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Used log bundling strand can create huge environmental issues and greatly increase operating costs.  Through our system of pick up and recycling of wire, we are able to solve the environmental issue as well as bringing down your companies operating costs.

The following article on the progress of our recycling initiative was published in the December 2003 issue of Mariner Life magazine.

Building on Success

Environment Canada's Log Bundling Strand Recycling Initiative shows how business and government can work together to clean up industrial practices.  And its acceptance has created new opportunities to measure and improve existing systems.

By Christianne Wilhelmson

Environment Canada's Log Bundling Strand Recycling Initiative was launched in the spring of 2001 and designed to encourage BC's forest industry to handle log bundling strand in an environmentally responsible way.  So far, the initiative has proven to be a great example of how industry and government can work together to create effective solutions to environmental concerns while addressing the realities of the competitive business climate.

Environment Canada's long-term goal for this initiative is to change the way bundling strand is handled in British Columbia.  The first step was to review the wire handling practices in collaboration with the forest industry, wire producers and recyclers, and other regulatory agencies.  After several months of consultation with industry stakeholders, Environment Canada created a program to raise awareness about the issue, as well as how the proposed policy and regulatory changes would impact the business community.  "It was important to the success of this initiative that government work with industry from the very beginning," says Environment Canada's Sean Standing.  "By listening to the concerns of the business community while providing information about environmental, social and economic benefits of recycling we developed a really successful program."  This open communication during the development and implementation processes has made it easier for mills to deal with the reality that as of April 1, 2003, log bundling strand is no longer permitted when dredging and ocean disposal permits are issued.  Mills that have put into place strand recovery and recycling programs won't risk the possibility of having nowhere to dump their dredge material due to the presence of bundling wire.  They also won't have to deal with any negative economic impacts should dredging or ocean disposal permits be delayed or denied because bundling wire is still finding its way into the water.

Progress and Innovation

Prior to the development of this initiative, Environment Canada estimated that the forest industry used approximately 50 million

feet (15.2 million metres) of log bundling strand per year.  Of that, only 12 million feet (3.6 million metres) was recycled.  This meant that 38 million feet (11.6 million metres) went unaccounted - most of that was likely discarded in British Columbia's coastal waterways.

    How a few years can change the landscape!  According to Fred Schiller of Fred Schiller Boom Gear, between 2001 and 2002, the amount of wire collected from mills increased by 450 per cent.  Between 2002 and 2003, that amount increased another 400 per cent.  That's a twenty-fold increase in just 2 years!  This highlights just how quickly changes were made on site, even before the new regulations came into existence.

    The initiative, however, is not only about the wire collected but also about the recycled strand being bought by industry.  Here too, the success of the initiative is encouraging.  The amount of recycled strand sold in British Columbia in 2002 was double that of 2001.  "We can sell every piece of wire we can get our hands on," says Schiller.  Companies such as Schiller's expect that they can recover 90 per cent of the new bundling

strand entering coastal waterways within two years.  This is a huge increase from the 24 per cent recovered and recycled in 2001.

    At first, the initiative met with some resistance, from the forest industry and dredging contractors alike, because of the perception that recovering log bundling strand is expensive.  But minds are changing.  According to Schiller, "the proof is that we're increasing our business quite rapidly."  Kirk Mackenzie of River Cable sees the same trend.  "Most every mill in the Lower Mainland has our bins for the pick of the wire to be recycled.  It's had a huge increase on the amount of steel coming from our yards."

    Environment Canada's Log Bundling Strand Recycling Initiative has encouraged members of the affected sectors to work together to find the best business solution to keeping the bundling strand out of the water.  The result has been the creation of an infrastructure that continues to reduce the costs of the process.  In the past, mills dealt with the wire in different ways.  Consequently collecting the wire was expensive as a new system had to be developed for each mill.  "We've gone through a huge learning curve," says Fred Schiller.  Since he had to deal with many different companies, he learned a lot about the best way to deal with the wire.  "The result had been an improvement in the process that has led to a reduction in cost, at both ends of the recycling circle," Schiller says, "and we're finding more efficient ways of dealing with the strand as well as finding secondary product use for it."  For many mills, the efficient new system also means operating cost benefits due to fewer repairs and less down time from wire damage to boat props and other hardware.

Looking to the Future

The recycling circle will get even stronger as the industry starts to buy more recycled bundling wire.  Though business can always be better, the economic realities of the last four months have not been normal for the forest industry, with fires shutting down the industry in many areas.  "We've only barely got back to work now so hopefully we've decreased the cost of the recycled product enough, so this loop can be that much tighter," says Mackenzie. 

