Eriez announces executive retirement

Charlie Ingram, the former executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Eriez, retired from the Erie, Pennsylvania-based manufacturer of separation technologies at the end of last year.

“After 26 years of significant contributions to Eriez, our industry and the Erie community, Charlie has decided to retire and bring to an end his very successful career,” Eriez CEO Lukas Guenthardt says in a news release on Ingram’s retirement.

He joined Eriez in 1994 as national sales manager, rising to vice president of sales and marketing in 2004. Guenthardt says Ingram was one of the architects of Eriez’s three-fold growth while he directed the sales organization in the Americas.

“Ingram’s approaches to field sales, market-focused strategies, aftermarket initiatives, training and customer education significantly helped position Eriez as the world authority in separation technologies,” he adds. “Charlie has been a valued mentor and leader during his tenure.”

Eriez says Ingram fostered the professional growth of Eriez’s sales and marketing teams, enhancing customer satisfaction through improved sales structures and processes.

As executive vice president and chief marketing officer, Ingram oversaw Eriez’s global marketing operations and the introduction of new products to target countries, managing product line realignment and standardization, the company says.

While at Eriez, Ingram served in numerous volunteer roles. He was president of several community and industry boards, including the Erie Philharmonic, the Sight Center of Northwest PA, the Process Equipment Manufacturers’ Association and the Kahkwa Club. He serves as a trustee fellow of Denison University and is on the board of directors of Sterling Technologies Inc. and as the Manufacturers’ Agents National Association.

“We at Eriez value the many contributions Charlie has made over the span of his career,” Guenthardt says. “We appreciate the foundation Charlie has built over the last 26 years, which positions Eriez to be successful for many years to come.”

Balcones Resources appoints president

Balcones Resources’ board of directors elected Adam Vehik as president of the Austin, Texas-based corporation Aug. 25, 2020. His appointment to the post was effective immediately.

In his new position, Vehik is leading the company in its continued growth following its acquisition of Sarasota, Florida-based Single Stream Recyclers.

Balcones Resources is an environmental services company that is backed by Closed Loop Partners, which is a circular economy investment firm based in New York City. Closed Loop Partners acquired a majority stake in Balcones Resources in October 2019.

According to a news release from Closed Loop Partners, Vehik served as Balcones’ chief financial officer since February 2011. Prior to that, Closed Loop Partners says Vehik had a career in finance, law, marketing and strategy and technology commercialization. He spent four years in private equity and worked in the White House during the Clinton administration. He also held positions in Johannesburg and in Granada, Nicaragua, and he helped to conduct expeditions of the Arctic Circle and Australian Outback, studying applications of closed-loop ecosystems in a variety of contexts.

For the last five years, Vehik has served as a board member for Hill Country Conservancy, a land trust in central Texas.

He received a Juris Doctor and an MBA from the University of Arkansas and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Vanderbilt University.

Macpresse adds Randy Gibson to North American team

Randy Gibson has been named vice president of MP North America LLC, which will distribute balers and equipment from Milan-based Macpresse.

MP North America LLC was formed in 2020 as a business unit designed to provide Macpresse factory representation to customers in the United States and Canada, Gibson says.

“My main goal is to build the dealer network in North America for Macpresse, whose equipment is highly regarded for its innovation, productivity and reliability. Right now, I am looking to continue growing our partnerships with the extensive list of dealers already in the Macpresse family in the U.S. and Canada,” he says.

Gibson has been involved in the design and sale of balers and other recycling equipment since 1989 and has had previous roles with Harris and International Baler Corp.

WestRock’s Porter retires

WestRock Co., Atlanta, has announced that Jim Porter, president of business development and Latin America, retired Dec. 31, 2020. Porter continues to contribute to WestRock by serving as one of its representatives on the board of managers for Gondi S. de R.L. de C.V., the company’s Grupo Gondi joint venture, and an advisor to the company.

According to a news release from WestRock, Porter has worked in the paper and packaging industry for most of his 46-year career. After earning his degree in forest management from the University of Missouri, he began his career with Menasha. In 1993, he joined Southern Container and was president and chief operating officer when WestRock acquired Southern Container in 2008. He has helped to lead the development of the company’s corrugated packaging business and its growth in Latin America, including the company’s operations in Brazil and joint venture with Grupo Gondi in Mexico.

