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February 2007

NERC’s Advisory Members

Distinguished Benefactors

Consumer Technology Association (CTA)

Benefactors

Coca-Cola

Samsung

Waste Management

Sustaining Members

  • Advanced Drainage Systems

  • American Beverage Association

  • Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR)

  • Blount Fine Foods

  • BlueTriton Brands

  • Bulk Handling Systems

  • Casella Resource Solutions

  • CLYNK

  • Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast, Inc.

  • Council of State Governments/Eastern Regional Conference

  • Eco-Products

  • Fire Rover, LLC

  • GDB International

  • Glass Packaging Institute

  • Henkel

  • Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI)

  • International Bottled Water Association

  • Keep America Beautiful

  • Keurig Dr. Pepper

  • MRM

  • Nestle USA

  • NEWMOA

  • PaintCare

  • Plastics Industry Association

  • Re-TRAC

  • Recycling Partnership

  • Republic Services

  • Reverse Logistics Group

  • Revolution

  • Serlin Haley

  • Sims Municipal Recycling

  • Sonoco

  • Strategic Materials

  • Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC)

  • TOMRA

  • US Composting Council (USCC)

A list of all the logos of our Sustaining Members can be found under Advisory Members

MEMBERSHIP

New Supporting Member

  • Corcoran Environmental Services, Inc.

Renewing Supporting Member

  • New York State Legislative Commission on Solid Waste
  • Association of New Jersey Recyclers

NERC NEWS

STATE UPDATES

CONNECTICUT

  • Breaking the Throw-Away Cycle
  • Connecticut Company Working to “Insure” A Better Environment
  • Finding a Cure for Hospital Waste
  • CT to Encourage Responsible Growth
  • Organic Land Care Project

MAINE

  • New Blood in Recycling Program
  • Recycling Campaign Ads to be Test-marketed
  • Sustainable Living Guide Released

MASSACHUSETTS

  • MassDEP Announces $175,000 in Grant Awards
  • WasteWise Waste Reduction Leadership Award to Convention Center

RHODE ISLAND

  • R.I. Resource Recovery Awards 3 Municipal Grants

VERMONT

  • Waste Prevention Forum
  • The First Annual Vermont Organics Recycling Summit, March 29

NEWS FROM ADVISORY MEMBERS


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NERC's mission is to advance an environmentally sustainable economy by promoting source and toxicity reduction, recycling, and the purchasing of environmentally preferable products and services.


TOPICS 
Line People

MEMBERSHIP

We are very pleased to share with you the following:

New Supporting Member

  • Corcoran Environmental Services, Inc.

Renewing Supporting Member

Thank you one and all!

It is through the active participation and support of its Advisory Members that NERC is able to provide the strength of multi-stakeholder involvement and problem solving.

To see a listing of Advisory Members and the benefits of membership, visit the NERC Advisory Membership web page

It is the broad spectrum of interests represented by NERC’s Advisory Members and Board Members and their willingness to participate that significantly contributes to the unique and important role that NERC plays in recycling in the region.

NERC NEWS

Don’t Forget to Register for NERC’s Spring Conference
The Conference will be held on March 13 – 14, 2007 at the Hotel Northampton in Northampton, Massachusetts.   This two-day Conference will include presentations by industry experts and in-depth discussions on the following topics:
  • Sustainability of Plastics Recycling
  • Bio-plastics Packaging – What works and what doesn’t?
  • Zero Plastics Packaging Waste – Is It Possible?
  • Latest Innovations in Agricultural Film and Marine Shrink Wrap Recycling
  • Discussion with Marine Shrink Wrap Manufacturers and Recycling Manufacturers on Issues Effecting Recycling

The preliminary agenda is on NERC's website. The Conference registration is also now available.  Also, don’t forget to reserve your room at the Hotel Northampton by February 12 to get the reduced Conference rate.
For more information, contact Mary Ann Remolador, NERC’s Conference Organizer.

Rhode Island Board Member Leaves for New Position
John Trevor, who has served as NERC’s President and Vice President of the Board during his tenure as the Rhode Island representative to NERC, has left his position with the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation for new career challenges.   John has been a valuable member of NERC’s Board, and a true friend to the organization.  We wish him all the best in his new career.

