ISRI 2006 CONVENTION & EXPOSITION: Setting a New Standard

The Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI), a scrap recycling trade group based in Washington, D.C., continued the roll-out of its Recycling Industry Operating Standard (RIOS) program at the 2006 ISRI Convention & Exposition.

The convention programming included four sessions intended to acquaint attendees with ISRI’s RIOS program. The first session was April 4 from 9:45 a.m. to 11 a.m. and provided an overview of the RIOS program as well as details on the quality standards it is designed to address.

Ben Harvey of E.L. Harvey and Sons, Westborough, Mass., who served as the moderator of the session, urged those in attendance to “look seriously at this RIOS package,” which combines elements of other operations, environmental, quality and safety standards into a package specific to the scrap recycling industry.

Harvey said the RIOS implementation package should be completed May 12. He added that ISRI is working with three yards of different sizes—Bodner Iron & Metal, Ocala Recycling Co. and Adams Steel—on a pilot implementation of the RIOS package that will help ISRI to fine-tune the product before it is ready for full-scale implementation.

Robert King of the ANSI-ASQ (American National Standards Institute-American Society for Quality) National Accreditation Board (ANAB), provided session attendees with information on the accreditation process and the objectives of ANAB. According to King, ANAB approved the RIOS package in November of 2005.

Betsy Delaney of First Environment, Boonton, N.J., spoke to the quality aspects of RIOS certification. Delaney said that the goal of the RIOS package is to help recyclers achieve measurable and continual improvement in OEH&S by coordinating a company’s management system.

Delaney said that RIOS can help recycling firms to eliminate duplication and improve efficiency, create a platform for continual improvement, reduce risks and insurance costs, enhance public perception and improve their competitive positions.

RIOS will help recyclers monitor and measure the quality of their products by helping them establish supplier qualification and verification standards and by establishing maintenance and calibration policies for their monitoring equipment, Delaney said. In areas of non-compliance, RIOS will help recycler identify corrective and preventative actions.

First Environment has helped ISRI produce the "RIOS Implementation Guide," which provides a number of sample documents to aid in the RIOS implementation process.

The 2006 ISRI Convention & Exposition was April 2-6 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.