In 2018, Porter also received the RISI Lifetime Achievement Award.

His industry involvement includes serving on the board of the American Forest Foundation and the Forest History Society.

Porter recently was inducted into the International Corrugated Foundation’s Circle of Distinguished Leaders.

Mark Reiter, Sam Gershowitz receive ISRI Lifetime Achievement Awards

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington, has honored Mark Reiter and Sam Gershowitz as its 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award recipients.

Reiter, who died in 2020, posthumously was recognized for his efforts to advance the scrap recycling industry, the association states in a news release.

Politics and the political process defined Reiter, ISRI states. He started in politics at age 10, working to help various candidates in his hometown of the Bronx, New York. He attended Stuyvesant High School and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Temple University.

Reiter worked for New York Mayor John Lindsay before moving to Washington to work for Rep. Bella Abzug of New York. He also spent 10 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and then returned to Capitol Hill as a senior staff member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. In 1992, he left government and joined ISRI as manager of legislative and international affairs. As Reiter once said, “Being connected to politics keeps my engine going.”

Reiter established ISRI’s first grassroots advocacy network to provide support for the Superfund Recycling Equity Act (SREA), lobbying for it in a decadelong process that culminated in its passage in 1999. According to ISRI, that law saved the recycling industry hundreds of millions of dollars and created the precedent for recognizing recycling operations as distinct from disposal operations.

Although he was a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, Reiter worked across party lines to help ISRI achieve its policy goals.

Reiter served as ISRI’s vice president of government relations until his death in January 2020.

“Having had the pleasure and honor of working beside Mark for his entire ISRI career, I can honestly say that doing right for the membership was always at the top of his mind and doing it with integrity was always his first priority,” says ISRI President Robin Wiener.

Gershowitz, who founded New York-based Gershow Recycling, received the award for his commitment to the industry, his employees and his philanthropic work. ISRI says the award honors his vision and tenacity in creating one of Long Island’s best-known and largest environmental and manufacturing companies.

“Sam’s commitment to the industry and drive to better the lives of his employees is truly unmatched,” Wiener says. “From his work ethic to the many ways he benefits his community through numerous philanthropic efforts, Sam and Gershow truly embody the best of all our industry has to offer. ISRI is proud to recognize Sam with its 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award.”

The son of Polish and Russian immigrants, Gershowitz quit school at age 17 to support his family in Brooklyn, New York. On his days off from work, he would travel to the Hamptons on Long Island, where he noticed abandoned cars and scrap metal on the side of the road along the way. To address this problem, he founded Gershow Auto Parts & Wreckers in 1964. In 1981, he changed the company’s name to Gershow Recycling to reflect its growth and overall commitment to recycling and conservation, later adding the motto “Conserving the Future by Recycling the Past.”

From its start as a two-person operation with a tractor-trailer, a boom truck and a portable car flattener, Gershow has grown to nine facilities employing more than 750 people, processing ferrous and nonferrous metal, paper and plastics.

“I want to thank ISRI for this wonderful honor,” Gershowitz says. “Being recognized by one’s peers is the highest honor one could receive.”

In memoriam: Joseph M. Stover

Joseph M. Stover died Nov. 3, 2020, at the age of 62. He was the founder of First Capital Fibers in York, Pennsylvania, which he sold to his son, Joey Stover, when he retired in 2019.

Joseph Stover began his career in the scrap industry in 1978 when he started hauling mufflers and junk with his pickup truck, Jerry T. Kellner of First Capital Fibers tells Recycling Today. In 1988, he purchased his first scrap yard in York, naming it First Capital Recycling. Ten years later, in 1998, Joseph Stover started First Capital Fibers.

According to the company’s website, First Capital Fibers now operates out of two locations with more than 60,000 square feet of processing and warehousing space combined. It offers scrap management services, including material processing, document and product destruction, plastic recycling, metals recycling and brokerage services.

Joseph Stover was born Oct. 18, 1958, in York to Jane (Peterman) Stover and the late Jesse Stover. He had been married to Lisa A. (Herman) Stover since Jan. 10, 2009.

