The Canadian Association of Recycling Industries (CARI) recently held its annual general meeting (AGM) and elected the 2020-21 Board of Directors, including Kevin Santoro as the new chair.
In his opening remarks Santoro, a senior trader at Cronimet Corporation based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and CARI’s U.S. representative and board member since 2014, stressed the importance of communication as a priority over the coming year.
“The many updates and bulletins that CARI shared during the early days of the COVID-19 crisis were a valuable resource for many of our members and an excellent example of what effective communication can offer,” said Santoro. “As Chair, my priority will be to improve the communication flowing in both directions between CARI and the CARI membership. I would like to see expanded use of social media and other platforms to give the membership a timely and complete account of all that CARI does on its behalf.”
CARI Chair Kevin Santoro
The CARI board for 2020-2021 include the following:
Atlantic Region – Jonathan Ross, John Ross & Sons
Quebec Region – Kevin Golberg, MetroBec Inc.; Mario Monchamp, Liebherr-Canada Ltd.
Ontario Region – Mario Venditti, Triple M Metal; Bo Zhang, Bomet Recycling; Peter Racco, Ram Iron
Prairie Region – TBD
Alberta Region – Bob Bevins, Bulldog Metals Ltd
British Columbia Region – Helene Dalton, Schnitzer Steel
U.S. Region – Kevin Santoro, Cronimet Corporation
The board appointed the Past-chair and elected the following directors to the Executive Committee:
Chair – Kevin Santoro, Cronimet Corporation
Vice-chair – Helene Dalton, Schnitzer Steel Canada
Secretary/Treasurer – Peter Racco, Ram Iron and Metal Inc.
Past-chair – Matt Zubick, John Zubick Ltd.
In his final address as chair, Matthew Zubick noted how much change had occurred in the past two years and particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. He pointed to the development of regional information pages and COVID-19 provincial pages on the CARI website as progress toward making CARI a “one-stop resource that would help members navigate the various rules and regulations for our industry.”
In closing, Zubick acknowledged how “It is hard to predict what the next few months will bring to our industry, let alone the next two years,” but added “I believe the Association will be in good hands with our new Chair, Kevin Santoro.”
CARI AGM president’s report
CARI President Tracy Shaw emphasized the central role of advocacy among CARI’s many activities and summarized a number of achievements on that front from the past two years.
At the provincial level, the majority of CARI’s lobbying efforts were focused on stewardship and circular economy programs, which are expanding in all provinces, said Shaw. After highlighting particular inroads made in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, and B.C., Shaw asserted that in all instances “these programs must recognize recyclers as the problem-solvers, not the problem.”
At the national level, Shaw continued, CARI’s many advocacy efforts included feedback provided on proposed regulations for processing mercury-containing lamps; on proposed amendments to the Prohibition of Certain Toxic Substances Regulations; and on the Canada-wide Action Plan on Zero Plastic Waste.
“We also continued international advocacy efforts on issues including amendments to the Basel Convention and China’s expanding list of banned and restricted scrap imports,” added Shaw. “Proposed changes to the Annexes of the Basel Convention have the potential to redefine recycling activities at the global level, so it is essential that CARI remains active on this issue.”
Shaw concluded with a summary of CARI’s efforts during the COVID-19 global shutdown, including their outreach to federal, provincial, and municipal leaders to ensure that our members were declared essential.
Shaw said that CARI is currently working with Natural Resources Canada to advocate for support in coming out of this crisis, to promote a more efficient recycling industry in Canada, and to advance recycling as a feature of product design.
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Featured image credits: CARI.
