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THE
PULSE
Newsletter of the Canadian Association of Recycling Industries
Volume 18, No. 10, October 2013
 MESSAGE
FROM THE CHAIR
At our last Annual General Meeting, CARI members unanimously approved a new by-law and voted to file for a certificate of continuance under the new Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act. Had we not done so, CARI would have been dissolved. I am pleased to report that after a year’s hard work CARI is now reincorporated under the new Act.
The new Act is extremely comprehensive, but is coherent, reasonably clear, innovative and flexible. It provides modern governance principles, standards and machinery that are similar to the Canada Business Corporations Act. Organizations incorporated under the new Act will have the “rights, powers and privileges of a natural person” and the capacity to carry out activities throughout Canada, 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.
Some sections of the Act could not be changed and others would have become an association’s default position if not changed in its by-laws. CARI had recently updated its by-laws, so we were able to write a new by-law similar to the existing ones that complied with the Act and focused on the rights and responsibilities of both members and directors. We made very few changes from the Act and from our previous by-law.
One modification we made was to send members a link directing them to our financial statements, rather than mail paper copies to each member as the Act would have required. We chose to add this amendment to our by-law partly to save on mailing costs and partly to allow members the choice of viewing the information.
You might have noticed from the heading above that we have also made a change to titles; my position is now the Chair, Adam Chisick is now our Vice-chair, and Len Shaw is now CARI’s President and CEO. These titles, which are recommended by the federal government, put CARI in line with other industry associations and differentiate us from charitable organizations and environmental groups. Such distinctions are especially important when we are dealing with government representatives; they will better recognize us as the voice of the industry.
With CARI’s reincorporation, we have guaranteed the Canadian recycling industry will continue to have a strong voice well into the future.
Dennis Cebula
Chair
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MEMBER ACTIVITY
CARI congratulates member ABC Recycling on its induction into the Burnaby Business Hall of Fame. Earlier this year, the company received the Private Sector Achievement Award from the Recycling Council of B.C. ABC Recycling also raises funds for the Kidney Foundation of Canada as part of the kidney car program and metal program. The company has eight locations across B.C. and Alberta with more than 200 employees.
AN INDUSTRY LOSS
Benjamin (Benny) Stark
September 20, 1921 – October 4, 2013
It is with great sadness that CARI announces the passing of Benny Stark. After immigrating to Canada Benny became a pioneer of the greater Toronto area’s recycling industry. Starting with a small yard in 1959, he grew his business to become a major personality in the industry. Benny leaves behind his loving wife of 66 years, Barbara; his children Elsa and Stephen; and his grandchildren Lori, Michael and Sarah Grossman, Joshua, Jared, and Shane Stark.
CARI staff and its members extend their deepest sympathy to Benny’s family, friends and colleagues.
FAST FACTS
- A California bill that would have required a recycler to pay for the purchase of scrap metal by mailing a cheque to the seller has been vetoed. Governor Jerry Brown acknowledged that metal theft was a growing concern, but said he had signed four bills in the last year to reduce the level of metals theft. Brown said the state should focus on enforcing the existing laws, which include requiring a seller to wait three days before receiving payment for metal materials, and providing a written record of the transaction, the name, driver’s license number, license plate number, thumbprint of the seller and a photograph or video of the seller and the material being sold.
- The State of New York’s Supreme Court recently ruled that a county cannot force a recycling facility that otherwise does not handle solid waste to apply for a license to operate as a transfer station. Westchester County has repeatedly tried to force scrap recyclers to comply with the County’s solid waste disposal act. The court’s ruling was based in part on the definitions of the words “waste” and “discard,” concluding the statute did not apply because recyclables are neither waste nor are they discarded, instead stating scrap metal has “intrinsic value.”
- Ontario’s Bill 56, the Aggregate Recycling Promotion Act, has passed second reading in the Legislature with the support of all parties. The bill encourages municipalities and public agencies to increase their use of recycled aggregates in construction projects. Public agencies would no longer be able to reject a bid from a contractor that proposed to use recycled aggregates and municipalities that prefer to use primary aggregates would be required to give detailed rationale as to why recycled aggregates could not be considered.
- BIR recently released a short video about the recycling industry’s contribution to the global economy, the protection of environment, and the development of sustainable solutions. The new video also promotes the free and fair trade of recycled materials. To view the video, visit http://www.bir.org/video/recycling-video.
- A German communications provider (Deutsche Telekom) has contracted a company to tag overhead telephone cables with artificial DNA. Using quadrocopter drones fitted with a device for marking telephone cables, the company will mark its material with the “DNA” in an effort to fight theft of its copper cables.
- A report by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade warns of a global trend towards “blatant and uncontrolled protectionism.” Import/export bans, burdensome licensing and tariff quotas, and special border fees are becoming increasingly common. In 2012, 154 new tariffs and restrictive measures were introduced. The report cites Russia’s car recycling fee as well as “trade abuses” by Brazil, Indonesia and China across a wide variety of sectors. Ukraine, for example, is implementing a recycling fee on imported vehicles that the European Commission says is most likely a “WTO-inconsistent measure” similar to the Russian law challenged by the EU earlier this year.
- The UK has revised its hazardous waste guidelines to describe small mixed waste electrical and electronic equipment as both hazardous and non-hazardous. Until now, all small mixed WEEE had been considered non-hazardous; under the new classification, processors will have to sort the hazardous from non-hazardous in all small mixed WEEE streams. The government is set to release changes to the WEEE system aimed at easing and streamlining the recycling process after collection totals dropped at the beginning of 2013.
- In its recent study Guidelines for National Waste Management Strategies, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) claims half the world’s population lack crucial waste management services. This lack of proper waste management harms the environment, health and world economies. UNEP emphasizes recycling as the best solution on all fronts. The report says recycling materials rather than sending them to waste would slow the depletion of raw materials. Giving the example of electronic waste, the report notes one tonne of could yield as much gold as five to 15 tonnes of typical gold ore, and the recovered copper, aluminium and rare metals would also significantly exceed the levels found in typical ores.
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