Editor's Letter

Underlying Tensions

Maintaining optimism in the business arena proved to be very difficult through most of 2009, and forecasting that 2010 is “bound to be better” is not a foregone conclusion in the minds of many.

For recycling company owners, managers and equipment suppliers, the economic slowdown has presented many of the same challenges that it has for companies in other sectors, including a slower pace of business activity, tight cash flows and credit lines and the prospect of laying off employees.

Even while the economies of North America and Western Europe have limped their way through the past 15 months, global demand for many scrap materials has strained supply. That theme was evident from the presentations given at the 2009 European Paper Recycling Conference, held in November in Brussels, where both recyclers and mill companies lamented the difficulty of procuring adequate supply.

Several factors continue to work favorably for recyclers. The infrastructure boom and growing middle class in Asia is one well-documented boon, while a focus on resource conservation and energy cost savings by manufacturers throughout the world is another.

The Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) is among the organizations that are trying to ensure that the environmental benefits of recycling are broadcast loud and clear to multi-national companies concerned about being on the “right side” of any carbon trading system that may be established worldwide.

Citing a study conducted by Imperial College London, BIR is touting that recycling delivers annual CO2 reductions of 500 million metric tons. “The figure of 500 million metric tons of reduced CO2 is a conservative estimate based on sound scientific analysis,” says BIR President Dominique Maguin. “This figure is equivalent to almost 2 percent of global fossil fuel emissions and represents more than the CO2 emitted by aviation worldwide.”

Successfully spreading that word is one reason recyclers face the difficult task of staying lean enough to survive a down cycle while also investing to be prepared to be part of an industry with a promising long-term future.

Correction: In the October 2009 edition of Recycling Today, in the text of the Auto Shredder Technology Report titled “Profit Motive,” the word “manganese” appeared incorrectly in the text several times in place of the word “magnesium.” A corrected and updated version of the article appears in this edition’s Scrap Metals Supplement, starting on page S70. Recycling Today regrets the error and apologizes to co-authors Adam Gesing and Hartmut Harbeck.