Chicago Recycling Firms Merge

Lakeshore Recycling Systems is created by merger of Lakeshore Waste Services and Recycling Systems Inc.

January 13, 2013
Recycling Today Staff

C&D

Lakeshore Waste Services and Recycling Systems Inc. (RSI) have merged, creating a newly formed company called Lakeshore Recycling Systems LLC. (LRS) The private equity firm Tensile Capital Management, based in San Francisco, provided the financing. Additionally, Comerica Bank provided the debt financing for the deal. Livingstone Partners acted as the financial advisor to the two companies.

LRS, with primary operations in the Chicago area, describes itself as a diversified waste services company providing commercial, residential, recycling and roll-off collection services to commercial and municipal customers. According to Livingstone, LRS owns and operates the largest material recovery facility (MRF) in Illinois, processing nearly 1 million tons of material per year.

“We are confident that our people and our assets, coupled with the expertise and capital from our new partners, will allow us to rapidly expand from our combined position as a top three independent in Chicagoland,” says Josh Connell, CEO of Lakeshore.

“RSI is pleased to be joining forces with Lakeshore,” says Jerry Golf, RSI’s president.

“The merger of Lakeshore and RSI creates a formidable player in the Chicago waste market,” says Doug Dossey, Tensile’s managing partner. “The company’s recent success in the municipal markets, including a steadily growing relationship with the City of Chicago, bodes well for its long-term growth trajectory and creates an ongoing need for the type of flexible capital that Tensile can provide.”

Steve Miles, a partner with Livingstone, adds, “We are thrilled to have helped forge the relationship between Lakeshore and RSI and secure growth capital to accelerate LRS’ platform expansion. We believe the creation of LRS is illustrative of the types of transactions smaller independents in the waste management industry must pursue in the face of an increasingly consolidated and capital-intensive marketplace.”

21st Century Launches Training, Education Center

Software firm introduces ROM University, which provides free, non-instructor lead training program for companies using its ROM program.

January 11, 2013
Recycling Today Staff

Certification Equipment & Products

21st Century Programming, a designer and distributor of custom software solutions for the recycling and waste industries such as ROM, ROM Express, ROM Recycling, ROM Brokerage and ROM Enterprise, has officially launched ROM University, an online training and education center.

The program has been designed as part of a four-tiered training program. The training program is a free, non-instructor lead training program that recyclers using 21st Century’s ROM software system are being enrolled in prior to installation of the system at their yard.

“We are absolutely ecstatic about the launch of ROM University. Where other software providers might offer a couple of YouTube video tutorials, we’ve designed an entire training program to best support our customers before the software is ever even installed in their yards,” says George Kane, president of 21st Century Programming and the dean of ROM University.

21st Century says more than 20 companies and 65 trainees are currently enrolled in the program, which started in late August 2012. The program includes sessions on cashiering, general office administration, accounting, yard management, scale operations and enterprise operations with concentrations in installation, cashiering, public scaling, dealer scaling, purchasing, inventory management, operation of peripheral devices and state compliance modules.

Each class is self-guided, consisting of a series of written presentations and narrated video tutorials. Each session takes between 10-20 minutes. A quiz at the end of each class tests trainees’ comprehension of the lesson and issues certificates for a passing grade of 80 percent or higher.

Individual classes are grouped together in series. Enforced sequences ensure that prerequisites are met so that students’ knowledge of the system increases as the complexity of the lessons build.

“Serious thought went into the design and implementation of the ROM software system, making it the most complete system I have come across in the industry, it truly has made our operators’ job easier,” says Matt Ulewicz of Rochester Recycling, Rochester, Mich., who took part in the ROM

Recyclers taking the test can earn one of three accreditations from ROM University, an award of accomplishment, certificate of completion, or a diploma of graduation.

21st Century says that a total of 40 classes are currently available to ROM University students; another 60 classes are expected to be launched by the end of the first quarter of 2013.

ROM University also features a library where users can access up-to-date learning materials such as manuals and workstation cheat-sheets. The library also includes an FAQ directory where frequently asked questions about the software system are answered in a video tutorial of two to five minutes in length.

More information is available at www.21stCenturyProgramming.com or call (562) 981-1030.

SMS Hires Kerry Davidson as VP

Davidson joins Scrap Metal Services as vice president of human resources and in-house counsel.

January 11, 2013
Recycling Today Staff

Personnel

Scrap Metal Services LLC (SMS), a Burnham, Ill.-based scrap metal recycling firm, has announced that Kerry Davidson has joined the company as its vice president of human resources and in-house counsel. She previously worked for the Chicago-based law firm Levenfeld Pearlstein for 14 years and has practiced as a labor and employment attorney in Chicago for close to 10 years.

