Recycle Safely and Effectively

The Metal center wants to provide useful information to our customers including both Local and National Resources to help you make informed choices.  

Recycling is more than just the bin.  According to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc., “In 2011 alone more than 134 million metric tons of scrap metal, paper, plastic, glass, textiles, rubber and electronics, valued at between $80 and $100 billion, were manufactured into speciation grade commodities by the scrap recycling industry in the United States. These commodities were sold as valuable feedstock material to industrial consumers in the United States and in more than 160 countries around the world and contributed nearly $39.2 billion in export sales, significantly helping the U.S. trade balance.”*

Scrap is not solid waste. It is a commodity that has value and carries property rights.  Helping our customers better understand our business helps them make more money, while improving the environment and the U.S. economy.

*From “The Jason Project” ISRI

 

 

   Environment

Recycling is the original green industry.  There is evidence of scrap bronze and other metals being collected and reused during pre-industrial times.  Today, recycling provides real sustainable solutions for balancing economic growth with environmental stewardship.  For example, the use of secondary production rather than primary reveals the CO2 emission savings achieved though recycling of around 500 million metric tonnes per annum.  This is equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of the global aviation industry.

Helpful Links: www.isri.org , www.earth911.org, www.scrap.org

 

   Metals Theft

Metal Center takes the shared problem of metals theft seriously.  We support the registration of authorized recycler’s and the enforcement of it.  Metal Center subscribes to Scraptheftalert.com and encourages law enforcement to participate.  Ultimately, we believe that the most effective way to address the problem is through prevention by way of education and with enforcement through prosecution to penalize those who perpetrate these thefts; therefore dissuading their colleagues from a similar path.

Helpful Links: www.scraptheftalert.com , www.stopmetalstheft.org

 

 

   Economy

Recycling is a sophisticated, capital intensive industry that is the first link in the U.S. manufacturing supply chain.  The national impact of recycling is almost 117 billion dollars; creating over one half of a million jobs nationally.   In WV alone, almost 3,000 jobs, 672 million dollars of economic impact and over 51 million dollars in taxes have resulted from the economic effect of the recycling industry.  

Find out how the recycling industry impacts your community by visiting this website:  Econ impact Study

 

   Education

The recycling industry is continually becoming more sophisticated and increasingly global.  What some call junk or solid waste is actually a national resource and valuable commodity with inherent property rights.  The more our current and future customers learn about how recycling works, the better they will understand the economic and environmental effects the industry has in their everyday lives. Metal Center supports the Recycling Research Foundation though its activities with ISRI.  We encourage educators to incorporate recycling education into their curriculum though the Jason Learning Project.

Helpful Links: http://www.jason.org/recycling , http://www.isri.org/about-isri/recycling-research-foundation#.WXNpBSLD_IV