NERC Works on New Project for Municipalities & Businesses
NERC staff have begun working on the USDA-funded project — Increasing Reuse and Recycling by Municipalities and Businesses in Rural Communities.  This project includes nine of NERC’s states — Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.  Workshops, direct technical assistance, and reuse and recycling resource kits will be provided to businesses and municipalities in select communities within these states to assist them with increasing their reuse and recycling.

For more information, contact Mary Ann Remolador, Project Lead.

STATE UPDATES

CONNECTICUT

Breaking the Throw-Away Cycle
Buying the latest, the newest, and getting rid of the “old”...whether it’s cars, electronic devices, or dinner plates, the U.S. leads the world in consumption of goods as well as their disposal. This urge to buy, discard and buy again has been part of our culture for a long time.  This throwaway mentality results in a rapidly growing stream of trash (“solid waste”) that needs to be managed.  In Connecticut alone, we generated over 3.8 million tons of solid waste in 2005.

So how do we break this cycle?  The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CT DEP) recently completed a 20-year statewide plan that will serve as a basis for planning and decision-making for a wide range of solid wastes.  This plan sets out a long-range vision for solid waste management that includes shifting from a throwaway society towards a system that reduces the generation and toxicity of trash and treats wastes as valuable raw materials and energy resources, rather than useless garbage or trash. “We all share responsibility for the trash we make...so we all need to be part of the solution”, says CT DEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy, “The plan calls for dramatically expanding recycling and composting programs in the state, but it also includes working with product manufacturers to design products that are reusable, recyclable or compostable and encouraging individuals and organizations to make wise purchasing decisions.”

“Deliberate obsolescence in all its forms -- technological, psychological, or planned – is uniquely an American invention.  Not only did we invent disposable products, ranging from diapers to cameras to contact lenses, but we invented the very concept of disposability itself.” Excerpt from Giles Slade’s book, Made to Break.

Connecticut Company Working to “Insure” A Better Environment
St. Paul Travelers, 85th of the Fortune 500 and one of the nation’s major insurance companies, is also one of Hartford’s rising stars, an ENERGY STAR that is!  But, St. Paul Travelers doesn’t stop there.  The company is committed to improving the environment of the communities in which it does business, and has voluntarily taken steps to make changes within the company and with its customers, like providing incentives to use mass transit and buy hybrid cars, recycling, cutting fossil fuel use and conserving energy.

In these days of rising energy costs, businesses cannot overlook opportunities to cut energy use and save money.  St. Paul Travelers found that energy efficiency could have a big impact on their bottom line, as well as benefit the state’s environment.  The company utilized the U.S. EPA’s energy benchmarking tools to evaluate the energy performance of their Hartford, Connecticut and Saint Paul, Minnesota campuses.  The company invested in energy upgrades, including night setback controls to reduce building temperatures, variable frequency drives on motors, and sensors and controls to regulate ventilation and airflow.  These improvements paid off in more ways than one.  Not only does the Hartford facility now use almost one-third less energy compared with similar buildings, but St. Paul Travelers also saves $3 million dollars each year.  It is estimated that the Hartford building avoided more that 20 million pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually – the equivalent of taking more than 2,100 cars off the road for one year.  The company has earned ENERGY STAR recognition and a plaque for their Hartford campus and corporate headquarters in Saint Paul.

Since protecting the environment and conserving natural resources are important principles at St. Paul Travelers, they have also become one of the first insurance companies to join the Climate Leaders program.  This voluntary program run by the federal EPA asks participants to set goals and strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.  The company is in the process of determining a reduction goal and actions that will be taken to achieve the goal.  While this is a considerable undertaking, St. Paul Travelers is not a newcomer to taking steps to reduce its environmental “footprint”.  Some of the sustainable business practices that are already in place in Hartford, along with energy conservation and efficiency, include reducing solid waste through an active recycling program, reducing air emissions through a shared heating and cooling systems, and reducing gasoline use by incorporating hybrid vehicles in their business fleet.  They are developing new initiatives as well, that will include environmental criteria for their corporate vendors.

