder residue from its large-scale metal recycling operations throughout the UK. The new facility will clean, sort, and upgrade the plastics, which MBA will then sell to its customers. The additional processing will capture a higher percentage of metals and help EMR meet stringent EU requirements for vehicle and electronics recycling. Scheduled to commence operations in early 2009, the new facility will have a 60,000-mt annual capacity. The companies anticipate that for every ton of virgin plastic the facility replaces, it will save 2 to 3 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Visit www.emrltd.com or www. mbapolymers.com.

New Contracts

The U.S. Transportation Department's Maritime Administration (Washington, D.C.) has awarded contracts to Marine Metals and Esco Marine, both of Brownsville, Texas, for removing and scrapping four ships from the James River national defense reserve fleet in Newport News, Va., and one from the Beaumont reserve fleet in Texas. The federal government will pay the firms more than $2.5 million to dismantle the ships.

ArcelorMittal's ALZ Genk stainless steel works (Genk, Belgium) has awarded Harsco Corp.'s (Camp Hill, Pa.) MultiServ mill services division a nine-year contract valued at more than $100 million. MultiServ will manage ALZ Genk's complete scrap and slab yard operations. MultiServ already provides this and another ArcelorMittal stainless steelworks location with a range of ser-vices that includes on-site slag pot transport, metal recovery, slab grinding, and scrap oxycutting.

MultiServ also will increase its on-site mill services to seamless tube producer V&M do Brasil (Barreiro, Brazil), part of Vallourec & Mannesmann Tubes, under a five-year contract valued at more than $30 million. Under the new contract, MultiServ will provide on-site product handling, warehouse support, and management of the mill's internal yards. The company has provided on-site transport of the mill's finished and semifinished products since 2002.

In other MultiServ news, the firm received 10-year contract extensions, expected to generate more than $75 million in additional new revenues, from two major steel plants. At the Corus IJmuiden strip product works (IJmuiden, Netherlands), the firm will further develop its on-site slag handling and processing systems. At the Nucor Yamato works (Armorel, Ark.), MultiServ will expand its role to include transporting ladles on site to the mill's new strip casting facility.

Visit www.harsco.com.

New Distributors

Terex Crane (Westport, Conn.) has named ALL Erection & Crane Rental Corp. (Cleveland) a tier-one dealer for all of its brands in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The company will have exclusive territory responsibility in all of these states but Wisconsin.

Visit www.allcrane.com.

LBX Co. (Lexington, Ky.) has named H&E Equipment Services (Baton Rouge, La.) as the authorized dealer of its Link-Belt material handlers in Mississippi, western Tennessee, and the Memphis, Tenn., trade area. Link-Belt also recently named the company its distributor in the mid-Atlantic region.

Equipment Sales and Installations

Harris Waste Management Group (Peachtree City, Ga.) has installed a new-generation Badger two-ram baler at Prince Recycling (Great Dunmow, England). The machine replaces a Harris HRB 1 the company had operated since 1988.

In further Harris news, Yaffe Cos. (Muskogee, Okla.) has purchased a Harris HS 80115 shredder system for its Glickman Metal Recycling (Wichita, Kan.) plant.

Metso Minerals Industries (San Antonio) will supply a complete metal recycling plant to European Metal Recycling's Minneapolis facility. The system comprises a metal shredder with a ferrous downstream and a customized emission filtration system, a nonferrous plant system, and a standalone scrap shear. When completed, the fully enclosed shredder will have the capacity to process slightly less than 100 tons of scrap an hour. Metso's AutoPilot control system will regulate the system's production.

Visit www.metso.com.

Consolidated Scrap Resources (Harrisburg, Pa.) has installed nonferrous separating system upgrades from Metal Shredding Solutions (San Antonio) to supplement its existing eddy-current machines at its Harrisburg location. The new equipment includes a double-deck bivi-TEC 1900 x 7M pre-ferrous magnetic separator, 80-inch-wide Steinert eddy-current fines separator, two 80-inch-wide Steinert ISS metal poppers, a motor control center, eight conveyors, and platforms and enclosures.

SA Recycling (Anaheim) has installed a Dust Control Technology (Peoria, Ill.) Dust Boss DB-60 at its Anaheim and Terminal Island operations. The high-volume ducted fan dust suppressor, mounted on a moveable carriage, releases 50- to 200-micron water droplets into a 21,000-square-foot area. The facility plans to use the equipment when loading or moving material.

Visit www.dustboss.com.

