Spill caused by deer is kept out of river.

Click to see Map-A-Spill

Click to see products for emergency spill response

The above headline is from this article at GreenBiz.com. It caught my eye because Safety-Kleen, one of our distribution partners, offers incineration of used PIG® Absorbent products. The absorbents help fuel kilns that make raw material for cement. No waste goes to a landfill, and nearly all of the emissions are clean.

That kind of incineration, called waste-to-energy recovery, actually is recycling, as defined by EPA 40 CFR 261.6. So it’s not really a matter of burning OR recycling.
Still, the GreenBiz.com article does give points that create a sharper understanding of recycling:

• There often isn’t enough demand for recycled materials
• More greenhouse gases are emitted in the recycling process than the manufacturing of a new product
• We often have no idea where recyclables actually go when they’re shipped overseas

This summer, as part of New Pig’s wellness initiative, yoga was brought onsite for a trial as a wellness activity.

I, for one, always frowned at yoga, believing it was a low-cardio activity that does not provide a stimulating workout.  My initial thoughts on yoga were that it would not provide me with the oomph and physical activity that I would normally get from lifting weights or playing basketball. Let me assure you, I was wrong!

I learned the hard way through some of the vigorous stretches and through transitioning from posture to posture that this is not something to be taken lightly. I leave some sessions sore and out of breath from time to time.  I find the poses helped me increase my flexibility. Though I’m a far cry from being able to do a spilt, I can safely say that I can sit and reach and touch my toes with my hands. This is something I have not been able to do in the past.

All in all, I find the stretching techniques and back-bending postures, as well as the meditation and instruction on how to improve breathing, intriguing and I now look forward to class every week. But, what I get out of it most is that I leave with a big smile on my face feeling pretty mellow for the rest of the day. The class has helped me relax tremendously! My wife agrees with my assessment, and suggests that I continue taking yoga since I’m much more tolerable after the class :-).  I attribute this to our dear instructor Diane Strohm, who challenges us by leading us through some pretty tough stretches while reminding us to honor our body and teaching us how to relax. Needless to say, I am not alone in my enjoyment of yoga. We are in our third session this fall and the class is a big hit.

Six months later in my journey, I chant the sacred sound of Omm … I pose like a cat … I do some weird stretches and have gotten to know some fellow Piggers in a new way through light-hearted conversation and from the shared experience of our class.

I think this wellness activity was a success! Namaste.

I’m going to throw some depressing words at you, but please hang in there and read to the end …

Months of newscasts delivering details of unimaginable corporate greed have stoked our collective cynicism and grown a sense of panic.

Government bailouts, handouts and help for seemingly everyone but the average worker threaten to dull our sympathies and crush our faith.

Many wonder whether American manufacturing as we know it will continue to exist.

We question whether we’ll be able to maintain our high standard of living.

Is anyone thinking about those who work hard to keep our facilities running?

People still want to believe in something good, if they could just find it among the reports of so much being so bad.

… because those words appear within one of the most heartwarming manufacturing-related stories that you’ll read today.

About this post’s headline: Don’t get me wrong. I’m happily married to a librarian.

But I just read about Hard Hatted Women, a group trying to attract women to trade and technical careers. HHW has high hopes that women will benefit from President-elect Obama’s proposed big hike in public construction.

Surely our customers include some hard-hatted women who are veterans at keeping workplaces running. I’d love to hear from one (or more!) about her work.

There’s one of our famous free gifts in it for you. It would only take a fifteen-minute call. I can avoid giving your name and/or company if need be. Email me or just call New Pig (1-800-992-8871 for the switchboard) and ask for Keith.

Here’s another good article on skill shortage related to maintenance. The gist: Who’s gonna replace all the retirees? No one wants to go into maintenance.

It’s said to be a crisis. The article says you can hardly find mechanics and technicians … that we could use 25,000 more welders alone per year … that welding ties into half the GNP of the U.S. So this is important stuff.

These words in the article really got me thinking:

Maintenance technicians have an image problem. Their jobs are considered “dirty.” Some consider them “grease monkeys.” The conventional thinking is: If you pursue a career in manufacturing or construction, prepare to get your hands dirty. Unfortunately, this inaccurate perception contributes to a shortage of skilled workers.

It made me connect a few things.

First, New Pig is all about dirty jobs. Particularly wet dirty jobs. We publish a lot of “before” images of how messy workplaces can get.

Second, our leading products (PIG® Absorbents) are low-tech answers for workplace messes. You don’t need skill to use them. You do need to choose the right product and know what you’re doing when using haz-mat products, but for the most part, there’s not much to it.

In other words, we often show maintenance staff in dirty settings doing low-skill work.

Not always. We show skilled maintenance as well: techs doing repairs, emergency responders containing spills.

And we have the highest respect for our customers. We give better service than many companies selling high-tech products. Nothing matters more to us than the people keeping their facilities running.

Plus, we have technical specialists because maintenance work often gets complicated: chemicals, regulations, complex machines.

So we get how worthy and valuable maintenance is.

But at some companies, management doesn’t get it. Joel Leonard, the leading “maintenance evangelist” pinpoints the marketing of maintenance as the main issue. “Most executives do not truly appreciate maintenance nor understand its purpose.”

The way I’m connecting all these things is:

• We serve maintenance professionals.
• We’re pretty good at marketing.
• If the maintenance pro needs marketing, maybe we can help.

Maybe we even have a special opportunity to say, “Hey, there’s a lot more to maintenance than the low-skill, dirty-job niche that we highlight.”

I’m gonna be looking for ways to do that.

It’s pig-related, but there’s nothing funny in the stories about Ireland warning people not to eat Irish pork. Just sad for anyone whose health is threatened, as well as a $600 million industry.

OSHA released their annual Top 10 list and once again the same violations jockeyed for position.

Let’s do it David Letterman style, shall we?

(In my worst David Letterman voice) Paul, can I get some music for this? Something catchy maybe …

10. Electrical—General Requirements
Watts and amps and volts… oh my!

9. Machine Guarding—General Requirements
All right! Gimme a high-three!!!

8. Ladders
Now it’s not just walking under one that is bad luck …

7. Powered Industrial Trucks
No vehicle since “Christin:’ has caused this much destruction …

6. Electrical—Wiring Methods
Shocking, isn’t it?

5. Lockout/Tagout
Control yourself, would ya?

4. Respiratory Protection
No, holding your breath does not count …

3. Fall Protection—General Requirements
Geronimo!

2. Hazard Communications
Hey, this isn’t lemonade!

And the number one citation issued most by OSHA is …

1. Scaffolding—General Requirements
Huh … Benny was up here with me a second ago …

So, witty comments and jokes aside, it looks just like the lists from years prior. Companies are continually, for some reason, violating the law by not meeting these standards. Is it carelessness? Fear? Inability to understand the standard? Indifference?

Whatever the reason, these violations are, every year, the top 10 on the list.

What can you do?

1. Educate yourself on the standards. Find out which ones apply to your company and become an expert on them.
2. Next, educate your employees, supervisors especially, on the importance of following the standards put in place by OSHA.
3. Develop written plans. Outline exactly what you do when it comes to these standards.
4. Train all employees according to the written plans.

Follow these simple steps and you will not have to fear the Top 10.

For help understanding which standards apply to your industry, look for software that helps identify the applicable OSHA standards and create written plans. This software helps you figure out what is and is not pertinent by asking specific questions about your company. It then has templates that can help create the written plans you can use to educate and train your employees.