Over 6,000 employees work at the Hartford office, and the company realizes commuting to work adds to traffic congestion, which in turn, contributes to air pollution.   Alternatives to driving alone, including using mass transit and bicycling, are actively supported.  Bus passes, which are sold onsite, are subsidized and payroll deducted on a pre-tax basis.  This incentive is very successful, with more than 1,500 bus passes sold each month.  Biking is also promoted in a number of ways, including the availability of bike racks and showers, and sponsoring monthly Bike-to-Work breakfast events.  Here too, St. Paul Travelers has met with success, as consistently having the highest number of corporate cyclists participating at the downtown Hartford breakfast events.  For vanpools, the company provides free garage parking.

St. Paul Travelers also promotes environmental awareness and provides incentives to their customers in unique ways.  To encourage drivers to choose hybrid vehicles, the company began offering a 10% discount on their auto insurance to hybrid car owners in Connecticut and several other states. Hybrid cars burn less gasoline per mile, so they release less pollution and fewer greenhouse gases.  Hybridtravelers.com, a web site especially for hybrid drivers, was created.

The company also participated in EPA’s Change A Light, Change the World campaign, which encourages citizens to replace a conventional light bulb or fixture in their home with a compact fluorescent bulb.  Compared with incandescent bulbs, compact fluorescents last 10 times longer, use one-third less energy, and save money - more than $30 in utility costs - over the lifetime of one bulb. St. Paul Travelers set a goal to have 1,000 of their employees pledging to replace at least one light at home or work.

The company continues to look for additional opportunities that benefit the environment.  Through their commitment and innovative actions, St. Paul Travelers is ensuring their place as an environmental leader in the Hartford community, and is playing an active role in addressing Connecticut’s clean air and climate change issues.  

Finding a Cure for Hospital Waste
Hospitals create a lot of waste in helping us get and stay well:  From managing the day to day operations of the facility and patient care, hospitals create enormous amounts of trash and sometimes surplus large quantities of furniture and equipment.   Trash disposal is expensive and damaging to the environment, but sometimes it’s just plain wasteful.  Quality materials and unused surgical supplies destined for the dumpster are desperately needed in the US and around the world.  So how can a hospital save money, protect the environment and benefit others? Here are two organizations that can help.

When Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC) in Hartford had a mix of materials from furniture to toys that needed a home, they turned to the Institution Recycling Network (IRN) for help. The IRN is a New Hampshire-based cooperative of over 125 private schools, colleges and hospitals located throughout New England. Each institution pays a membership fee, plus a small commission on each transaction. IRN provides a single point of contact for managing all the logistics of recycling or reuse of more than 75 types of recyclable materials - from construction and demolition debris to surplus furniture - saving those institutions time and money.

CCMC first learned of IRN at a Connecticut Hospital Environmental Roundtable (CHER) workshop on Recycling Construction and Demolition Waste in March 2006. Directly after the meeting, IRN’s Stacey Clark went to an off-site location in Hartford where the materials were being stored and the process began.  Less than two months later, IRN arranged for almost 20 tons of furniture and equipment to be shipped to Haiti for distribution by Food For The Poor, (a non-profit interdenominational Christian relief organization) to a local clinic. CCMC saved about 30% by recycling the materials through IRN over what it would have cost the hospital to dispose them and they have the satisfaction of knowing that they are being put to good use.  More recently, IRN worked with CCMC again to remove high-end x-ray equipment; the equipment was then donated to Universal Heart Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Note:  Not all of the materials IRN handles go to non-profits; see their website for more details.)

Operating rooms discard tons of unused surgical supplies because if they were prepared for a patient, but not used during the procedure, they cannot be used on another patient, even if the items are decontaminated. What a waste!  But there’s a “remedy”.   REMEDY is a national organization that helps hospitals recover open, but unused surgical supplies, such as gloves, sutures, gauze and catheters for donation to international medical facilities where the need is great.  Dr. William Rosenblatt of Yale University School of Medicine founded REMEDY after working in clinics in Peru and seeing first-hand the lack of basic medical supplies and the constant reuse of things like surgical gloves in the operating room. The program at Yale-New Haven Hospital alone has donated on average over 2.5 ton of supplies per year since 1991.  REMEDY now has over 500 participating medical facilities, 9 of which are in CT.   Although REMEDY does not distribute the supplies, they maintain a database of almost 1000 non-profit organizations that do.  They have also developed education for hospital staff and a protocol for preparing the shipment.  Since some hospitals already send out other types of surgical supplies for reprocessing, the collection for REMEDY can be integrated into the operating room workflow.

