Top Stories
July/August 2010
Global Steel Demand Expected to Rise in 2010, 2011 World
steel demand will rise 10.7 percent, to 1.23 billion mt, in 2010, followed by a
5.3-percent increase in 2011 to reach a record 1.3 billion mt, according to the
World Steel Association's (Brussels) short-range outlook. The
association expects the recovery of steel demand, in part, because of the
resilience of emerging economies such as China, where steel demand grew 24.8
percent in 2009 and could rise another 6.7 percent in 2010, to 579 million mt.
China, whose crude steel production reached 56.1 million mt in May—the most a
country has ever produced in a single month—will account for 45.5 percent of
global apparent steel use in 2011, the association says. In the United States,
where apparent steel use declined more than 40 percent in 2009, projections
point to 26.5-percent growth in 2010 followed by 7.5-percent growth in 2011.
From January to May 2010, global crude
steel production totaled about 586 million mt, up almost 30 percent compared
with the same period in 2009, the association reports. China produced roughly
269 million mt through May (up 24 percent year-on-year), while Japan made 45.2
million mt (up 52 percent), the United States produced 33.7 million mt (up 69
percent), Russia made 27.2 million mt (up 24 percent), and India also made
approximately 27.2 million mt (up 8 percent), according to the group. Visit www.worldsteel.org.
Newark Group Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Recycled
paperboard products company The Newark Group (Cranford,
N.J.) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, reaching an agreement
with its primary creditors to reduce debt by approximately $200 million. A
majority of the members in each impaired creditor class agreed to vote for a
prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan that will eliminate about $13 million of
cash interest costs a year and give debt holders 96.5 percent of the company's
equity. The Newark Group will continue normal operations under current
management, and trade creditors, suppliers, and employees will continue to
receive amounts owed to them in the ordinary course of business, the firm says.
Visit www.newarkgroup.com.
Mayors
Group Adopts Producer Responsibility Resolution The
U.S.
Conference of Mayors (Washington, D.C.) has adopted a
resolution urging state and federal governments to establish producer
responsibility legislation. The resolution, based on a model the Product
Policy Institute (Athens, Ga.)
developed, seeks to shift the costs of product and packaging waste from
taxpayers and local governments to the products' manufacturers and consumers.
The resolution, signed by mayors from Arkansas, California, Massachusetts,
Texas, and Washington, also urges Congress to support state governments'
ability to establish producer responsibility legislation. USCM, a nonpartisan
organization of cities with 30,000 or more citizens, reportedly is the third
national association of elected officials to adopt resolutions to address
product waste. Visit www.usmayors.org
or www.productpolicy.org.
Crumb Rubber in Artificial Turf Is Safe, Study Confirms A
new report from the Corporation for Manufacturing Excellence, or Manex
(San Ramon, Calif.), and the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability at
the University
of California, Berkeley found the use of recycled rubber in
artificial turf applications both safe and cost-effective. The study reviews
existing research from the past 12 years and provides independent analysis to
conclude that, in some cases, artificial surfaces can provide advantages over
natural grass fields. Visit www.manexconsulting.com or lma.berkeley.edu.
Study
Notes Benefits of Recycled Plastics The
use of recycled plastic resins in product packaging significantly reduces
greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption during the manufacturing process,
according to a new study by the National Association for PET
Container Resources (Sonoma, Calif.). Franklin
Associates (Prairie Village, Kan.) conducted the study, which
provides life-cycle inventory data on the use of recycled PET and HDPE in the production
of packaging. Findings from the report, which NAPCOR, the American
Chemistry Council (Arlington, Va.), the Association
of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (Washington, D.C.), and the PET
Resin Association (New York) sponsored, will be added to the United
States Life-Cycle Inventory Database, a project of the U.S. Department of
Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Visit www.napcor.com/PET/sustainability.html.
