Keeping Your House Clean

Regulations and programs aimed at cleaning up scrap yards and polishing recyclers’ marketing images continue to be front-burner concerns for members of the scrap industry. Regulation aimed at controlling stormwater runoff is the primary area where recyclers are tagged for compliance. Meanwhile, some operations are implementing programs like ISO 9000 and IS0 14000 to assure their partners and customers that they are producing quality products and running environmentally friendly businesses.

"The main agenda item here in Oregon is stormwater runoff," says Chuck Gleason, director of operations for Calbag Metals Co., Portland, Ore. One of his jobs is managing environmental compliance for the scrap company.

Nationwide, stormwater regulations have been in place since the Clean Water Act was amended in 1987. The Stormwater Multi-Sector General Permit for Industrial Activities, established in 1995, covers 29 industries, including scrap processing and recycling operations. The permit includes a list of 180 best management practices that range from erosion control, monitoring, control of spills or leaks, and record keeping.

In Calbag’s area, Portland is actually the permit holder for stormwater runoff into the Willamette River. That means the city’s Bureau of Environmental Services administers the law under Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality. Portland has a staff of people to do testing, site visits and inspections and to offer advice.

"The situation for yards like ours is difficult," Gleason notes. Most of the oil or grease in their runoff is from vehicles that come onto the property. The problem is compounded because those vehicles are not Calbag’s but belong to others and may be on the yard for only a few minutes at a time – but long enough to leak oil or fuel.

Throughout the U.S., recyclers making an effort to comply with the BMPs generally have been left alone by regulators. This is one area where a scrap operation generally can expect to get some credit for good-faith efforts.

However, in some regions, that has changed in the last four months, according Kenneth Woodruff, principal environmental consultant with Woodruff & Associates, Morrisville, Pa. He specifically points to New Jersey, where there has been a huge increase in the number of inspections and inspection reports.

"No fines have been levied, as far as I know, but there has been a real increase in the number of ‘conditional satisfactory’ and ‘unsatisfactory’ ratings in compliance inspections," he says. The cause is simple, Woodruff believes: 1997 is an election year in New Jersey, and Gov. Christine Todd Whitman wants to be seen as environmentally tough as campaigning starts to heat up.

Although neither neighboring Pennsylvania nor New York have seen a similar increase in inspections this year, that could change next year in the Keystone State when Gov. Tom Ridge stands for re-election. A similar pattern is likely to emerge around the country, especially in areas where Republicans have been in control of the state. Facing charges that they have been soft on the environment and easy on corporations, they may call for a step-up in inspections and citations.

But Bill Baumgartner, president of W.Z. Baumgartner & Associates Inc., Brentwood, Tenn., maintains that most regulators will be easier on any recycler making a good-faith effort to comply. "I think the regulatory folks are simply overwhelmed with the program – there are so many permits and so many sites," he says.

A former regulator with the Tennessee Environmental Protection Agency, Baumgartner understands the confusion and pressure being put on regulators. In Tennessee, unlike Oregon, there is one individual responsible for all stormwater work, including permits and oversight.

As part of the stormwater considerations, oil spills are coming under an increasing amount of review. The levels of tolerance vary. Many states have set a floor of 25 gallons before a spill becomes reportable. In New Jersey, however, spilling even a teaspoon of oil technically is a violation, Woodruff says.

Calbag has focused on eliminating oil in runoff. The company uses an absorbent polymer, developed by AquaNet, Seattle, to attract and retain petroleum in stormwater. The product, called Sweeps, looks like a long, thin strand of spaghetti, about an eighth of an inch in diameter. Each Sweeps will absorb 30 to 40 times its weight in oil. Calbag hangs a couple of them down the drains to attract and retain oil. Gleason says they inspect the Sweeps monthly and clean them every six months. So far, they have worked well and Calbag has kept well inside of the law’s guidelines.

"If there is enforcement, it will be against blatant violations of the law – people who let contaminants come off their property or who refuse to get their paperwork in place," Baumgartner says. "Usually it is a neighbor who complains about oil running off across his property. Then the full force of the law will be brought to bear against the violator."

