N.B. lands scrap-metal recycler

A first tenant has opened for business at the Marine Commerce Terminal in New Bedford, and it’s in the business of exporting something very familiar to Rhode Islanders.

Scrap metal: the commodity New England waterfronts can’t seem to get enough of.

The New Bedford terminal, launched with a more than $100 million investment by Massachusetts, has bigger ambitions than towering piles of scrap metal bound for new uses. The terminal is designed to be the staging area for wind-power turbines, which are massive and require land-based assembly.

But the first signed tenant is Excel Recycling LLC which operates scrap-recycling facilities at three locations in Massachusetts. A spokeswoman for Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which operates the New Bedford terminal, could not be immediately reached for comment.

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In Rhode Island, where scrap metal has for many years led state exports, the industry is visible to travelers on Interstate 95, where the large heaps grow and shrink along the waterfront.

It’s a real industry, employing 725 people directly in Rhode Island and another 569 through suppliers, according to a 2015 economic impact report prepared for the Institute for Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc.

Despite the economic activity, “There’s not a great public perception” of the industry, acknowledged Joseph Pickard, chief economist and director of commodities for the scrap-recycling institute.

Part of the reason for the image goes beyond the appearance of piles of scrap metal.

Rhode Island in 2015 sued a scrap-metal recycling company located at the Providence waterfront over what it describes as noncompliance with an environmental cleanup agreement. The company, Rhode Island Recycled Metals, has failed to remove several partially and fully submerged vessels in Narragansett Bay, including the hull of a Soviet-era submarine, a passenger ferry, a lobster boat and a tugboat, according to Michael Rubin, assistant attorney general. The state also contends the company breached the environmental containment cap placed on the property by a prior owner.

Last month, a state Superior Court judge appointed a special master to oversee the cleanup.

The Port of Providence, which counts scrap-metal recycler Schnitzer Steel among its tenants, isn’t clamoring for more scrap. In fact, the lease agreement with Schnitzer prevents ProvPort from adding more scrap-metal recyclers, according to a spokesman.

That extends to any expanded lands, should voters in Rhode Island approve a referendum question that will authorize the state to expand the port’s footprint, according to William Fischer, a ProvPort spokesman.

There is no set plan for the lands, which would be owned by the state. But the idea is high-wage, high-demand jobs.

“The last industry that will go there is another scrap yard,” Fischer said. •

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