According to his obituary on the Heffner Funeral Chapel & Crematory Inc. website, he enjoyed golfing and traveling in his RV in his free time.

Kellner says Joseph Stover also enjoyed spending time with his family and friends.

“He was known locally and in the industry as being a generous man,” Kellner says. “He used his companies to support mission trips, local charities and giving many, many employees a second chance and continued enrichment in their lives.”

Along with his wife, Lisa, and his son, Joey, he is survived by his daughter-in-law, Alli; his daughter, Rebecca Kunkle, and her husband, John; three stepchildren—Brittany Honaker and her husband, Jack; Zachary Herman and his wife, Cassandra; and Steven Herman Jr.—granddaughters, Emily Stover and Hannah Stover; stepgrandson, AJ Herman; his sister, Kathy Price, and her husband, Tim; and his half-brother, Bill Stover, and his wife, Carrie.

Harsco is a well-known company in the steelmaking and ferrous scrap sectors. What might be less well-known is that the company’s history extends back to 1853 and the Harrisburg Car Manufacturing Co., a manufacturer of rail cars. Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-based Harsco Corp. has continually reinvented itself through diversification and acquisition. Its divisions are Clean Earth, which is dedicated to managing specialty hazardous and nonhazardous waste, contaminated soil and dredged material; Harsco Environmental, which has on-site mill and resource recovery services; and Harsco Rail, which focuses on railway track maintenance.

Harsco Environmental is the new name of what was previously the Metals and Minerals division. Bruce Barker, the U.K.-based director of global resource recovery at Harsco Environmental, says, “The new name is really who we have been for a number of years and is more closely aligned with our transformation into a global, market-leading environmental solutions provider. The team at Harsco Environmental is really set on expanding our industrial reach through the application of new environmental technologies and developing eco-friendly products to drive growth for our company and importantly, for our customers.”

The division says it offers solutions that are designed to maximize environmental benefits and return raw materials to production. It has developed a range of byproducts for specialized applications across industry, construction and agriculture using its expertise in minerals.

Barker says Harsco provides scrap management services at more than 150 sites in more than 30 countries. “Our primary involvement within the scrap management sector is directly with the steel mills,” he says. “Scrap management is fundamental to what we do. If somebody already has purchased scrap, we can help them optimize the value they get from it. When a customer generates scrap, we can maximize the conversion of their material into products for reuse internally or externally, depending on the customer’s preference. Importantly, we are not dumping these byproducts into landfills but rather recycling or reusing more than 70 percent of them,” Barker adds.

Barker is a metallurgical engineer with more than 30 years of global experience in the iron, steel and aluminum industries, according to the company. He shares how Harsco Environmental has evolved and where the business segment is heading.

Recycling Today (RT): How has Harsco Environmental evolved over time? How much of the company’s overall business does this segment represent and how does that compare historically?

Bruce Barker (BB): Our service portfolio at Harsco Environmental has expanded over time, with an emphasis on positive environmental impact. Currently, well over 70 percent of our services have a direct or indirect environmental benefit compared to less than 60 percent two years ago. Our business platform helps to reuse and repurpose heavy industries’ residues and minimize the amount of material going to landfills.

Historically, we were known for our “steel mill services,” and our evolution has included pioneering many byproduct recycling technologies that are now regularly used in the industry. Our division within Harsco used to be known for extracting metal from steelmaking slags and then finding solutions for the remaining mineral byproducts.

Previously, our customers’ main requirement was maximized metal recovery; but, today, we are very much focused on increasing the reuse of all metal and mineral units available for recovery. This reflects a general change to improve the efficiency of materials utilization while minimizing the environmental impact of industrial processes. We’ve made significant improvements within our original services portfolio by improving our on-site logistics and base processes. Harsco Environmental offers the widest range of on-site recycling services for the metals industry to maximize their production efficiency while minimizing the environmental impact on their own site and the surrounding communities.

In the past few decades, we’ve used the services business as a springboard to address other byproduct challenges faced by our customers. It’s opened our eyes to the need for new technologies that will address our customers’ desire to improve material utilization while minimizing the environmental impact of industrial operations. Our mission to provide environmental benefits through cost- and material-efficient process enhancements is reflective of the ongoing need by both society and industry for constant improvement in these areas.