He is quick to point out that five years from now, when everyone’s Stormwater Protection Plans are in place, monthly inspections are routine and annual updates are automatic, the story may change. But, for the present, it appears that a company which can document progress and good-faith compliance will be left alone.

Oil is not the only area being checked. Oregon, for example, is paying more attention to metal particles in stormwater. The Oregon DEQ is re-issuing stormwater permits this year, and as part of the process, they are proposing measurement benchmarks for metals. These include materials like chromium, lead, copper and silver.

"After that, regulations cannot be far down the road," Gleason predicts. "That would cause us to rethink our strategy. An absorbent material can’t soak up metals. We’d probably have to cover the whole operation with a roof – and so would others here in the Northwest and other places where it is rainy." He notes that there are advantages to covering scrap operations and that Calbag has put parts of theirs under roof already. But being forced to do it all at once would be both expensive and inconvenient.

This year there is at least a glimmer of hope that Superfund reform may move forward. Although there is no groundswell of activity in the U.S. House of Representatives, on the Senate side Mississippi Republican Trent Lott has made Superfund reform one of his party’s top 20 agenda items. He has put together a draft of S.8, The Comprehensive Superfund Reform Bill. Most of the language in S.8 is similar to what has appeared in bills proposed in the past two congresses.

Superfund remains an area of cynicism for almost everyone involved with the program. Its methods have been compared to legal extortion, since companies are offered immunity from prosecution if they pay up-front to avoid prosecution for something they have not been formally charged with doing.

The Superfund program also makes it possible for the government to prosecute a company for violating a law in place today for doing something that was legal 20 years ago.

Both the companies and the regulators who deal with Superfund regularly are loathe to comment on the problem for the record. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Washington, has repeatedly pointed out that the program is not doing what it should. And many members of Congress have admitted that the Superfund program is not working.

Clare Hessler, director of federal and state policy for ISRI, notes that S.8 does contain language to relieve recyclers of liability for past pollution problems. "At this point, things look good," she says. "Everyone is interested in the bill. People are talking about it and on both sides of the aisle there is interest."

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner has indicated a willingness to work with Superfund reformers. However, there has been resistance to fixing or replacing the program because many environmentalists see it as the basis of environmental action against industry.

Will 1997 be the year for change in Superfund? "I am not greatly encouraged," Baumgartner says. "But there is always hope." However, he notes that Superfund is responsible for funding so many programs that there is little hope for change.

While predicting that the current language of S.8 will change, given the bipartisan interest and ongoing discussions, Hessler is a bit more optimistic. "If there is any breakdown in serious discussions, that would not be good. But people are still talking and that is positive."

In the recycling world, compliance with ISO 9000 – the international quality control standard for products and services – is being driven largely by the automobile industry. The focus of ISO 9000 compliance is the ferrous scrap industry. Scott Horne, director of state and local programs for ISRI, says that, as of April, a dozen member firms were registered for ISO 9000 and three or four times that number are at some point in the certification process.

The move to ISO 9000 is partly in response to demand from the steel mills serving the auto industry. All of the major auto manufacturers adhere to QS 9000, which could be described as ISO 9000 on steroids. The QS 9000 is an outgrowth of the internal excellence programs at Chrysler, Ford and General Motors. The auto firms require all of their direct suppliers to be QS 9000 certified. In turn, these "Tier One" suppliers are looking to their suppliers, known as Tier Two and Tier Three suppliers, to meet quality standards.

Because of this, the Tier One steel mills are driving their scrap suppliers to install quality programs. There is also some movement in the nonferrous area to promote ISO 9000 compliance.

However, it may be the paper industry that provides the next big push for ISO 9000 compliance from its suppliers. Quality is a major concern in the paper industry and a move to ISO 9000 compliance would be a natural direction for mills.

A number of plastics manufacturers are also moving to ISO 9000 certification. However, there is no indication yet that their Tier One suppliers are, in turn, pushing their Tier Two suppliers to follow suit.

