Save Metal, Save Hawaii

They say that one man’s trash is another’s treasure. But when an island state is sinking under the weight of too much treasure, its value seems a bit of a stretch - unless you spend an hour with general manager James Banigan III at Schnitzer Steel Hawaii Corp. at Campbell Industrial Park, the land of urban work and waste.

Thousands of crushed cars (80,000 per year) and tons of rusty pipes, re-bars and appliances - even smelly fish nets - are piled high at the Hanua Street plant, and none of it goes to Oahu’s shrinking Waimanalo Gulch landfill.

Banigan, a former seminary student from New Jersey, has been on a personal and company mission ever since he arrived in Hawaii in 1992: Save metal, save the earth.

“Hawaii shouldn’t be known as a ‘dump’ state, but for its beauty,” he says in his office, an air-conditioned refuge from the busy scrap yard outside, formerly known at Hawaii Metal Recycling. “Illegal dumping hurts us, and it hurts our business. So to prevent someone from dumping here is priceless.”

He puts his money where his mouth is. The company coordinates Aloha ‘Aina Earth Days every month all over Oahu, bringing in tons of potential treasure for recycling and earning thousands of dollars for the schools and other nonprofits that host them.

Schnitzer hauls the steel and iron waste back to its plant, cleans and shreds it, and ships it to Asian ports for re-manufacture.

Through the General Contractors Association of Hawaii’s environmental and recycling committees, Banigan and others also are spreading the gospel about construction site vigilance in order to keep useful materials out of the landfill.

Schnitzer’s familiar blue roll-off bins are at each Aloha ‘Aina recycling drive along with a host of similarly minded companies who donate their equipment and services to the cause. Proceeds from HI-5 containers and the metal are donated back to the host sites.

Participants are Honolulu Recovery Systems (HI-5, newspaper, cardboard), Unitek Solvent Services (tires), Hawaiian Earth Products (green waste), Intrade Corp. (cellphones, ink cartridges), T & N Services (computers), Interstate Battery Systems, Goodwill Industries, Refrigerant Recycling Inc. and area lawmakers. Partners are Grace Pacific Corp. and the city and state governments.

“We don’t really make money at it, when you account for the equipment and staff time,” Banigan admits. “That costs more than the metal collected. But it doesn’t bother me.”

Another of Banigan’s treasures is his community relations director, Rene Mansho. The former teacher and City Councilwoman has taken to the job with gusto since she came on board in August of 2003.

“It was bigger than I could handle,” recalls Banigan. “Rene was looking for work, so it was a nobrainer. She’s taken us to a whole new level, from a simple concept to the monthly drives that have really taken off.”

The popular drives are booked through 2007, with a waiting list. The next one is Feb. 17 at Kapolei High School.

“I bring people together,” Mansho says, proudly wearing her pink hard hat and bright green safety vest in the Schnitzer yard, “but the nonprofits do all the work.”

For details on the drives, call her at 306-1876 on her cell or at 682-5810. (The office voice message advises potential copper sellers that Schnitzer does not pay for nonferrous metals.)

“I wish we had several weeks to do it,” laments state Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland, who learned to drive a truck while scavenging for McKinley High School’s recent Aloha ‘Aina Day. “The neighbors saw us (collecting) and wanted to join. It’s very contagious when you see people doing that kind of service.”

For major construction projects, recycling also pays. Paul Aniya - a former student of Mansho’s at Kaala Elementary, is convinced. As project manager for Koga Engineering, he figures he saved nearly $500,000 in truck time and landfill tipping fees at the Best Buy site, just by separating out metal for Schnitzer - which paid him around $6,000 - and reusing much of the concrete on site.

“Rather than just disposing of it the usual way, we ended up separating the steel from the concrete.

“We came out with a lot of savings to us and to the landfill,” Aniya says. “It’s a win-win - it helps our bottom line and the environment.”

Maryl Pacific donated $400 - the amount it was paid by Schnitzer for separated scrap metal - to Hawaii Baptist Academy after working on the school’s green building project.

“There are quite a bit of people in the industry trying to collaborate with government and private groups,” Aniya adds. “Slowly you can see concern and individual efforts coming into place.”

Schnitzer also collects ocean fishnet debris, cuts it up with its “giant scissors,” and delivers it all to H-Power. The process not only benefits marine and reef life, Mansho says, “100 tons of it generates enough fuel to power 45 homes for a year.”

Schnitzer has won four awards so far for its efforts: The 2006 Surfrider Foundation Environmental Achievement Award for being “the most environmentally friendly Oahu-based company,” the 2003 and 2004 Hawaii Audubon Society’s Corporate Conservation Award, and the 2005 Hawaii Living Reef Award for Business.

Equally important to Banigan and Mansho, however, is what they teach Hawaii’s next generation about respecting the earth’s resources. Mansho arranges recycling field trips each week for students. They tour Schnitzer, Hawaiian Earth Products, H-Power, RRR Redemption Center and the landfill in Nanakuli, and she caps it off with a picnic at Kapolei Regional Park.

“It was so powerful for the kids,” says Marcia Clinton, a grade 6 teacher at St. Anthony’s School in Kailua. “They, and I, really learned a lot about how much can be recycled.”

Clinton also was field-testing the excursion for the Pacific American Foundation when she took her class by bus to Schnitzer Steel last November.

“It was one of the best field trips we’ve ever had,” she declares.

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