RT: How much of your Environmental business does scrap management represent? What services does it include?

BB: While we can’t break out the percentage of our business segments for competitive reasons, we can share that there are seven main services that fall under the traditional scrap management umbrella:

• overall scrap management, which includes scrap quality analysis, loading and tracking;
• baling and shearing;
• coolant scrap production;
• shredding services;
• internal scrap collection;
• oxy cutting and lancing; and
• scrap turnings briquetting.

Harsco is involved in all aspects of scrap handling, processing, usage and tracking. There are two fundamental sources for scrap: external and internal. External scrap is material that a customer buys and brings in via road, rail and water that we help with on their site.

We use our ScrapMaster program on many sites to manage inventory and maximize the cost benefits to our customers when melting these purchased materials. Then there’s internal scrap that requires the collection of different materials from the steel plant site and their preparation for reuse, either internally or externally. This again generates the greatest economic benefit for the steel plant customer from maximizing the use of materials already in their possession.

Harsco Environmental is especially involved with preparing all forms of scrap for reuse, including the recovery of metal from slag. Also, our oxy-cutting and lancing processes allow us to recycle a wide variety of metallics by using fuel gases and oxygen to cut scrap metal of all dimensions and profiles. If there are large, off-spec steel products that are to be recycled, they must be cut into manageable sizes for remelting in the furnace.

Our metal recovery activities even involve breaking the refractory coating off used gas injection lances to recover the embedded steel pipe before cutting it to size for remelting.

All types of internally generated scrap are potential candidates for collection, upgrading and remelting.

A major environmental benefit of on-site scrap recycling is the reduced need to bring in scrap from external sources. This provides an overall cost reduction while decreasing the carbon footprint of the process as less transportation is required.

RT: Can you tell me more about your proprietary software, ScrapMaster, and how mills can benefit from this service?

BB: For steelmakers, better scrap process visibility will optimize scrap usage for benefits in cost and process control. Whether the scrap is sourced externally or internally, our ScrapMaster software system helps us monitor and control the flow of scrap from original receipt through to melting with complete traceability for quality control and cost reduction.

Incoming scrap inspection is used to record any noncompliance for automatic invoicing adjustment. Spectrographic chemical analysis is used to identify scrap contaminants as well as any valuable contained elements for optimization during scrap selection for melting.

All scrap is logged at the weighbridge prior to unloading and storage. The system is used to record the internal scrap generation points for accurate inventory control and yield monitoring within the steel- making process. It also contains records of the material weights handled at each stage and, through GPS satellite tracking, the exact location of the scrap charge basket with submeter accuracy.

Each scrap charge basket is prepared according to a recipe generated from the furnace operations personnel, and every detail of the scrap selected is recorded through each basket layer loaded. GPS tracking monitors the crane operations and exact movements of each scrap basket charged into the furnace. The program allows for monitoring and recording the entire scrap handling history.

Management reports ... help maximize process control and cost savings that are realized through lower purchase costs, improved metal purity and yield and reduced secondary metallurgy treatment costs downstream of melting.

“Least-cost” scrap charge blends facilitate an optimized scrap allocation over the entire melting schedule. Improved quality control in steel melting and decreased furnace power costs are the result. Additional benefits include reduced scrap handling and [operations and maintenance] costs, reduced assets required and improved on-site traffic management and safety conditions. ScrapMaster has been widely deployed at steel mills worldwide and is a valuable part of Harsco’s total scrap management service.

RT: Tell me more about how Harsco is helping mills manage their byproducts. How have your clients been able to benefit from these services?

BB: Our byproduct blending, pelletizing and briquetting processes enable previously landfilled, yet still valuable byproducts, to be recycled into metal production. Most metal, mineral and carbon fines can be reused when properly prepared within our engineered material recovery processes.

Municipal governments and the public might strongly support residential recycling, but they might not fully understand how commodity markets work in the recycling industry. They sometimes have misconceptions about the value of commodities processed by material recovery facilities (MRFs).

In February 2020, Recycling Today talked with Phoenix-based Republic Services’ Richard Coupland, vice president of municipal sales, about some of these commodity value misconceptions and trends in municipal recycling programs. Coupland said he noticed that these misconceptions became apparent after China initiated its National Sword policy in 2018.

