ERI Celebrates One Year at New Badin Business Park Facility

Electronic Recyclers International (ERI), the nation’s largest recycler of electronic waste, is celebrating the first anniversary of operating at its new facility at Badin Business Park this week.

“Badin has proven to be an ideal location for our recycling operations in the Southeast,” said John Shegerian, ERI Chairman and CEO. “We are establishing a state-of-the-art facility here that will allow us to continue expanding our operations as the market for electronics waste grows.”

Since moving into the new, larger facility in May 2012, ERI has increased its recycling volume and grown its workforce. The company currently operates two shifts and employs more than 65 people.

Alcoa made a strategic investment in ERI and helped convince the company to open its first Southeast location in North Carolina in July 2011 at the Badin Business Park location. ERI initially operated in a temporary facility at the site, while ERI and Alcoa invested $10 million to renovate a 165,000-square foot facility to accommodate ERI's long-term needs.

“When we set out to develop the Badin Business Park, we couldn’t have asked for a better partner than ERI. They are committed to this community and play a vital role in the recycling industry,” said Kevin Anton, Alcoa’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “The Badin Business Park holds tremendous potential and we look forward to bringing more companies like ERI here.” 

ERI works with retailers, manufacturers, Fortune 500 companies, government entities,  educational institutions and charitable organizations to recycle electronic waste, including laptop computers, cell phones, televisions, printers and other electronics. Some of its notable customers include Best Buy, Samsung, the Salvation Army and the U.S. Government.

About Electronic Recyclers International Inc: Electronic Recyclers International (ERI), the nation’s largest privately held recycler of electronic waste, is R2 and e-Stewards certified to de-manufacture and recycle every type of electronic waste in an environmentally friendly manner. ERI processes more than 200 million pounds of electronic waste annually at seven locations in seven states. For more information about e-waste recycling and ERI, call 1-800-884-8466 or visit www.electronicrecyclers.com.

About Badin Business Park: Badin Business Park, developed by Alcoa, includes 600,000 square feet of prime industrial space in Stanly County, NC. The 123-acre business park is located at the site of the former Alcoa aluminum smelting plant. Alcoa has invested more than $15 million to redevelop the former plant site into a business park for manufacturing companies. Electronic Recyclers International, the nation's largest recycler of electronic waste, is the park’s inaugural tenant.

Alcoa and Stanly County Reach Agreement on Yadkin Project Relicensing

The Agreement Is Signed

Stanly County, N.C., and Alcoa Power Generating Inc. (APGI) reached an agreement Monday night related to Alcoa’s relicensing efforts of the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project. The Stanly County Commissioners voted 3-2 to approve the agreement, which resolves all issues between the County and Alcoa and will provide significant support for infrastructure, economic development and other county needs.

“This agreement provides significant investment in economic development and ensures that Stanly County will have long-term access to clean and affordable water, which is essential to our future growth,” said Stanly County Commission Chairman Gene McIntyre. “We are ready to move forward in a positive direction with Alcoa that will benefit Stanly County residents for years to come.”

“This agreement provides a clear and collaborative path forward that will support our efforts to bring new jobs to the Badin Business Park,” said Kevin Anton, Alcoa’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “This is a positive step for both Alcoa and Stanly County, and we appreciate the support of the County Commissioners and Representative Justin Burr in making this agreement a reality.”

As part of the settlement:

Alcoa will support Stanly County’s request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision (FERC) for future water withdrawals from the Yadkin River, providing access of up to 30 million gallons of water per day from Alcoa’s reservoirs. Alcoa also agreed to provide 20 acres plus right of way for a potential water treatment plant.

Stanly County will support Alcoa’s application for a new Water Quality Certificate from the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) as well as its application for a 50 year FERC license.

The organizations will work in partnership on the recruitment of jobs and economic development to Stanly County and the Badin Business Park.

Alcoa will provide $3 million to Stanly County, $1 million of which will be solely for economic development purposes.  Further, Alcoa will provide $100,000 to Stanly County for each year that the term of the FERC license exceeds 40 years.

Signs of Progress: Alcoa, Stanly County Near Agreement

There are signs of progress in our ongoing conversations with Stanly County. On Monday, the Stanly County Commissioners reached consensus on an agreement with Alcoa and APGI that will resolve all outstanding issues surrounding our relicensing and related lawsuits and appeals. 