There are many ways other hospitals can cut waste and reduce their impact on the environment.  But what could be more gratifying than to put quality materials and health-saving supplies that would have been trash into the hands of people who need them the most?

CT to Encourage Responsible Growth
In October of 2006 Governor Rell issued Executive Order 15, aimed at halting sprawl in Connecticut as well as cutting energy waste and greenhouse gas emissions. Under the Order, an Office of Responsible Growth will be created as well as an inter-agency Steering Council.  Regional roundtables will provide a mechanism for on-going municipal input.  The Council will look at land use, housing and transportation policies and projects with the goal of promoting transit-oriented development that provides commuters with bus or rail alternatives and encourages walkability of Connecticut’s communities. Criteria will be established so that state funds are targeted for uses that are consistent with responsible growth; economic incentives will also be targeted to support development in designated Responsible Growth areas.  A new webpage, “Green and Growing” will be created to highlight best practices and develop a virtual toolbox to promote responsible development community by community.

Organic Land Care Project
The Organic Land Care DVD produced by CT DEP was a hit! Representatives from 70 towns and cities throughout the state attended showings of the DVD or requested a copy.  As a follow-up, DEP will be working with a municipality on a pilot project in 2007 to compare using organic land care practices with conventional fertilizers and pesticides on a municipal recreation field.  

MAINE

New Blood in Recycling Program
The State Planning Office’s (SPO’s) Waste Management and Recycling Program welcomes Jetta Antonakos to its team. Jetta’s prior experience as a recycling project manager and public education specialist for the City of Seattle will be put to the test in her new role. As a Planner in this active program, she will work to re-energize recycling activities in Maine. Through a concentrated outreach campaign, she will be meeting with representatives across the state to help them promote recycling. Jetta will also lead the effort to establish a new recycling education campaign (see related highlight below). As a returning Maine native, Jetta is excited about the chance to help strengthen the recycling ethic in the state of Maine.

Recycling Campaign Ads to be Test-marketed
Recently, a steering committee representing municipalities and regions with strong recycling rates viewed four design options for a statewide promotional campaign aimed at increasing recycling. The promotional plan incorporates social-based marketing strategies and is designed to appeal to a broad audience, while targeting young people, ages 18 - 29 (the demographic that the research shows is least likely to recycle). Dwell Creative, the ad consultant, will field-test the top two designs selected by the steering committee through a series of focus groups to be held in southern and central Maine.

Sustainable Living Guide Released
A new guide and coupon book designed to promote sustainable, healthy lifestyles for Mainers was released in December. Produced by SunriseGuide, LLC brings together a compilation of information and resources about farmers’ markets, energy conservation, recycling and waste reduction, public transportation, greener alternatives for home and garden care, and more. Containing $4,500 in coupons, the book costs $20. The State Planning Office helped sponsor the book and provided information about Maine’s recycling programs for it as well. 

MASSACHUSETTS

MassDEP Announces $175,000 in Grant Awards to Assist Statewide Recycling Industries
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) Acting Commissioner Arleen O'Donnell announced grant awards totaling $175,000 to six companies to increase the amount of materials they recycle under the Recycling Industries Reimbursement Credit (RIRC) grant program.

These six grants will enable recycling companies to increase their recycling of difficult-to-recycle materials that would otherwise be disposed of in landfills or incinerators.

"Expanding the capacity of recycling companies to use recyclable materials matters to the Massachusetts economy and the environment," O'Donnell said. "The recycling efforts of small companies like these are critical in order to reach our ambitious waste reduction goals."

As a condition of receiving funding, grant recipients this year will provide $3.3 million in matching funds and commit to meeting a total tonnage reduction goal of 15,000 tons per year for a two-year period.