“Kind of the root challenge that China’s decision has created is an economic one,” Coupland said. “What I mean by that is the recycling contracts and the recycling programs in America were originally based on two simple premises. One of them was that we didn’t want to charge the resident very much to begin to recycle. … So, we undercharged the resident because we were able to sell the recyclables in the market for a really good return, and a lot of people think that people in the industry were making tons of money.”

He continued, “The reality was they were making revenue, but we needed to pay back the drivers and operations. That’s kind of a myth we created for the public—that recycling was free and tons of money [could] be made doing it.”

But, Coupland said, recycling isn’t free, and commodity values for recovered paper, in particular, were at a near all-time low at the time Recycling Today talked to him in 2020.

Some groups have been working to clear up the confusion municipalities and the public have regarding commodity values. In particular, the Northeast Recycling Council (NERC), Brattleboro, Vermont, developed a quarterly “Report on Blended Commodity Values in the Northeast” in 2019 as a way to give municipalities insight into regional market trends.

“The thinking at the time was that it would be helpful to dispel some of the concerns about the value of materials and put to rest some of the distrust from municipalities working with [MRFs],” says Lynn Rubinstein, who is the executive director at NERC.

NERC surveys nearly 20 publicly owned or operated MRFs in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic region for the report. NERC says these respondents operate single-stream, dual-stream and source-separated MRFs.

Digging into data

According to NERC’s quarterly report for July 1 to Sept. 30, 2020, MRFs reported a decrease in the overall value of curbside recyclables compared with the previous quarter. In the third quarter, the average commodity value per ton with the expense of handling residuals was $40.19. Without residuals, the average commodity value per ton was $46.83. NERC reports that these values are down about 21 percent compared with the second quarter of 2020, when the average commodity value per ton with residuals was $51.23, while the price per ton without residuals was $59.58.

Rubinstein says the overall blended MRF commodity value has ebbed and flowed since NERC started surveying MRFs in 2019. She adds that it has been difficult to determine a clear pattern or trend related to these quarterly values in the region.

“The trend is that there is no trend,” she says. “Values go up, values go down.”

“The data proves to those less directly engaged in the [recycling] marketplace that these materials do have value.” – Lynn Rubinstein, executive director, Northeast Recycling Council, says of the group’s blended commodity value report

NERC’s latest report also indicates that the average processing cost for MRFs was $84 per ton, down slightly from the previous quarter but up 1 percent from when NERC’s survey began more than a year ago. The data on processing costs also seems to fluctuate with each survey, but Rubinstein says this data has been less variable than the commodity value data.

While patterns can be hard to spot in its surveys, Rubinstein says she thinks the data NERC is gathering can be interesting to share with municipalities in the Northeast, proving that recyclables do have value. She says municipalities also can pull out some more specific data to see that recovered paper prices did indeed increase in 2020 or that some plastic scrap prices have been doing well.

“It’s still interesting data—it’s a conversation starter,” Rubinstein says. “The data proves to those less directly engaged in the [recycling] marketplace that these materials do have value. On the other hand, it’s been interesting and valuable to be able to see these fluctuations and see what is happening within our region. All regions are different, but to be able to watch and see how [markets] evolve is very interesting and [is a] great value to state regulators in particular.”

Overall on the up

Looking beyond the Northeast, sources tell Recycling Today that values for most recyclables recovered at MRFs increased in 2020 compared with 2019.

“This year has actually been a much better year than the past few years for pricing,” says Anne Germain, who is the chief operating officer and senior vice president of technical and regulatory affairs at the Arlington, Virginia-based National Waste & Recycling Association.

By weight, she says, the majority of material in residential recycling carts is recovered paper, including mixed paper and old corrugated containers (OCC). “Mixed had been doing pretty poorly over the last several years in the -$2 per ton range nationwide,” she says.

But when the pandemic hit, recovered paper prices spiked in the spring of 2020. Germain says recovered paper prices have decreased from that spike, but not substantially, as of December 2020. She adds that the increase in recovered paper values has helped to somewhat prop up overall blended MRF values in the U.S. this past year compared with 2019.

“The spike in general for paper grades in the early stages of COVID, it was really a double-edged sword,” a national independent recycler who wishes to remain anonymous tells Recycling Today. “We saw [recovered paper] prices scream through the roof; but, at the same time, it’s because there was not much supply.”

