From the Top Down

Some members of Canada’s resource recovery industry are applauding a new federal government initiative aimed at developing a comprehensive Canadian resource recovery strategy. The strategy encompasses technology, infrastructure and business development, policy initiatives, voluntary and regulatory fiscal mechanisms and a public awareness campaign.

Michael Clapham, environmental specialist-recycling for the Department of Natural Resources’ Minerals and Metals Sector, reports that he has been spending the first quarter of 2002 crisscrossing the country talking to provincial governments and industry representatives about putting together an enhanced plan to improve resource recovery and recycling rates across the country. “We are trying to get people to think differently,” Clapham says. “It’s full steam ahead.”

In the preamble to his initial draft written in 2000, Clapham notes that domestic and global demand for recycling and recycled products has been steadily increasing, and will continue to increase. This is in response to pressure in industrialized and non-industrialized economies alike to be efficient and competitive, and to ensure the environmentally sound management of products and materials through their entire life cycle.

A GROWTH INDUSTRY

The production of recycled products is becoming a highly competitive growth industry, according to the report. Resource efficiency is also being viewed as a complementary strategy to reinforce and support industrial and commercial stewardship as well as climate change. There is also growing domestic and international pressure for the adoption of prevention-oriented measures that maximize the material and energy efficiency of products. These pressures extend to product design and manufacturing, which enhance prospects for their cost-effective and environmentally sound recycling and reuse at the end of their planned economic life.

Within Canada, Clapham’s report continues, considerable progress has been made in some sectors and regions in the re-use and recycling of appreciable quantities of materials and energy resources. Most visible are the curbside recycling programs in many areas that have helped recover sizeable amounts of metal, paper, plastic and other materials for processing and re-use, and composting programs that have made effective use of organic materials. Some of the most notable successes include an estimated recovery rate greater than 90 percent for lead acid batteries and 60 percent for metal beverage cans in communities and regions where recycling programs exist. These successes have demonstrated the potential benefits and helped to lay the foundation of national interest and capabilities in recycling.

Despite significant progress, however, he adds that each year millions of tons of valuable material resources and vast quantities of recoverable energy resources are relegated to landfill sites without any significant recycling or re-use. The result is a continuing costly waste of valuable material and energy resources, missed opportunities for commercial development of material and energy-efficient and reused and recycled products.

Canada’s international competitors in Europe, Japan and the U.S. are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on recycling infrastructure and introducing supporting fiscal and policy measures, he writes.

In Europe and Japan, mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) directives have been introduced in order to place the responsibility for the recycling of products and related materials at end-of-life back to the product manufacturers. In Canada, in order to decrease the number of products going to a landfill at the end of life, several provinces are drafting legislation that could see a significant expansion in the scope of EPR requirements. Like the international programs being pursued in OECD (Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation) countries, these requirements will shift the full waste management burdens from municipalities onto the associated Canadian industry sectors.

Resource recovery strategies can be applied to innovative product design and a diverse array of product cycles in the industrial, commercial, institutional and consumer sectors, he notes. These range from products such as autos, consumer goods, electronic equipment and packaging to a wide array of materials and by-products in those product streams. In absolute terms, resource recovery operations are most attractive in urbanized regions, but in relative terms can occasionally be of greater significance in sensitive rural and remote areas, i.e., out of all proportion to the actual volume of materials involved. The North would be a particularly significant case in point, as would-be valuable farming and tourism areas and regions with delicate ecosystems and valued natural amenities. In communities and regions where haulage of recyclable materials to centralize recovery operations is too costly or impractical, local small-scale recovery enterprises may present an attractive alternative and opportunity.

Canada has an opportunity to establish itself as a global leader in certain niche areas of resource recovery, he points out, with a positive image as a responsible life-cycle manager of products. There is a need to develop and promote Canadian technologies and approaches that can compete in the growing global market for viable and environmentally responsible resource recovery technologies and expertise. In order for this to happen Canada has to remain an active and credible participant in international policy developments affecting both global markets for recyclable materials and the access to foreign markets of Canadian products. Canada also has a role to play in assisting developing countries and countries with economies in transition in dealing with their waste management and environmentally responsible resource recovery.

