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THE PULSE
Newsletter of the Canadian Association of Recycling Industries
Volume 13, No. 4, April 2008

This issue of THE PULSE is sponsored by

Click the image above or visit http://www.cowangroup.ca/cari-07 for information.

CARI MEMBERS

Steel Pacific Recycling is the new name for the 2005 merger of Harper’s Recycling and Budget Steel. It is current active in educating the public and the government about its contribution to both the economy and the environment.

Grand River Recycling is the new name for the combination of Plaza Integrated Industries with Hagersville Recycling and will operate out of the Hagersville address.

METAL THEFT

Metal theft remains a significant if not growing issue for the industry. It was a major topic at ISRI record breaking Las Vegas convention where over 5,700 attended.

The CARI Board approved funding to work on a web based metal theft bulletin system which has been spearheaded by B.C. Chapter Chair, Brad Rudover. The lasted developments with this project were shared with ISRI officials at the convention and have been subsequent discussed as a possible combined program to address the issue. In addition, the prototype system has been show to Vancouver Police. They expressed considerable interest and plan to pilot it use in Vancouver some time in the near future.

While in Vancouver CARI met with Telus to explain what steps it and its members were taking to combat metal theft. It was agreed that municipality by municipality solution was not the best solution. A concerted province wide approach with major service providers such as Telus, B.C. Hydro, and B.C. Transmission, was discussed. Further meetings may be arranged.

CARI was recently contacted by the Toronto Police because of its work on metal theft and asked to make a presentation at a two-day workshop. About 100 police, city officials and major service suppliers were in attendance to hear about the metal recycling sector, the impractically of the “tag and hold” type of by-laws, the privacy issues raised by such by-laws, and what CARI and its individual members have been doing to combat the problem. Some police present had been involved in the successful use of the CARI metal theft bulletin in January for two Niton alloy analyzers with all the accessories and cases that were stolen from a CARI member and were very complimentary and supportive. CARI pointed out that the real solution will come when companies and individuals take the responsibility to secure their property and the courts deal out punishment consistent with the financial and safety aspects of the thefts as reported in the media.

On the prevention side of this issue a company called DataDot Canada explained and demonstrated their technology. It has the potential of identifying material that has been marked in one or more fashion, either in production or at the time of a specific application, in a relative easy manner. CARI pointed out that any system that could identify stolen material had to be simple and quick and that the police would have to be able to react in a very timely manner.

As a result of the January 28th Langley City Council decision to defer the adoption of its by-law and work with Westcoast Metals and CARI a meeting with City officials and RCMP took place this month. The officials seemed to accept that “tag and hold” was inappropriate and agreed to revise the proposed by-law to offer an exemption to the tag and hold period, if a yet to be qualified camera system that would take pictures of both the material sold and the seller was employed. CARI is waiting for the next revision of the by-law.

The Nova Scotia Department of Justice contacted CARI members and non members about a province wide law being developed to address metal theft. A conference call was arranged and industries concerns were provided to department officials. Shortly following the conference call a draft law was presented to interested parties. CARI has written the department and pointed out that there appeared to be major privacy concerns even though there have been a few court cases on the issue. There was also no recognition of industrial accounts or dealer to dealer business. Including them in the reporting would be totally unnecessary. Additionally the potential impact on the competitiveness of the province’s recyclers compared to recyclers in other province, particularly those close to borders, and lack of impact on stolen material put in containers and exported were raised. Again CARI is waiting for the next revision.

Finally, after meeting with CARI and dealing with a Toronto member Mark Dimuantes, Senior Policy & Research Officer in the Licensing Branch of the City of Toronto confirmed that the City of Toronto is preparing to amend its “Municipal Code, Chapter 545, Licensing, regarding the current provision in the Code requiring salvage yards and second-hand dealers to collect personal information from persons selling goods to the licensees.” They have taken this step because of the recent issuance, by the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, of Order MO-2225 to the City of Ottawa instructing them to amend their by-law to cease the requirement by the City that salvage yards and second-hand dealers collect personal information from persons selling goods to the licensees.

It appears that this issue will be with the industry for some time to come. CARI will continue to work to get sensible solutions with the other parties affected.

FAST FACTS

• Members will be happy to know that the recent revision of the seven deadly sins means that those who fail to recycle will be spend eternity in Hell.
• In an effort to promote its secondary metals industries, especially aluminum recycling, India has abolished its 5% customs duties on the imports of both aluminum and ferrous scrap.
• China’s Administration of Quality, Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) has again issued new lists of materials that may be imported into China. In addition, it announced the organizations that will evaluate materials to decide whether they should be placed on the allowed, restricted or prohibited list of materials.
• After just 8 months work a Carleton University industrial design student has developed a prototype of an environmentally friendly laptop computer that is partly recyclable.
• At its 2008 convention ISRI Board of Directors approved the creation of an electronics recycling division and advanced its negotiations to merge with the International Association of Electronics Recyclers.

CARI EVENTS

CARI’s 67th Annual Convention "Melting of the Cultures”
June 20 to 22
at the Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu in La Malbaie, Charlevoix, Quebec.
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CARI’s Annual Golf Tournament
August 14
At The Club at Bond Head
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CARI’s 11th Annual Consumers’ Night
November 10
at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto
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For information on CARI events contact Donna Turner at (905) 426-9313

OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS

• May 18 and 19, the China National Resources Recycling Association will host “2008 China International Recycling Conference and Expo in Guangzhou, China. For information visit www.chinairc.org
• Jun. 2 to 4, Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) will host its 60th anniversary convention and exposition at the Fairmont Grand Hotel in Monte Carlo. For information visit www.bir.org
• Jun. 3 to 6, ICM AG will host an international conference and exhibition and plant tours on electronics and battery recycling in Toronto For information visit www.icm.ch
• Jun. 22 to 24, RecyclingToday presents its Paper Recycling Conference, its Plastics Recycling Conference and its Electronics Recycling Conference and Trade Show at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Chicago, Illinois. For information visit www.paperrecyclingconference.com
• Sep. 11 and 12, The Basic Industries Group will host Aerospace materials Outlook & Forecast Conference 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Philadelphia in Penn’s Landing, Pennsylvania. For information and to register visit www.thebasicindustries.com/conferences.php
• Sep. 17 and 18, Resource Recycling will host E-Scrap 2008 at the Renaissance Glendale Hotel & Spa in Glendale, Arizona. For information visit www.e-scrapnews.com
• Oct. 30 and 31, Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) will host its fall meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Düsseldorf, Germany. For information visit www.bir.org