A man discards recyclable materials at Recylce Central in Recology, San Francisco, California on November 16, 2016. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

I got my first BB gun when I was about 9 or 10 years old. Appropriately, I look almost exactly the same as Ralphy in the BB gun-centered storyline in the holiday classic "Christmas Story". So now you have this picture.

Unlike Ralphie, I grew up in a family salvage farm in Mesabi Iron Range in northern Minnesota in the 1980s. My parents are not worried about my ejaculation, because stray nails and tetanus pose a more permanent threat.

One day, I found something a few acres behind our rusty steel cemetery: when the BB hit the windshield of a wrecked car, the sound it made was the perfect sound on earth. I like it very much and I photographed every windshield I could find. I spent a whole afternoon.

Looking back, I never thought about what I might have done wrong. That is, until my father went home angrily. In those "bad pasts", the family was lucky to make $100 from selling scraps. Within a day, I destroyed a salvaged windshield worth thousands of dollars. His punishment of me was the worst he could think of. I had to walk back to the store and apologize to my grandfather.

My trembling legs took me back to Quonset hut, where my family checked the engine. Grandpa sat behind the table, waiting for me. Years later, I learned that he planned to read me the Riot Act, but he lost his courage when he watched me slowly walking down the road with tears. Instead, he told me not to do this anymore and gave me some coins for popular machines.

I learned a valuable lesson that day. A wrecked car may still contain valuable parts. Garbage is just a different asset.

Today, the garbage business seems to pervade our economy and even our politics. The principle of salvage trade seems very suitable for the next few years.

Earlier this year, Republicans in Minnesota elected state Senator Jeremy Miller as their new majority leader. Miller comes from a family of garbage dealers in Winona. Indeed, my politics does not always coincide with Miller's. Nonetheless, I feel better that after all his real pets have died in a garbage dump accident, the senior may also play with a fake pet made of auto parts.

Of course, Miller's industry is now called "recycling" for obvious marketing reasons. People like the term "recycling" because it promises an environmentally friendly form of market capitalism. Little things for everyone.

But recycling has never been a real environment, and it is still not. Author and sustainability advocate Sara Goddard highlighted the negligible benefits of our favorite "green" solution to the overproduction of disposable products.

"In the final analysis, recycling is a profitable business, not an environmental campaign," Goddard wrote in her blog Green That Life. "It is certain that if done well, recycling can produce environmental benefits, but the main industry driver is the demand for specific recyclable substances. If this substance has a strong resale market, then it will be recycled. use."

We are not just talking about the little blue container you put under the sink. The recycling industry is huge.

This brings us to Iron Range's new and old grandfather, the steel company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. Cliffs is one of the oldest mining companies on the Mesabi Range and is now the largest steel manufacturer in the United States. It surpassed U.S. Steel last year. The company achieved this leap mainly by relying on a new vertical integration model, which includes the scrap metal we used to handle in the garbage dump.

Last month, Cliffs acquired Detroit's ferrous metal processing and trading company for $775 million. This is a major investment in a company operating a large dump in North America.

Why would a company buy a distorted, damaged version of its product line? The answer is because of the efficient new furnace.

Traditional "old" blast furnaces use low-grade iron ore, which has been crushed and hot rolled into iron flint pellets with an iron content of about 65%. These are the particles that I saw from the hoppers of Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range trains, which were traveling south on the tracks behind the dump. But change is coming.

Electric arc furnaces produce small batches of steel, tailored to the specific needs of the ever-changing manufacturing industry. These new furnaces use a combination of high-grade ore types and even scrap steel. The whole world is shifting from blast furnace to electric arc furnace.

This is why Cleveland Cliffs built a new "Hot Pressed Iron" (HBI) plant in Toledo, Ohio, which uses different, higher iron pellets also produced in northern Minnesota. Just last month, Cliffs announced that it would use one of its new acquisitions, the Minorca Mine in Virginia, Minnesota, to provide iron for its Silver Bay bullion production facility. There is still hope that Cliffs might one day build another HBI plant in northern Minnesota, and it makes sense that they might do so.

They are not the only ones moving in this direction. In late October, Cliffs’ main competitor, U.S. Steel, announced that it would use iron from its Minnesota ore business to expand electric arc furnace production.

Blast furnaces and traditional iron flint pellets are still an important part of the steel industry, but their market share will only decline in the next few decades. The new scrap burning furnace is the reason, and why U.S. Steel and Cliffs plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. (And if they really want it, they can do it faster).

