Sessions
ISRI2022 programming focuses on a wide range of topics for recycling industry professionals.
Preview the list of sessions and descriptions. Additional details coming soon.
For an outline of the preliminary schedule click here.
8:00 am – 9:45 am
Opening General Session - TBD
Details coming soon.
10:00 am – 11:00 am
Data Destruction Trends for ITAD
From cellphones to automobiles, a growing number of sources are collecting personal data. With the rollout of 5G, more devices and products will exchange data to provide improved interface experiences, new services, customer conveniences, and improved safety. Governments are responding by passing laws and regulations to require complete data destruction to protect sensitive consumer data. Learn how to set your operation up for success in this new data landscape.
10:00 am – 11:30 am
Ferrous Spotlight: An Industry in Transition
Industry consolidation continues to reshape the market structure of both the U.S. steel and ferrous recycling sectors. Learn about the key drivers for iron and steel recycling including the outlook for additional integration, domestic steel mill capacity expansion plans, the rising trend in the global use of recycled metal, and much more!
11:45 am – 12:45 pm
Safety: Preventing Closed Container Explosions at Steel Mills and Foundries – What Ferrous Scrap Suppliers Need to Know
Hear from a steel mill melt shop manager, a scrap broker, a scrap operations manager, and a scrap safety professional about the hazards of closed containers at a melt shop and how to prepare, inspect and ship scrap to avoid creating a hazard in the scrap facility and at the receiving furnace. The session will include videos and sample policies.
11:45 am – 1:00 pm
SPOTLIGHT: Emerging Trends in Electronics Recycling and ITAD
New and more electronic devices are introduced everyday throughout the world. Immense data collection will increase with the full rollout of 5G and edge computing. New environmental and social goals proposed by manufacturers, increasing restrictions on reselling consumer electronics, and the need for international standards all create a challenging landscape. Gain the knowledge to respond and adapt to this fast-changing environment.
11:45 am – 12:45 pm
Chemical Recycling: A Solution or a Rival?
For the past few years, concern about plastics in the environment has been a dominant theme. Improving the recycling rate is critical to prevent plastics from entering the environment. Mechanical methods are in wide commercial use, but they are feasible only for certain types of plastics. Chemical methods have been proposed as complementary (if not competing) approaches to managing supplies of used plastics. Gain a better perspective on chemical recycling and its potential and implications for plastics recycling.
11:45 am – 12:45 pm
How Can ISRI Help Your Company in a Crisis?
ISRI has resources to help you when a crisis strikes. Come learn about member resources that can be tailored for you to use with the media, community leaders and other decision maker audiences.
2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
Do You Need a Common Sense Approach to Fire Prevention?
Why do we have a fire prevention plan? If your first answer is that OSHA requires it, you need a more common-sense approach. If you check your extinguishers or keep your exits clear to appease the local fire department, you need a more common-sense fire approach. If you do your fire training because it came up on the calendar, you need a more common-sense approach. If you don’t know your local firefighters by name, you could use a more common-sense approach to fire prevention.
2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
Nickel/Stainless Spotlight: Focus on Future Demand
Stainless steel recyclers continue to face a range of challenges including volatile raw material input prices, transportation bottlenecks, and a shifting global landscape. As the global economy continues to recover in 2022, learn about expected sources of demand growth for recycled stainless steel both in the United States and in key export markets around the world.
2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
Spotlight on Plastics: Recycled Content, EPR, Market Conditions:
Learn the current increasing supply and demand trends for recycled plastics and how this will impact the industry moving forward. EPR, recycled content legislation, and international changes for imports, aimed largely at post-consumer plastics packaging, continue to affect the industry. Gain the perspective you need to stay ahead of the trends.
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Navigating the Turbulent Ocean of International Shipping
Understanding international shipping as well as its associated nuances can be challenging. Suppliers, traders, and buyers are not always completely aware of the various procedures involved in shipping. Gain a better sense of shipping to augment and improve your operations, especially as it gets more turbulent by the day.