Midrex Technologies (Charlotte, N.C.) and Technip Germany (Düsseldorf, Germany) are establishing Midrex direct-reduction plants in Egypt and Algeria for Ezz Steel (Cairo, Egypt). Midrex and Technip will provide turnkey services to the proposed 1.65 million mt per year Midrex Megamod plants. The planned Egyptian direct-reduction plant will be at Ezz Steel's existing Ain Sokhna, Suez, site to provide an additional captive supply of DRI for local melt shop use. The plant's construction will begin in late 2008.

Ezz Steel currently owns three Midrex plants in El Dikheila, Egypt. The companies will announce the Algerian plant's location and construction details later.

Visit www.midrex.com.

Awards and Honors

The Tube City IMS Granite City, Ill., operation has received ISO 9001:2000 quality management system certification from Steel Related Industries Quality System Registrar (Wexford, Pa.).

Triple M Metal (Brampton, Ontario) and Barrie Metals Group (Barrie, Ontario) were identified as two of Canada's 50 best-managed companies for the second year in a row. Sponsored by Deloitte, CIBC Commercial Banking, National Post, and Queen's School of Business, the honor recognizes businesses that have demonstrated sustainable growth through their strategy, capability, and commitment.

Visit www.triplemmetal.com or www.barriemetals.com.

Andreas Pinkwart, minister of innovation for the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, recently honored Steinert Elektromagnetbau (Köln, Germany) and its separation technology business unit for their innovation in both product development and international market development at an event hosted by nonprofit Förderverein Zenit.

Visit www.steinert.de.

Energy Management Systems (Indianapolis) recently presented Wastequip Indiana (Winamac, Ind.) with its Environmental Stewardship Award for the company's commitment to saving energy in its operations. After upgrading its lighting and installing better HVAC controls, the firm saved more than $250,000 in energy costs, reduced carbon dioxide emissions by more than 600 tons, and in the lighting upgrade alone saved more than 61 percent on energy costs annually.

Office Depot (Delray Beach, Fla.) has received the Environmental Partner Award from Webster Industries (Peabody, Mass.) for its sales of ReClaim trash bags, which Webster produces. In 2006, Office Depot's sale of ReClaim bagswhich contain 75-percent recycled material10 percent of which is postconsumerhelped keep more than 813,794 pounds of plastic out of landfills and incinerators, the company says.

Cans for Habitat, a national partnership between Habitat for Humanity International (Americus, Ga.) and the Aluminum Association (Washington, D.C.), has recognized Grand Island Area Habitat for Humanity (Grand Island, Neb.) as the top can recycler in 2007 with a $30,000 grant. The organization judged Habitat affiliates applying for the grant in two areas: total pounds recycled and publicity efforts to promote local recycling programs. Grand Island HFH recycled 54,820 pounds of cans in 2007, earning more than $35,650 it will use with the $30,000 grant to build HFH homes in partnership with families in need.

Throughout 2007, more than 80 HFH affiliates participated in the grant program, recycling 492,660 pounds of cans and generating more than $337,360.

Quanex Corp.'s (Houston) subsidiary Nichols Aluminum Davenport (Davenport, Iowa) received a Return on Environment Award from General Electric Water & Process Technologies (Trevose, Pa.) for saving millions of gallons of water and $60,000 in wastewater treatment costs through collaborative efforts with General Electric.

Electronics Recycling Roundup

Panasonic Corp. (Secaucus, N.J.), Sharp Electronics Corp. (Mahwah, N.J.), and Toshiba America Consumer Products (Wayne, N.J.) have formed the Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Co. (MRM) to help electronics manufacturers meet state e-scrap mandates. The joint venture will serve the needs of electronics manufacturers responsible for the takeback of their products under new recycling laws such as those in Minnesota. The company also hopes to make electronics recycling more convenient for consumers. Electronics manufacturers including Hitachi, JVC, Mitsubishi, Philips, Pioneer, and Sanyo have hired MRM to provide collection and recycling services and plan recycling programs in states with and without takeback legislation, the companies say.

The EPA's Plug-In to eCycling program has joined with cell phone manufacturers, service providers, and retailers to launch the Recycle Your Cell Phone. It's An Easy Call campaign, which encourages Americans to recycle or donate their unwanted cell phones. The campaign's print public service announcements highlight the convenience and environmental and social benefits of recycling a cell phone, and downloadable podcasts feature electronics recycling experts discussing the many ways consumers can reuse and recycle their electronics. EPA says it has targeted cell phones in this new endeavor because consumers still do not seem to know where or how they can recycle them.