But this is why Iron Range's largest industry, the entire iron ore mining tradition we are proud of, is about to undergo tremendous internal changes. Soon, there will be fewer mines, better technology, higher-paying jobs and fewer workers. And, at least to a certain extent, it's all because the industry is adding value to the ore, and frankly, it ignored garbage in the past.

Scrap may be a viable part of steel and manufacturing, but it will not reward endless waste. Yes, copper, steel, and aluminum have scrap value, but there are not many more valuable materials produced by households.

A few years ago, I accompanied the Boy Scouts on a field trip to the Itasca County Solid Waste Department. I was surprised to find that dry corrugated cardboard is the most valuable recycled household material collected in the county. Most other everyday materials, such as glass, cans, and paper, are at best a break-even proposition, while plastic is a net loss. In fact, across the country, cities and counties pay for plastic recycling. In any case, most of them will eventually be thrown into the trash can.

Therefore, the plastic bottles on my desk are now more expensive to recycle than to manufacture. Open market factors like this explain why steel companies around the world are achieving carbon neutrality, while the plastic islands in the Pacific are growing.

Two major changes seem to define our era. The first is that we can no longer expand for expansion. "Growth" requires inward guidance. In general, we must make better use of what we have.

Second, we will not save the world just by doing the right thing. That's great, but a quick scroll through my social media feed shows that this is not what people think. On the contrary, when we recognize the value of doing so, we will save the world-the irreplaceable attributes of our natural world are actually more valuable than their destruction.

In fact, the only thing that comforts me about the state of the world is the intrinsic value of what I already have. We can find value in the parts and build some useful things from the wreckage. But first we must try.

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By: Aaron Brown, Minnesota Reformers November 8, 2021

I got my first BB gun when I was about 9 or 10 years old. Appropriately, I look almost exactly the same as Ralphy in the BB gun-centered storyline in the holiday classic "Christmas Story". So now you have this picture.

Unlike Ralphie, I grew up in a family salvage farm in Mesabi Iron Range in northern Minnesota in the 1980s. My parents are not worried about my ejaculation, because stray nails and tetanus pose a more permanent threat.

One day, I found something a few acres behind our rusty steel cemetery: when the BB hit the windshield of a wrecked car, the sound it made was the perfect sound on earth. I like it very much and I photographed every windshield I could find. I spent a whole afternoon.

Looking back, I never thought about what I might have done wrong. That is, until my father went home angrily. In those "bad pasts", the family was lucky to make $100 from selling scraps. Within a day, I destroyed a salvaged windshield worth thousands of dollars. His punishment of me was the worst he could think of. I had to walk back to the store and apologize to my grandfather.

My trembling legs took me back to Quonset hut, where my family checked the engine. Grandpa sat behind the table, waiting for me. Years later, I learned that he planned to read me the Riot Act, but he lost his courage when he watched me slowly walking down the road with tears. Instead, he told me not to do this anymore and gave me some coins for popular machines.

I learned a valuable lesson that day. A wrecked car may still contain valuable parts. Garbage is just a different asset.

Today, the garbage business seems to pervade our economy and even our politics. The principle of salvage trade seems very suitable for the next few years.

Earlier this year, Republicans in Minnesota elected state Senator Jeremy Miller as their new majority leader. Miller comes from a family of garbage dealers in Winona. Indeed, my politics does not always coincide with Miller's. Nonetheless, I feel better that after all his real pets have died in a garbage dump accident, the senior may also play with a fake pet made of auto parts.

Of course, Miller's industry is now called "recycling" for obvious marketing reasons. People like the term "recycling" because it promises an environmentally friendly form of market capitalism. Little things for everyone.

But recycling has never been a real environment, and it is still not. Author and sustainability advocate Sara Goddard highlighted the negligible benefits of our favorite "green" solution to the overproduction of disposable products.

"In the final analysis, recycling is a profitable business, not an environmental campaign," Goddard wrote in her blog Green That Life. "It is certain that if done well, recycling can produce environmental benefits, but the main industry driver is the demand for specific recyclable substances. If this substance has a strong resale market, then it will be recycled. use."

We are not just talking about the little blue container you put under the sink. The recycling industry is huge.

This brings us to Iron Range's new and old grandfather, the steel company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. Cliffs is one of the oldest mining companies on the Mesabi Range and is now the largest steel manufacturer in the United States. It surpassed U.S. Steel last year. The company achieved this leap mainly by relying on a new vertical integration model, which includes the scrap metal we used to handle in the garbage dump.

