THE
PULSE
Newsletter of the Canadian Association of Recycling Industries
Volume 17, No. 11, November 2012
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE | FAST FACTS
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
CARI incorporated in 1941 under Part II of the Canada Corporations Act. That Act remained basically unchanged since 1919 but after several attempts was finally amended on October 17, 2011. Part II was replaced with a separate, new Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (NPCA). CARI has until October 17, 2014 to complete the transition into the new Act through a formal Continuance process or it will be dissolved.
The main objective of the NPCA is to bring the advantages of a modern corporate statute to the not-for-profit sector. The new Act is considered a positive step because it provides modern governance principles, standards and machinery that are similar to the Canada Business Corporations Act. It fills many of the holes of the old Act and is now coherent, reasonably clear, innovative and flexible. Organizations incorporated under the new Act have the “rights, powers and privileges of a natural person” and the capacity to carry out activities throughout and outside Canada. Since organizational democracy is a key principle in the new Act, members now have increased rights, access to records, and legal remedies.
The new Act is very long and much more extensive. It contains 28 matters that can be addressed in by-laws and, if not, will be the default positions for organizations. If an organization chose the Act’s default position in all cases, by-laws could be reduced to only two sections: conditions of membership and notice of meetings.
CARI last amended its “purpose and objectives” through supplementary letters patent on October 23, 1998, and amended its by-laws several times over the past 15 years. Therefore the Board of Directors decided to prepare a new by-law as similar as possible to the existing ones, complying with the new Act and focusing on the rights and responsibilities of both members and directors.
The necessary continuance document and a new by-law have been prepared by a sub-committee and reviewed by a lawyer who specializes in not-for-profit organizations and who has given presentations on the new Act. They were subsequently reviewed and approved by the Policy and Planning Committee, and finally approved by the full Board of Directors.
Shortly after the New Year these two documents along with hyperlinks to all other relevant document will be sent to all members for their consideration and review. Members will then have the opportunity to raise any questions or concerns. CARI will address all members’ concerns before complete the continuance process with a special resolution at our next Annual General Meeting in Halifax in June.
When you receive the documents please take the time to study them and provide any comments.
Dennis Cebula
President
FAST FACTS
- Auto Recycling Nederland (ARN) recently began installation on a new smelter developed by smelting specialists Ensartech. The process uses new high-temperature recycling technology to convert highly polluted waste streams into various types of energy. Ensartech says the technology ensures clean slag production. It has a capacity of 25,000 tonnes per year and can be scaled to larger capacities. The technology also provides an application for the mineral fraction derived from shredder waste because organic materials are separated from the minerals in the process, leaving only basalt. ARN believes the new thermal process could help the country’s car recycling rate reach 95%.
- The government of China announced intentions to shut down ferrous recyclers that do not meet the standards set out by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). MIIT’s production guidelines require new ferrous scrap recycling companies to have processing capacities of not less than 150,000 tonnes per year each, and existing recyclers to have processing capacities of no less than 100,000 tonnes per year by the end of 2014.
- Whitehorse’s P&M Recycling has installed a machine capable of turning plastic into heating oil. The plastic-to-oil machine will turn rough granules of plastic into a gas that cools into oil. The machine will handle almost any type of plastic, and will convert 10 kg of plastic per hour into 10 litres of oil. The only by-products from the process are small fractions of carbon residue, carbon dioxide and water vapour. P&M purchased the equipment with the help of the Yukon Research Centre. The resulting blend of gasoline, diesel, kerosene and other liquid hydrocarbons can be used to fuel most types of oil-fired furnace, and is currently being used to heat the Whitehorse facility. The company plans to sell the surplus oil in the future.
- A recent study commissioned by the American Grocery Manufacturers’ Association concluded that EPR programs do not achieve their stated objectives, saying the programs do not provide sufficient incentives for producers to reduce packaging, nor do they lead to improved recycling rates. The report also states EPR programs do nothing to increase the efficiency or decrease the costs of recycling. In lieu of such programs, the report recommends waste reduction through disposal limits, pay-as-you-throw programs, disposal bans and mandatory recycling.
- The province of Newfoundland and Labrador is introducing an EPR program for electronics. Manufacturers have 120 days to submit a detailed stewardship plan and proposed recycling program. Each year the province generates 1,551 tonnes of residential e-waste and 1,055 tonnes of commercial e-waste.
- Local governments in Texas might hesitate to enact flow-control laws after a recent judge’s ruling that the Dallas flow-control law is unconstitutional. Dallas’ ordinance would have forced the city’s collected waste to be disposed at city-owned facilities. The judge ruled that Dallas’ flow-control law violated the Contract Clause in the Texas constitution. The city had argued that the law would deter illegal dumping, increase recycling, and ensure safe, cost-efficient management of solid waste. Pointing to the deposition of a former Sanitation Director who said the ordinance was not necessary to address illegal dumping or to increase recycling, and that the city’s waste was currently being handled in an environmentally safe and cost-efficient manner, the judge said the city’s arguments were false and that Dallas had initiated flow-control for economic reasons.
- The damage caused by Hurricane Sandy may result in as many as 250,000 new and used vehicles being sent to scrap. Floods swallowed at least 16,000 new cars in New York and New Jersey dealerships. GM and Ford have not yet announced their losses from the storm.
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