See and be seen Networking remained the number one activity at ISRI’s annual convention in San Diego

Jun 01, 2010 | 04:25 AM |

No matter what city the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) chooses to host its annual convention, the recycling industry's army of delegates takes over the town.

For five days in May, San Diego took on temporary status as "Recycling Central" when just shy of 4,500 delegates—the second-largest attendance on record—made California's second-largest city their home away from home.

Although known as a big convention town, San Diego seemed to take a special shine to ISRI. Cab drivers asked riders again and again what group was in town, and signs inviting ISRI members to come on in were posted in the windows of nearly every shop and restaurant in the adjacent Gaslamp Quarter.

This year's attendance figure might have set a new record were it not for the timing of the event. Noticeably absent were a number of scrap brokers who passed up the convention because it was held in the first week of the month, when they are busy shopping for scrap for their client mills. The downward momentum of the market also kept other members at home as they pushed to unload inventory to manage costs.....