The Stanly County Commissioners will vote on the agreement on May 6 after it is finalized.

"Today is a great day for Stanly Co," Rep. Justin Burr tweeted on Monday. "Stanly Co & Alcoa have settled their differences and will begin working together again for our community."

"We believe this agreement is in the best interests of the citizens of Stanly County," chairman Gene McIntyre said in an interview with WSPC.

"From Alcoa's perspective, we're very pleased with the agreement we've come to today" said Kevin Anton, Alcoa's Chief Sustainability Officer. We'll continue working on that and look forward to further developing the Badin Business Park."

Read a related story in the Stanly News & Press: Stanly County, Alcoa close to deal.

Habitat for Humanity breaks ground on West Badin home

Stanly County Habitat for Humanity has begun construction on its first home in West Badin. The home, located on one two properties donated by Alcoa, will allow Habitat to fulfill another family’s dream of home ownership. 

“We are a company that believes strongly in supporting our communities,” said Kevin Anton, Alcoa’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “In Badin and around the world, Alcoans like to build things. This is a great cause that we were happy to support.”

Anton visited the Badin site last week with a team of Alcoa employees and Habitat leadership. 

“We are grateful for the partnership of Alcoa and are excited about the possibilities of helping this community grow,” said Cemita Gibbs, Executive Director of Stanly County Habitat for Humanity. “It is obvious by this donation that Alcoa cares about their community and the people.”

Alcoa employees plan to take part in building the home. 

“Our employees have already told me that they are looking forward to volunteering to help Habitat for Humanity during the construction of this home,” Nicole Wright, Alcoa Foundation Coordinator. “It’s a great way to give back to the community and we look forward to the start of the project.”

Public records provide inside look at opposition to Yadkin Project relicensing

Alcoa Power Generating Inc. has launched a website, TheYadkinFacts.com, that makes public records related to the relicensing of the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project available online. Click here to view the website. 

“We believe transparency in government is important,” said Kevin Anton, Alcoa’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “The records included on this site will help make clear the activities of those pushing for a government takeover of Alcoa’s private property and dams, activities that to date have largely been kept from public view.”   

Documents contained on the site are organized around three categories — the $5+ million in taxpayer money spent by the Stanly County Commissioners to oppose Alcoa’s license; the missed opportunity to create 450 new jobs with Alcoa’s recruitment of Clean Tech Silicon & Bar; and the tactics employed by Alcoa’s opponents. 

Some of the documents on the website show that:

• Stanly County has spent more than $5 million since 2006. More than $3 million has been paid to Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, a Charlotte law firm that has billed the county as much as $495 an hour. 
• The written agreements proposed by Alcoa and Clean Tech in December 2011 included a commitment to provide 750 jobs with an annual payroll of at least $30 million for the next 30 years. 
• The NC Water Rights Committee was a created by Stanly County. A public opinion poll and other information released under the name of the NC Water Rights Committee was actually paid for by Stanly County taxpayers. 
• A Stanly County lobbyist drafted legislation calling for a Yadkin Project Study in 2008. Alcoa’s opponents were encouraged to tell legislators “the simple bill you will be voting on just creates a study commission…," but the lobbyist had a different message for Stanly County Commissioners: “Remember that I drafted the bill and left plenty of holes wide enough to sail the recapture ship through the dams."  

This site will make available thousands of public records Alcoa received from the Stanly County Board of Commissioners, the NC Department of Commerce, and the Office of the Governor in response to public requests requests that began in 2008.  An initial set of documents is now available, and a searchable database of all public records provided to Alcoa is under development. New documents will be added frequently.

For more information, visit the website at www.theyadkinfacts.com. 

Alcoa unveils EcoClean technology at new ERI facility in Badin

The newly renovated Electronic Recyclers International (ERI) facility at the Badin Business Park is one of the first commercial buildings in the nation to feature Reynobond® with EcoClean™, an architectural panel that cleans itself and the air around it. The use of this "smog-eating" technology reflects Alcoa's commitment to redevelop the Badin site with leading environmental technology.

“Sustainability is at the core of Alcoa’s practices and product design, and we’re excited about the completion of this unique installation in the Badin community,” Alcoa Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer Kevin Anton said in a press release. “As one of the first installations of EcoClean in North America, the ERI facility in Badin represents an exciting step forward for sustainable building design, making this new electronics recycling facility even more eco-friendly.” 

