Options Considered for Wisconsin Creek Cleanup

Chicago, IL— U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has recently signed agreements with Mercury Marine and Amcast Industrial Corp., the companies responsible for contamination at the Cedar Creek site in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.
Under the agreements, the companies will summarize past site investigations and plan additional sampling for summer 2003. They will also evaluate human health and ecosystem risks, and develop a list of cleanup options. After reviewing the research, EPA will evaluate the cleanup options and decide which one to implement.

Mercury Marine, a boat engine manufacturer that operated a now closed aluminum die-casting plant, used PCB-containing fluids and discharged them to the creek, which flows into the Milwaukee River. Automotive industry supplier Amcast, which also discharged waste fluids to the creek, also had aluminum die-casting operations.

Recycle America Alliance's New President Named

Houston, TX— Steven T. Ragiel has been named President of the Recycle America Alliance LLC.

Ragiel, 39, has been Waste Management's Vice President of Recycling and Trading since 1997. In this position, he had responsibility for all aspects of the Company's recycling activities including processing, commodity marketing, financial trading and application of practical technology. Among these technology projects are single-stream processing of residential recyclables and star screen processing of commercial recyclables. Other projects include the increased yield and enhanced quality of glass and plastics recycling through optical sorting.

From 1992 to 1997, he led Waste Management's recycling operations in Europe and Asia, including developing composting, co-composting, fiber fuel, RDF, plastics, glass and waste paper recovery operations. Ragiel joined Waste Management in 1990 as a Regional Recycling Manager in Atlanta.

Ragiel is a board member of the National Recycling Coalition and one of the founders of the Georgia Recycling Coalition. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with a degree in chemical engineering.

Akron Firm Receives Tire Recycling Grant

Akron, OH— Akron's former trash-burning power plant is getting new equipment to burn more scrap tires, funded in part by a DRLP Recycling Market Development Grant.

Akron Thermal, which runs the plant that produces steam heat and air conditioning for 200 downtown Akron buildings, received $340,750 from the state to help cover the costs of new equipment to allow wood chips and tire-derived fuel pellets in a second boiler, according to an article in the January 23, 2003, issue of The (Akron) Beacon Journal.
Last year Akron Thermal received $310,000 from DRLP to equip another boiler at the old Recycling Energy Systems plant.

In each case, the company must provide at least equivalent matching funds.

The Recycling Energy System plant stopped burning trash in 1995 to avoid the $30 million price tag for installing equipment to meet federal clean-air mandates.

Environmental Safeguards Secures Working Capital

Houston, TX— Environmental Safeguards, Inc. announced that it signed a loan commitment from a private investor group for $1,500,000 to provide the company with increased financial flexibility.

The loan commitment is subject to lender due diligence and loan documentation. The company anticipates that the loan will be closed by March 20, 2003.

James S. Percell, chairman and president, stated: "Upon closing of this loan commitment we will have the working capital to further implement our marketing efforts while simultaneously expanding our existing markets in the continental United States."

The Company's patented ITD technology uses a heat jacketed rotating chamber that vaporizes hydro-carbons and hydrocarbon derivatives from contaminated materials, and a condenser that liquefies the vapor into hydrocarbon liquids of better than 99% purity, for reuse. A single ITD unit can process one to 10 short tons of waste per hour, depending on its content. In addition to the United States, soil remediation and hydrocarbon recycling operations have been successfully conducted in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Scotland and the U.A.E. Since becoming fully operational six years ago, the Company has processed more than 750,000 tons of contaminated waste, recovering in excess of 15 million gallons of hydrocarbon fluids.

Casella Acquires Hardwick Landfill

Rutland, VT— Casella Waste Systems, Inc., a regional, non-hazardous solid waste services company, announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the Hardwick Sanitary Landfill in Hardwick, Massachusetts.

The facility is primarily a construction and demolition debris landfill, although it is allowed to accept a limited amount of municipal solid waste and certain difficult to manage wastes, the company said. The facility currently is permitted to accept 300 tons per day, including 50 tons per day of MSW.

"Clearly, this is a significant milestone in our strategic effort not only to add disposal capacity in our core solid waste business, but also to strengthen and improve our eastern Massachusetts operations," John W. Casella, chairman and chief executive officer of Casella Waste Systems, said. "There is an opportunity here to work closely with state and local officials to develop this facility into a crucial part of Massachusetts' solid waste infrastructure."

The company said the closing of the transaction for the purchase of the landfill is expected to take place in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2003. The company received an operating permit for the facility's newly constructed Phase II this week.

Macsteel Service Centers USA Acquires Regal Steel Supply

Chicago, IL— Macsteel Service Centers USA Inc., has acquired the business and assets of Regal Steel Supply, headquartered in Stockton, California. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

As a result of the acquisition, Regal Steel will operate as a Macsteel Service Centers USA division, under its existing name. Current Regal management will continue to operate the facility.

Regal Steel Supply is currently owned jointly by the Corus Group and Birch Lakes Investments, and is a Long Products service center. The company operates facilities in Stockton and Fontana, California and maintains an extensive inventory of beams and other structural products supplying building and construction industries.

Macsteel Service Centers USA processes and distributes a full range of carbon steel, general line, stainless and aluminum flat rolled and specialty products to customers throughout North America.

Sonoco Raises Paperboard Prices

Hartsville, SC— Jim Bowen, senior vice president, global paper operations said that Sonoco will raise prices on uncoated recycled paperboard by $50 per ton, effective March 31, 2003.

"Our industry is experiencing extraordinary increases in natural gas, fuel oil, and other petroleum based products. In particular, natural gas prices have continued to increase and have soared over the last few months. We are also experiencing significant increases in health care, pension and all insurance costs. In spite of our continuing cost reduction initiatives, we can no longer absorb these increases. It is our intent to revisit the energy portion of this increase when more normal rates return."

