Editor's Focus

Most polls indicate (and unlike the presidential election, it’s not even close) that the public favors recycling as a business practice and as an environmental practice. Some recycling fans are more knowledgeable and steadfast in their support for recycling, while others perhaps see it as a way to make a passing gesture toward a “greener” planet.

The chances are good that many of these less enthusiastic recycling advocates think first of the environmental and resource conservation aspects of recycling, without being fully aware of how recycling ties into so many manufacturing industries.

Many of these same members of the public are the ones most likely to be swayed by the occasional “anti-recycling” story that makes it into the broadcast or print media.

And when it’s time for recyclers to respond in the public opinion arena, it often seems like the recycling advocacy organizations with environmental roots do the front line work of getting in front of the camera or microphone and defending the industry’s viability or economics.

The reasons for this could be the media’s tendency to “round up the usual suspects,” which for a recycling story would be the environmental organizations that environmental beat reporters are used to dealing with.

But one also wonders if the industries that are consuming the tons of recyclable metal, paper and plastic collected and processed each day could speak just a little more loudly about their role in making the recycling industry a viable, legitimate part of the global economy.

An encouraging trend in this respect has been the recent cooperation between the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI) and the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA). Both of these Washington-based trade organizations have a critical interest in promoting the health of the recycling industry.

By cooperating in hosting events and in taking joint stands on news issues, the two groups can help solidify in the minds of journalists (and eventually the public) that recycling is conducted not just to serve the interests of those who collect and process secondary commodities, but also those who consume them as industrial feedstock.

In the case of ISRI-SMA cooperation, linking the steel industry and the scrap industry together in the minds of the wider business community (and the general public) offers a chance for recycling to get its due as a vital part of the North American industrial infrastructure.

Ideally, similar cooperative stands could help bring more secondary commodity consumers to the forefront. The forest products industry has grown to rely to a remarkable extent on secondary commodities as raw material feedstock, yet in many minds “timber companies” are seen as being opponents of recycling.

While it is not necessarily the fault of forest products companies, there still seem to be large segments of the public who are unaware that the same companies that manage forest lands and harvest timber are also—in most cases—managing recycling plants and/or consuming large amounts of scrap paper. Furthermore, the companies are not recycling (in almost every case) because of environmental pressure or government mandates, but because it makes sense for their bottom lines.

Recyclable metal, paper and plastic are not being consumed just as an experimental means of keeping materials out of a landfill. The commodities are desired as industrial feedstock by some of the world’s largest corporations—and there’s no good reason to keep it a secret.