Atlanta Delivers WasteExpo With A Southern Accent

Solid waste professionals, recyclers and their suppliers gathered in the Peach State to exchange information on the state of their industry.

Several thousand attendees and several hundred exhibitors gathered in Atlanta in mid-May for WasteExpo 2000.

An exhibit hall at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, representing a temporary shopping mall for solid waste and recycling professionals, was open for three days for attendees and exhibitors to mingle, while formal sessions and informal hallway and restaurant gatherings provided additional opportunities for networking and information gathering.

Some exhibiting companies launched new products at the event, while several other companies—including a handful of dot.com start-ups—made their industry-wide debut at the show.

A CENTRAL GATHERING SPOT

Although attendance figures have not yet been calculated for WasteExpo 2000, spokesperson Rita Uganskis-Fishman says initial indications are that attendance was up about 10% over last year’s figure.

More than 400 exhibitors used booth space to connect with current customers and attract potential new clients. The exhibitors were from a range of product and service categories, with equipment providers including makers of balers, compactors, C&D debris processing equipment, conveyors, scales, shredders and other types of machinery used by the recycling and solid waste industries.

Most exhibitors report being pleased with the amount of floor traffic and the quality of the leads they received, with most also indicating they remain pleased with WasteExpo as a show that continues to be a central gathering spot for the solid waste and recycling industries each spring.

INTERNET VISIBILITY INCREASES

Both in the exhibit hall and in the educational sessions, the Internet was far more present at WasteExpo 2000 than at previous events.

Exhibitors such as wasteclick.com, analine.com, wwwaste.com, and eWaste.com attempted to make their names familiar to waste haulers and generators, with the aim of serving as a link between waste handling customers and potential customers.

A set of educational sessions had the Internet as its focal point, with presenters demonstrating how those in the solid waste industry can use the medium to their advantage.

John F. McQuillan, president and CEO of analine.com, Boston, addressed the topic of “e-partnerships.” McQuillan remarked that forming e-partnerships is a great way for a company to make sure its website contains all the pertinent information that customers are looking for. “In e-commerce,” he said, “there is a phenomenal push to get where you’re going as quickly and as expertly as possible.” This is where e-partnerships can come into play.

He pointed out that to create effective e-partnerships, a company should choose experts in various fields to extend its marketing and sales reach through its website. For example, a company should form e-partnerships with experts in the technology, financial, real-world and content fields to help create an all-inclusive website, McQuillan says.

His site utilizes various partners to offer users an array of resources. One of those partnerships is with the Bureau of International Affairs (BNA), Washington, which supplies information on environmental laws, specifically RECRA laws. The partnership benefits analine.com because it allows them to supply information to their customers from experts about a very complex issue. It in turn benefits BNA by allowing them to reach a broader segment of the market.

A representative from a small waste hauling company expressed concern that these ideas are not applicable to a “mom and pop” type operations. McQuillan, however, feels these ideas can be applied to any company.

The key is to pinpoint how a company would benefit frmo having a website and what services the company can offfer on the site.

No matter how a company decides to use the Internet, McQuillan says the most important thing to remember is the customer. “The battle for who’s going to have the best website is going to be won and lost on customer service,” he said.

PAPER STRENGTH

With its emphasis on recyclables collected at curbside, WasteExpo remains a good place to gauge the health of the paper recycling industry.

A well-attended session about paper recycling at the annual WasteExpo show featured presenters who were largely positive about the paper recycling markets, and it looks as further growth may also be on the horizon, according to the presenters.

Several audience members also backed up this statement, saying that they had seen some operations double the amount of material they were processing. “Things look good with OCC right now,” said William Moore, president, Moore & Associates, Atlanta. Moore said that while the market is growing, it still does not experience the growth typical to other industries. For example, a 3% growth rate in the paper market would be considered a high growth rate, while in other markets that might not be considered so.