“As we continue our focused expansion and resultant increase in the number of employees at SMS, we are pleased to have such an experienced professional join our team at this time,” SMS CEO Jeffry Gertler, says.

SMS also says Davidson has worked in Australia, which will give SMS an international perspective in the global scrap and steel market.

SMS operates scrap processing, steel mill services, and ship, barge, oil rig, transportation equipment (intermodal/truck/railcar) dismantling and recycling facilities throughout the United States. The company has scrap processing facilities in Illinois, Indiana, Alabama, Ohio and Texas. The company also provides full-service scrap management, consulting and purchasing services to industrial scrap generators, demolition contractors, maritime contractors, transportation and equipment leasing companies, on a local and national basis.

Rumpke Rebuilding MRF

Recycling company’s earlier plant in Cincinnati area was lost to fire last April.

January 11, 2013
Recycling Today Staff

Municipal / IC&I

The waste and recycling company Rumpke Recycling, headquartered in Cincinnati, is in the process of building an 85,000-square-foot recycling facility in St. Bernard, Ohio. The facility, to cost around $32 million, will replace Rumpke’s MRF that was lost to a fire in April 2012.

According to Rumpke, when complete, the MRF will have one of the largest and most technologically advanced residential recycling systems in the United States. The plant will be capable of sorting up to 55 tons of material every hour, more than doubling the capabilities of Rumpke’s previous system. Rumpke says that the facility, slated to be complete by this fall, will able to process close to 15,000 tons of recyclables per month when fully operational.

Jeff Rumpke, vice president of the company, says, “Rumpke is committed to recycling. We are making our largest investment to date with this recycling center, ensuring the region has access to the best available recycling technology.”

The new MRF will use optical sorting technology to identify and separate recyclables by type, including glass bottles and jars, paper, old corrugated containers, aluminum and steel cans and plastic bottles. Cartons or aseptic containers such as juice boxes will also be accepted and processed through a partnership between Rumpke and the US Carton Council.

When the MRF is operational Rumpke will look to expand its commercial glass recycling opportunities for generators such as bars and restaurants.

“As a leader in recycling, we never rest, we are always out there searching, both domestically and internationally, to identify new manufacturers that are willing to take and use additional types of materials. This operation is being built with future expansion in mind,” Steve Sargent, director of Rumpke Recycling, says. “We are committed to growing the recycling effort.”

The equipment to be installed at Rumpke’s MRF will be designed by Machinex, which also designed Rumpke’s Columbus, Ohio, MRF, which opened last year.

Cromwell Polythene Sells Recycling Division

Plastics firm sells off its recycling division to newly formed company.

January 11, 2013
Recycling Today Staff

Personnel

Cromwell Polythene, an independent supplier of sacks, bags and specialty products for the storage and collection of waste and recyclables based in the United Kingdom, has sold its recycling division to newly formed company called Leopard Recycling Ltd. The sale became effective Jan. 1, 2013. Cromwell says the acquisition will ensure continuity of service both to suppliers and customers, allowing for Cromwell to continue as a going concern with no job losses.

In announcing the sale, Cromwell Polythene’s CEO James Lee says, “Recent growth of the recycling division has diverted valuable resource, both human and financial, from our mainstream business, supplying bags, sacks and ancillary storage and collection products to the away from home cleaning market and the recycling and waste management sector. We have ambitious growth plans for our core business on which we are determined to refocus all our efforts.

“We are delighted to have reached agreement with Mark Fuller, who previously ran the recycling division, and will do all we can to ensure a smooth transition to the new owners. The sale in no way diminishes Cromwell Polythene’s on-going commitment to closed-loop recycling, and we shall continue to recover packaging materials from the waste stream that can be returned to the production cycle,” he adds. “We wish Mark and his team every success.”

Speaking on behalf of Leopard Recycling, Mark Fuller, who has been named commercial director, says, “Having run Cromwell's recycling division for the past eight years I am well aware of its potential and am excited by the prospect of building on the successful foundation that has already been laid. I am particularly pleased that this will be with the team of people with whom I have worked in the past. Between us, I have every confidence in our future.”

“Although our focus will continue to be polythene, Leopard will be free to develop its own markets, trading a more diverse range of recyclable waste materials,” he adds.

Leopard Recycling will continue to trade from its Sherburn-in-Elmet warehouse, where the material is sorted, graded and baled for recycling.

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