Steady evolution

Marc Forman has spent more than three decades in the recycling business but admits he’s never stopped learning about its intricacies and adapting to its shifts.

Forman is president of Jericho, New York-based Georgia-Pacific Recycling (GPR), a role he’s served in since 2008. Prior to that, he was chief operating officer of the recycling division for five years.

His background is in finance, and he held several senior-level finance positions before joining Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific’s recycling division—then known as Harmon Associates—in 1991. While he was finance director, Forman says he quickly realized a future in recycling required a detailed understanding of the nuts and bolts of the business.

“I’ve been fortunate to be with this recycling business through its many iterations,” he says.

In 1997, Howard Paper Co., which Harmon Associates was part of, merged with James River to form Fort James Corp. In 2000, Georgia-Pacific purchased Fort James, and Harmon Associates was merged into GPR in 2019.

Today, GPR is one of the largest brokers of recycled commodities in the world, trading approximately 100,000 tons per week of paper, plastic and metals. It is the exclusive supplier to the Georgia-Pacific mill system, with several strategic plant locations across the U.S. Being part of Koch Industries and Georgia-Pacific allows GPR to leverage advantaged supply chain capability and scale to offer customers the best service in the industry, Forman says.

In the following interview, he discusses the many changes he’s seen throughout his career and recent innovations at GPR.

Recycling Today (RT): How have the relationships you’ve built with suppliers and customers set the business up for success? How important are those relationships when the market is facing turmoil, and why is the recycling business such a relationship-driven business?

Marc Forman (MF): I want to point out that GP Recycling is comprised of approximately 200 people who work hard to create value for suppliers and customers every day. My leadership team has close to 100 years of experience in the recycling industry, and we develop and execute strategies that continually transform the business to meet the needs of our partners. We believe our fiber trading force is the best in the industry, and we depend on them to build and maintain strong relationships with suppliers and customers. All our sales efforts are supported by our capable teams in plant operations, supply chain, customer service and transaction processing. Building relationships and becoming a preferred partner is truly a team effort at GPR.

Recycling historically has been a person-to-person business, and the relationships built between buyer and seller will remain a key driver in how business is done for many years to come.

Suppliers and customers have lots of choices, and often the choice of who to sell to or buy from comes down to the strength of the relationship. The foundation on which these relationships are built is, first and foremost, trust. The basis of trust is creating mutually beneficial commitments, standing behind those commitments and having a long-term view of the business. Holding strong principles transcends market conditions and allows us to create sustainable win-win relationships with our counterparties in any market condition.

Having said that, I do think there is an overreliance on the “P-to-P” (person-to-person) part of our business and deploying technology can eliminate many of the inefficiencies of our current processes. Most suppliers use texts, emails and calls to get prices and arrange movements for their goods. We believe this can be improved by using a more efficient “one-to-many” approach, and we’re actively implementing technology that will help us with this.

RT: What is GPR’s philosophy when it comes to recycling?

MF: Our overall philosophy is driven by Georgia-Pacific’s stewardship vision: “We work to help people improve their lives by providing products and services they value while consuming fewer resources.”

We study the long-term trends of supply and demand for the recycled commodities we trade in. By understanding those trends, we feel we can sustain the value we bring to our business partners.

We want to become the preferred partner within the industry by leveraging and continually transforming our capabilities to offer products and services that are valued more than their alternatives.

RT: How has the recycling industry evolved since you first entered the business?

MF: I’ve been in the recycling business for over 30 years, so I’ve seen a lot of evolution. When I think back to the major structural changes of the business, there’s been none greater than the growth in demand for recovered paper from offshore markets, particularly China. U.S. exports grew from 6 million tons in the mid-1990s to 22 million tons in 2016. China accounted for roughly 15 million tons of total U.S. exports of recovered paper in 2016. In 2021, China imported zero tons of recycled paper. Obviously, with all the changes in exporting to China, the export business has continued to evolve and change.

RT: How has the industry and GPR, specifically, had to adapt after the events of the past several years, such as the pandemic, geopolitical unrest and more?

MF: The recycling industry has always had to adapt to demand/supply imbalances brought on by changing macroeconomic conditions. However, we’ve seen a whole new set of conditions that have come at us fast and furious in the last three years. We have had no choice but to expect the unexpected and sharpen our reflexes by keeping our antennae up all the time. While shifts in markets influence our day-to-day decisions, they do not change our long-term view of the business and how we create value for our business partners.

RT: What are GPR’s sustainability focuses and initiatives?

MF: As a Koch company, GP Recycling follows the Koch Stewardship Framework. From an environmental perspective, we prioritize responsible resource management, with a focus on the reduction of waste and water consumption and improving air quality and energy efficiency.

Specific to GPR, we are an exclusive supplier to the Georgia-Pacific mill system. Demand for recycled paper products continues to grow, and we strive to strengthen the global recycled fiber market and to be an environmental role model in the industry. We are always seeking new and more efficient ways to recapture fiber from unconventional sources.

RT: What are some upcoming GPR projects, investments or innovations?

MF: This year, we launched an app called hubbIT, where suppliers can find upfront, real-time competitive pricing from GP Recycling without the need to negotiate for it. The platform also allows for secure payments and direct communication with a GPR account manager.

We built hubbIT to simplify the transaction process for those looking to sell us their material. This is part of our efforts to elevate GP Recycling’s customer experience by ensuring we make doing business with us as easy as possible for our customers and our partners.

In 2021, Georgia-Pacific introduced Juno, a waste recovery technology that uses a patented wet waste processing solution designed to separate, sanitize and wash food and other organic debris, capturing previously unrecoverable paper fibers in the waste stream, such as from cups with plastic coatings or paper-based packaging with food contamination. In addition to recapturing paper fiber, other recyclable materials like metals and plastics are reclaimed for new beneficial uses.

The first Juno commercial unit began processing local solid waste in Toledo, Oregon, in May 2021. In its first year of operation, Juno almost tripled landfill diversion rates in Toledo, with an annual capacity of 60,000 to 70,000 tons.

Future installations will be capable of processing 300,000 tons of waste per year using additional sorting equipment along with capturing biogas, driving potential diversion rates to 90 percent.

RT: What are some notable trends you’re seeing in paper and plastics?

MF: Papermakers have understood the cost benefits of using recycled fiber, and suppliers have invested confidently knowing that mills would buy their product. We continue to see considerable investments around the world in new papermaking capacity, as well as increasing collections and improving recovered fiber’s quality.

Plastic recycling is very challenging. The supply chains are different and more complicated than paper, and if there are uncertainties for economic incentives for using recycled plastic, there can be uncertainties for plastic recycling infrastructure.

We expect the recycled plastic market will mature and aggregation of supply will become increasingly important to buyers. GPR is committed to the recycled plastic trading business, and we believe our existing infrastructure makes us an advantaged partner for buyers and sellers.

RT: What advice would you give to someone entering a career in recycling?

MF: There are many career opportunities available in the recycling industry, from plant operations to sales, from engineering to accounting.

I’ll stick with what I know best—the commercial side of the business. In that light, my advice is to be a lifelong learner and have the humility to understand you’ll never know it all no matter how long you do it. Also, I know it might sound trite, but having a solid understanding of how markets react to changes in supply and demand and the “invisible hand” coined by economist Adam Smith will be invaluable.

RT: What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned during your career?

MF: “What goes around, comes around” comes to mind. No market condition lasts forever, they are forever changing, and having a long-term view of the business is a necessity.

Also, treating people with dignity and respect as well as always acting with integrity are essentials.

For more information on Georgia-Pacific Recycling, visit www.gapacrecycling.com.