What does recycling mean to you? For us, recycling is a word of endless opportunities to innovate, grow and advance the industry of recycling. We will always be looking for ways to redefine recycling.
Soda Tab Recycling: Any truth to the myth?
Keep the tabs on your cans! It’s a myth that you can make a substantial amount of money from collecting soda tabs. Always check with a charity to see if they accept them for donation before collecting them. Check out this article that further explains.
SA Recycling Takes Delivery of Two All-Electric Yard Trucks
SA Recycling took another big step in the green direction last week. They acquired an all-electric yard truck which will be used to move containers and roll-off bins throughout SA Recycling’s Port of Los Angeles facility; a second truck will be delivered sometime this month. The trucks are provided through a generous grant from the Port of Los Angeles in partnership with Balqon Corporation, leaders in heavy duty all-electric clean truck technology. The trucks will replace older diesel trucks that have been used for years in the port and will play a significant role in cleaning the air. SA Recycling applauds and thanks the Port of Los Angeles for their efforts and funding to make this truck delivery program possible. In roughly three years’ time the Clean Truck Program has efficiently reduced port-related truck pollution by at least 80%, achieving all its goals in record time. Emission studies show that since 2005, emission from trucks alone have been reduced dramatically, including a 92% reduction in sulfur oxides, an 89% reduction in diesel particulate matter, and a 77% reduction in nitrogen oxides, helping to make this port complex the cleanest in the nation, if not the world.
SA Recycling’s commitment to the environment is crystal clear, from its state of the art shredder filtration equipment to its stormwater treatment plant, they are committed to doing their part to Green the Port. Making steel from recycled metal, versus making it from iron ore, reduces greenhouse gases by up to 90%, thus making SA Recycling a significant contributor to the reduction of worldwide greenhouse gases. They will be celebrating their 50th year of operation on Terminal Island in late February, a milestone that marks the achievement and dedication of so many great employees that make up the framework of their organization.
A Peace Angel for San Pedro?
Could the West Coast have a statue symbolizing peace, comparable in scale to the Statue of Liberty? Artist Lin Evola Smidt has the vision for a Peace Angel for San Pedro made from recycled weapons. Material used could come from SA Recycling in Terminal Island. Click here to read the article from DailyBreeze.com.
157 Vehicles Donated For Firefighter Practice
SA Recycling surpassed it’s goal of collecting 110 cars for firefighter practice. SA Recycling collected 157 vehicles through the program that will send the vehicles to the North Net Fire Training facility for firefighters to use for training. The accomplishment was featured in The Orange County Register. To read the full article, click here.
Senate Resolution Honoring U.S. Recycling Industry Passes
ISRI Cheers the Unanimous Approval of Senate Resolution Supporting the American Recycling Industry
Washington, D.C. – The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. (ISRI) expresses its support and gratitude to the United States Senate after the passage of Senate Resolution 251, reinforcing the Senate’s support for recycling and recognizing the tremendous contributions to the U.S. economy and environment made by the recycling industry. Senate Resolution 251 passed the Senate unanimously.
The passage of this resolution confirms the Senate’s strong support for an industry that directly or indirectly employs over 450,000 Americans in local communities throughout the United States, accounting for more than $90 billion in economic output, and playing a key role in the U.S. manufacturing industry by helping supply our economy with good paying jobs and making the old, new again.
In addition to the economic benefits of recycling, the resolution also notes how recycling is protecting our environment by not only safeguarding natural resources and reducing the amount of recyclable materials sent to landfills, but also saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“Given the array of challenges facing the recycling Industry here at home it is comforting to know that lawmakers not only recognize the positive contributions that recycling brings to our communities, but also that they recognize the need to support an industry that is not only creating jobs today, but has shown signs of continued growth,” said ISRI President Robin Wiener. “We would like to extend our thanks to the Co-Chairs of the Senate Recycling Caucus, Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), for their leadership on this issue.”
In press releases sent today, Senators Carper and Snowe applauded the approval of the resolution saying the following.
“Increasing the amount we recycle is a simple, yet effective way to help our economy and our environment by better managing our limited resources,” said Sen. Carper. “Since the first Earth Day in 1970, our country has greatly improved our recycling habits. From 1970 to 2000, we increased our collective municipal recycling rate from just 6 percent to over 28 percent. Yet in the past decade, our country’s improvement in our recycling behavior has slowed. Anything I do, I know I can do better, and I know that our nation can continue to do better when it comes to recycling. I thank Sen. Snowe and our other Senate colleagues for their support of recycling and for their recognition of its tremendous value to our economy and our environment.”