There are three sections to ISO 9000: 9001 is the most comprehensive registration, including 20 separate elements. ISO 9002 has 19 of the elements of 9001, but not design. This is the likely route for most scrap dealers and processors. ISO 9003 is for inspection and testing firms.

Calbag, which prides itself on its environmental compliance and works to assure its partners that they will encounter no downstream environmental problems, has not gone to ISO 9000. "Our sector is not under a lot of pressure to do that," says Gleason. "We probably won’t go that direction until we have to." He notes that it is specialized smelters who have the strongest push to hop on the ISO 9000 bandwagon.

ISRI offers a number of programs to help members get registered for ISO 9000. There are two two-day seminars being offered, an introduction to ISO 9000 and a session aimed at training internal auditors. The group also has a consulting program in place, offering on-site ISO 9000 programs.

Estimates of the cost to get into compliance with ISO 9000 run around $35,000 for a mid-sized firm. The annual update and audit cost would be about a tenth of that figure.

A scrap operation typically spends about 8 percent of its ISO budget on the use of a registrar, according to James Bytnar, director of marketing and sales for SRI Quality System Registrar Inc., Wexford, Pa. Software consumes another 5 percent. The lion’s share – about 45 percent – goes to training, and another 42 percent goes to consultants to help a firm get started. Bytnar points out that more money spent on training people internally means less money required for consultants.

"If you can do the job internally, then consultants’ time can be minimized," he says. He warns that the registrar and the consultant working on an ISO 9000 project should be different entities so there is no conflict of interest. "Otherwise," Bytnar says, "there would be a lack of objectivity in auditing the process."

While ISO 9000 adoption is moving ahead, there is less enthusiasm in the U.S. scrap industry for ISO 14000. These are international standards aimed at improving global environmental conditions by promoting environmental compliance by businesses, government, and other organizations.

Even the cost to become ISO 14000 certified is not as clearly defined as that for ISO 9000. "ISO 14000 is different than ISO 9000," Bytnar says. "Everyone is still on a learning curve."

"At this point in time, ISRI is not recommending that its members move to ISO 14000," Horne says. He notes there still are a lot of issues to be resolved with the 14000 program at this point in time. Among them are seeing a better-defined track record on the benefits to companies which do business exclusively in the United States (the picture for companies with a large international business is somewhat different). Some state agencies and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had indicated there might be some flexibility extended to companies with ISO 14000 compliance. However, a few of those states are backing away from that position. At EPA, there is "a dichotomy of opinion," Horne says. He adds that ISRI’s stand could change six months down the road.

Bytnar admits there is no driving force in North America today pushing companies toward ISO 14000 registration. He says that current skepticism with ISO 14000 is similar to what they experienced with ISO 9000 back in the early 1990s. "Companies that export to Europe were the first to go to ISO 9000," he says. Bytnar expects to see a similar ramping-up with ISO 14000.

For firms doing business internationally, ISO 14000 compliance will make it easier to gain access to markets in other countries by eliminating the barriers imposed by differing national trade regulations. Germany, for example, mandates ISO 14000 compliance from any firm that wants to work with that government.

For recyclers doing business solely in the United States, the benefits are not as obvious. The cost of an ISO 14000 program would be in the neighborhood of $30,000 to $40,000. Look for companies on the West Coast, especially those doing any volume of business on the Pacific Rim, to become more interested in ISO 14000 since several Asian nations are moving toward compliance.

ISO 9000-compliant firms do have a step up on ISO-14000 compliance since it is possible to add 14000 on to an existing 9001 or 9002 base.

Overall, the picture for environmental compliance in the scrap recycling industry is unlikely to get any easier in the near-term future. Superfund reform would certainly help, but it is certainly not guaranteed.

And, as Baumgartner points out, stormwater compliance inspections may become more rigorous as time goes on. Therefore, scrap processors are best advised to keep on their toes and vigilant in this area.

"Be cognizant of what is going on," Woodruff advises. "Housekeeping is very important."