Representatives of Lithuanian aluminum smelter will staff American Retroworks plant in Middlebury, Vermont, as part of a due diligence program and trade partnership.
Good Point Recycling Hosts Lithuanian Smelter Representatives: DeConsus America investing in electronics recycling for European and USA generators
MIDDLEBURY, VERMONT: Good Point Recycling, the TV and Computer Recycling division of American Retroworks Inc., added a new staff member in December. Jonas Kriauciunas, a representative of DeConsus, will be working several different shifts at the Vermont Recycling plant, taking notes and translating Environmental and Safety Management (ESM) policies for sharing and discussion at the Consus BalticAl smelter in Kaunas, Lithuania.
Robin Ingenthron, founder of Good Point Recycling, welcomed Mr. Kriauciunas to Middlebury. "I learned a lot about due diligence by trucking, testing and separating. I think Jonas' volunteering to work in the trenches in the USA is a great start for a Lithuanian company interested in best environmental practices." Ingenthron and Kriauciunas plan to travel to Lithuania in the summer, to see how environmentally safe management has been translated.
DeConsus controls the major aluminum refining and smelting operations in Lithuania, which sells primarily to Mercedes Benz in Germany. A new European Union member state, Lithuania has a population of 3.5 million and a tradition in mining, quarrying, and manufacturing in Eastern Europe. Their major trading partners are Germany and Poland, both OECD members.
"DeConsus wants to recycle more." Kriauciunas states. "We see recycling as the long-term environmental solution for aluminum and other commodities. Electronics are a potential source of aluminum, but we also want to investigate whether our company can provide the best answer for Europe's new WEEE directives."
Other DeConsus representatives are working at Engelhard-Clal metals in England, where DeConsus plans to recycle gold-bearing circuit boards. At this point, Mr. Kriauciunas has no interest in importing CRTs, but wants to learn more how they can be managed by working at a USA plant.
Ingenthron explained how sharing senior management can improve environmental stewardship and everyday business transactions, "I can ask Jonas, 'hey, what do you guys do with the power supplies?' And he can call Lithuania and find out."
Following all applicable USA and international laws, Good Point Recycling will prepare and stage containerloads of material for DeConsus to import. In the future, DeConsus will decide whether to offer more of the demanufacturing and testing at their facility in Kaunas, Lithuania, but American Retroworks will continue to provide domestic hard drive destruction and CRT glass recycling. They have already contacted Lithuania's environmental ministry, which is the chief contact for the Basel Convention.
"In Lithuania, the old attitude towards environmental protection was, 'give them a pound of paper'." says Kriauciunas. "It was all about bureaucracy. Today DeConsus and Good Point Recycling believe that environmental diligence is good business. It's about environmental results."
Both Ingenthron and Kriauciunas are former employees of the Massachusetts state government (DEP and Capital Planning), though they met just recently as recyclers.
Kaunas is Lithuania's second largest city and is considered a gateway between western Europe and eastern Europe. Lithuania borders Russia, Poland, Latvia and Belarus, and has a port on the Baltic sea. It is a member of NATO and the European Union.
Contacts:
American Retroworks Inc. (dba Good Point Recycling)
Middlebury, VT www.retroworks.com
802-382-8500
DeConsus America
Killington, VT
802-775-3651
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