ReCellular (Dexter, Mich.) processed more than 6 million used cell phones in 2007, the most ever by a recycling company, it says. The company gets its phones from corporate, charitable, and grassroots programs, refurbishing and reselling more than half of them and processing the rest at its facilities in Michigan, Texas, Hong Kong, and Brazil. In doing so, it raised more than $20 million for its 50 nonprofit partners.

The company recycled 768,434 pounds of phone components in 2007 and 242,667 pounds of corrugated, paper, and plastic packaging material to meet its zero-waste policy standard.

American Retroworks (Middlebury, Vt.) kicked off its Mexican partnership, Retroworks de México, with an electronics recycling collection event in Tucson, Ariz., Jan. 5. Held in conjunction with Tucson Clean & Beautiful, the event collected TVs, home entertainment equipment, computers, monitors, printers, cell phones, and other electronics.

Retroworks de México (Sonora, Mexico) is a joint venture between American Retroworks and a Mexican women's cooperative. The partnership aims to provide affordable electronics recycling to residents in Arizona and Mexico while creating jobs in a depressed region of Mexico.

ASL Recycling (San Jose, Calif.) is launching 49 GREENspot drop-off locations in Northern California as part of its GREENetwork endeavor to unite key stakeholders in electronics recycling efforts. The locations accept TVs, monitors, computers, cell phones, and other electronics from businesses and consumers at no cost. GREENetwork, which aims to be the first statewide network of electronics drop-off locations, plans to open more locations throughout California in the coming months.

Implementation of the EU's waste electrical and electronic equipment directive has so far been a failure, according to Toward Sustainable WEEE Recycling, a January 2008 report from the European Electronics Recyclers Association (Arnhem, Netherlands). Among the report's criticisms are that less than 30 percent of WEEE materials are being collected; that uneven interpretation and enforcement have led to an uneven playing field with shady business practices; that exporters are illegally sending end-of-life electronics to non-OECD countries under the false heading of reuse; that substantial volumes of WEEE are untracked because they're categorized as business-to-business use; and that unscrupulous traders are selling WEEE materials without ensuring that their downstream processing is done in an environmentally sound manner. The report proposes nine improvements that include harmonizing WEEE implementation and interpretation across the EU; better controlling the electronics reuse market through separate regulation; basing mandated collection rates on each country's electronic sales volume, with a minimum rate of 50 percent; further regulating end-of-life business-to-business electronics; and placing more of a burden on producers and retailers to prove their WEEE is recycled properly.

In other EERA news, the association, along with the European Committee of Domestic Equipment Manufacturers and the WEEE Forum, have agreed on a voluntary standard pertaining to collecting, transporting, storing, and treating end-of-life household cooling and freezing appliances that could contain chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, and hydrofluorocarbons. The standard complements the EU's WEEE directive on electronic equipment and Regulation 2037/2000 on substances that deplete the ozone layer. The standard is available free from the three organizations.

Visit www.eera-recyclers.com, www. weee-forum.org, or www.ceced.eu.

Cooperative Announces Patronage Dividend

NASCO-OP (New Philadelphia, Ohio), the purchasing cooperative for the recycling industry, has declared a 1.5-percent patronage dividend in 2007. Calculated on the purchases a member or associate made at the cooperative, the dividend further reduces the purchase price of supplies and equipment.

Visit www.nascoop.com.

Resources

The fourth edition of the Environmental Resource Handbook from Grey House Publishing (Millerton, N.Y.) contains information relevant to those working in a wide range of environmental activities. The first half of the book lists contact information for more than 6,000 entities, including more than a dozen categories of environmental organizations and publications as well as awards and honors, conferences and trade shows, consultants, funding organizations, government agencies and programs, research and education resources, online resources, and sources of green products.

The second half contains 16 categories of statistics and rankings on topics such as air quality, brownfields, energy, global warming, noise pollution, and recycling. This section provides more than 100 data tables and charts. The handbook also includes a glossary of environmental terms and a list of common abbreviations and acronyms. Plus, the book is indexed alphabetically, by state, and by subject. The 1,200-page publication costs $155 plus shipping. Further, Grey House offers downloads of the listings for entry into a database or use as mailing labels.

Grey House's Canadian Environmental Directory, now in its 13th edition, provides more than 10,000 listings of that country's environmental associations and organizations, government agencies and regulators, product and service providers, publications, libraries, conferences and trade shows, and more. One section of the book summarizes major environmental issues Canada currently faces, including regulatory trends and a month-by-month chronology of events. The 900-page book is available in print for $315 plus shipping or online as part of a subscription to the publisher's Canada Information Resource Center.