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
ISRI Century Club presents: Back to the Future II: The Family Business
Three family businesses, three stories of challenges, opportunities, success, and growth. Take home lessons learned across three multi-generational family businesses.
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Path to Sustainability: What Is It and Why You Should Care
What does “sustainability” mean and how can we achieve it? Come explore these questions as well as the challenges, opportunities, and myths. Discuss how your company can proactively achieve a more sustainable future. Learn from the recyclers who have built and advocated for sustainability programs that have successfully impacted operations.
8:00 am – 9:45 am
General Session: Challenges and Opportunities for Recycling in a Post-COVID Trade Environment
Details coming soon.
10:00 am – 11:00 am
The “New” Requirement for Recyclers: ESG
ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance) is emerging as a requirement for investors, so government and public institutional investors as well as private equity investors are beginning to require standardized ESG reporting. Corporations are already building programs for public and investor goodwill and as part of their mission, but also because they see the regulatory requirements coming. Get the full breakdown of ESG including the opportunities, challenges, and more.
10:00 am – 11:15 am
Spotlight on Paper: Logistics, Supply Chain, Trucking Challenges in the Recovered Paper Market
The last recession, logistical challenges, transportation interruptions, and supply chain disruptions have had a lasting effect on the recovered paper marketplace. Mixed paper is in high demand, office paper has regained some loses, and e-commerce is a common shopping method. Learn what all this means for the future of the market and how to leverage it to the advantage of your business.
10:00 am – 11:30 am
Aluminum Spotlight: How Long Can the Light Metal Outperform?
Aluminum market participants enjoyed solid gains in primary and secondary metal prices along with elevated physical market premiums in 2021 as supply chain disruptions contributed to market tightness. Get the latest insights from our expert panel of industry members and market analysts on whether recycled aluminum’s increasingly important role in a sustainable future will keep the party going.
11:45 am – 12:45 pm
MRF Innovations and Collaborative Financing Models to Strengthen Recycling Infrastructure
MRFs across the country are innovating operations. Learn from the first city in Indiana to deploy an AI-guided robotic sorting system in a single-stream recycling facility, made possible through an investment by both public and private entities. This investment increased the volume of high-quality resin available for new packaging based on material recycled locally and extended the lifecycle of plastics. Gain perspective on how technology and collaborative partnerships like these help strengthen recycling infrastructure, and how this model can be replicated in your community.
11:45 am – 12:45 pm
ESG and Business Success
Environmental, Social and Governance or ESG, is gaining momentum and has become a hot topic in the recycling world. When it comes to ESGs, there is no one size fits all and this session will provide insight on how you can incorporate ESG principles as part of your company’s overall risk management, including cybersecurity, loan eligibility, investments, employee recruitment and trade.
11:45 am – 12:45 pm
Coping with Grief and Loss
The pandemic is a stark reminder that things can change in a minute. People have had to deal with grief and loss on an ongoing basis. Gain a better understanding of COVID-19’s impact on grief and loss and the interplay with your professional self.
11:45 am – 12:45 pm
The Role and Rollout of International Standards
International standards for electronics recycling have enabled recyclers around the globe to buy and sell products for reuse or for recycling while providing assurances and confidence for their customers. While these international standards have helped enable trade and provide market advantages, they have also become more complex and costly risking their continued growth and their goals of improving recycling globally. Gain the knowledge to navigate, comply, and shape these standards moving forward.
2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
An Untapped Labor Solution: Successfully Employing Those with Disabilities.
Of the 50 million people in the U.S. with a disability, less than 20% are participating in the labor force. This workforce typically has lower rates of absenteeism, turnover, and lost time accidents. Learn about the process for hiring individuals who have a 98% on the clock task engagement to improve your productivity and bottom line. With this strategy, your business can leverage the talents of an underserved population, increase community engagement, and provide new opportunities for collaboration.
2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
Tire and Rubber Spotlight: Recycling’s Role in Sustainable Development
Tire and rubber recycling is simultaneously expected to play a vital role in improving America’s infrastructure and sustainability, while also facing heightened state and local regulatory challenges. Gain a better understanding about new tire and rubber recycling technologies, market challenges and opportunities, and the demand outlook from construction, transportation, and new applications.