PepsiCo, Waste Management Seek to
Encourage Recycling PepsiCo (Purchase,
N.Y.) and Waste
Management (Houston) have formed a multiyear partnership to
support the Dream Machine initiative, a program that aims to make recycling in
public spaces both convenient and rewarding. The deal will place thousands of
Dream Machine kiosks—computerized receptacles that offer users redeemable
points in exchange for recyclables—around the country in venues such as gas
stations, stadiums, and parks. PepsiCo also has partnered with Keep
America Beautiful (Stamford, Conn.) to encourage community
involvement in the program. The soft drink and snack company hopes to increase
the U.S. recycling rate of all beverage containers from 34 percent to 50
percent by 2018. Visit www.pepsico.com,
www.wm.com,
or www.kab.org.
In a similar vein, Keep
America Beautiful has revealed the 82 grant recipients of its Coca-Cola
Co.-sponsored (Atlanta) spring 2010 recycling bin grant program,
which provides recycling bins to winning applicants ranging from universities
to nonprofit organizations. KAB selected grant recipients based on their
potential to recover recyclables from the waste stream, their ability to
sustain the program, and their intention to support collection programs with
recycling education and promotion. Designed to promote community recycling, the
bin grant program has placed more than 1,100 recycling bins in 225 communities
since its inception in 2007. Visit www.bingrant.org.
Target
Installs Recycling Stations in All Stores In
celebration of Earth Day, Target Corp. (Minneapolis) has
installed permanent community recycling stations in its 1,740 locations. The
company has placed the stations, which are meant to curb unnecessary waste and
offer customers a convenient way to recycle, at the front of each Target store.
The stations accept most recyclables, including glass and aluminum beverage
containers, cell phones, and plastic bags. Visit www.target.com/eco-friendly.
AAEQ, Clark County Partner for Mower Exchange For the third consecutive year, scrap metal
recycling company AAEQ
Manufacturers and Recyclers (Las Vegas) has
partnered with the Clark County [Nev.] Department of Air Quality and
Environmental Management to support an annual lawn mower exchange program.
The program, in which Clark County residents can exchange gas-powered lawn
mowers for zero-emission electric models at reduced prices, seeks to curb air
pollution from older mowers. AAEQ's Las Vegas warehouse, where replaced mowers
are dismantled and recycled, serves as a recycling center for the program,
which runs in conjunction with Clean Air Month from May 8 until all new mowers
are claimed. Visit www.aaeq.net/lawnmowerexchange.
Harris Moves Headquarters Harris Waste Management Group has moved its
headquarters offices, which house its sales and marketing and new product
development groups, from Peachtree City, Ga., to 215 Market Road, Suite 1A,
Tyrone, GA 30290. The company's phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and fax
numbers remain the same. Visit www.harrisequip.com.
Carpet Recycling on the Rise Carpet America Recovery Effort (Dalton, Ga.)
has released its 2009 annual report, which highlights increased carpet
recycling and diversion rates along with job growth. The industry diverted more
than 311 million pounds of postconsumer carpet from landfills last year, almost
80 percent of which was recycled back into carpet or other products. The
industry also added more than 500 carpet-recycling jobs, and the CARE
reclamation network of carpet collectors grew to 65 participants. Since CARE's
inception in 2002, the diversion rate has grown by a reported 400 percent. Visit
www.carpetrecovery.org.
Mergers and Acquisitions
Schnitzer Steel
Industries (Portland, Ore.)
has purchased Golden
Recycling & Salvage (dba Golden
Steel & Recycling) (Billings, Mont.),
a scrap metal processing company. The move allows Schnitzer, which will operate
the facility as Schnitzer Steel Billings, to expand into the Montana market,
the company says. Visit www.schnitzersteel.com.
American
Recyclers of Kentucky (Georgetown,
Ky.), a hazardous and nonhazardous waste management company, has merged its
assets and resources with Green Metals, also based in
Georgetown, to create a total waste management and recycling firm. Green
Metals, a subsidiary of Toyota Tsusho America (Georgetown,
Ky.), provides full-service recycling of both ferrous and nonferrous
commodities for industrial customers in its 19 enclosed recycling facilities.
The combined firm, with Steve Cecil as president, will retain the Green Metals
name and keep its corporate offices in Georgetown. Visit www.gmiky.com.
Sumitomo
Construction Co. (Tokyo) has
acquired full ownership of LBX Co. (Lexington, Ky.),
which marketed and sold Sumitomo products under the Link-Belt excavator name.