On the container side, some prices have gone up, while others went down in 2020 compared with 2019.

“We’ve always relied on aluminum to be a kind of mainstay [at MRFs], but aluminum prices have been flat to dropping over the last year,” Germain says.

A study conducted by Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc., based in McLean, Virginia, for the Washington-based Can Manufacturers Institute that was released last year underlines the value that aluminum used beverage cans (UBCs) brings to MRFs. The report found that without the revenue from UBCs, most MRFs would not be able to operate without making significant changes that would ultimately affect the cost of recycling to consumers.

Germain says high-density polyethylene (HDPE) prices rose in 2020 compared with 2019. Pricing for natural HDPE and colored HDPE bottle bales has been trending upward in recent months, sources in that sector of the industry told Recycling Today in November 2020.

The national independent recycler adds that he has noticed that most commodities sold by MRFs, including plastics and metal scrap, seemed to have increased in value in 2020 relative to 2019.

“Everything generally is better than 2019,” he says. “2019 might be one of the worst years in decades for MRF materials. Even if you take out that two-month spike in OCC prices and look at the rest of 2020 in comparison with 2019, it’s still better. HDPE right now is very positive in pricing. We’re seeing a lot of the metals grades not skyrocketing, but they’re good. We’re able to move things, and pricing is generally better.”

The author is managing editor of Recycling Today and can be reached at msmalley@gie.net.

Colin Denihan

Vice president at Metal Source LLC

When Colin Denihan started college, he wanted to work for his father at United Rentals after receiving his bachelor’s degree. However, Denihan says, his career plans changed after a conversation he had while working his part-time bartending job.

“I was pretty good at talking to the patrons, serving drinks. A gentleman came in and asked me if I wanted an internship,” he says. “He asked me if I knew anything about aluminum. I said that I knew nothing about aluminum but said sure.”

That gentleman was Benjamin Gebhart, president of Wabash, Indiana-based Metal Source LLC. Denihan says he worked at the scrap yard throughout his senior year of college and would sometimes skip classes just to learn more about the recycling industry. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in 2009 from Manchester University in North Manchester, Indiana, he worked for Metal Source for about a year. When market conditions got rough, he says he transitioned to LKQ Corp., where he worked in sales and purchasing for a few years.

“With the inventories being so low, orders being so strong, I see no reason why the aluminum market should not remain strong or improve in the upcoming months.”

Denihan says about four-and-a-half years ago he “found [his] way home” to Metal Source, where he works as a vice president. Metal Source was a small company with approximately a dozen employees when he interned there; but, when he returned to the business, it had 50 employees. Today, Metal Source employs about 150 people.

“We’ve built a couple of new plants that I’ve been in charge of,” Denihan says. “We’ve expanded our growth into a trucking company and a steel supply company, as well as our trading company. The growth over the last five years has been tremendous.”

Denihan shares his thoughts on the industry in a conversation that occurred in mid-November 2020.

Recycling Today (RT): What do you see as some of the biggest issues affecting the recycling industry today?

Colin Denihan (CD): I wish I had the answer to these issues, but right now, workforce and employees [are an issue]. It’s very competitive and very hard to not only retain [employees] but also the hiring process, especially with the whole coronavirus pandemic going on. It’s hard to manage. Also, the unemployment rate had been so low, so it was hard to find competitive talent who would want to work in the recycling business.

I think that we’ve been trying to solve that equation by getting creative with employment and retention. I think [Metal Source] has done a good job by offering better benefits, better wages, bonus programs and referral programs.

Also, trucking has been a huge problem for us, whether it’s the lack of trucks on the road, the lack of drivers or the expense of trucking costs.

RT: Metal Source is focused on aluminum scrap. What have aluminum markets been like in recent months?

CD: The aluminum market demand has been very strong. I think that the supply chain has been really, really hurt with the coronavirus and the shutdown of the automotive sector. That’s primarily what we deal with—90 percent of our business is automotive. And with the inventories being so low, orders being so strong, I see no reason why the aluminum market should not remain strong or improve in the upcoming months. I don’t really know past February, but orders for at least the next two months are strong based on our order books.