    Eventually, recyclers of bundling wire hope that industry will be encouraged to use a minimum of 20 per cent recycled wire back in the field.  "Twenty per cent is a good number as it will make shops like mine busy," says Mackenzie.  He admits it's also a good number because he can usually only recycle about 20 per cent of the wire due to the condition it's in when it arrives.  Fred Schiller notes, "by the time we get the wire, 20 per cent of it is recyclable, while about 80 per cent has to be dealt with in other ways."  As the process improves, he hopes that mills will eventually change from using grapple machines (that leave the wire stretched and frayed) and deal with wire so more can be recycled.

    The forest industry has risen to the challenge of dealing with log bundling strand as it has with many other types of waste.  The changes that this initiative introduced have been a learning experience for everyone, and as the infrastructure for dealing with strand becomes more refined, collecting and recycling strand will become a normal part of doing business.

    Environment Canada believes that the Log Bundling Recycling Initiative is the first step in creating a wire recapture and recycling system that will take on a life of its own.  "We want this initiative to encourage industry to find their own way of dealing with bundling strand," says Standing.  "The infrastructure for recycling is being developed," he says, "however, we're certain that other exciting business opportunities will come out of the need to keep the wire out of the water."  Potential options already exist with companies such as Nevada based A.L. Hanic International finding other uses for the wire overseas.

    Fred Schiller has high hopes too.  He'd eventually like to see businesses like his across BC.  "We hope we're developing a model that other people can use, helping to develop local solutions elsewhere," he says.  "It's a long ways from being done but it's a good first step."

    With this part of the initiative well under way, Environment Canada's next goal is to find an effective way to keep track of just how much wire is being recaptured and reused.  Over the next year, again with input from industry, they will be developing an audit system that will include performance measures and looking at bundling strand in a uniform way.  Developing consistent ways of tracking the amount of wire will ensure that everyone can see just how well the program continues to work.

    Environment Canada's decision to initiate changes that focused on education and an industry driven solution, has left a sense that things have gone more smoothly that previous efforts.  "Environment Canada has done a fabulous job," says Schiller.  "It's been a delicate process.  The department has realized that this problem has been going on for 20 to 25 years and is not going to be solved overnight."  Schiller believes Environment Canada's firm but realistic approach has made the industry more open to the change, in the long run. "Even those people who aren't on board now, I know we'll get them eventually because they're starting to talk to us and they're not saying 'no, we're not going to do it.'"

    This is a promising legacy for not only this program, but also continuing efforts to make sure that both BC businesses and the environment remain healthy.

The following article on the use of recycled bundling wire was published in the March 2003 issue of Mariner Life magazine. 

Caught in the Act

Environment Canada challenges the forest industry to clean up its bundle wire practices or pay

by Mel-Lynda Andersen

On the heels of a two-year promotional awareness-building program, Environment Canada is now stepping up its efforts to stop illegal dumping of log bundling wire along the BC Coast.  Mills, salvage and dredging operators, wire rope suppliers and recyclers all face significant changes in the way they conduct business.  Most agree, however, that this change is for the good.  Log bundling strand, or bundle wire as it's also commonly known, serves a vital packaging function, but has always been regarded as a disposable commodity.  Now, with approximately 15 million metres used on the coast each year and an estimated 11.6 million metres (38 million feet) being illegally dumped into our rivers and ocean, its cumulative impact on the aquatic environment is a growing concern for Environment Canada and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.  According to a letter sent to coastal mills last February, Environment Canada stated that "less than 12% of this material is recaptured for recycling."

Raising the Bar

The first attempts to promote the recovery of bundle wire in the mid 1980s met with limited success.  Environment Canada's most recent effort, a coordinated recycling program established for strand, has been in place since 2001.  This initiative was launched after Environment Canada official Sean Standing polled forest companies, recyclers and dredging contractors about their bundle wire handling practices.  Standing, of the Ocean Disposal Control Program, then partnered with industry to produce a video and educational poster, which was distributed to some 150 companies along the coast.  "The video and poster target the guys on the ground doing the work - cutting the wire and wrapping the bundles," he explains.  Following distribution of the video and poster, Standing wrote a series of letters to companies outlining Environment Canada's expectations to stop dumping wire in the aquatic environment.

  Standing's most recent efforts include distributing an information brochure aimed at forest company managers - along with a CD-ROM containing the video, a poster and other resources - for reproduction and redistribution as needed.  "Now we're raising the bar," he says.  "We've produced a new document for senior managers, outlining relevant sections of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 and the Fisheries Act, as well as the legal and financial implications of not complying with the regulations.

  "As of April 1st," he continues, "dredging and ocean disposal permits will specifically state, 'No Log Bundling Strand'.  We're still strongly encouraging voluntary compliance, but the additional permit wording will allow enforcement officers to take a more serious approach to the problem.  With enforcement officers showing up at mill sites we're hoping that the senior management can apply pressure to the guys on the ground."

