Corporate News

 BIRMINGHAM PLANS NEW SCRAP FACILITY

Birmingham Steel Corp., Birmingham, Ala., has announced that it is evaluating sites and plans for constructing a new scrap processing facility in the lower Mississippi River region. The facility will have access to major transportation systems that will provide cost-effective delivery to the company’s existing steel mills in Jackson, Miss., Birmingham, Ala, and Kankakee, Ill., and to its steel plant under construction in Memphis, Tenn., according to company officials.

“This scrap processing facility is part of our continuing strategy to reduce total raw material costs while securing a reliable supply of scrap for our steel plants,” says Robert Garvey, chairman and chief executive officer of Birmingham Steel.

GROSSMAN BROS. INNOVATIONS HONORED

Grossman Bros. Co., Milwaukee, recently received a special environmental and land use recognition award from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources for its completely indoor ferrous and nonferrous scrap processing operation.

In addition to significantly reducing the potential for pollution through exposure to stormwater, the indoor recycling facility is also a brownfields initiative, returning to productive use what was once an abandoned manufacturing site. Art Grossman, president, accepted the award from DNR Secretary George Meyer.

ROCK-TENN OPENS MONTREAL PAPER RECOVERY FACILITY

Rock-Tenn Co., Atlanta, has opened a new paper recovery operation in Montreal. The 50,000-square-foot facility, to be known as Rock-Tenn Recycling-Montreal, will collect, sort and bale recovered paper and paperboard from offices, commercial businesses and industrial operations. The firm will sell the recovered fiber to customers throughout the region along with Rock-Tenn recycled paperboard operations.

Paper handled by the plant will include newsprint, magazines, trim from commercial printers, computer paper, mixed office paper and old corrugated cardboard.

HARRIS ADDS NEW DISTRIBUTOR

Harris Waste Management Group, Peachtree City, Ga., has authorized Murray-Latta Machine Co. Ltd., Richmond, British Columbia, as an official Harris distributor. Murray-Latta will distribute Harris nonferrous processing equipment in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon and Northwest Territories.

The company will offer new balers, parts and service for the Harris, Mosley and Selco product lines. Founded in 1918, Murray-Latta Machine Co. specializes in machinery manufacturing, steel fabrication, installation services, repairs and maintenance.

HARLEY HALTS METAL RECYCLING BUSINESS

After 20 years in business, Harley Metals, Los Angeles, will be closing its doors. “For many years we successfully operated a small recycling center,” says Steven Kane, president of Harley, in a letter to the company’s creditors. “Approximately three years ago we made the decision to become a large processor in the Los Angeles area. With the benefit of hindsight, that decision was a big mistake.”

Kane blames the demise of the business on insufficient working capital, unchecked growth, and an untimely injury to the company’s accountant that caused “chaos” with the firm’s financial records during a five-month period. The company owes the bank $600,000, of which half should be paid through the sale of the company’s assets. The remaining $300,000 will have to be paid by the guarantors, and will require the sale of personal assets.

NORTH SHORE HONORED IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

WasteCap of New Hampshire recently held its fourth annual Environmental Excellence Breakfast and Awards Ceremony. At the meeting, North Shore Recycled Fibers, Salem, Mass., received the WasteCap Environmental Leadership Award for the company’s leadership in operating the Nashua Business Recycling Consortium. The NBRC provides recycling services for 96 businesses in the state.

Also honored was Sally Hyland, Nashua’s waste reduction coordinator, who worked with North Shore’s recycling coordinators, Rosa Morais and Joe Colletti, and with WasteCap to make the NBRC a model for the country. According to WasteCap, North Shore has worked diligently and creatively to solve the many technicalities involved in providing recycling services to almost 100 businesses. The NBRC has recycled approximately eight tons of paper and old corrugated cardboard weekly since it began operation in April of 1995.

COZZI IRON & METAL ATTAINS ISO 9000 CERTIFICATION

Cozzi Iron & Metal Inc., Chicago, has announced that SGS International Certification Services Inc. has registered the company’s Quality System with ANSI-RAB in conformance to specified requirements of ISO 9002-1994. The requirements of this certification focus on customer satisfaction, prevention of non-conforming product and process control.

“We are among the very few in the industry to have achieved this status,” says Albert Cozzi, president. “We’re proud of this accomplishment and consider it a testimony to the commitment of our employees to providing quality products and services.”

The management of Cozzi has assumed direct responsibility for corrective and preventative actions to assure its customers that the goals of the quality policy are met.

LINDEMANN HONORS TWO DISTRIBUTORS

Lindemann Recycling Equipment, Pineville, N.C., has honored Rose Waste Systems, San Jose, Calif., and Recycling Systems USA, Springfield, Pa., for posting the highest sales of Lindemann equipment. This is the second year in a row that both companies have received this award. The awards were presented during Waste Expo in Las Vegas last May.

MCDONALD’S REACHES NEW HIGH IN BUYING RECYCLED

The fast-food restaurant chain, McDonald’s Corp., Oak Brook, Ill, purchased a record $328 million worth of recycled-content products during 1995 through its McRecycle USA program. Since 1990, the company says that it has bought a total of $1.5 billion of recycled-content goods. In addition, McDonald’s reduced packaging during 1995 by 6.5 million pounds.

The company’s goals for 1996 are to continue to reduce paper usage and increase recycled-content usage; increase the usage of environmentally-friendly pulps; increase purchases from suppliers who operate minimum-impact mills; and increase the collection of recyclable materials within McDonald’s restaurants.

However, the company was originally composite packaging its new Arch Deluxe burger, which included a cellophane window imbedded in the top of the sandwich’s paper-box container. The cellophane window has been removed.

BIRMINGHAM ANNOUNCES MANAGEMENT CHANGES

Birmingham Steel Corp., Birmingham, Ala., has realigned its management organizational structure. The business will now be organized around five functional areas: Finance, Administration, Development and Technology, Commercial, and Plant Operations. Five related appointments have been made: John Casey has been named executive vice president-finance and chief financial officer; William Lucas has been named executive vice president-administration and general counsel; Frederick Rocchio, Jr. has been appointed executive vice president-development and technology; Thomas Tyrrell has been named executive vice president-commercial; and Jack Wheeler is now vice president-plant operations.

ANOTHER VITRIFICATION SYSTEM TO ENTER MARKET

Vitrification, the process by which waste material is transformed into a glass-like substance under extreme temperature, is heating up as another company prepares to make use of the process. A new start-up company called Integrated Environmental Technologies, Richmond, Wash., has developed a new technology known as controlled plasma glassification which uses electrically-conductive gas (plasma) to vitrify waste.

Earlier this year, TRW, Cleveland, and Proler International Corp., Houston, entered into an agreement to begin using a newly-patented vitrification process for recycling complex wastes.

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