MinorMetals.com (London) is launching a free service that provides market professionals in the minor metals sector with market prices on their mobile phones or personal digital assistants. Users can view the latest contributed prices, chart images, a price history, and the latest foreign exchange rates under this new service, which is compatible with any web-enabled mobile device.

The National Demolition Association (Doylestown, Pa.) is offering free copies of a study conducted under the aegis of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that looks at the connection between lead on painted buildings and lead in aggregate produced from those buildings' demolition. The report found that there is no environmental or health risk to workers involved in crushing and recycling concrete containing lead-based paint, so long as they follow lead-compliance work protocols. The report, LBP Concerns in Producing Recycled Concrete Aggregate from Former Fort Ord Housing, or the Cosper report, is based on a study of the demolition of family housing at Fort Ord, Calif., which is typical of older Army building stock.

U.S. EPA has released two publications to help immigrants understand their role in creating cleaner and healthier communities. The first, Teach English, Teach about the Environment, is a curriculum to help teach adults English while introducing basic environmental concepts and individual environmental responsibilities. The second, Working Together for a Healthy EnvironmentA Guide for Multi-Cultural Community Groups, helps community organizations plan and execute events promoting reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Visit www.epa.gov/epaoswer/education/teachers.htm or www.epa.gov/osw/community.htm.

Iraqis Get Scrapping

Iraqi workers have begun reducing damaged and unusable U.S. military vehicles into scrap metal that the U.S. Defense Reutilization Material Office will sell to an Iraqi steel business to melt in its foundry. The 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment's Regimental Support Squadron Muleskinners has been working with the Iraqi Business and Industrial Zone and the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service to create employment opportunities in Iraq and provide Iraqi workers with technical oversight, escort, and transportation support. After an initial orientation, safety courses, and demonstrations, the team of 14 Iraqis demilitarized 16 Humvee turrets in a few hours. At full capacity, the team should be able to process several quarter-ton trucks or equivalent vehicles daily, officials said.

It's a Dirty Job, But Someone's Got to Do It

The popular Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs recently returned to Cash's Scrap Metal & Iron (St. Louis) to film a second episode at the company's river terminal. The show previously visited the yard in August 2005 for a segment on processing and salvaging scrap. During that visit, host Mike Rowe (right) operated cranes, loaded railroad cars, and sheared bridge beams at Cash's headquarters. In the most recent episode, which aired Jan. 15 but will repeat, Rowe helped Cash's employees cut up a barge before heading north to St. Louis-based Alton Steel, where he worked in the steel mill. Cash's President Stuart Block (left) said he was "delighted" that his company was twice featured on the national series—though he ended up on the cutting-room floor both times.

Scrap "Can" Be Art

Red Bull (Santa Monica, Calif.) is accepting entries for its 2008 Red Bull Art of Can national juried exhibition, July 11-25 in Houston. Sculptures, paintings, digital and graphic designs, and various forms of mixed media inspired by Red Bull or incorporating the Red Bull can are eligible for the contest. All artwork must be submitted by April 6. A panel of judges from the Houston art community will review each piece based on creativity, execution, and construction. Red Bull will feature entries with the highest marks in the 2008 Red Bull Art of Can exhibit, will give them national recognition and exposure, and might use them in an advertising campaign.

The contest's first prize includes an all-expense-paid trip for two to Art Basel in Switzerland; the second prize is an all-expense-paid trip for two to Art Basel in Miami Beach; and the third prize is a custom local art experience.

Grants Target Tire-Pile Cleanups

Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality has launched a $3.9 million initiative to clean up piles of scrap tires in the state. It is awarding the grants based on the estimated number of scrap tires on a property, allotting $1 for each tire at a site. The state expects work to begin at the sites in the next couple of months, and property owners have until Aug. 31 to properly dispose of the tires, though the state can grant extensions.

Environmental Rubber Recycling (Saginaw, Mich.) will receive most of the tires and shred them into 2-inch chips for use as cover in landfills throughout Michigan. It also sells the material out of state for tire-derived fuel or asphalt rubber for highways.

Michigan started its efforts to clean up discarded tires in 1991, when lawmakers passed a scrap tire law in response to a series of tire fires that released pollutants into the air.

March/April 2008

Top Stories

Steel Production Grows 7.5 Percent

Four Cities Honored for UBC Collections

Visit www.novelis.com.

Alcoa Raises the Bar for Aluminum Recyclers

Visit www.alcoa.com.