Last month, Cliffs acquired Detroit's ferrous metal processing and trading company for $775 million. This is a major investment in a company operating a large dump in North America.

Why would a company buy a distorted, damaged version of its product line? The answer is because of the efficient new furnace.

Traditional "old" blast furnaces use low-grade iron ore, which has been crushed and hot rolled into iron flint pellets with an iron content of about 65%. These are the particles that I saw from the hoppers of Duluth, Missabe, and Iron Range trains, which were traveling south on the tracks behind the dump. But change is coming.

Electric arc furnaces produce small batches of steel, tailored to the specific needs of the ever-changing manufacturing industry. These new furnaces use a combination of high-grade ore types and even scrap steel. The whole world is shifting from blast furnace to electric arc furnace.

This is why Cleveland Cliffs built a new "Hot Pressed Iron" (HBI) plant in Toledo, Ohio, which uses different, higher iron pellets also produced in northern Minnesota. Just last month, Cliffs announced that it would use one of its new acquisitions, the Minorca Mine in Virginia, Minnesota, to provide iron for its Silver Bay bullion production facility. There is still hope that Cliffs might one day build another HBI plant in northern Minnesota, and it makes sense that they might do so.

They are not the only ones moving in this direction. In late October, Cliffs’ main competitor, U.S. Steel, announced that it would use iron from its Minnesota ore business to expand electric arc furnace production.

Blast furnaces and traditional iron flint pellets are still an important part of the steel industry, but their market share will only decline in the next few decades. The new scrap burning furnace is the reason, and why U.S. Steel and Cliffs plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. (And if they really want it, they can do it faster).

But this is why Iron Range's largest industry, the entire iron ore mining tradition we are proud of, is about to undergo tremendous internal changes. Soon, there will be fewer mines, better technology, higher-paying jobs and fewer workers. And, at least to a certain extent, it's all because the industry is adding value to the ore, and frankly, it ignored garbage in the past.

Scrap may be a viable part of steel and manufacturing, but it will not reward endless waste. Yes, copper, steel, and aluminum have scrap value, but there are not many more valuable materials produced by households.

A few years ago, I accompanied the Boy Scouts on a field trip to the Itasca County Solid Waste Department. I was surprised to find that dry corrugated cardboard is the most valuable recycled household material collected in the county. Most other everyday materials, such as glass, cans, and paper, are at best a break-even proposition, while plastic is a net loss. In fact, across the country, cities and counties pay for plastic recycling. In any case, most of them will eventually be thrown into the trash can.

Therefore, the plastic bottles on my desk are now more expensive to recycle than to manufacture. Open market factors like this explain why steel companies around the world are achieving carbon neutrality, while the plastic islands in the Pacific are growing.

Two major changes seem to define our era. The first is that we can no longer expand for expansion. "Growth" requires inward guidance. In general, we must make better use of what we have.

Second, we will not save the world just by doing the right thing. That's great, but a quick scroll through my social media feed shows that this is not what people think. On the contrary, when we recognize the value of doing so, we will save the world-the irreplaceable attributes of our natural world are actually more valuable than their destruction.

In fact, the only thing that comforts me about the state of the world is the intrinsic value of what I already have. We can find value in the parts and build some useful things from the wreckage. But first we must try.

The Minnesota Reformer is part of the States Newsroom, a network of news organizations supported by a grant and donor alliance, and a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota reformers maintain editorial independence. If you have any questions, please contact the editor Patrick Coolican: info@minnesotareformer.com. Follow the Minnesota reformers on Facebook and Twitter.

Our stories may be republished or printed online under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask you to edit or shorten the style only, provide an appropriate attribution and a link to our website. Please refer to our reposting guidelines to use photos and graphics.

Aaron J. Brown is a writer, community college lecturer, and radio producer from Iron Range in northern Minnesota.

The Minnesota Reformers is an independent non-profit news organization dedicated to let Minnesota people understand and unearth stories that other media can’t or won’t tell. We track the actions of elected officials in the halls of government — and monitor powerful forces that try to influence them. But we also tell you stories about people affected by the actions of the government and big companies in the streets, bars and parks, farms and warehouses. And we are free. No ads. There is no paywall.

Our stories may be republished or printed online under the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask you to edit or shorten the style only, provide an appropriate attribution and a link to our website.