The move will aid both companies' expansion throughout North, South, and
Central America, Sumitomo says. Visit www.lbxco.com or www.sumitomokenki.com.
Advanced
Disposal Services (Jacksonville, Fla.) has acquired certain assets of
Pat
Fore Truck Lines (dba Fore
Recycling) (Gulfport, Miss.) to expand its recycling and
integrated environmental services in the Gulf Coast area. Advanced Disposal has
incorporated the Fore Recycling assets into its recycling facilities in Biloxi
and Sumrall, Miss., and it will provide paper and plastic recycling services to
Fore's customers. The purchase comes a month after Advanced Disposal's
acquisition of Excel
Waste and Waste Removal Services (Nashville, Tenn.). Visit www.advanceddisposal.com.
Openings and Expansions
Global scrap broker, processor, and
logistics provider The
David J. Joseph Co. (Cincinnati) has
opened an office in Switzerland, with former Pittsburgh District Manager Brad
Ford heading up the new location. The office, which allows DJJ to better serve
current and potential European customers, is located at Nucor Trading, Avenue
Rousseau 7, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Visit www.djj.com.
The Davenport, Iowa, confidential
shredding facility of Document Destruction and Recycling Services (Cedar
Rapids, Iowa) has doubled in size with the addition of new offices and the
installation of a refurbished shredder from another facility. The newly
installed shredder has four times the horsepower of the shredder it replaces,
the company reports. Visit www.shreddingexperts.com.
Novelis
(Atlanta),
an aluminum can recycler and producer of aluminum rolled products, has begun
work on a $15 million expansion of recycling capacity at its Novelis
do Brasil integrated aluminum rolling and recycling complex in
São Paulo, Brazil. Two new furnaces, along with related improvements, will
increase the plant's capacity to recycle aluminum by one third, to 200,000 mt a
year, which will allow the company to increase sheet ingot production nearly 20
percent to feed the plant's rolling mills. It expects the new equipment to come
online in spring 2011. Visit www.novelis.com.
Scraptrust.com (Boca Raton,
Fla.), a membership-based Web portal for the scrap and recycling industry, has
added a commodity inspection service to its member benefits. The company has
secured scrap commodity inspectors in 12 geographic areas, including the United
States, China, Central and South America, and most of the European Union. Visit
www.scraptrust.com.
New Ventures and Agreements
National Grid
(Waltham,
Mass.) has hired Appliance
Recycling Centers of America (Minneapolis) to
provide refrigerator and freezer recycling services for the Long Island Power
Authority's residential electric customers. Through the program, which began
March 1 and ends Dec. 31, 2013, participating utility customers who turn in
operating but energy-inefficient refrigerators or freezers will be eligible for
an incentive from LIPA.
In related news, Central
Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. (Poughkeepsie,
N.Y.) has named ARCA the official turnkey provider for its appliance recycling
and rebate program. Eligible utility customers who turn in old, working air
conditioners will receive rebates for the purchase of qualifying Energy Star
replacement units at participating retailers from May 29 through Sept. 15. A
program for refrigerators will launch mid-summer and run through March 31,
2012, during which time customers will be eligible for $50 for each operating
but energy-inefficient refrigerator and freezer they recycle. ARCA will
properly recycle all appliances it collects through the program. Visit www.arcainc.com,
www.nationalgridus.com,
or www.cenhud.com.
Recycling company Stena
Metall (Gothenburg, Sweden) has developed a
method to recover energy from residual materials from the scrap metal recycling
process that usually get landfilled. The company, which has eight shredding
facilities for complex scrap metal in Europe, has conducted full-scale trials
around the continent to test the project and will continue to present it at
conferences internationally. If successful, the approach could recover enough
energy from residual materials to heat hundreds of thousands of homes while
also solving waste problems and meeting the European Union's directive barring
organic materials from land disposal. Visit www.stenametall.com.
International
Forest Products Corp. (Foxborough,
Mass.) has signed a pulp purchase and sales agreement with Fortress
Specialty Cellulose, a subsidiary of Fortress Paper
(North Vancouver, British Columbia). Under the agreement, IFP will be the
exclusive distributor for northern bleached hardwood kraft pulp produced at
Fortress' Thurso, Québec, mill. Visit www.ifpcorp.com
or www.fortresspaper.com.