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Timken Raises Steel Bar Prices

Canton, OH— In response to sharply higher raw material and energy costs, The Timken Corporation announced price increases on steel bar products. Prices will increase by $20 per ton for all sizes and grades of carbon and alloy steel bars effective with new orders received beginning March 14, 2003.

In addition to the base price increase on steel bars, all thermal-treated bar products will incur an additional increase. Single thermal-treated bar products will increase by an additional $20 per ton, except for spheroidize-annealing which, along with double and triple thermal treatments, will increase by $40 per ton.

"This new pricing structure places Timken more in line with current domestic market prices," said Robert N. Keeler, director - steel sales - North and South America. "The industry has seen escalating bar prices due to increasing raw material and energy costs. Rapidly rising natural gas prices have further impacted our heat-treated steel products."

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Hi-Rise Personnel Appointments

Wooster, OH— Hi-Rise Recycling Companies announced two significant personnel appointments. Kerry Christofanelli joins the team as Chief Financial Officer and Dennis B. Donahue, Jr. now heads up the company's sales and marketing efforts.

Kerry Christofanelli, the new Wooster, Ohio-based CFO, is the senior executive responsible for overseeing financial functions including internal reporting, accounting and treasury and tax matters, as well as financial planning, budgeting and analysis. Prior to joining Hi-Rise, Mr. Christofanelli was Vice President and CFO at Morton Custom Plastics, in Morton, Illinois. He has also held finance and accounting positions at Winona National Bank, SAP America, Deloitte, Haskins & Sells and Burroughs Corp. Mr. Christofanelli received a B.S. degree in Accounting from Arizona State University and an MBA degree from the University of Arizona.

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Dooley Joins SalvageSale

Houston, TX— SalvageSale, Inc., the global online salvage marketplace and salvor services provider for the claims recovery and commercial salvage markets, announced the hiring of Kevin T. Dooley as its new senior vice president of Sales and Marketing.

Dooley comes to SalvageSale from Rush Creek Solutions, Inc., a Denver- based technology services provider focused on the development and implementation of client acquisition and retention programs, where he served as senior vice president of Business Development and Chief Sales Officer. Prior to that he spent eleven years with Compaq Computer Corporation in various sales and marketing positions, including commercial sales responsibility for the energy and healthcare vertical markets in Compaq's North American Operations.

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Allegheny Announces Price Increase

Pittsburgh, PA— Allegheny Ludlum, an Allegheny Technologies company, announced that it is increasing prices for hot- and cold-rolled stainless steel sheet, strip and continuous mill plate products by approximately 3%. The price increase is effective with shipments on March 17, 2003 and applies to all service center and direct mill customers. Allegheny Ludlum's current raw material surcharge formula remains in effect.

In addition, Allegheny Ludlum is implementing a 5% fuel surcharge, which will be applied to all freight bills for all products effective with shipments March 17, 2003. The fuel surcharge will be calculated based upon Allegheny Ludlum's total freight expense, as opposed to the equalized freight rate. This surcharge is being administered to recover carrier surcharges, which are being assessed to Allegheny Ludlum on all shipments.

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New Board Member at National Steel Corp

Mishawaka, IN— National Steel Corporation announced Mr. Freman Hendrix was appointed to the Board of Directors at its board meeting on February 25, 2003. Mr. Hendrix is Chief Operations Officer of Strategic Staffing Solutions, a company that provides information technology and consulting services. Prior to 2001, Mr. Hendrix served for almost eight years in the administration of Dennis Archer, the Mayor of Detroit as Chief of Staff and most recently as Deputy Mayor and Chief Administrative Officer.

The United Steel Workers of America nominated Mr. Hendrix pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement. He has also served as Chairman of the Detroit Board of Education overseeing the School Improvement Plan for the Detroit public schools. In 2000 he was appointed to the St. John Health System Board of Directors. He served on the Federal Home Loan Bank Board of Indianapolis and was a member of the Audit Committee and Executive Compensation Committee. He has been active in the Democratic National Committee. A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Hendrix earned a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Eastern Michigan University.

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Ball Corp. Acquires Metal Packaging Intl.

Broomfield, CO— Ball Corporation and Metal Packaging International, Inc. (MPI) announced that Ball has acquired MPI, a manufacturer of aluminum ends for beverage cans.

MPI operates a single plant in Northglenn, Colorado, producing just over 2 billion beverage can ends a year, primarily for soft drink companies. The company had sales of approximately $42 million in 2002.

Ball produces approximately 32 billion beverage cans and ends a year in North America. Ball said the MPI volumes would be consolidated into existing Ball end manufacturing operations and the Northglenn facility would be closed. Ball produces beverage can ends in Golden, Colorado; Monticello, Indiana; Findlay, Ohio; Reidsville, North Carolina and Bristol, Virginia.

Ball purchased MPI from a private investor. The purchase price was not disclosed. Ball expects after-tax returns from the acquired business to exceed Ball's cost of capital.

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NASSCO Receives Award from EPA

San Diego, CA— National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO), a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics, has received an award from the California Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in recognition of pollution prevention programs initiated by the shipyard during National Pollution Prevention Week in 2002.

Edwin Lowry, Director of the California EPA's Department of Toxic Substances Control, presented the award to NASSCO for implementing a wide- ranging program of activities targeted at improving air and water quality and managing solid waste. "We have followed a three-part environmental improvement effort at NASSCO that includes pollution prevention in the shipyard, training for employees, subcontractors and suppliers, and community outreach," said Richard Vortmann, president of NASSCO. "We used National Pollution Prevention Week 2002 as a platform to expand our efforts and introduce new projects in each of these areas."