Since September 2008, Thomas Gibson has been leading AISI.
The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) in Washington announced that President and CEO Thomas J. Gibson plans to retire this fall. According to AISI’s press release, the search for Gibson’s successor will begin immediately.
Gibson has led AISI since September 2008. Under his leadership, AISI successfully advocated legislation to strengthen trade laws, combat unfair trade practices, create a level playing field for steel manufacturers, successfully pass the Transportation and Infrastructure Act, benefit the steel industry, and seek a balanced energy and Environmental supervision methods will neither reduce the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry nor take advantage of the natural gas revival in the United States
"It is an honor to represent dedicated companies that produce steel in the United States and North America every day, and to provide support for the steel industry issues in Washington and beyond," Gibson said. "Although I look forward to active retirement, I will definitely miss AISI's talented and dedicated team, and look forward to hearing that AISI represents the industry's continued innovation and success in the future."
Prior to joining AISI, Gibson served as Senior Vice President of Communications at the American Chemistry Council in Washington. According to AISI reports, Gibson previously served as senior vice president of government affairs for the Portland Cement Association, chief of staff of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and majority deputy chief of staff of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Before serving as a government civilian, he worked as an engineer and project manager at Raytheon in Waltham, Massachusetts, and as an active maritime combat officer in the US Navy.
"From the 2008 financial crisis and the global overcapacity crisis that triggered repeated surges in imports, Tom has effectively led AISI's publicity work on key policy issues during a challenging period. His contribution has made AISI a debate on these issues. He will be missed and we wish him all the best,” said Roger Newport, Chairman of the AISI Board of Directors of AK Steel, based in Westchester, Ohio, and added "A search committee has been appointed, and we have retained Korn Ferry to assist the committee in finding a permanent successor."
Scott DeFife, chairman of the Glass Packaging Association, will serve as the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Glass Recycling Foundation.
Scott DeFife, Chairman of the Glass Packaging Institute (GPI), based in Arlington, Virginia, has been appointed as the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Glass Recycling Foundation (GRF). Jennifer Cumbee of the Irish-based Ardagh Group has also been appointed as the newest member of the GRF board of directors.
DeFife succeeds Lynn Bragg as Chairman of the Board of Directors, and joins Ron Holmes of London-based Diageo and Laura Hennemann of Houston Strategic Materials as officers of the GRF Executive Committee, as GRF reports in a press release regarding leadership appointments.
"I am honored to be chairman of the GRF Executive Committee," DeFife said. "I thank Lynn Bragg for her time and talent for contributing to the board of directors, and for her leadership over the years. I look forward to continuing her work and advancing GRF's mission to promote and protect glass recycling in the United States. GPI and GRF have worked closely together to resolve Gap in the glass recycling supply chain, and increase glass recycling through education and industry cooperation. I am eager to continue to develop on the basis of this important work."
“First of all, I want to thank Lynn Bragg for all the work he has done in leading GRF and developing the foundation to where it is today,” added Holmes, Treasurer of the GRF Executive Committee. "I am very pleased to have Scott take up the role of president. With his background and expertise, he will be able to continue to develop GRF and its mission to have a positive impact on glass recycling across the United States."
GRF is a 501c3 non-profit organization based in Arlington, Virginia. It was established in April 2019 to provide and raise funds for localized and targeted assistance, demonstration and pilot projects that address gaps in the glass recycling supply chain in the United States . According to GRF, DeFife served as the chairman of the board of directors when the organization received the first donation of $50,000 from the foundation. According to GRF, the Owens-Illinois (OI) Charitable Foundation and Diageo North America each donated US$25,000 to support GRF through pilot projects.
Mack's Twin City Recycling in Urbana, Illinois maintains close contact with its customers and communities, and finds unique ways to give back to local causes.
When news broke that 10-year-old Decari Roberts, of Champaign, Illinois, was shot and was hospitalized, many people in the community united to provide donations and support for the boy and his family-including Mike's Urbana Twin Cities Recycle Bin, Illinois.
According to a Champagne report in the Press Release, Decari was “shot twice with two fatal gunshot wounds” at his home on December 2, 2019, and was “sent to a local hospital for surgery”. "
Investigators told the Press Bulletin that they believed that Decari was not the target.
Corey Mathis, Operations Manager of Mack's Twin City Recycling, heard about this and said that he decided to help Decari and the Roberts family through Mack's Twin City Recycling's Recycling for a Cause donation program. The company launched its donation program more than a year ago, and selects a local charity to donate each month. Through the donation program, customers can choose to donate the money they could have obtained for scrap metal to the cause, and then Mack's Twin City Recycling will match the donation.
Although the company usually chooses local non-profit organizations to donate, Mathis said that after Mike heard about the incident in the local news, he "relaxed the rules" to help Decari and the Roberts family. In early December 2019, Mathis posted on the company's social media page to encourage his followers to consider donating scrap metal in memory of Decari and his family. It was also promoted on the radio.
He said: "My phone keeps ringing news and questions about it." "We have a lot of new customers dedicated to this [cause] to contribute. Some people just gave them invalid tickets, but others just gave With cash, they know we can give the money to our family."
In most months, Mack's Twin City Recycling receives approximately $150 in recycling programs from customers. Mattis said the company received twice as much money as Decari. He estimated that about 90 customers made donations in December 2019. At the end of the month, Mack's Twin City Recycling donated approximately US$1,200 to help Decari. After he was discharged from the hospital at the end of December, the company also invited Decari and his mother to visit the yard.
Mathis added: “They are very grateful, not only us, but all the donations they received from the people in the town shocked them.”
The history of community connections
Connecting with the community is an important aspect of Mack's Twin City Recycling business, which is part of the reason why the company launched the Recycling for a Cause charity.