SMS Mill
Services (Burnham, Ill.)
has entered a multiyear deal with ArcelorMittal Plate (AMC) (Coatesville,
Pa.) to process scrap at the firm's Coatesville steel mill. SMS will provide
services including on-site transport of processed scrap to the mill's
electric-arc furnace, specialized scrap processing, and alloy testing services.
SMS President Larry Coe will be responsible for all startup, transition, and
operations at the AMC facility. SMS also has a long-term agreement with AMC's
Burns Harbor, Ind., steel mill. Visit www.sms-millcraft.us
or www.arcelormittal.com.
ArcelorMittal
(Luxembourg)
has hired Harsco
Corp.
(Camp Hill, Pa.), an industrial services and engineered products
company, to provide on-site mill services for its integrated steel mill in
Dunkerque, France. The new five-year contract extends Harsco's 40-year
partnership with the mill and expands its on-site role to provide refractory
maintenance and melt-shop services for the operation's ladle metallurgy furnace
and converter operations.
In other Harsco news, the company has
secured an order to process more than 1 million tons of stockpiled blast
furnace slag in Utah over the next three years. The slag comes from the
"brownfield" remediation of the former Geneva Steel mill in Vineyard, Utah.
Harsco expects the Utah Department of Transportation to approve the processed
slag for use in state bridge and highway construction. In addition, Harsco is
returning to the Severstal
Warren (Warren, Ohio) steel mill, which resumed production in
March after a nearly two-year hiatus. Harsco's five-year contract builds on a
60-year relationship with the mill and calls for on-site slag handling, scrap
recovery, and material handling, along with external marketing of slag
byproducts.
In the Middle East, a Harsco-controlled
joint venture in Bahrain, AluServ, is installing a rotating
tilting furnace to process aluminum dross and a salt cake processing plant
under a new contract worth almost $5 million over three years. In Latin
America, where an unnamed zinc producer has hired Harsco to expand its on-site
mill services into the global zinc industry for the first time, Harsco will
receive and handle incoming zinc concentrates along with finished products and
byproduct residues. Visit www.harsco.com, www.arcelormittal.com,
or www.wcisteel.com.
To support its vitamin bottle recycling
initiative, supplement brand Nature Made (Northridge,
Calif.) has partnered with RecycleBank (New
York). RecycleBank's rewards system offers consumers credits, redeemable at
partner businesses ranging from restaurants to clothing stores, in exchange for
recyclables. Visit www.naturemade.com
or www.recyclebank.com.
Recycling company Resource
Exchange of America Corp. (Sarasota, Fla.)
is now an approved ferrous scrap metal vendor to Gerdau AmeriSteel (Tampa,
Fla.). Visit www.resource-exchange.com
or www.gerdauameristeel.com.
Novelis
(Atlanta)
has signed a multiyear agreement with beverage can producer Rexam (London)
to become the sole supplier of aluminum sheet for can production at Rexam's 10
Brazilian plants and its facility in Argentina. Novelis also will be the main
supplier of aluminum sheet for can ends Rexam produces in Brazil. Visit www.novelis.com
or www.rexam.com.
Metso Corp.
(Helsinki)
has enlisted SKF
Logistics Services (Gothenburg,
Sweden) to manage the global wear parts and spare parts warehouse and
distribution operation of its metal recycling business unit. From its Tongeren,
Belgium, distribution center, SKF will supply Metso's Lindemann line of
machinery and equipment to customers and manage inbound operations from Metso's
Düsseldorf, Germany, factory. The agreement also covers external suppliers,
quality inspection and other value-added services, storage of nearly 2,000
spare parts, outbound operations for spare parts and wear parts, and customer
service activities. Visit www.metso.com or www.skf.com.
SiCon
(Hilchenbach,
Germany) has expanded its partnership with Green Envirotech Corp.
(Fond du Lac, Wis.) and Plas2Fuel Corp. (Tigard, Ore.)
to the European market. The partners will bring to Europe their automobile
shredder residue processing systems, which recycle plastics from ASR by
mechanical means and convert ASR plastics that cannot be recycled by mechanical
means into high-grade synthetic crude oil. Visit www.greenenvirotech.com, or www.plas2fuel.com.