Receiving the fiscal year 2007 RIRC Grant Awards are:
  • Agresource of Amesbury, which will conduct testing of food waste and compost made from food waste to help assure quality and produce a higher value product, diverting up to 7,308 tons of food waste per year. The grant award is $5,000, with matching funds totaling another $5,000.
  • EL Harvey & Sons of Westborough, which will purchase a conveyor system to sort an additional 307 tons per year of clean wood from construction and demolition debris to make mulch. Grant award is $45,000, with matching funds totaling $2 million.
  • Environmental Recovery & Consolidation Services of North Reading, which will purchase a baler and conveyor system to process an additional 2,520 tons per year of used carpet to be sorted and sold to plastics manufacturers. Grant award is $45,000, with matching funds totaling $342,000.
  • FCR of Boston, which will purchase an optical scanner used for sorting an additional 471 tons per year of mixed plastics from curbside residential recycling programs. Grant award is $13,000, with matching funds totaling $342,000.
  • Lorusso Materials Corporation of Plainville, which will purchase washing equipment to process an additional 3,000 tons per year of street sweepings to be used as traction products on roadways. Grant award is $32,000, with matching funds totaling $70,000.
  • ProPel Plastech of South Deerfield, which will purchase a grinder to process an additional 2,000 tons per year of mixed plastics from manufacturers into feedstocks used to make new plastic products. Grant award is $35,000, with matching funds totaling $800,000.

Since its inception in 1999, RIRC has provided 57 grants for a total of $2.25 million and leveraged matching funds of $8.4 million.

MassDEP is responsible for ensuring clean air and water, safe management of solid and hazardous wastes, timely cleanup of hazardous waste sites and spills, and the preservation of wetlands and coastal resources.

Mass DEP presents WasteWise Waste Reduction Leadership Award to local Convention Center
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority (MCCA), a WasteWise Waste Reduction Leadership Award in recognition of their food-waste composting initiative that was seamlessly integrated into the day-to-day operations at the Boston Convention and Exposition Center (BCEC).  The award was presented to the MCCA during the EPA Brownfields 2006 conference that was held at the BCEC on November 13 - 15, 2006. 

The BCEC is the first convention center to join the WasteWise program nationally and the first in the area to implement food-waste diversion into existing efforts at waste reduction and recycling. Over the past few years, the BCEC has consistently worked with individual trade shows in order to minimize wastes that are commonly generated and at the same time maximize recycling. The many materials that are routinely collected for recycling include: glass, aluminum, plastic, paper, cardboard, pallets, grease and organics.

Now, in addition, any food scraps generated in the preparation of meals at BCEC are diverted from the waste stream by the kitchen staff and hauled to local farms for composting. Also, any excess prepared food that cannot be donated to charitable organizations is relegated to the composting program rather than tossed in the trash. These simple changes have brought positive returns. For example, during one four-day conference last spring, the BCEC diverted over 20 tons of food waste.
 
The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority owns and oversees the operations of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in Boston, the MassMutual Center in Springfield, and the Boston Common Parking Garage. The MCCA plans to use lessons learned at the BCEC to further expand their recycling and food waste programs at all their facilities.

The Massachusetts WasteWise Awards, sponsored by MassDEP and EPA, are given to companies that demonstrate recycling leadership, sustainability and innovation. The two agencies jointly support the Massachusetts WasteWise Program, which provides waste reduction assistance to businesses and organizations. Participation is voluntary.

RHODE ISLAND

R.I. Resource Recovery Awards 3 Municipal Grants
Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC) recently awarded three grants to the towns of Middletown, Newport, and North Providence. The grants support the recycling efforts of each municipality.

Middletown
A $34,000 grant awarded to the town of Middletown will provide funding to implement a PAYT program.  DSM Environmental Services, Inc. was hired to assist the town with the curbside collection program for residential waste and recyclables. 

Due in part to the impending loss of the town’s transfer station, the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission (AIPC) commissioned a study by DSM Environmental Services to study options and alternatives for solid waste disposal in Middletown.  The study showed the viability for a PAYT program and, as a result, the Middletown Town Council has agreed to move forward and employ the program.  