“Recycling is one of the easiest and most cost-effective methods to saving energy, reducing landfill waste, and supplying our manufacturing and construction industries with low-cost materials,” said Sen. Snowe. “Recycling is a major industry in the United States and we should continue to encourage the companies that are improving our environment and employing Americans. I commend Senator Carper for his efforts to promote recycling and look forward to the ongoing benefits recycling provides our environment and our economy.”
The resolution recognizes the integral role recycling plays in both sustaining manufacturing in the United States and helping to balance the US trade deficit by providing emerging economies with the raw materials needed to build countries and participate in the global economy.
A recent economic analysis shows that the U.S. scrap recycling industry is a major economic engine powerful enough to create 460,000 jobs within the U.S. and generate $10.3 billion in tax revenues for governments across the country, all while making the old new again and helping to protect the earth’s air, water and land for future generations. The economic study can be viewed in its entirety at www.isri.org/jobs.
Please Help Save Julia’s Vision
If you look at the picture of Julia and her family from August of 2010 (black and white), you will see a happy, healthy, loving family. Life would take a drastic turn just months later.
Julia and her husband were both working to support their family of two young children. Julia awoke on the morning of October 22, 2010, with a severe headache over her eyes. Her life, and those of her family, would never be the same. Within days, her vision started to darken and blur. Panicked, she sought out help from several doctors including USC – Doheny Eye Center who incorrectly diagnosed her problem. She continued to suffer from the debilitating headaches, and she continued to lose vision.
In desperation, when her vision was nearly gone, she came to us and we were able to finally diagnose her problem. Unfortunately, we discovered that she had an autoimmune disorder, where her body was attacking the nerves she was seeing with (Autoimmune Optic Neuritis). No specific cause was ever found. This disease mandates high levels of steroids to try and stop the loss of vision by controlling the body’s immune system. These drugs are very dangerous to use, however.
She was immediately started on IV steroids, with a dramatic improvement in the vision. You can see from the tests (Visual Fields) that before the steroids she was almost completely blind. After the first round of steroids, she had recovered a fair amount of her vision. She was switched to high doses of oral steroids to try and keep the improvement she had recovered. But steroids have significant side effects at this level, and she was already having trouble with intense pain in her joints, a tremendous weight gain, problems sleeping and thinking clearly, stomach ulcers, and additional head pain. She was having trouble moving around. She still could not see well enough to drive. Her mother was her support system and drove her to all her appointments and treatment sessions. Then her mother had a major stroke and lost the ability to move her left side, and she could not talk. She has been hospitalized ever since. Julia had to fight on alone. But Julia could not work anymore, and then lost her job. She lost her insurance too. She was switched to her husband’s insurance to continue her treatment.
After 9 months of steroids, her doctors felt she was going to die of the side effects of the steroids if nothing else was done. In addition, she was continuing to slowly lose vision despite the steroids. Imuran, a powerful anti-inflammatory was added to the steroids, but did not seem to stem the progressive loss of vision.
She was then started on IVIG, a powerful immune modulator that costs $10,000 per treatment, and had to be given for 5 days of every month. This expensive treatment seemed to be helping, and she was starting to come off the steroids when her husband lost his job, and lost his insurance. Without insurance coverage, and without jobs, the family could not afford the IVIG anymore, and the treatments were abandoned. The family has been struggling to pay for the steroids that have allowed her to barely hold on to her vision. The side effects have progressed. The color picture shows Julia and her family in September of 2011. You can see what the steroids have done to her. She is still smiling, and is trying to be happy thru the pain and visible changes in her body and the loss of vision.
Without any help, Julia faced her family and told them that she has accepted that she will go blind, and that she needs to go off the steroids to save her life. In the midst of the tears of Julia and her husband, her young son gave his understanding of the situation by asking his mother: “But you’ll still be able to make us breakfast, won’t you mom?”.
This has been Julia’s battle. Julia Matsumoto is one of the most spirited, enthusiastic, and energizing people you will ever meet. She has met every challenge, but she understands that it is a losing battle. She has accepted her coming blindness with grace and strength. Just as all hope was abandoned, however, reports started coming in about new stem cell treatments that have been effective for some autoimmune diseases. You will find some stories on this website.