The Bureau of International Recycling (Brussels)
has selected Bryan
Cave International Trade (Singapore), a customs and trade
consulting firm, to provide legislative and regulatory intelligence on the
recovery and recycling of scrap commodities in China and India. BCIT will
submit quarterly reports, available to BIR member companies, on scrap-related
legislation, notifications, draft policies, and draft proposals from the
Chinese and Indian governments. Visit www.bir.org or www.bryancavetrade.com.
Awards and Milestones
The David J.
Joseph Co. (Cincinnati) is
marking its 125th anniversary this year. Joseph Joseph, a German immigrant,
began a hide and fur trading business in Cincinnati back in the mid-1800s. When
his brother Samuel joined him in the business in 1885, they renamed the firm
The Joseph Joseph and Brothers Co. and made scrap metal their primary focus. In
1921, David J. Joseph—son of Joseph Joseph—renamed the business The David J.
Joseph Co.
From
its small-time origins, DJJ has grown to 60 scrap processing facilities in the
United States, including 15 automobile shredders, as well as seven car
dismantling operations in its U-Pull-&-Pay division. The company also has
extensive scrap brokerage operations, with 15 offices around the world, and it
operates a logistics division that provides custom railcar purchase or lease
packages to industrial rail users.
DJJ
supplies scrap, scrap substitutes, ferroalloys, and nonferrous metals to steel
producers, foundries, and aluminum smelters. The company has 300 employees in
the greater Cincinnati area and more than 2,000 employees around the world.
Visit www.djj.com.
Steel producer Corus
(Scunthorpe, England) has named Tube City IMS UK,
a steel mill and foundry products and services provider also based in
Scunthorpe, its contractor of the year. This is the first time Tube City IMS
has received the award, which recognizes excellence in safety performance and
customer satisfaction. Visit www.corusgroup.com or www.tubecityims.com.
Carpet America
Recovery Effort (Dalton, Ga.)
has recognized Shaw
Industries, also based in Dalton, as its Recycler of the Year
for its continued investment in the diversion of postconsumer carpet from
landfills. CARE honored the full-service flooring company with the same award
in 2007, when the company purchased and launched the Evergreen Nylon Recycling
(Augusta, Ga.) facility. Industry networks Starnet Worldwide Commercial
Flooring Partnership (Darien, Conn.)
and ReSource
Commercial Flooring Network (Aurora, Colo.) also
received honors, accepting Awards of Excellence for their commitment to CARE
and support of its aligned dealer membership program, which allowed Starnet and
ReSource dealers to join CARE as individual members. Visit www.carpetrecovery.org,
www.shawfloors.com,
www.starnetflooring.com,
or www.resource
connect.com.
Electronics Recycling Roundup
Electronics recycler E-Structors (Elkridge,
Md.) has obtained both its Responsible Recycling (R2) and ISO 14001:2004
certifications. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-endorsed R2 program
for electronics recyclers assesses environmental, worker health and safety, and
security practices, while the ISO certification verifies that company
environmental management systems meet ISO standards. Materials Processing Corp. (Mendota
Heights, Minn.), which is already ISO 14001 certified, also received its R2
certification. Visit www.e-structors.com
and www.materialsprocessing.com.
Intercon
Solutions (Chicago
Heights, Ill.), an electronics recycler with facilities across the United
States, Canada, and England, has obtained its OHSAS 18001 certification. The
designation recognizes above-standard occupational health and safety management
systems. Visit www.interconrecycling.com.
Phone recycler and reseller ReCellular (Ann
Arbor, Mich.) has established comprehensive trade-in programs for both
consumers and phone retailers, offering SecureTradeIn.com to those interested
in buying and trading in refurbished phones and a point-of-sale system for
vendors hoping to improve customer retention and product upgrades. Visit www.recellular.com.
The automated electronics recycling
system ecoATM (San
Diego) has won the International
Electronics Recycling Conference & Expo's Innovative Product
of the Year Award. EcoATM stations automate the process of pricing and buying
used consumer electronics for trade-in and recycling. The company has installed
its first automated eCycling station that will provide cash for used phones at
Westfield North County Mall in Escondido, Calif., to test the effectiveness of
the kiosk in high-traffic retail locations.
