Metal processors keep officials informed

Processors reported handling 13,000 tons of scrap metal in two months.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- City scrap metal processors are dutifully complying with an amended city ordinance, giving recycling officials valuable, previously unreported information, said Jim Petuch, director of the Mahoning County Commissioners' Reuse & amp; Recycling Division, also known as the Green Team.
Petuch said the information on scrap metal processing is important because processors keep such large amounts of metal from going to landfills. He said before city ordinance required scrap metal processors to keep and report records monthly to the Green Team, scrap metal processing figures were unknown to recycling officials.
Why information matters
Processors have reported handling 13,000 tons of scrap metal in two months. The two-month total of scrap metal alone is more than the total tonnage of all recycled material collected in an entire year in county curbside and drop-off recycling efforts, he said.
Scrap metal records included in the Green Team's recycling reports to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency give the OEPA a more accurate accounting of the county's recycling tonnage, he said.
Reports from scrap-metal processors also will assist Youngstown police and other county law-enforcement officials in tracking down theft of aluminum siding from homes and other buildings, he said. Aluminum siding is expensive, and it is not uncommon for thieves to remove it during the night and then sell it to a scrap-metal processor, he said.
If the scrap-metal processor keeps a daily log, police can access those records and cross-check the daily logs with theft reports, he said.
tullis@vindy.com