INDUSTRY BACKGROUND

 

The reconditioning industry performs a valuable environmental service: cleaning and reconditioning industrial containers to prepare them for reuse rather than disposal.

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• Reconditioning facilities, like those owned by CLCM, clean, refurbish and repaint millions of industrial containers that meet the EPA's "Empty Container Rule" every year so that they can be reused multiple times before being recycled. 

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• In 2015, for example, the reconditioning industry recycled 27.6 million steel drums, 3.8 million plastic drums, and 3.1 million totes. In 2017, the CLCM facilities in Wisconsin (also known as Mid-America Steel Drum) reconditioned and resold more than one million containers.

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• Without this industry, these containers would otherwise add to landfills. More raw materials would need to be consumed to manufacture millions of new, single-use containers to replace those in landfills.