Recycling Market Development

[From the Source - Winter 1997]

An innovative way of providing technical assistance to industries and businesses in Georgia involves networks. Industries in the same geographic area can work together to share information about local recycling and waste exchange. Similar types of industries can also work together since they often have the same types of waste. The Georgia Environmental Partnership (GEP), made up of P²AD, Georgia Tech's Economic Development Institute and the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at the University of Georgia, is working with new and existing regional networks across the state. The GEP mission is to provide environmental solutions for Georgia businesses through the coordination of technical assistance between these three partners. Existing businesses and industries are meeting to provide each other with opportunities for waste exchange and recycling, identifying gaps in local recycling markets, and general technology transfer at the local level.

Two electronics manufacturers formed their own network in metro Atlanta to work together to recycle Styrofoam. This partnership occurred because NEC Technologies in McDonough faced the problem of finding a vendor to consistently recycle their large amount of expanded polystyrene foam (EPS). They worked with a local competitor, Mitsubishi in Braselton, to provide enough volume for a Memphis-based recycler to locate a facility in the Atlanta area to recycle EPS for both companies. NEC and Mitsubishi both relied on another competitor, Sharp Electronics in Memphis, because they had used the same Memphis vendor to recycle EPS. Sharp agreed to let them tour their facility and shared their experiences so that the recycling process would run well for the Atlanta electronics manufacturers.

Today, the recycling process is a success for the two Atlanta area competitors. As a result of these efforts, the two companies have reduced their landfill volume, their costs, and established a workable partnership.