In
other IERCE news, its Sustainability Leadership Award went to Sprint
Nextel (Overland Park, Kan.), while Best Buy (Richfield,
Minn.) received its Green Retailer Award. Visit www.electronicsrecyclingexpo.com,
www.ecoatm.com,
www.sprint.com,
or www.reconnectpartnership.com,
www.dell.com,
www.microsoft.com,
or www.goodwill.org.
Electronics recycling operations at four
federal correctional institutions may have exposed inmates and staff to
excessive levels of toxic metals, according to the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (Washington,
D.C.). In a report for the U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, D.C.), NIOSH
claims that Federal Prison Industries (Washington, D.C.), the government
corporation responsible for producing goods and services from inmate labor,
provided inadequate engineering controls, respiratory protection, medical
surveillance, and industrial hygiene monitoring, based on evaluations of the
group's electronics recycling operations at four federal prisons (Elkton, Ohio;
Texarkana, Texas; Atwater, Calif.; and Marianna, Fla.). Researchers found that
the work exposed inmates at the Atwater facility to levels of cadmium and lead
above the occupational exposure limits in 2002 and 2003, and it found the
potential for such exposure at the other facilities, which failed to collect
necessary data and provide proper training to inmates. Visit www.cdc.gov/niosh/.
Former RadioShack (Fort
Worth, Texas) Chief Executive Officer David Edmondson and Ron LeMay, former
chief operating officer of Sprint (Overland Park, Kan.), have
co-founded eRecyclingCorps (Irving,
Texas), which will help carriers resell and recycle used phones bought from
consumers. Sprint is the first carrier to employ eRecyclingCorps' buyback
system, which offers consumers trade-in incentives, in-store collection, and
strict privacy controls along with a Web-based platform that integrates
directly into the point-of-sale system at carrier retail stores. Visit www.erecyclingcorps.com,
www.radioshack.com,
or www.sprint.com.
Redemtech
(Columbus,
Ohio), an information technology asset disposition and technology change
management service company, has received the e-Stewards electronic recycling
certification for all of its U.S. facilities. Visit www.redemtech.com.
Equipment Sales and Installations
Sadoff Iron
& Metal Co., a subsidiary of Sadoff & Rudoy Industries (Fond
du Lac, Wis.), has purchased an SC shear from Harris (Tyrone,
Ga.) for installation in its Fond du Lac facility. Visit www.sadoff.com
or www.harrisequip.com.
Green Zone
Investments (dba Tire
Recyclers) (Charles City, Va.) has bought a new zero-waste
tire-derived fuel system from Columbus McKinnon Corp. (Sarasota,
Fla.). The system, which is designed to produce high-grade TDF with minimal
steel content, has a CM dual-speed tire shredder and a CM2R Liberator to
separate wire from rubber. Visit www.cmtirerecyclingequipment.com
or www.tirerecyclersinc.com.
The Federal
Metal Co. (Bedford, Ohio)
has selected Management
Science Associates' (Pittsburgh) application service provider
version of the Blending Optimization Software Suite as its raw materials
blending optimization platform. The ingot producer will use BOSS ASP in its
operations, taking advantage of the automated management of raw materials and
melting operations to optimize mixtures and find lowest-cost melting
combinations. BOSS also offers an alloy addition calculation and a purchase
planning feature. Visit www.federalmetal.com or www.msa.com.
Manufacturers Add New Distributors
Material handler manufacturer Sennebogen
(Stanley, N.C.) has added three new dealers to its network of U.S.
distributors. Great
Southern Equipment Co. (Tampa, Fla.) is
the new Sennebogen distributor in Florida (except in the Panhandle region),
with locations in Tampa, Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and
Jacksonville. Bejac
Corp.
(Placentia, Calif.) will sell Sennebogen products in California
from its branches in San Diego, Los Angeles, Inland Empire, Sacramento,
Redding, and the Oakland Bay area. Leslie Equipment Co. (Cowen,
W.Va.) will carry Sennebogen's material handlers at eight of its 10 locations
in West Virginia and southern Ohio. Visit www.sennebogen-na.com,
www.gsequipment.net,
www.bejac.com,
or www.lec1.com.
