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THE
PULSE
Newsletter of the Canadian Association of Recycling Industries
Volume 17, No. 2, February 2012
President’s Message | Fast Facts
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
 As I mentioned in last December’s message, CARI is in the process of revising the Human Resource Manual. The revisions and additions are currently being formatted and translated, and the new manual should be ready to send to members by late spring.
Designing the original Human Resources manual specifically for our industry was a large undertaking, so we enlisted the help of a consulting firm. CARI often works with partners, such as the Safety Manual and www.ScrapTheftAlert.com, projects we coproduced with ISRI. Collaborations like these reduce the resources required by each partner, making a large undertaking more cost and time effective.
Last year I encouraged CARI members to consider collaberating with local colleges and universities when undertaking new projects. Many of these institutions have programs in place from which we can benefit.
For instance, Durham College has a program to match local small to medium sized businesses with teams of professors and students and seek funding from various government agencies to share the costs for eligible projects. Depending upon the funding programs, the college can now match 1:1 the project contributions to a maximum of $100,000. A business’s contribution can be a cash or an in-kind investment (such as the time of staff), and the business maintains the rights to any intellectual property  developed during the project. This type of collaboration has lasting benefits for everyone involved, as the students get real-life experience and the schools and businesses build their reputations as innovators and team-players.
But collaboration shouldn’t stop when a project is complete. Feedback is essential to the continued development of successful projects. This is true of CARI’s projects too. We’ve had very little feedback since the original Human Resources Manual was introduced. Tell us what you think of the manual and the other programs and services we currently offer. Suggest new programs and services you’d like to see. Working together will benefit us all.
Bertrand Van Dorpe
CARI President
FAST FACTS
- Last week the Ontario Ministry of the Environment announced changes to the way Stewardship Ontario collects fees for hazardous waste recycling. Currently Stewardship Ontario collects fees from producers based on costs projected at the beginning of each fiscal year. The Ministry now says it will require Stewardship Ontario to collect fees at the end of each quarter, based on the actual costs of recycling materials. Several recyclers had recently threatened to pull out of the program, saying the fixed collection fees were too low to be profitable and that Stewardship Ontario was unfairly influencing the market. Some municipalities had also complained that Stewardship Ontario was not fully covering the costs of hazardous waste recycling programs. The Ministry has also ordered a detailed review of Stewardship Ontario’s budgets and expenditures.
- On February 23, the Recycling Council of Ontario will hold its 2011 Annual General Meeting and part one in an information series, “Recycling and Ontario’s Green Economy: Opportunities for Growth.” The program includes the report “The Economic Benefits of Recycling in Ontario” presented by Andrew Keir, senior consultant and researcher from AECOM, and discussions of the Ontario MOE’s proposed changes to the Stewardship programs.
- According to a report released last year by the European Environment Agency, waste reduction, stewardship and recycling policies adopted over the past decade have been beneficial to the European economy. Recycling is the fastest growing sector among the eco-industries, and recyclables are an increasingly important export commodity (due in large part to the demand from rising Asian economies). The growing demand has increased recovery rates for valuable commodities within the EU. The report says the recycling industry generates more jobs for better wages than landfilling or incinerating waste. It goes on to say that recycling has roughly twice the economic impact of burying the same amount of materials in the ground, but that new technology is needed to increase the rate of recovery.
- The American Automotive Recyclers Association is backing the U.S. Department of Justice’s decision to issue penalties for recyclers who do not report savaged vehicles to the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS). Recyclers who salvage a minimum of five vehicles per year are required to participate in the program or face fines up to $1,000 for each unreported vehicle. Shredders and scrapyards are also expected to report vehicles to NMVTIS.
- California’s Department of Toxic Substance Control is planning revisions to its regulations for CRT glass, saying large amounts of CRT glass are currently being stockpiled at taxpayer’s expense, due to lack of markets for the material. The proposed changes would allow CRT glass to be sent to landfill under certain circumstances. Some e-scrap recyclers argue they have the technology to safely process CRT glass for return to the market, and the speculative accumulation rules should instead be changed to increase the length of time CRT recyclers can store the glass at their sites.
- A U.S. federal judge approved a preliminary injunction to stop the implementation of the city of Dallas’s flow-control ordinance. The judge said the ordinance was merely a revenue-raising measure, and that it violated the franchisee agreement currently in place with the city’s haulers.
- Larger electronics retailers in Europe will soon be required to take back old gadgets for recycling at no charge to consumers. In January European Parliament revised regulations for retailers in 27 EU member states. The new law requires member states to increase the amount of electronic waste collected. Currently the law requires states to collect four kilograms of e-waste per person per year, which results in about two million tonnes collected for 10 million tonnes generated. Under the revised legislation, by 2016 states will have to collect 45 tonnes for every 100 tonnes of electronic goods sold in the three years prior. By 2019, the collection requirements will increase to 65 percent.
- This month an international group of scrap metal experts drafted a code of conduct for the cross-border shipment of recycled and semi-finished metals that might contain radioactive material. The group proposed each shipment of ferrous and nonferrous scrap or semi-finished product should include a Radiation Monitoring Report. The proposal addresses worries of radioactive material in scrap following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
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