Katrina is Focus of Scrap Recycler’s Attention

Peter McAvoy, president of Industrial Metal Recycling, Oakland, Maine, has spent the last several days dismayed by what he has seen happen to New Orleans, a city where just a few months ago he spent several enjoyable days attending the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI) Annual Convention.

In McAvoy’s opinion, the scrap industry is obligated to extend as much help as possible to pay the city back for what he says was the hospitality and warmth it extended as the host city for the gathering of scrap recyclers.

Both McAvoy as an individual and Industrial Metal Recycling as a company will be taking steps to make donations and solicit further donations to assist the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.

McAvoy is announcing his own $50,000 donation to the American Red Cross because he hopes it will spur other scrap recyclers to match or exceed his own. “Scrap recyclers are competitive people, so let’s use that to our advantage this time,” he remarks.

Additionally, McAvoy says he will be offering both industrial roll-off scrap generators and across-the-scale generators ways to donate all or part of their proceeds to the Red Cross, with Industrial Metal Recycling matching 10 percent of all such donations. The company will issue receipts that will help customers ensure the donations are tax deductible. (Read cover story on Metal Recycling that appeared in the July, 2003 issue of Recycling Today -- Golden Rule)

“A lot of people want to help, so the easier we make it the better,” says McAvoy. He adds that such efforts should happen “quickly, though, because we tend to forget and move on.”

McAvoy says the Red Cross will need the cash infusion not only to meet the current crisis, but also to replenish itself once the Katrina relief efforts have come to a conclusion.

According to McAvoy, although it is a touchy subject, scrap recyclers often benefit from the generation of material from severe storms, so they should be among those who are the most generous in such circumstances.

ISRI is also encouraging donations, with a link on the organization’s Web site offering several ways that its members can contribute to relief efforts financially or with donations of goods or services. More guidance on the coordination of relief efforts has been promised from ISRI in the near future.

Indiana-based scrap recycler OmniSource Corp. has announced a program through which donations will be made to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts for every pound of purchased nonferrous scrap and every ton of purchased ferrous scrap.