2:15 pm – 3:45 pm
Copper Spotlight: Red Metal Market Global Outlook
Ongoing investment in domestic recycled copper processing and consumption continues to brighten the outlook for red metal recyclers, especially at a time when global trade patterns are being reshaped by new trade regulations. Don’t miss this timely discussion on the outlook for recycled copper supply and demand in key regional markets including North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
One ISRI Recycling Workshop
Take part in an overview of the different aspects of recycling through a fast-paced, multimedia presentation packed with great information applicable to both veterans and those new to the recycling industry. Brought to you by the WIR Women in Recycling Council.
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Time to Prove It: Tools That Highlight Your Greatness
Image is everything in business, and being able to tell your story is as important as ever. But for our industry in 2022, it’s time to put the cards on the table. “We do it the right way!” is a good place to start, but customers, neighbors, and regulators need the proof. Learn ways your company can understand the image it projects, change its story, and come out on top. Dress your business for success.
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Right-to Resell – The First Sale Doctrine
The First Sale Doctrine is an American legal concept that limits the rights of an intellectual property owner to control resale of products embodying its intellectual property. Increasingly manufacturers are trying to prohibit the resale of their products by recyclers. Make sure you have the background knowledge to operate legally and profitably.
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Heavy Metal Identification
Proper metals identification directly impacts your profitability and impacts your business on a daily basis. Hear from four experts on how to avoid grading errors based on their own lessons learned and years of experience in the recycled materials industry.
8:30 am – 9:30 am
Catalytic Converter Theft - Legislation & Enforcement and the Effect on Recycling
The surge in catalytic converter theft as a result of rising precious metals prices has caused issues for the recycling industry as well as law enforcement. Join a panel of law enforcement experts for a discussion on how state and local legislation affect catalytic converter theft as well as the possible need for federal legislation.
8:30 am – 9:30 am
Cybersecurity: Pitfalls, Risks and Solutions
From the far reaches of the dark web to the browser on your screen right now, cybersecurity touches almost every aspect of our professional lives. Three industry experts will give you the tools you need to assess your current cybersecurity capabilities in terms of the dangers, risk management, abatement, and best practices.
8:30 am – 9:30 am
Imagining & Creating a Sustainable Future: The Role of Recyclers and Our Industry presented by ISRI Young Executives Council
What does “sustainability” mean and how can we achieve it? In this session, the Young Executives Council will explore these questions as well as the challenges, opportunities, and myths. We’ll discuss how companies can proactively achieve a more sustainable future for their businesses and communities. We will also hear directly from recyclers who have built and advocated for sustainability programs that have successfully impacted operations.
9:45 am – 10:45 am
Biden's Administration's Vision for Recycling
Recycling is essential to manufacturing, the global economy and environmental stewardship. The Biden Administration is pursuing a multifaceted agenda of building infrastructure to bolster a 21st century economy, fighting climate change through green development and ensuring environmental justice for all. We will hear from senior Administration officials about this agenda and their views on integrating the recycling industry in the implementation of these initiatives.
9:45 am – 10:45 am
From Recycler to Supplier: How Digitalization Can Improve Your Recycling Operations Presented by ISRI Young Executives Council
Learn the simple steps your yard can take to provide a digital experience for your employees and customers. As technology advances, the recycling industry is naturally slower to adopt new software or online tools. By sharing simple tools and do-it-yourself changes, leaders can learn how embracing new technology in recycling can help prepare for continued growth. Don’t get left behind.
9:45 am – 10:45 am
7 Best Ways to Control Cost of Business Insurance and Increase Profits
Interested in finding out why insurance companies love ISRI’s Circle of Safety Excellence (COSE), how to make your Safety Committee more effective, or how regular key employee interviews and safety rewards can make your company safer? Join this session on business property and casualty, and gain the practical and effective ideas you need to make your company more efficient and profitable.
11:00 am – 1:00 pm
TBD - Closing Session
Details coming soon.