New EPA Standards Address Mercury Switches

Rechargeable Battery Recycling Up in 2007

Mallin Marks 80th Birthday

Mergers and Acquisitions

Visit www.nucor.com.

Visit www.djj.com.

Alter Trading Corp. (St. Louis) has acquired Doggett Auto & Truck Salvage

Visit www.balconesresources.com or www.austinshred.com.

Visit www.abitibibowater.com or www.catalystpaper.com.

Visit www.umicore.com.

Coca-Cola Sets Aluminum Recycling Target

Cronifer Is Now Cronimet

The CRONIMET Group (Karlsruhe, Germany) will integrate CRONIFER (Moerdijk, Holland) under the CRONIMET Holding umbrella and operate it under the CRONIMET name.

Visit www.cronimet.com.

Openings and Expansions

of the space to its automotive recycling business, which processes about 40 vehicles a week.

Visit www.sonoco.com.

Visit www.xstrata.com.

Vecoplan (High Point, N.C.) will add approximately 15,000 square feet to

Tube City Combines Subsidiaries

New Ventures

Visit www.wpcrms.com.

Visit www.emrltd.com or www. mbapolymers.com.

New Contracts

Visit www.harsco.com.

New Distributors

Visit www.allcrane.com.

Equipment Sales and Installations

In further Harris news, Yaffe Cos. (Muskogee, Okla.) has purchased a Harris HS 80115 shredder system for its Glickman Metal Recycling (Wichita, Kan.) plant.

Visit www.metso.com.

Visit www.dustboss.com.

Ezz Steel currently owns three Midrex plants in El Dikheila, Egypt. The companies will announce the Algerian plant's location and construction details later.

Visit www.midrex.com.

Awards and Honors

The Tube City IMS Granite City, Ill., operation has received ISO 9001:2000 quality management system certification from Steel Related Industries Quality System Registrar (Wexford, Pa.).

Visit www.triplemmetal.com or www.barriemetals.com.

Visit www.steinert.de.

Throughout 2007, more than 80 HFH affiliates participated in the grant program, recycling 492,660 pounds of cans and generating more than $337,360.

Electronics Recycling Roundup

The company recycled 768,434 pounds of phone components in 2007 and 242,667 pounds of corrugated, paper, and plastic packaging material to meet its zero-waste policy standard.

Visit www.eera-recyclers.com, www. weee-forum.org, or www.ceced.eu.

Cooperative Announces Patronage Dividend

Visit www.nascoop.com.

Resources

Visit www.epa.gov/epaoswer/education/teachers.htm or www.epa.gov/osw/community.htm.

Iraqis Get Scrapping

It's a Dirty Job, But Someone's Got to Do It

Scrap "Can" Be Art

Grants Target Tire-Pile Cleanups

Michigan started its efforts to clean up discarded tires in 1991, when lawmakers passed a scrap tire law in response to a series of tire fires that released pollutants into the air.

March/April 2008

Top Stories

Steel Production Grows 7.5 Percent

Four Cities Honored for UBC Collections

Visit www.novelis.com.

Alcoa Raises the Bar for Aluminum Recyclers

Visit www.alcoa.com.

New EPA Standards Address Mercury Switches

Rechargeable Battery Recycling Up in 2007

Mallin Marks 80th Birthday

Mergers and Acquisitions

Visit www.nucor.com.

Visit www.djj.com.

Alter Trading Corp. (St. Louis) has acquired Doggett Auto & Truck Salvage

Visit www.balconesresources.com or www.austinshred.com.

Visit www.abitibibowater.com or www.catalystpaper.com.

Visit www.umicore.com.

Coca-Cola Sets Aluminum Recycling Target

Cronifer Is Now Cronimet

The CRONIMET Group (Karlsruhe, Germany) will integrate CRONIFER (Moerdijk, Holland) under the CRONIMET Holding umbrella and operate it under the CRONIMET name.

Visit www.cronimet.com.

Openings and Expansions

of the space to its automotive recycling business, which processes about 40 vehicles a week.

Visit www.sonoco.com.

Visit www.xstrata.com.

Vecoplan (High Point, N.C.) will add approximately 15,000 square feet to

Tube City Combines Subsidiaries

New Ventures

Visit www.wpcrms.com.

Visit www.emrltd.com or www. mbapolymers.com.

New Contracts

Visit www.harsco.com.

New Distributors

Visit www.allcrane.com.