Moore said that the paper market is not a market that typically has large amounts of growth, but currently, the growth is at a high relative to paper industry standards. The growth trend began in the 1980s, Moore said, and has continued as recycled content in products continues to grow.

Along with Moore, Tom Cihlar of Caraustar Recovered Fiber Group, Rittman, Ohio, and Nathiel Egosi, RRT Design and Construction, Melville, N.Y., also presented their industry conclusions.

Moore said exports, particularly to Asia, are going to continue to be strong. Old newspapers (ONP) will continue to be the strongest grade to Canada, with Korea still remaining strong in just about all grades and China drawing on the old corrugated container (OCC) market strongly.

When discussing which sectors process particular grades, local governments remain low on the processing sector, with the solid waste sector growing and the independent packer segment shrinking. “As for others, or alley entrepreneurs,” Moore said, “they come out when the prices are high.”

Egosi said he has seen the level of sophistication in processing of recyclables grow considerably. “As recycling programs expand and redesign and paper mills expand, we are rethinking how paper gets to the mill,” he said.

Demand for No. 7 (special news) should continue to rise, Egosi said. “As mills retrofit they are creating some significant market opportunities. We should see increased demand for No. 7.”

The trends of single stream collection and more automated separation are also making an impact on the paper market. “We are moving from a highly source-separated collection with manual labor to more automated technologies,” he said. “We have seen a pretty steady growth of MRFs since 1985, more than 450 in 1999.”

“Integration of collection and sorting into one low-cost program” is the trend Egosi has been seeing.

Cihlar also sees expanding markets for paper. He has seen growth in the paper mills and said he expects this to continue. “There are no real new innovative markets and nothing that will replace the markets,” he said, but he still sees things as being positive right now.

The grades with the largest growth, Cihlar said, were No. 7 and No. 8 (de-ink quality news), both domestically and overseas. He said there are several large facilities planned that will consume large amounts of No. 7 and No.8.

Oversees, Cihlar said there is growth in China and expects to see that remain high for the next six to eight months. A new mill that will consume 450,000 tons per year of paper is planned and that is expected to impact export markets. China also has another mill scheduled to come online that is expecting to procure almost all of their paper from imports.

The overall feeling most in the session had was that paper markets are strong and are expected to remain that way for quite a while.

C&D SEGMENT FLOURISHES

The construction and demolition segment (C&D) is one that has grown at WasteExpo, and at WasteExpo 2000 many equipment exhibitors catered to this market.

Bill Turley, president of the Construction Materials Recycling Association (CMRA), Lisle, Ill., also presented a session covering the latest developments in this recycling and solid waste segment.

In an introductory message at the session, Turley noted that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reportedly re-considering its proposal on the disposal of demolition debris containing lead-based paint.

A concerted lobbying effort by recyclers has helped prompt EPA officials to begin the process of revising the rules, according to Turley. The initial proposal excluded recycling as a viable option for the handling of wood and concrete demolition debris that contains traces of lead-based paint.

But the omission was quickly addressed by CMRA members and other recyclers, some of whom hired lobbyists, while others presented test results of their recycled materials demonstrating that the percentage of lead present in their finished products was well below levels considered hazardous.

Turley also told attendees of the session that several EPA officials realized fairly early on (after the release of the proposed rules) that the rules completely overlooked recycling as an option for materials containing lead-based paint.

According to Turley, who has spoken with EPA officials involved in the formulation of the new rules, the exact nature of the changes to be made by the EPA to the lead-based paint proposal will be announced within the next six months.

WINDY CITY IS NEXT DESTINATION

Companies making preparations for next year’s WasteExpo will have to begin making their plans a little earlier, as the show dates are April 3 through 5.

WasteExpo will take place on those dates at McCormick Place in Chicago, where solid waste professionals, recyclers and suppliers to those industries will once again gather for an annual meeting that has become a traditional shopping and information gathering rite of Spring. RT

Recycling Today staff members Melissa Goodrich, Cheryl Tatom and Brian Taylor contributed to this report.

June 2000
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