"We have always put the community first," Mattis said. "About a year ago, we discussed,'How can we do more?' Because we really value our community. When you have the same customers visiting every few days, you build a lot Friendship. This is a close connection.
"We help [charities] because we see the benefits of our community," he added. "I know a lot of people say that helping this is a good advertisement. But this is not the real reason we started the program. We are sincerely invested in it, trying to benefit our community, just because we have been a local company for a long time. We want to see the people who support us do well. We seize every opportunity to help our local charities and families."
Although the monthly donation plan is relatively new, Mack's has been in close contact with people in Urbana since the company was founded in 1950. Mathis's family started as an auto parts company and eventually added a scrap metal recycling plant.
Mattis said that his great-grandfather mainly relied on word of mouth to develop his business, and both his grandfather and father continued to run the business in a similar way.
Even today, Mattis says that at least half of the company's customers are regular visitors. "I want to say that maybe half of the people who came in, we know their names, our staff knows what their trucks look like, and we wrote their names on their tickets before they came in."
Mack's Twin City Recycling mainly collects steel, iron, tin, copper, brass, aluminum and stainless steel. Mattis said that the company operates some electronic products. It also collects cardboard; however, Mathis stated that Mike temporarily stopped collecting cardboard after a fire broke out in the fall of 2019. He added that the company plans to start recycling cardboard again in a new facility on site sometime this year.
"The lithium-ion battery on one of our shelves exploded and caught fire overnight. It happened to be in the building where we handled cardboard," he said. "We haven't fully figured out how it happened, but it's on the camera."
Whenever there was a fire at Mack's or a similar incident that might attract the attention of community members, Mathis said he would usually contact the local media to share the company's views. He added that he and others in the company have participated in the local community Facebook page to assess whether community members care about things in the yard or what is happening in the town. If anything discussed on the forum is related to Mack's two-city recycling, he sometimes publishes the company's views on this page.
"We want to make sure everything goes well for our customers," Mathis said. "It also gave us some insight into the discussion in the community. The page provides us with an opportunity to issue an official notice. We can say,'Hey, we see this is a hot topic, and this is what we are doing', We can quickly release information to the community".
Communicate face-to-face with local news media
In addition to paying close attention to the Facebook group of the local community, Mathis said that Mack's Twin City Recycling will also regularly contact the local media to maintain a positive image in the community. He said that in the past 20 years, Mack's has often produced commercials for TV and radio to share on the local news media.
Mathis recalled seeing his father Ken Mathis making a TV commercial for the yard when he was a child. "I thought it was really cool at the time."
He said that the company will still contact local radio stations several times a month to place advertisements about scrap yards. Mathis added that the goal of radio and television advertising is to direct people to the company's website and yard.
"We have worked with the local news station for a long time here," he said. "As far as the radio is concerned, we have been working with an AM radio station for a long time. It is worth spending time with them. Even if you are not advertising on the radio, it is worth listening to their opinions and seeing how they can help you. And build relationships with these people for many years."
The US-based packaging company regards the recyclability of aluminum as a key factor.
Ball Corp., headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, said that all of its 23 European, Middle East, and African (EMEA) beverage can plants have obtained Aluminum Management Initiative (ASI) certification. The company described the region-wide certification as "an important sustainability milestone for the company."
"We are very proud to be the first aluminum beverage can manufacturer to receive ASI certification," said Ron Lewis, President of Ball Beverage Packaging in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. "With its unlimited recyclability, aluminum cans are the fastest-growing type of beverage packaging in Europe. This certification, combined with our renewable energy investment, proves Bauer's commitment to a low-carbon, sustainable economy."
Kathleen Pitre, Chief Commercial and Sustainability Officer of Ball Corp, said: "We are responding to greater demand from consumers in Europe and around the world for truly sustainable and infinitely recyclable packaging solutions. We are working with our beverage customers to help them deliver Commitment to continuous development, including responsible sourcing practices."
Ball Corp. stated that the certification is accompanied by its recent commitment to "significantly reduce carbon emissions" by providing renewable energy for all of its operations in the European Union, Serbia and the United Kingdom. Ball previously announced that by 2021, all of its North American operations will use 100% renewable energy.
ASI, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, describes itself as a multi-stakeholder initiative that aims to provide assurance for the responsible production, procurement and management of aluminum throughout the supply chain
Dr. Fiona Solomon, Chief Executive Officer of ASI, said: "We are very pleased to grant ASI certification to Ball Corp., which is the world's largest aluminum can manufacturer and the first company in the industry to achieve this goal." Supply chain certification programs like ASI are becoming more and more important for customers and stakeholders, who seek to ensure that the company’s sustainability practices are authentic."
Command-SST uses a large number of new technologies designed to improve safety, operating comfort, productivity, and maintenance simplicity.
Heil, Chattanooga, Tennessee, part of Environmental Solutions Group (ESG) and Dover, has announced the launch of the Command-SST automatic side loader (ASL). Command-SST uses a large number of new technologies designed to improve safety, operating comfort, productivity, and maintenance simplicity.
According to Heil, all these improvements are the result of customer-oriented field research and backed by actual tests to provide easy-to-operate products, especially for operators who are not familiar with automated collection. Specifically, the new ASL includes:
"Command-SST is the culmination of nearly a decade of design and innovation, based on customer feedback on unmet needs. Our engineers use this data to create products that truly meet customer performance expectations," said Pat Caroll, President of the Environmental Solutions Group.
The Command-SST is mounted on the Heil Durapack fuselage and is 2,000 pounds lighter than other side loaders, which equates to better payload and higher productivity. With hydraulic controls inspired by Odyssey, fleet owners can expect fuel savings comparable to front loaders. After installing the arm on the body, Command-SST also frees up frame space for next-generation technologies that require additional chassis space.