ERI, the nation's largest electronics recycler, opened a regional recycling center in Badin last year that will employ up to 200 people. The company has been operating in a temporary facility since July and will move into its new facility this summer. 

“We look forward to bringing new ‘green-collar’ jobs to North Carolina as we expand our network of e-waste facilities, and are excited to further our partnership with Alcoa through the installation of this revolutionary technology at the new Badin site,” said John Shegerian, Chairman and CEO of ERI. “This environmentally advanced building will positively impact the environment, aligning with our mission to reduce waste and enhance sustainability.” 

Click here to read the entire press release.

Recycling Today highlights Alcoa - ERI partnership

The January 16 issue of Recycling Today features a discussion with Alcoa's Chief Sustainability Officer Kevin Anton about Alcoa's investment in Electronic Recyclers International (ERI) and the importance of electronics recycling.  

Here's an excerpt: 

Recycling has long been a part of Alcoa's history as well as that of the aluminum industry's in general. ... The importance of recycling to Alcoa's business has prompted the company to invest in many initiatives in the last year, including taking a stake in Fresno, Calif.-based Electronic Recycling International (ERI), upgrading its Tennessee can reclamation facility, constructing a new facility in Ohio to recycle truck wheels and constructing new recycling furnaces in Spain. 

"We are putting capital in the ground to be able to increase our usage of scrap and, at the same time, taking efforts to increase the supply side of scrap, particularly the can. It is pretty fundamental to who we are," Anton says.

Recycling Today: Alcoa took a stake in ERI in 2011. What made the company an attractive investment? What does Alcoa hope to gain through its relationship with ERI?

Anton: If you think about consumer electronics, you often have products that have life cycles of less than two years. You start to think, "How can the world allow products that are so prolific and that have such a short life cycle and not have a proper end-of-life solution for them?" We see consumer electronics as being a great growth market for aluminum because of the recyclability, plus the attributes that aluminum brings to the product. It's got great consumer appeal through the look and the feel, but also the thermal properties of aluminum help the designers manufacture the product smaller, thinner, lighter, and the heat dissipation properties of aluminum help the designers manage the heat from the circuitry. It is a real win-win.

Just like when we helped establish the market for the aluminum can—we are the leader in that market—we recognized that there was a need to create closed-loop recycling and get the cans recovered, and we built the infrastructure to do that. The analogy here is that we are helping establish the infrastructure to bring that aluminum back in a closed loop and make sure it doesn't go into landfills.

As we started looking in this space, we wanted to find a company that on a values basis and in terms of growth ambitions lined up with Alcoa. I met John Shegerian at ERI and immediately there was a mix of cultures and a mix of values. We saw a successful entrepreneur who had the ability to grow his business exponentially and we saw that Alcoa could help him do that. 

ERI, the nation's largest recycler of electronic waste, opened a regional recycling center in Badin, NC last year that will create up to 200 jobs. The company began operations in 2011 and will move into a newly renovated and much larger facility at the Badin Business Park this spring.

Alcoa joins in celebration of Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest

Alcoa recently joined the U.S. Forest Service and others to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest in Graham County in western North Carolina. Click here to watch a short video of the celebration. 

“We’re a major part of this community and have been since 1910,” said Kevin Anton, Alcoa Chief Sustainability Officer.  “Our hydro dams are adjacent to the forest and we have employees who call this community home. We take pride in working cooperatively together to preserve the biodiversity in this very unique area which reflects a key part of Alcoa’s sustainability value.”

The forest is named after poet Joyce Kilmer, who was killed in action during World War I.

200 New Jobs Coming to Former Alcoa Site

It was a special week in Stanly County. Electronic Recyclers International, the world's largest recycler of electronic waste, announced Monday that it is bringing up to 200 new jobs to the area. The California-based company is opening a regional recycling hub in the Badin Business Park, the site of the former Alcoa smelter.

 

ERI Chairman and CEO John Shegerian provides a "Green is Good" t-shirt to 

State Representative Justin Burr during a press conference in Badin on Monday. 

"We're going to help recycle this plant, recycle that building right there and we're going to help recycle the community and bring brand new jobs," said ERI chairman and CEO John Shegarian.  Shegerian made the announcement before a crowd of 100 community leaders and local officials, including U.S. Congressman Larry Kissell, State Sen. Bill Purcell, State Rep. Justin Burr, Stanly County Commissioner Josh Morton, Badin Mayor Jim Harrison and Albemarle Mayor Whit Whitley. 

