A new online resource is helping companies seeking raw materials for manufacturing processes to locate inexpensive materials while conserving Indiana’s natural resources.

In a statement released Monday, Indiana Lt. Governor Joe Kernan announced that the Indiana Department of Commerce’s Energy Policy Division has launched a new database, the “Materials Available Database,” on its Web site, www.CommerceRecycles.in.gov

That site features information from more than 100 Indiana companies whose waste streams include materials that can be used by other companies as a feedstock, including plastics, rubber, glass, wood, metal, textiles, electronics, and construction and demolition debris.

“Indiana has been recognized as a national leader in providing services online, and this database adds to our collection of electronic tools that assist Hoosier businesses,” said Kernan, who serves as the director of the Indiana Department of Commerce. “This database allows companies that create scrap to connect with businesses that can use it, thus reducing everyone’s costs and the amount of materials going to landfills. This is an outstanding tool, and we are proud to offer it.”

Developed by a partnership between Commerce and Purdue University, the statement said, the database not only contains company contact information, but the type and amount of scrap material available. The team that developed the database surveyed hundreds of Hoosier companies to collect data on industrial and business scrap that is currently being disposed of, rather than reused or recycled, but may be of use to another company.

Companies interested in listing their scrap materials on the database and companies interested in searching the database can easily perform these functions by visiting www.CommerceRecycles.in.gov

<http://www.CommerceRecycles.in.gov>

 and clicking the “Available Resources” option.

The Energy Policy Division of the Indiana Department of Commerce administers this database. For more information on the Materials Available Database, please contact Tiffany Sorge, Program Manager of the Recycling Market Development Program, at (317) 232-8940.

Posted 8/21/2002