Equipment Sales and Installations

In further Harris news, Yaffe Cos. (Muskogee, Okla.) has purchased a Harris HS 80115 shredder system for its Glickman Metal Recycling (Wichita, Kan.) plant.

Visit www.metso.com.

Visit www.dustboss.com.

Ezz Steel currently owns three Midrex plants in El Dikheila, Egypt. The companies will announce the Algerian plant's location and construction details later.

Visit www.midrex.com.

Awards and Honors

The Tube City IMS Granite City, Ill., operation has received ISO 9001:2000 quality management system certification from Steel Related Industries Quality System Registrar (Wexford, Pa.).

Visit www.triplemmetal.com or www.barriemetals.com.

Visit www.steinert.de.

Throughout 2007, more than 80 HFH affiliates participated in the grant program, recycling 492,660 pounds of cans and generating more than $337,360.

Electronics Recycling Roundup

The company recycled 768,434 pounds of phone components in 2007 and 242,667 pounds of corrugated, paper, and plastic packaging material to meet its zero-waste policy standard.

Visit www.eera-recyclers.com, www. weee-forum.org, or www.ceced.eu.

Cooperative Announces Patronage Dividend

Visit www.nascoop.com.

Resources

Visit www.epa.gov/epaoswer/education/teachers.htm or www.epa.gov/osw/community.htm.

Iraqis Get Scrapping

It's a Dirty Job, But Someone's Got to Do It

Scrap "Can" Be Art

Grants Target Tire-Pile Cleanups

Michigan started its efforts to clean up discarded tires in 1991, when lawmakers passed a scrap tire law in response to a series of tire fires that released pollutants into the air.

March/April 2008

Top Stories

Steel Production Grows 7.5 Percent

Four Cities Honored for UBC Collections

Visit www.novelis.com.

Alcoa Raises the Bar for Aluminum Recyclers

Visit www.alcoa.com.

New EPA Standards Address Mercury Switches

Rechargeable Battery Recycling Up in 2007

Mallin Marks 80th Birthday

Mergers and Acquisitions

Visit www.nucor.com.

Visit www.djj.com.

Alter Trading Corp. (St. Louis) has acquired Doggett Auto & Truck Salvage

Visit www.balconesresources.com or www.austinshred.com.

Visit www.abitibibowater.com or www.catalystpaper.com.

Visit www.umicore.com.

Coca-Cola Sets Aluminum Recycling Target

Cronifer Is Now Cronimet

The CRONIMET Group (Karlsruhe, Germany) will integrate CRONIFER (Moerdijk, Holland) under the CRONIMET Holding umbrella and operate it under the CRONIMET name.

Visit www.cronimet.com.

Openings and Expansions

of the space to its automotive recycling business, which processes about 40 vehicles a week.

Visit www.sonoco.com.

Visit www.xstrata.com.

Vecoplan (High Point, N.C.) will add approximately 15,000 square feet to

Tube City Combines Subsidiaries

New Ventures

Visit www.wpcrms.com.

Visit www.emrltd.com or www. mbapolymers.com.

New Contracts

Visit www.harsco.com.

New Distributors

Visit www.allcrane.com.

Equipment Sales and Installations

In further Harris news, Yaffe Cos. (Muskogee, Okla.) has purchased a Harris HS 80115 shredder system for its Glickman Metal Recycling (Wichita, Kan.) plant.

Visit www.metso.com.

Visit www.dustboss.com.

Ezz Steel currently owns three Midrex plants in El Dikheila, Egypt. The companies will announce the Algerian plant's location and construction details later.

Visit www.midrex.com.

Awards and Honors

The Tube City IMS Granite City, Ill., operation has received ISO 9001:2000 quality management system certification from Steel Related Industries Quality System Registrar (Wexford, Pa.).

Visit www.triplemmetal.com or www.barriemetals.com.

Visit www.steinert.de.

Throughout 2007, more than 80 HFH affiliates participated in the grant program, recycling 492,660 pounds of cans and generating more than $337,360.

Electronics Recycling Roundup

The company recycled 768,434 pounds of phone components in 2007 and 242,667 pounds of corrugated, paper, and plastic packaging material to meet its zero-waste policy standard.

Visit www.eera-recyclers.com, www. weee-forum.org, or www.ceced.eu.

Cooperative Announces Patronage Dividend

Visit www.nascoop.com.

Resources

Visit www.epa.gov/epaoswer/education/teachers.htm or www.epa.gov/osw/community.htm.

Iraqis Get Scrapping

It's a Dirty Job, But Someone's Got to Do It

Scrap "Can" Be Art