With a new start, the Korea Metal Can Recycling Association (KMCRA) is determined to lead the Korean can recycling market. The KMCRA held a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of its foundation and set up the plans to play its role as a leader in the can recycling market and an organization in charge of preserving the environment in the future. At the ceremony, Yoon Seok-man, chairman of the KMCRA, praised its member firms and its directors and employees who performed many meritorious services for its development over the past 10 years and said it would play its role not only as a recycling business group but also as a body for preserving the environment in the future which will contribute to the nation and the community. He said that lifted metal can recycling rate about 74% last year, creating the import substitution effect worth about 20 billion won, adding the KMCRA would spare no effort to boost the can recycling rate. Lee Jae-hoon, director general of the Capital Goods Industries Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy and Kim Ji-tae, director general of the Waste Management and Recycling Bureau of the Environment Ministry who attended that day's ceremony highly evaluated the achievement the KMCRA has achieved so far and urged the KMCRA to be a model recycling organization in Korea. The KMCRA was founded May 28, 1994 and about 380 member firms are currently working at present. It is operating recovery and treatment organizations at 34 sites nationwide with a plant to recover and treat about 160,000 tons, or 94.5% of the total obligatory quantity of domestic recycling cans this year. In addition, it is building a metal can exhibitionhall, an environmental showroomfor children, at a site of 1,500 pyung (about 5000 square meters) with a display area of 360 pyung (about 1,200 square meters) at Boondang-ku, Sungnam, Kyunggi-do to instill consciousness about the recycle of resources and the preservation of the environment with an investment of 9 billion won. The target opening date of the exhibition hall is the end of this year. sskim@snmnews.com