Effective resource recovery efforts involve complex policy, technology, regulatory and infrastructure issues that transcend traditional industrial, commercial, institutional and consumer sector and inter-jurisdictional boundaries, he continues. Strong partnerships with provinces, communities, industry, consumers and public stakeholder groups will be vital to successful approaches. A successful pursuit of a resource recovery strategy will call for the active engagement of several key federal departments and agencies in partnership with other levels of government and stakeholders.

Their complementary responsibilities, partnership networks, technical expertise and regulatory and policy authorities will be vital in addressing resource recovery. The product and material in question will determine the rate and frequency of the recycling activities. Industrial recycling and post consumer recycling are also very different in the rates of recycling, infrastructure development and jurisdictional responsibility.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Speaking for Canada’s resource recovery industry, Len Shaw, the executive director of CARI (the Canadian Association of Recycling Industries) notes that the industry is pleased that a federal government department is recognizing the significance of the secondary resource industry and that CARI has been included in the consultations.

“It is still too early to say what might come of this,” Shaw says. “Government takes time to get moving, and there was a recent change in Ministers (roughly the Canadian equivalent of the EPA Administrator) that will slow things somewhat. But at least this means that the government has accepted one of our fundamental arguments - that the recycling industry is not a part of the waste industry and should be encouraged as a sustainable development industry.”

What CARI members would like to see from the government, Shaw adds, is the kind of tax advantages that primary metal producers receive. “We compete with and complement the primary producers and should get the same tax breaks,” he says. “Why should a piece of equipment used below ground be eligible for a tax write-off while equipment used above ground isn’t?” he asks, referring to tax breaks for mining equipment not available to metals recyclers.

As to the industry in Canada, Shaw reports that most processors aren’t doing too badly. Among the exceptions are Dominion Iron and Smelting in Montreal, which went bankrupt last year, and a processor called Valley Field Metal in Cornwall, Ontario, that closed recently. The closures may account in part for the good start that American Iron and Metal (AIM) in Montreal is off to this year.

AIM spokesman Gary Mintz reports that the company enjoyed an exceptional sales volume for January and that February was even better. AIM opened a secondary site in Quebec City late last year and has acquired plants in Cleveland and New Jersey in recent years. The company also has a trading office in New York. 

 While the company’s volumes may be high, Mintz notes that low commodity prices have kept profit margins thin. The copper and aluminum markets, he notes, are looking a little better this year.

Brampton, Ontario-based Triple M Metals is also having an outstanding 2002. Rick Sobottka, Triple M’s vice-president of corporate development, reports that business at Canada’s largest secondary processor grew by 45 percent last year and that management is projecting another stellar year of growth in 2002.

The company is currently processing close to 200,000 tons per month and has just opened new facilities in the Maritimes and in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Triple M is also claiming to be the first recycling operation in the world to have ISO 9000, 14000 (environment) and 18000 (workplace health and safety) certification, an advantage, Sobottka says, in attracting new accounts.“We have excellent people here and a dynamic management team,” he says.

On the West Coast, David Yocholwitz, general manager of ABC Recycling, Burnaby, B.C., reports that while margins are a little tighter and products harder to find, the company’s volumes have remained stable and business isn’t too bad. “We are expecting things to improve in the second half of the year as the American economy improves,” Yocholwitz says. He notes that demand for product in China continues to grow.

Meanwhile, auto batteries that last longer are bad news for Montreal-based Nova PB Inc., Canada’s largest battery recycler. Company spokesman Brian McIver notes that product is becoming increasingly more difficult to find because of the better quality of car batteries and improved power consumption in cars. Whereas batteries used to be good for 60 months on average, he points out, now they can last up to 80 months. On the other hand, he says, there is growing demand for batteries in the computer and telecommunications industries.

McIver adds that pricing remains significantly below average, but the continuing weak Canadian dollar vis-a-vis its American counterpart does help his company’s sales figures in the U.S. 

The author is a freelance writer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He can be contacted via e-mail at myron@autobahn.mb.ca.