In the lead: Manny Bodner provides leadership beyond his Houston scrap company's property lines - Cover Story

Recycling Today, Dec, 2003 by Brian Taylor

The four-day event will feature several sessions covering virtually every secondary commodity traded by ISRI members: ferrous scrap, aluminum, copper, paper, precious metals, lead, zinc, paper, electronic scrap and tires.

Other topics covered in educational sessions will include international trade issues; ISRI's new Scrap3 certification process and its Design for Recycling program; a motivational talk from LaDonna Gatlin, sister to country music's Gatlin Brothers; and a panel of scrap industry patriarchs (Morley Denbo of Tennessee Valley Recycling; Seymour Padnos of Louis Padnos Iron & Metal; and Stanley Rabin of Commercial Metals Co.), who will discuss the colorful history of scrap metal in America.

Also part of this year's event will be the annual golf tournament, an exhibit hall with displays from industry suppliers, and several lunch, dinner and cocktail reception networking events.

Those seeking more information on the June event can contact Manny at scrap@bmicorp.com.

RISING TO THE SUMMIT

Manny Bodner, president of Houston's Bodner Metal & Iron, has been quick to volunteer for civic causes, and saw an ideal opportunity to do so when a call went out to beautify the Space City.

The call for a clean up was in preparation for the 1990 Economic Summit of Industrial Nations, which took place at Houston's Rice University and was hosted by the U.S., while Houstonian George H.W. Bush was in the White House.

"At that time there was a great call for companies to come to the assistance and clean up our city, to make it more presentable," recalls Manny. "There was a lot of effort and a lot of things we did," he says of the Houston business community and his company in particular.

Manny recalls that one of the solid waste companies provided an abundance of containers and trucks to assist the clean up, "and we participated and provided containers also." says Manny. "Speaking as a native Houstonian. it felt like it was a small town again, the way people came together. As a result, they had the Economic Summit, leaders from throughout the world met at Rice University, and we were able to participate in a small way."

Although collecting materials other than metal was something new for the company, volunteering for the Summit provided a toe in the water that has allowed Bodner Metal & Iron to venture into paper, plastics and solid waste as a way of providing additional services to customers. "From that time on, we've begun to provide some of that service to our industrial and commercial accounts as needed. It was out of our scope, but it's certainly something we could do."

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Get the pertinent information on the ISRI Gulf Coast Chapter Convention and other events at www.RecyclingToday.com/ events.

The author is editor of Recycling Today and can be contacted via e-mail at btaylor@RecyclingToday.com.