The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) annual convention and exposition was held last month in Nashville, Tenn., at the Music City Center, where more than 70 speakers shared their knowledge and expertise on various industry subjects. Among the speakers was HOBI’s president and co-founder, Craig Boswell, who spoke on two panels discussing the rapid growth of battery technology and how measuring quality, safety, and environmental performance goes beyond meeting a standards requirement.
ISRI’s 2023 convention was the group’s largest-ever annual gathering with more than 6,600 attendees.
One topic heavily discussed was “The Current State of Recycling in China,” held on April 19, which took a closer look at the evolution of nonferrous metals recycling in recent years. The new recycled metals standards in China were also discussed, as well as the impacts that processors have felt worldwide. The new standards were noted by Robin Cai, managing director of Asia for U.S.-based Alter Metal Recycling, “Our industry has experienced some unprecedented difficulties. The brand new standards established are far harder to reach than the ISRI specifications.”
Included on the nonferrous metals panel was Zhang Lin, deputy secretary general for the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association Recycling Metal Branch. Lin and Cai discussed the new standards at length.
The Federal Maritime Commission session took place April 18, where the commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission, Carl Bentzel, discussed the struggles and uncertainty faced by material shippers during the height of the pandemic. According to Bentzel, a container ship moving between Asia and the U.S. typically moves around eight shipments per year. However, in late 2020 and into 2021, vessels only moved one to two shipments over a one-year period due to delays, shortages and other issues.
The Federal Maritime Commission was then tasked with investigating factors that led to bottlenecks and backups, which led to a series of meetings with stakeholders throughout the global shipping chain in 2022.
Bentzel’s report on the investigation calls for a comprehensive Maritime Data Transportation System to bring more real-time information on the status of vessels in transit and will be available for public comment in the future.
The ISRI convention takes place annually, where ITAD enterprises like HOBI discuss topics ranging from industry compliance to battery safety.
For more information about HOBI’s ITAD services, call 817-814-2620 or contact HOBI at sales@hobi.com.