1 COUNTERPARTS page 47 Joel Tauber is at the forefront of scrap-metal recycling. — fine china, fine crystal and interesting gifts — Bloomfield Plaza • 6566 Telegraph Road at Maple • Bloomfield Hills 851-5533 Give your heart an extra helping. Say no to high-fat foods. . .• -. 4 48 4, American Heart Association .. . the combined GNPs of all the oth- er Middle Eastern countries. The U.S. recycling business is concentrated in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Tlli- nois, known collectively as the in- dustrial sector, and less affectionately as the Rust Belt. The billion-dollar recycling in- dustry is made up of about 85 percent Jewish-owned compa- nies. There are approximately 2,000 recycling firms in the Unit- ed States, transforming metal, paper, plastic, rubber and iron (or ferrous) into reusable mate- rials. That translates into about 100 million tons of recycled ma- terial each year. And that figure has been increasing from year to year due to stringent public waste disposal and environmen- tal policies. 'We're bringing Americans in the recycling industry together with Israeli businesses," said Mr. Tauber. "The mission has a much broader vision. By developing re- lationships we're trying to have a common peoplehood. It goes with the continuity and identity agenda that we're trying to solve." The idea of the mission was in- troduced at a scrap-metal indus- try convention in 1994. The preliminary plan, according to Mr. Tauber, calls for a mission every other year. Recently, Stein and Liss, an iron/ferrous recy- cling company in Nashville, opened a plant in Israel. They joined the non-ferrous recycling firm Roth Brothers Smelting Corp. of Syracuse, which has one of the largest plants in Israel. Mr. Tauber will be joined on the mission by David Aronow, president of Detroit-based Arco Alloys Corp., which is considered one of the leading scrap-metal and recycling dealers in the area. "The mission will allow us to see firsthand the industrial movement in Israel," said David Serfs, mission chair and CEO of Colonial Metals Co., a Columbia, Penn., manufacturer of brass, bronze and aluminum ingots. "Not to go is to miss the op- portunity of a lifetime," he said. "This is an ideal way to get a bet- ter insight into what Israel is do- c2\ ing for its people. You've got to see it for yourself and not rely on what's on CNN." Mr. Serfs, whose firm provides plumbing and casting products for the home industry, will be making his 11th trip to Israel. Nearly 40 firms have already committed to the trip, which be- gins Oct. 26 and goes through Nov. 1, said mission co-chair Marvin Fink, president of Allied Metal Co., a Chicago-based man- ufacturer of secondary aluminum ingots. "Just getting people to go to Israel is the best salesman that we have," he said. Leaders in the recycling in- dustry concede that there are modest opportunities for Ameri- can recycling businesses in Israel. Although Israel has several alu- minum plants, it is not consid- ered industrialized, or a big enough producer of scrap met- al, to support a recycling indus- try. But the UJA mission is characteristically more concerned with the "potential for Israel." According to Mr. Fink, the long-term goals are two-fold: de- veloping contacts with Israeli en- trepreneurs and raising funds for other UJA missions. UJA raises funds for Jewish programs and immigrants out- side the United States that are distributed through the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Amer- ican Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. UJA oversees ap- proximately 100 missions to Is- rael per year. The Industrial Mission to Is- rael for the Recycling Industry will include a range of cultural and social activities, including Kabbalat Shabbat at the West- ern Wall, a walking tour of the Old City's Jewish Quarter, a trip to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and a trip to the Golan Wineries. El 0 For more information on the UJA Industrial Mission to Israel for the Recycling Industry, con- tact UJA, (212) 880-1283.