Disruption likely for material flows in mid-January

A looming strike at about three dozen seaports in the Eastern and Southern United States and a winter storm predicted to hit the South in a band from Texas to the Carolinas are poised to disrupt recyclable material flows in mid-January.

In December, the Washington-based Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) warned its members that a labor-management dispute was poised to affect materials exports starting Jan. 15. That date now looms large in the plans of recyclers who export materials from ports throughout the Eastern and Southern U.S.

ReMA was one of more than 250 industry trade associations that cosigned a letter in December urging the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) and the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) to reach agreement on a contract by next Wednesday.

A previous strike by ILA workers against New Jersey-based USMX, which consists of terminal operators and shipping companies active at about three dozen ports in the eastern and southern U.S., ended quickly after the two sides agreed on some points and agreed to continue negotiating about the others until Jan. 15.

In the interim, ILA Executive Vice President Dennis A. Dagget, identified port material handling automation as the most contentious issue remaining, and recent statements indicate that is still the case.

According to United Kingdom-based Metro Shipping Ltd., freight line operator Maersk is urging shippers to clear containers and return empties at East and Gulf Coast ports before Jan. 15 to minimize disruptions.

The information service provider says other shipping lines have announced surcharges to take effect Jan. 15 for customers who choose to attempt to ship from one of the nearly three dozen ports potentially affected by the strike.

Just as recyclers face one potential challenge on the outbound shipping side, another threat to material flows on the collection side is emerging in the South.

What AccuWeather Inc. is calling a major winter storm will start in New Mexico and West Texas and bring between 3-6 inches of snow and up to 14 inches in parts of northern Texas, southeastern Oklahoma, northern Arkansas and western Tennessee.

“Ice accumulations and hazardous travel conditions are expected along the path of the storm from central Texas through the western Carolinas,” adds AccuWeather, whose map has the storm bringing snow and ice in a west-to-East belt that runs from New Mexico to Virginia and the Carolinas on the Atlantic Coast.

The storm will affect road conditions in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee from this Wednesday through Friday. Municipalities in those regions are not typically as equipped to remove ice and snow as their counterparts in the Northeast and Midwest.

“Places like Little Rock [Arkansas], Memphis and Nashville [Tennessee] typically don’t deal with multiple inches of snow from a single storm,” AccuWeather meteorologist Alex DaSilva says. “Some towns could pick up more snow from this storm than what they typically receive for the entire winter.”

The band of snow and ice will then move on to eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, northern Georgia, West Virginia, Virginia, the Carolinas, Maryland and Delaware this Friday and Saturday.

“Motorists should be prepared for dangerous driving conditions from the winter storm around Atlanta, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina," AccuWeather says. "While some snow may fall in these areas during the first hours of the storm from late Thursday night to Friday morning, multiple hours of freezing rain and some sleet are in store, which can glaze exposed surfaces.”

“Everyone in the entire Atlanta metro needs to be prepared for a mix of snow, sleet, freezing rain and ice that could create very hazardous conditions on the roads," DaSilva says.

“More than 23 million people will be impacted by the snow, sleet, freezing rain and ice with this winter storm," AccuWeather meteorologist Bernie Rayno adds. "We expect dangerous travel conditions and potential road closures, especially in areas along the I-40 corridor.” Interstate 40 runs from Wilmington, North Carolina, through cities including Raleigh, North Carolina; Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Oklahoma City.

One more consequence of the widespread cold air, according to AccuWeather, will be “numerous opportunities for snow from the North Central states to the interior Northeast. Lake-effect snow will continue to pile up downwind of the comparatively warmer Great Lakes.”

The predicted storm would follow another disruptive weather event that affected waste and recycling collection routes in a similar band that stretched from Kansas and Missouri east to Maryland and other Mid-Atlantic states in early January.

Freight and transportation-related disruptions, and how to prepare for them, is the topic of a Thursday, Jan. 23, webinar organized by Recycling Today. The free informational event features four transportation and recycling sector professionals: Carl Bentzel of the Federal Maritime Commission; Robyn Lyons of Maersk; Karyn Booth of law firm Thompson Hine LLP (who focuses on transportation law and policy); and Nini Krever of Wilmington Paper Corp. and ReMA’s Paper Stock Industries Chapter.