Making industry connections

Maintaining close relationships within the scrap industry has helped to keep G&T Trading International Corp. in business for nearly 25 years. It also helped the New Jersey-based recovered paper brokerage company in its early days.

“It was so hard in the beginning of [the] business,” George Chen, owner of G&T Trading, says, so he joined the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries’ (ISRI’s) Paper Stock Industries (PSI) chapter and the New Jersey Paper Recycling Association “to build up my business network. I also volunteered to help the organizations.”

Throughout his career, Chen has participated in industry associations and attended industry events. His colleagues in the industry say he worked relentlessly to grow membership of both PSI and the New Jersey Paper Recycling Association. He lobbied for the industry. He also helped get PSI involved with Recycling Today’s Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference.

Chen didn’t get paid for his work within these associations or at these events. These are things he chose to do as a way to give back to the paper recycling industry. As one colleague says of Chen, he strives to be everybody’s friend.

For a profile of Chen and G&T Trading, click here.

“There’s value to giving back to the industry you work in every single day.”

We can all learn from Chen’s example—there’s value to giving back to the industry you work in every single day.

Recently, I decided to volunteer on the communications subcommittee for the ISRI Young Executives Council. The association had an opening on that subcommittee, and with my background in writing and editing, I decided that would be a great place for me to serve and give back to the industry.

I know many others within the industry who have taken similar steps to give back, including Aaron Gaby of Gaby Iron & Metal in Illinois, who is featured in this month’s “Fresh Perspective” podcast. A snippet from that podcast can be found here. Another lesson to be learned from Chen is that there’s value in networking at industry events. With pandemic-related restrictions easing in most of the U.S., there likely will be plenty of opportunities for networking in person with industry colleagues ahead.

WasteExpo will be June 28-30 in Las Vegas. And the Recycling Today team is hard at work planning our fall events, including the Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference and the MRF Operations Forum that are co-located in Chicago. These are all events where we can and should take advantage of networking, which is something we won’t quickly take for granted after experiencing a pandemic.