 

Alcoa is investing more than $10 million to redevelop the former plant site and continues to actively recruit businesses to the Badin site.

 

"We have an obligation to make sure that this site is redeveloped," said Kevin Anton, Alcoa's chief sustainability officer.

 

Read the press release.

Read the Salisbury Post editorial, Generating jobs in Badin

Read the AP article, Recycling company adding 200 jobs in Stanly County

Investing in Badin Redevelopment

Earlier this week, Alcoa announced that it has awarded more than $7.2 million in contracts associated with the redevelopment of its former plant site in Badin. Much of the work was awarded to North Carolina businesses, including Stewart Engineering Inc. (Charlotte), Apex Engineering (Concord), REI Engineers (Charlotte) and Western Waterproofing Company (Charlotte). Additional contracts will be awarded later this year as work progresses.

The redevelopment of the Badin site -- which includes partial building demolition and restoration of some current structures -- is designed to make the site more appealing to new companies. 

Kevin Anton, Alcoa’s Chief Sustainability Officer, has been leading our efforts to recruit new businesses to the site. 

“We are very excited to get the redevelopment of the Badin site under way. This is a significant investment by Alcoa, and a big step toward bringing new jobs to Badin,” he said. “Over the last three or four months, we’ve marketed the location to many companies who may have an interest in locating here. We are excited about what redevelopment will mean to the community, and the new construction and permanent jobs it will bring.”

Alcoa has led the recruiting effort and is also working with local and state economic development officials to attract new employers to Badin. 

Redevelopment work is currently under way, and a majority of the site improvements are expected to be complete by the end of 2011.

Click here to read the press release.

Alcoa Becomes Founding Member of Duke Center for Sustainability & Commerce

Alcoa, together with the Alcoa Foundation, announced today that Alcoa has become a founding member of the Duke Center for Sustainability & Commerce, an organization dedicated to collaborating with industry and government to turn the vision of sustainability into products and solutions serving society.

The center is part of Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, a non-partisan institute focused on finding solutions to the nation’s most pressing environmental challenges. It was established at Duke University in 2010.

“The Duke Center’s focus on collaboration and innovation fits well with Alcoa’s approach to developing products and solutions that contribute to a sustainable world,” said Kevin Anton, Alcoa’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “Working together, we can help communities and companies develop sustainable strategies to meet rapidly growing demand for infrastructure and transportation created by increasing population and urbanization.”

Anton will join the center’s Industry Council, an advisory panel for research and outreach.

Alcoa Foundation President Paula Davis said the Center’s research plays an important role in turning concepts into reality.

“The research depth of Duke University along with the expertise of the Center’s business partners creates a powerful combination,” Ms. Davis said. “We are pleased to be part of this effort and look forward to the advancements in sustainable communities that will result.”

Through its research, the Center is leading efforts to create a new generation of technological and organizational innovations to meet global sustainability challenges. It is led by Dr. Jay S. Golden who founded and co-directed the Sustainability Consortium prior to joining Duke.

“Alcoa has a long history of innovation that has led to great successes in their operations and product designs,” said Golden. “Our partnership with Alcoa will provide us a key manufacturing perspective from an organization whose products are critical to global commerce.”

Alcoa Announces Environmental Hotline

Alcoa today announced that the company is making available its telephone hotline system for area residents to report any suspected environmental issues related to operation of the former Badin Works aluminum smelter or the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project.

The hotline is managed by a third-party, EthicsPoint, and is available 24 hours a day by calling 1-800-346-7319. EthicsPoint will take information from callers, who may remain anonymous if they choose. EthicsPoint then submits a report to Alcoa for handling.  Callers may check back periodically with EthicsPoint to receive updates from Alcoa on the status of the report and answer potential requests for more information or clarification. 

The hotline is being made available to collect information about suspected environmental contamination that area residents believe has not been previously reported or investigated. 

“Alcoa has worked closely with state and federal officials for more than 20 years to properly address environmental issues on our property,” said Kevin Anton, Chief Sustainability Officer for Alcoa. “While we are confident we have conducted a full and thorough survey, this hotline will help us be sure by making it easier for people to bring concerns to our attention.”  

Alcoa has operated a hotline system for employees since 1993.