A new member of the family

Recycling Today magazine, tracing back to its 1963 origins as a publication called Secondary Raw Materials, has concentrated primarily on metallic, paper and (later) plastic scrap materials that have value to sellers and buyers who have identified these scrap commodities as industrial feedstock.

Over the course of more than five decades, however, our readers have consistently made us aware that, starting with collection and the most basic sorting of discarded materials, plenty of interplay occurs between the waste and recycling sectors.

Nearly two decades ago, the Recycling Today Media Group started Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine, which provides coverage of a materials stream that includes high-value metals, lower-value concrete and materials being recycled at a cost primarily to meet landfill diversion targets.

Earlier this decade we introduced Renewable Energy from Waste (REW) magazine, which brought us further into the waste sector by focusing on that portion of byproducts and discarded materials increasingly being identified as an energy source.

"In 2017 and beyond, investments and innovation in this sector and many others are likely to provide an ongoing source of business opportunities for those in the waste and recycling industries.”

In 2017 we are proud to announce the focus of REW is being broadened to include coverage of the complete solid waste spectrum under the name Waste Today. I urge readers interested in subscribing to this new publication to visit www.WasteToday Magazine.com/form/1/wt/subscribe.

Recycling and waste hauling firms, large corporations and solid waste districts are almost all seeking to maximize landfill diversion percentages, including in the food scrap and agribusiness byproducts sectors, with those materials comprising as much as 25 percent of the current waste stream.

In 2017 and beyond, investments and innovation in this sector and many others are likely to provide an ongoing source of business opportunities for those in the waste and recycling industries.

To what extent food scraps, yard trimmings and agribusiness byproducts become established alternative energy feedstocks (a material with value rather than a waste product) leads to one final point.

In its coverage, Recycling Today has long taken measures to ensure it does not use the words “scrap” and “waste” interchangeably, and we have no intention of changing that. In both our newest publication and our oldest one, traded secondary commodities and other materials with value will be referred to as scrap, while only materials that entail a cost to be properly disposed of will be referred to as waste.