Alta Equipment
Co. (Wixom, Mich.) is the newest
authorized dealer for Genesis Attachments (Superior,
Wis.), covering lower Michigan. Visit www.altaequipment.com
or www.genesisattachments.com.
Resources
The World Steel Association
(Brussels) has published a report on steel industry byproducts. The report
focuses on the generation rates, recycling and reuse rates, and management
techniques of various byproducts, including ironmaking slag, steelmaking slag,
and dust and sludge. The report is available for purchase on the association's
Web site at www.worldsteel.org.
Recycling Pet Food Cans Is the Cat's Meow Cat food companies Friskies and Fancy Feast, both
subsidiaries of Nestlé Purina PetCare (St. Louis), have launched
the "Together We Can" campaign to demonstrate to consumers the recyclability of
pet food cans. Aluminum pet food cans often are overlooked as contributors to
landfills, with consumers reportedly recycling less than 20 percent of such
cans each year, compared with 54 percent of aluminum beverage cans. To
encourage more recycling of their packaging, Friskies and Fancy Feast enlisted
the help of cat-owning artists and celebrities nationwide to create artwork
from used cans. A "RePURR-posed" gallery in New York displayed the pieces, with
select works sold on eBay to raise funds for Keep America
Beautiful (Stamford, Conn.). For each pet owner pledging to
recycle aluminum pet food cans on the Together We Can Web site, Nestlé Purina
PetCare also promised to donate $1 (up to $100,000) to KAB. Visit www.togetherwecanrecycle.com and www.kab.org.
New Installation Shatters Ideas of Conventional Recycling Want to vent a little frustration in an
eco-friendly way? Try "Glassphemy!" The project, a creation of developer David
Belt's company Macro
Sea (New York), gives participants an opportunity to shatter
glass bottles with impunity in a controlled environment, with the resulting
cullet recovered for recycling. The centerpiece of the "Glassphemy!" project is
a 20-foot by 30-foot box of steel and bulletproof glass, located in an
undisclosed private space along Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal. Macro Sea invites
guests to stand armed with bottles donated from neighborhood bars on a high
platform at one end of the box while other guests stand on a lower platform at
the opposite end, protected behind a bulletproof glass wall. In this process of
environmentally friendly belligerence, bottles thrown from the upper deck
toward the guests below shatter against the bulletproof glass, triggering
vibration-activated lights and collecting at the bottom of the box for eventual
recycling or reuse.
Some of
the cullet is recycled via a bicycle-powered glass polisher assembled from a
cement mixer, which yields smooth glass for various uses, including decoration.
Another application pulverizes the glass shards into a granulate the company
intends to use in a beer garden planned for the site. Macro Sea invites other
suggestions, with the best ideas possibly earning the individual an invitation
to participate. ReadyMade magazine also is sponsoring a contest for its
readers to submit additional recycling ideas for "Glassphemy!" Visit www.macro-sea.com
or www.readymade.com.
Gowns Put
Eco-Friendly Spin on Graduation Regardless of a
school's official colors, cap and gown company Oak Hall Industries (Salem,
Va.) is making graduations a little more "green" with its GreenWeaver line of
academic apparel. The eco-friendly products, which the company makes from
100-percent postconsumer recycled plastic bottles—about 23 per gown—have
already found their way onto graduates at more than 100 institutions, including
Wake Forest University and the University of Pennsylvania, the company says.
Though they look just like traditional polyester graduation garb, GreenWeaver
gowns are softer, more breathable, and use soy ink stamps instead of tags to
denote sizes, according to Oak Hall.
As
of March 1, the gown line reportedly has reclaimed more than 3.5 million
bottles. What's more, campuses can collect the GreenWeaver gowns after
graduation, and Oak Hall will arrange to recycle them into carpet fiber. The
company says that manufacturing recycled plastic fabric rather than virgin
polyester reduces carbon dioxide emissions almost 55 percent. It also ships its
products in recycled plastic bags and recycled corrugated cartons, uses
recycled cardboard in its caps, and pledges to donate to a campus environmental
group for every gown purchased. Visit www.oakhalli.com or
www.greenweavermovement.com.
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