Editor's Focus - Something New for 2008

Business publications, in both the advertisements and the articles, often target the notion of change as the foremost opportunity and challenge confronting business owners and managers.

In 2008, some of the changes affecting the recycling industry will be visible in the pages of a modified and redesigned Recycling Today magazine that readers will begin seeing with the arrival of the next issue.

The January 2008 issue will deliver the same timely and wide-ranging content, but in some new packaging.

One of the more noticeable changes will be the introduction of a unified news department at the front of the magazine. News items will continue to reflect a balance and a blend of news pertaining to the scrap metals industry, the paperstock industry and municipal recycling markets, as well as the plastics, electronics, scrap tire and C&D sectors.

The blending of news items touches upon an aspect of change that Recycling Today staff members hear consistently from readers and advertisers—many of the silos that have traditionally separated recycling industry sectors are being dismantled.

Scrap metal recyclers who operate shredders are faced with a stream of plastic that may not traditionally have been marketable, but both those traditions and those markets could be changing. Furthermore, metals and paper recyclers are consistently asked to handle additional materials by their customers. The operators of material recovery facilities connected to municipal markets know full well the value of staying in touch with the dynamics of both the ferrous and the nonferrous scrap markets.

The Recycling Today Media Group is proud of the horizontal reach it provides to its readers. Likewise, the forging of inter-sector connections has become a key to our conferences focusing on paper, plastics and electronics, which will next take place June 22-24, 2008, in Chicago.

Recycling specialists, such as Nicos Polymers LLC, featured in this month’s edition, remain critical. But, whether through referrals, alliances or new ventures, recyclers will continue to make new connections.

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The Recycling Today Media Group has another change taking place that it is proud to announce: the addition of new staff member Katie Morris.

Katie joins Recycling Today as an assistant editor. She is a recent graduate of Ohio University and served with Recycling Today’s parent company GIE Media Inc. as an editorial intern for several months.

Katie’s bylined work can be seen in this issue in the story "Is the Glass Half Empty?" In addition to writing feature stories, she’s also contributing news items to the magazine and Web site, and we hope will be doing so for a long time to come.