First Major School to Offer Program in Recycling
A recycling studies program, the first of its kind by a major education institution, will start next fall at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden.
The program is directed at developing career potential for metallurgists, engineers, economists and other professionals in the recycling field, says M. J. Mighdoll, executive vice president of the National Assn. of Recycling Industries.
“This is a major recognition of recycling’s importance by one of the nation’s leading scholastic institutions,” Mighdoll said. “This program will provide a variety of college-level specialists with a firm background in recycling for eventual careers in government, as well as in the metals processing and manufacturing industries.”
Today, he reports, scrap makes up major percentages of the metallic raw materials used by U.S. industry.
“The metals recycling industry has come a long way since the days of Paul Revere, when that noted metalsmith melted down scrap to make his famous silverware and copper cannons and fittings for ships,” the executive said. “The industry has grown rapidly in managerial and technological sophistication in recent years, and its national economic importance is now fully recognized.”
Because the industry faces a great need for skilled professionals trained in metallurgical economics and practices, he added, the recycling association and mines school have agreed to cooperate in the development of the metals recycling studies program.
“The establishment by the school of a major program for recycling studies will open up new careers in the recycling industry,” Mighdoll said.
He said the mines school had agreed to establish and conduct the recycling studies in a specific curriculum and will integrate recycling-oriented topics in related engineering, metallurgy, economics, marketing and other courses. The recycling group will provide curriculum advice, guest lecturers, plant tours, classroom aids, research direction and career counseling.
The recycling association, founded in 1913 and based in New York, represents the processors and industrial consumers of recycled metals, paper, textiles and rubber in the United States, Canada and many other countries. It has 1,100 member firms.
