Cleaning Up

Several articles in recent editions of Recycling Today—including this month’s cover profile of Van Gundy’s AMPCO in Grand Junction, Colo.—have broached the topic of scrap industry image, reputation and property maintenance.

Whether it’s presenting a “clean” image to neighbors, law enforcement personnel, regulatory agencies or highway department inspectors looking for overweight vehicles, a first impression can make a lasting difference.

Before writing any further, I should probably broadcast a “hypocrisy alert.” My office, with its stacks of semi-organized folders, papers and printouts, cannot serve as an example for property owners to follow. So if it helps any to empathize, I’m aware that finding the time and energy for cleanliness too easily fades to the background amidst the need to be productive and to meet deadlines.

Those who are dedicated to keeping their properties in tip-top shape, however (such as the Van Gundys or the Weber family, profiled in the July 2010 edition of Recycling Today), can point to the many benefits of keeping things clean and managing their properties and fleets to retail rather than to smokestack standards.

A conscious decision to reach for these standards, though, generally has to be followed up with the willingness to allocate resources for this purpose.

Even during the good years, when scrap recyclers “clean up” in the financial sense, earmarking budgeted funds for landscaping and façade improvements can be difficult.

Very few recycling companies seek to hire additional employees (or have current employees with time to spare). Adding to budget line items for additional landscaping or to have the newest-looking truck trailers in town is not always a first choice either.

From what Recycling Today readers indicate, however, expenditures in these areas have tended to provide returns in numerous and often unanticipated ways—whether in the form of additional peddler traffic or compliments from a regulator.

Recyclers face many management issues. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI) in its Code of Conduct and on its Image Campaign Web page, tackles ethics, safety, materials theft and environmental stewardship—all matters worthy of attention.

What scrap company owners and managers who have a little bit of energy and budget allocation left for upgrading their property have said, though, is that such steps can often provide hidden assistance to some of these same high priorities.

Correction: Recycling Today has been informed that OmniSource’s Wilmington, N.C., auto shredder is currently in operation and not idle as noted in our October 2010 auto shredder list and map. We regret the error.