Newport
          The City of Newport has been awarded a $19,500 grant to be used for the printing and distribution of a recycling calendar for all Newport residents.  The Clean City Program will use the calendars to educate residents abut the city’s recycling program and promote ways to keep recyclable materials out of the Central Landfill.  As such, they will promote the curbside collection programs for yard waste, electronics, textiles, and used motor oil.  Last fiscal year, the City of Newport achieved a 22% recycling rate. 

North Providence
          The Town of North Providence, Office of the Mayor, was awarded a $35,000 grant from Resource Recovery to fund the position of a full-time Recycling Coordinator for the town.  The aim is to decrease solid waste tonnage while increasing the amount of recyclables brought to the Materials Recycling Facility.  The goal is to achieve the mandatory recycling rate of 20%, as set by RIRRC. 

VERMONT

Waste Prevention Forum
On February 15, the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation is hosting a forum: Beyond Disposal and Recycling – Forum on Preventing Waste in Montpelier, VermontThe Forum is the kick-off event forthe Department’s Waste Prevention Stakeholder Planning Process.  It will help set the direction for this effort and be used to develop an effective and measurable statewide waste prevention strategy.

The First Annual Vermont Organics Recycling Summit, March 29
Come to the First Annual Vermont Organics Recycling Summit to hear the progress that Vermont is making in keeping valuable organics out of the landfill through food 'waste' diversion to food rescue organizations and to composting.  A keynote address by Jean Bonhotal, Senior Extension Associate, Cornell Waste Management Institute, will give you the background of why it is important to recycle organics.  A panel of experts will then present the focus of the Summit: food rescue (e.g., donation to the Vermont Food Bank and food shelves), food scrap collection methods for grocery stores, restaurants, and institutions, hauling needs, and the needs of farm and commercial composters. 

It is not all good news, and that is why we really need you to help us unearth what needs to be done to speed up progress.  Regional round tables in the afternoon will be focused on brainstorming about action steps that can be done locally, regionally, and by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, legislature, or governor. 

In addition to this panel of Vermont experts, there will be booths where you can pick up more detailed information on these and other topics.   

The summit will be held in Montpelier, Vermont at Vermont College, on March 29, 2007, 8:00 - 4:15 p. m.  Continental breakfast and lunch prepared by the Northeast Culinary Institute is included in the low registration fee of $15 to $35. 

NEWS FROM ADVISORY MEMBERS

Steel Industry Reaches New Milestone in Energy Efficiency — Once Again
The Steel Recycling Institute, a business unit of the American Iron and Steel Institute, reported recently that for the second consecutive year, the United States steel industry has achieved a new milestone in energy efficiency by reducing its energy intensity per ton of steel shipped by approximately 13.2 percent since 2002 (based on latest available data compiled through 2004), thus expanding its reduction in energy intensity to 28 percent since 1990.  See slide below.

 

Because of the close relationship between energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, the industry's aggregate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per ton of steel shipped were reduced by 17 percent. Compared to the Kyoto Protocol's call for an average 7 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2012, this means the American steel industry has already surpassed the Kyoto target by more than 240 percent.

"This improvement in energy efficiency is evidence of the steel industry's longstanding commitment to sustainability," Steve Rowlan, chairman, AISI Committee on Environment, general manager, environmental affairs, Nucor Corporation, said. "As part of our industry's Climate VISION agreement with the Department of Energy, we set a goal to improve energy intensity per ton of steel shipped by 10 percent by 2012 compared to the 2002 baseline. The 2004 data show we have surpassed that target and are breaking new ground in terms of our performance."

The American steel industry has been a leader in reducing energy intensity in the steel manufacturing process and correspondingly reducing greenhouse gas emissions through recycling and through a combination of restructuring, technological advancements and product and process improvements. Also contributing to increased energy efficiency have been greater capacity utilization levels, as well as a higher percentage of total steel production by electric arc furnace steelmakers (EAF).

"Exemplifying our commitment to a sustainable future is the fact that since 1975, the industry has invested over $60 billion in new technologies to improve energy efficiency and productivity," Rowlan noted. "The steel industry has also played a leading role in the EPA Sector Strategies Initiative, which complements our continuous environmental improvement efforts. We are willing, in this regard, to be transparent on our efforts, failures and accomplishments. The EPA Performance Report provides a publicly-available report card on our ongoing efforts."