[GRRN] Jerry Powell Strikes Again -- Shooting from the Hip

Pat Franklin (cri@igc.org)
Mon, 19 Apr 1999 14:04:02 -0700 (PDT)


Though some may disagree and others may find them glass half-fullish, Jerry
Powell made several predictions in his Editorial Perspective (Resource
Recycling, April 1999) that bear repeating:

SERVICE INDUSTRIES AGAIN WILL RISE. ". . . investment dollars quickly will
move to service companies, such as well-managed, stable garbage collection
and recycling firms, where investors will again acquaint themselves with
this sector's modest growth and fairly stable profit levels."

NEW PACKAGING WILL RECEIVE LITTLE SCRUTINY. ". . . Overall, however, these
packages will not get the intense scrutiny from recycling's advocates that
might have happened had they been rolled out in early 1990's. Complacency
dominates the recycling industry, and environmental and consumer groups have
far less interest in recycling than earlier in the decade."

"AS BUDGET CRUNCH-TIME APPROACHES, A FEW MORE COMMUNITIES WILL ABANDON
RECYCLING. "My ledger shows a slow rise in the number of cities and
counties backing out of recycling. Some . . . have sharply reduced the
number of materials collected. . . Others have stopped collection all
together. This is not a huge number . . . but the number will continue to
grow this year as municipal budget time comes around and elected officials
make tough choices. As noted above, with the decline in citizen interest in
materials recovery, these municipal actions often do not get the attention
they would have just a few years ago."

Pat Franklin, Executive Director
Container Recycling Institute
1911 Ft. Myer Drive Suite 900
Arlington, VA 22209
703/276-9800 fax 276-9587
email: cri@igc.org
web: www.container-recycling.org