Editor Column

For any recyclers who tend toward the SAD affliction, a winter pricing cycle that often holds down commodity prices (and flow) while industries curtail production for winter maintenance, re-tooling, or a post-Holiday breather, offers another reason to be gloomy.

As this winter heads toward spring, recyclers have the added worry of seeing whether an overall economic slowdown might affect their businesses well past the winter months. Members of the Bush Administration have made public comments hinting that lower expectations for the economy may be in order for the first half of 2001, while the Federal Reserve Bank acknowledges a stalled economy with interest rate cuts.

A time-tested way to escape the winter doldrums (for people in northern latitudes) is to take a trip to a warmer, sunnier climate. Scrap recyclers and recyclers in the demolition materials segment will each have a chance to do just that in the closing days of winter.

The National Association of Demolition Contractors (NADC) is holding its annual convention in early March in Orlando, Fla. Demolition contractors have not, for the most part, experienced the same type of slump that recyclers have. As generators of scrap metal, however, they certainly wouldn’t mind seeing scrap prices rebound, boosting the potential revenue of demolition jobs.

Organizers of the event seem aware of winter’s draining affect on some people, as they are establishing a tropical paradise theme to be enjoyed by attendees. Mixed in with the doses of sunshine will be the other reasons contractors attend the event: to handle association governance matters; to shop for equipment and services; to hear from guest speakers; and to renew acquaintances and swap tales with fellow contractors.

Considering their markets in recent months, scrap recyclers will really be looking for a boost from the annual convention of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI). The convention is being held in San Antonio, Texas, March 20-24, as winter changes to spring.

Changes in industry conditions that might match the symbolic implications of the timing of the event-spring as a season of hope and new growth-would be welcome by most recyclers.

Even if fortune can’t provide that sort of timing, the ISRI event will serve, as it always does, to bring recyclers together in a warm, welcoming atmosphere. The odds are good that San Antonio can provide the literal warmth, while camaraderie and opportunity will work in tandem to generate warm feelings for attendees.

ISRI committee members and staff members have put in place the additional reasons to lure recyclers to San Antonio for the event: a convention hall full of exhibits, a varied menu of educational sessions, and several dinners and cocktail receptions.

Each year, there seem to be nay sayers who worry that one of several factors will keep people away: down markets (and reduced travel budgets), or up markets (too busy to get away); an out-of-the-way destination, or a destination that is too familiar (been there, done that).

But each year, a healthy percentage of scrap recyclers board a plane in time to make it to the ISRI Annual, because they just might miss out on a business opportunity. And although the less sentimental may not want to admit it, they might also miss out on the opportunity to renew acquaintances and swap stories-something that can’t be measured on the bottom line, but which provides a way to make it through the winter.