-
CANADIANS WEIGH NEW STANDARDS
The Canadian Association of Recycling Industries (CARI), Ajax, Ontario, has expressed concern to government agency Measurement Canada over minimum loads to be measured on commercial scales.
According to The Pulse, CARI’s newsletter, Section 62 of the Specifications Relating to Non-Automatic Weighing Devices (1998) holds that "the minimum load to be weighed on a scale must be no less that 100 times the ‘verification scale interval’ (i.e. graduation interval). In other words a scale with 20-pound graduations may only be used to measure a load of 2,000 pounds or more."
According to CARI, Section 62 of the specifications was adopted in 1998 after consultation with scale manufacturers, end user groups and Measurement Canada, although CARI and specific scrap dealers were not consulted. The May 2002 notification to enforce this section has resulted in the industry and CARI notifying Measurement Canada of its objections.
Richard Benzakein, president of Metaux and Depot, a scrap recycling company in Montreal, and Len Shaw, CARI executive director, addressed the Gravimetric Standing Committee of Measurement Canada in November.
The difficulty for ferrous dealers is that buying from individuals and "peddlers" can entail using a larger scale to measure relatively small amounts of scrap.
U.S. standards, which use a 10 times multiplying factor for ferrous scrap and a 50 times factor for other scrap, was one suggested solution.
The committee is expected to discuss this concern during November and December, according to CARI.
| BOOK DETAILS NYC CARTEL |
|
For several decades, solid waste and scrap paper generators in New York City were at the mercy of a cartel that colluded to rig bids and fix prices for trash pick-up and paper recycling services. The undercover operation detailed in a new book entitled Takedown: The Fall of the Last Mafia Empire (G.P. Putnams Son’s, New York, Copyright 2002.) finally brought the scheme to an end in the mid-1990s. The book is co-authored by New York police detective Rick Cowan, who spent several years pretending to be Dan Benedetto, an executive with Brooklyn’s Chambers Paper Fibres Corp., an honest paper recycling firm that worked its way into the corrupt cartel in order to expose it. The cartel, which was ultimately controlled by a handful of organized crime rings, divided New York’s five boroughs into spheres of influence and held together an anti-competitive price-fixing scheme from at least the early 1950s until 1995. The rings operated under the guise of trade associations with such names as the Greater New York Waste Paper Association and the Association of Trade Waste Removers of Greater New York. The undercover operation produced large volumes of audio recordings that led to the cartel’s downfall in 1995. Subsequently, with the introduction of honest competition, New York businesses have seen their solid waste bills drop by as much as 90 percent and receive competitive bids for their scrap paper. The multiple indictments resulting from Operation Wasteland identified 17 individuals, 23 companies and the four trade associations as co-conspirators in the scheme, which relied on intimidation and violence to perpetuate itself. Cowan credits Sal Benedetto and others with Chambers Paper Fibres and related Benedetto companies for exposing themselves to risk . "Sal Benedetto knows he’s got a target on his head for the rest of his life," writes Cowan. |
-
WINDY CITY HOSTS PAPER CONFERENCE
The Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago will be the site of the 2003 Paper Recycling Conference & Trade Show, June 22-24.
The 2003 show will offer those within the paper recycling industry the opportunity to interact with leading industry consultants and entrepreneurs in a format emphasizing exchanging information and building contacts, according to show sponsors the Recycling Today Media Group, Cleveland.
The Paper Stock Industries (PSI) Chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI) again will serve as co-sponsors, hosting a reception and conducting meetings during the conference.
Conference highlights will include:
• An education program focusing on current market issues
• Panel discussions
• An exhibit hall with industry equip-
ment and service suppliers
• Networking opportunities.
"This conference is designed to assist paper recycling professionals energize, diversify and redefine their businesses to meet the complex management challenges of today’s market," Dan Sandoval, conference education co-chair and senior editor of Recycling Today magazine, says.
He adds that registration fees are affordable at $345 per person, or $275 per person as part of a group.
For registration, sponsorship and exhibit information, call (800) 456-0707 and ask for Maria Miller.
Explore the December 2002 Issue
Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
Latest from Recycling Today
- Aduro joins PLASTICS, PSRA
- Rumpke awarded recycling contract in Bowling Green, Ohio
- VPPA and RISI to host pulp and paper summit in Vietnam
- Agilyx buys stake in Green Dot
- Meadow tabs aluminum as key to boosting beauty sector recycling
- Recycling industry stakeholders testify at Congressional hearing
- Missouri city expands recycling capabilities with funding from The Recycling Partnership
- Port of LA reports hectic June