Though the treatment of Autoimmune Optic Neuritis has never been attempted, there is some hope. The stem cells would be taken from Julia herself, concentrated in serum, and then reinjected into her blood stream. The hope is that her reintroduced stem cells will reset the immune system so that it stops attacking her nerves. The treatments are FDA approved. The problem is the cost. The California Stem Cell Treatment Center based in southern California charges $10,000 per treatment. They estimate that three or four treatments may be needed to control this disease. The Center and Dr. Elliot Lander have been very helpful and have agreed to give Julia a 50% discount. That is still $5,000 per treatment. Though stem cells have never been used to treat this disease, at least there is hope. Julia has had to be convinced that this is worth the effort. She doesn’t know if she can let hope back in, especially with her family, and then have that hope once again dashed by failure. She doesn’t know if she can deal with the loss again. But she is courageous and a fighter, and with our help, I know she can do it.
This is where you can help. We really need your help to allow her to have this potential vision-saving treatment. If this works, she will be able to stop the steroids that are killing her. This could change her life again, and put her back with her family and allow her to care for her husband and children. She ends ever day now praying that she can see her children just one more time before she loses everything.
We want to be able to add one more picture to this webpage. We want a picture of Julia and her family when she is healthy again and can see again. Help us put this picture on this page.
Anything and any amount you can donate will go directly to help pay for Julia to have this stem cell treatment. You will be saving a family. Please give what you can to help.
Please click here to help.
Article from Delmaegivesback.org.
SA Recycling Teams Up With Orange County Firefighters
SA Recycling and Orange County Firefighters are teaming up with a new program that aims to collect 110 cars to be donated to fire training center in Anaheim for firefighter lessons. Through SA Recycling’s 1-800-Got-Scrap cars ready to be recycled will be donated for training purposes. Donors of vehicles will be paid between $200-$450 for their vehicles and SA Recycling will donate $50 for each car to the North Net Fire Training Facility. The article is featured in the OC Register, for more information, click here.
Receive Up To $1500 To Retire Your Vehicle
Have an old vehicle you would like to get rid of? The State of California’s Bureau of Automotive Repair is willing to pay individuals who meet eligibility requirements up to $1500 for retiring their old vehicle. The program is call the Consumer Assistance Program (CAP). The Consumer Assistance Program is administered by the Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) and is designed to help improve California’s air quality. Through the program, a consumer may retire a qualified vehicle and receive $1000 or up to $1500 if the consumer meets low income eligibility guidelines. Also, through CAP, consumers who own a vehicle that fails its biennial Smog Check inspection may be provided up to $500 in financial assistance toward emissions-related repairs. You may retire your vehicle at
any time if you and your vehicle meet eligibility requirements. Some of the major requirements include that you must be the registered owner with vehicle title issued in your name, vehicles undergoing an initial registration in California are ineligible and the vehicle must be able to be driven to a CAP contracted dismantler under its own power. These are just some of the requirements, the websites FAQs provide more answers.
To apply for the CAP, you can obtain an application online. Click here for application. Applications are processed within seven to ten business days. If you are approved, you will receive an official Letter of Eligibility with specific instructions on how to retire or repair your vehicle. For more information and to visit the Bureau of Automotive Repair’s website, click here.
Cars Run Off Coffee
We all know vehicles are ever increasingly going green. Well, now they are going bean. Coffee bean that is. “The Coffee Car” was created by the Teesdale Conservation Volunteers of Durham, England and has broken the Guinness World Record “for vehicles run on gas from organic waste”. The vehicle’s top speed is 77.5 miles per hour, beating out the previous record holder, the wood-burning Beaver XR7 that travels up to 47.7 miles per hour. So how does a car run off coffee? According to BBC news, “Engineer Martin Bacon from County Durham equipped the car with a gasifier which burns organic material at high temperature. This produces combustible gases which, after cleaning and cooling, are used to fuel an adapted combustion engine.” The coffee car successfully drove from London to Manchester, roughly 209 miles. Most of us run on coffee anyway, why not our cars? See you in the espresso lane!
Engineer Martin Bacon with The Coffee Car.
State Assemblyman Warren Furutani’s Annual “Back to School” Backpack Giveaway
On August 27th, Warren traveled around the District to deliver over 200 backpacks to students getting ready to go back to school. Deliveries were made to the Boys and Girls Club in Harbor Gateway, the Children’s Institute and the Harbor Community/Wilmington Teen Center. We’d like to thank our generous donors who donated the backpacks and school supplies including: California State University, Dominguez Hills, UCLA, Herbalife and SA Recycling.
