More than once, individuals working with recycling or manufacturing companies have expressed the thought that they are missing out on capital opportunities by not incorporating ".com" within their corporate names.
Two years ago, those references were made in jest, but now several individuals from the metals and paper industries have helped form investment groups to increase recycling’s presence on the Internet and World Wide Web.
As this month’s cover story details, the Internet’s attempt to capture as much commerce as possible has made its way to basic industries such as steelmaking and paper manufacturing.
More than a handful of entrepreneurs have asked themselves, "if books and compact discs can be sold through the Internet, why can’t a shipment of old corrugated containers (OCC) or ferrous shredded scrap?"
People interviewed for the cover story have differing answers to that question, and different lines of reasoning that brought them to their answers. There is agreement that the Internet and the catch all term "e-commerce" that goes with it are not going away. The disagreement seems to come concerning the degree to which buying and selling over the Internet will supplant other methods of conducting transactions.
Even organizers and managers of existing websites catering to commodity trading or the recycling industry have differing visions of how e-commerce will affect the way recyclers do business.
If one considers communication and transportation as being the two critical components of conducting a physical transaction, then the Internet as a portal to a completely new world cannot change everything involved with the process. It may have some bearing on logistics, but the wiring networks carrying information to and from the Internet cannot also carry gondola cars or shipping containers.
When it comes to forms of communication, most have shown a remarkable ability to stay relevant in some form. Print in nearly all of its forms is still with us, ranging from periodicals and outdoor advertising to downloadable documents posted on the World Wide Web. Most electronic forms of communication—including the telephone, radio and television—are demonstrating good staying power. (Although I will admit I have not received a telegram in awhile, nor have I noticed any MovieTone newsreels down at the local Cineplex in quite a few years.)
Although it is uncertain whether any media will be replaced by the Internet, there can be no doubt that it has proven to be a formidable force. Speed is the currency of business communication, and e-mail and the Internet can offer efficient methods of transmitting a message or making a request. The pure volume of information that can be transferred or presented instantly is what has made e-mail and websites so intriguing to marketing, sales, accounting and publishing companies and departments.
It will probably be impossible for the Internet to match the hype that has surrounded it for the past three or four years. But that doesn’t mean that retrieving and sending information online is a fad. In its short time of prominence, the Internet is making and breaking corporate careers and strategies as companies figure out how to take advantage of its possibilities without neglecting existing operations.
The last half of the twentieth century saw an amazing number of advances in technology. It is by no means a final verdict, but it seems almost certain that the exponential increases in computing power and the ability of the Internet to share that power will almost certainly take their places among the most significant of advances.
Explore the March 2000 Issue
Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
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