Industry Response

To date, the industry has responded well to Environment Canada's efforts at raising awareness and implementing change.  Boom gear suppliers and recyclers as well as dredging companies report a marked increase in recycling efforts along the coast.  But many also point out that the industry still has a long way to go, and companies shouldn't be penalized when they are taking steps to implement a recycling system with their boom operators.  "For some operations that haven't cleaned up their acts yet, they may be looking at costly cleanups," advises Bernie Jobson of Fraser River Pile & Dredge, who adds "It's hard to pull strand out of a dredged load, and it's going to change our business big time with the additional wording in the permits.  I don't think it's realistic to expect 100% recovery either.  I think the government and enforcement people ought to, and will, be reasonable about it."

  Sean Standing of Environment Canada is counting on the goodwill and cooperation of everyone in the industry to stop illegal dumping of strand, and he points out, "The dredgers can perhaps make the biggest push, because of the additional costs of removing wire from a barge load.  It costs a great deal to have a barge sit there and wait - clearly it is in a mill's best interest to deal with this wire ahead of time."

  In response to Environment Canada's directive to recycle strand, mills throughout coastal BC are dealing with this boom material in different ways.  "There's the issue of recycling wire and there's the other issue of not putting the strand into the water," points out Roman Nikitiuk of Timber West.  "We've been saving the strand and taking it to a recycler.  It gets cut up and recycled but it doesn't get turned into recycled wire.  And we're not re-using the strand from that mill."

Recycling Success

Processing an average of 120 loads of logs a day, S&R Sawmills in Surrey implemented a recycling program last year with Fred Schiller of Fred Schiller Boom Gear.  "We've added bundle lifts to two of our mills, so now we lift the whole bundle out of the water and cut the wire up top, and then we put them in the bins that Fred supplies," explains S&R's Ted McKenna.  "This way no wires go into the river.  It's a more expensive system, but we save on the labour of hand-bundling the wires.  At our other mills we've set up controls to count the bundle wire every shift."

  "One of the things that we're finding out is that it's not that expensive to deal with the wire properly," assures Fred Schiller.  "It's really not going to be the financial nightmare that people thought it was going to be."  Schiller adds, "Once you're on the recycling program, everything is fine.  You're not putting anything in the water and you won't have that problem again."

  "There's a lot of myth out there," notes Peter Ouimet of Log Bundling Supplies.  "Some guys say that when they throw the wire over the load, the sleeve gets stuck in the load, and it doesn't.  The only way you can rectify the myth is go out in the field.  I've been in the mud lots of times, up to my knees with these guys.  You've got to remember, they're usually out in the pouring rain, it's cold, and they're already being pushed by everyone else to get the logs in the water; they just want the easiest solution.  It isn't any harder to use recycled, they just think it is."  Ouimet adds, "Companies that use two coils a day could save over $500 a day just by using recycled."

Closing the Circle

Ouimet points out that there are two distinct components to a successful log strand recycling program: "We have two agendas - recycling the strand at the mill and selling recycled wire at the other end.  Environment Canada has one agenda - to stop it going in the ocean.  But they've go to look at it a little bit further up the line.  The mills are trying to cut it better so we can recycle it, which is fine and dandy.  We can have two million feet of coils sitting here, but if we're not selling it, then that nice neat circle is broken and the system stops working."

  In spite of the savings and quality assurances, recycled wire is still a hard sell.  "To give you an idea of just how we're just scratching the surface here, we have 48 cans picking up maybe five per cent of what the industry is producing right now," reports Fred Schiller, who has partnered with Kirk Mackenzie of River Cable to establish a workable recycling system for their customers.  Even so, adds Mackenzie, "currently we have too much material coming in and not enough going out.  The primary users who make up the bundles have to be prepared to buy it back as recycled.  It's one thing to pick up all the wire and bring it back here, where it sits.  That's not much of a business.  They have to buy the product back or the system won't work.  It's cheaper for them too, so there's no reason why they shouldn't buy into it."

  Mackenzie also notes, "There are still lots of people that aren't trying - they're still cutting it and letting it fall.  That will be self-evident when the dredge goes down.  If you've got a clamshell of mud and one wire in it, that's something, but if you've got a clamshell of mud and 100 wires in it on every clamshell you bring up, then you might find yourself in trouble."

  Bernie Jebson of Fraser River Pile and Dredge predicts, "If a client has a whole bunch of wire on a barge load, we're going to have to work with them to get rid of the wire, whether we can dump it in the ocean or take it to a landfill.  We won't be refusing to do any dredging for a client because he's got to keep his mill in operation, but we'll have to come up with alternate disposal sites if he doesn't want to save the wire."  Jebson is quick to point out, however, that "the amount of strand that we're seeing on our barges has dropped over the years, especially in the last year and half."

  "For 25 years there has been no infrastructure or process in place," reminds Fred Schiller.  "Every mill and every log yard was left on its own to figure it out."  Sean Standing accepts this fact, but is quick to point out: "The industry recycles its swifter wire and boom chains, and has come together to move that material up and down the coast, keeping the costs away from the mills.  We can do this," he asserts.