This highlight article focuses on five sessions from ISRI2021: Keynote Featuring Gary Cohn with Presentation of the ISRI Lifetime Achievement Awards, Using Financing in Recycling as a Strategy to Maximize Growth, Aluminum Spotlight: A Better Year for Aluminum Markets?, Disruption at the Ports: Congestion to Container Shortages: A Conversation with FMC Commissioner Rebecca Dye; and Stormwater: Federal 2021 MSGP and More. Many of the programs available in ISRI2021 will remain available to convention registrants through May 20 on demand. The exhibit hall will remain open during that time as well.
Sessions on Day Five of ISRI2021 covered a range of topics. Gary Cohn tackled several issues including government policy, COVID-19, and global politics in a wide-ranging conversation with ISRI Chair Gary Champlin. Shelley Padnos and David Borsuk each received their 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award. Panelists throughout the day discussed other topics that impact the industry, including financing, the aluminum market, oceangoing transportation problems, and stormwater management.
Keynote Featuring Gary Cohn
According to Gary Cohn, vice chairman of IBM, the recycling industry can effectively position itself as part of the “greening of America” under the Biden administration. “One of the major driving forces for the administration is climate, and everything this industry does is pro-climate,” he explains. “You’re taking used material, reclaiming them, and turning them into good, usable second products.” Cohn, director of the National Economic Council during the Trump administration, brought his expertise to his discussion with ISRI Chair Gary Champlin about how government policy, COVID-19, and global politics affect the domestic and global economies and the movement of commodities.
ISRI Lifetime Achievement Awards
Shelley Padnos and David Borsuk received the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award. The first woman to hold national office at ISRI, and ISRI’s first female president, Padnos is a trailblazer in the recycling industry. She is the current chair of the executive committee of the board for PADNOS in Holland, Mich., and began her career at the company in 1984 as an account executive. “It is truly an honor to be recognized by my peers for the work that I have done with ISRI, and it is made even more meaningful by the fact that my father and uncle were the first recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award,” Padnos says. “I feel privileged to carry on a family legacy.”
Most recently serving as senior advisor at Sadoff Iron & Metal Company, David Borsuk has been in the metals recycling industry for more than 50 years. Essentially born into the industry, Borsuk held various roles during his career with Sadoff Iron & Metal. “I think [the legacy I’d like to leave] is that I was an advocate, both for Sadoff Iron & Metal, as well as for our industry. I also tried to continually commit [us] to excellence,” Borsuk says.
Using Financing in Recycling as a Strategy to Maximize Growth
From Fortune 500 corporations to privately-held multi-generational companies, finance plays a critical role in how an organization manages its cash flow. Understanding how to use finance options in the right scenarios can make the difference in optimizing the growth trajectory of your business. Speakers Paula Summers Murphy, director of Vision Financial Group; Kevin Canepa, director of sales at Vision Financial Group; Brandon Roznovsky, chief financial officer of Brannon Industrial Group; Bob DiTroia, northeast sales rep for Sierra International Machinery; and Mike Taranovich, vice president of sales at ProTerra Recycling Systems, discussed many aspects of finance, including cash purchases versus financing and when to use different types of financing methods, such as traditional bank loans, capital leases, operating leases, and rentals.
Aluminum Spotlight: A Better Year for Aluminum Markets?
The COVID-19 pandemic had massive implications for the aluminum and aluminum scrap industries. Supply disruptions at recycling facilities and reclamation centers, demand fluctuations in response to auto industry shutdowns and restarts, and on-going transportation bottlenecks were just a handful of 2020’s major market challenges. Moderated by John Sacco, vice president of Sierra International, speakers Andy Home, metals columnist at Thomson Reuters, and Lauren Wilk, vice president of government relations and international programs at the Aluminum Association, discussed major challenges and opportunities for the aluminum market, future demand for aluminum scrap, and how regulatory changes and trade policy affects the U.S. aluminum industry.
Disruption at the Ports: Congestion to Container Shortages: A Conversation with FMC Commissioner Rebecca Dye
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) is the federal agency responsible for regulating the U.S. international ocean transportation system. In response to 2020’s shipping disruptions, port congestion, and container shortages, the FMC launched multiple investigations to address these and other oceangoing transportation problems. FMC Commissioner Rebecca Dye directed these wide-ranging investigations beginning with the disruptions at the Los Angles, Long Beach, New York and New Jersey ports, and the container shortage. Commissioner Dye, along with Karyn Booth, partner and practice group leader for transportation at Thompson Hine, and Billy Johnson, ISRI’s chief lobbyist, discussed ongoing disruptions to ocean transportation and the FMC’s role in responding to them.
Stormwater: Federal 2021 MSGP and More
An important and far-reaching issue for the recycling industry, stormwater management affects almost every aspect of the recycling operation. It requires continual attention and activity. Speakers Fredric Andes and Jeffrey Longsworth, partners at Barnes & Thornburg LLP, and David Wagger, ISRI’s chief scientist and director of environmental management, discussed the Federal 2021 Multi-Sector General Permit for Stormwater Discharges Associated with Industrial Activity (MSGP) and other developing stormwater permitting and their effects.
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