Franklin Pierce - 14th President of the United States

Franklin Pierce - 14th President of the United States Franklin Pierces Childhood and Education: Pierce was born on November 23, 1804 in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. His father was politically active having first fought in the Revolutionary War and then served in various offices in New Hampshire including being Governor of the State. Pierce went to a local school and two academies before attending Bowdoin College in Maine. He studied with both Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He graduated fifth in his class and then studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1827. Family Ties: Pierce was the son of  Benjamin Pierce, a Public Official, and  Anna Kendrick. His mother was prone to depression. He had four brothers, two sisters, and one half-sister.  On  November 19, 1834, he married  Jane Means Appleton. the daughter of a Congregationalist Minister. Together, they had  three sons all of whom died by the age of twelve. The youngest, Benjamin, died in a train accident soon after Pierce was elected president. Franklin Pierces Career Before the Presidency: Franklin Pierce began practicing law before being elected as a member of the New Hampshire legislature 1829-33. He then became a U.S. Representative from 1833-37 and then Senator from 1837-42. He resigned from the Senate to practice law. He joined the military in 1846-8 to fight in the Mexican War. Becoming the President: He was nominated as the candidate for the Democratic Party in 1852. He ran against war hero Winfield Scott. The main issue was how to deal with slavery, appease or oppose the South. The Whigs were divided in support of Scott. Pierce won with 254 out of 296 electoral votes. Events and Accomplishments of Franklin Pierces Presidency: In 1853, the U.S. bought a stretch of land now part of Arizona and New Mexico as part of the  Gadsden Purchase. In 1854, the  Kansas-Nebraska Act  passed allowing settlers in Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide for themselves whether slavery would be allowed. This is known as  popular sovereignty. Pierce supported this bill which caused great dissension and much fighting in the territories. One issue that caused a lot of criticism against Pierce was the Ostend Manifesto. This was a document published in the New York Herald which stated that if Spain was not willing to sell Cuba to the U.S., the United States would consider taking aggressive action to get it. As can be seen, Pierces presidency was met with much criticism and dissension. Therefore, he was not renominated to run in 1856. Post-Presidential Period: Pierce retired to New Hampshire and then traveled to Europe and the Bahamas. He opposed secession while at the same time speaking in favor of the South. Overall, though, he was antiwar and many called him a traitor. He died on October 8, 1869 in Concord, New Hampshire. Historical Significance: Pierce was president at a critical time in American History. The country was becoming more polarized into Northern and Southern interests. The issue of slavery became once again front and center with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Obviously, the nation was headed towards a confrontation, and Pierces actions did little to stop that downward slide.

The Provisions of Convention on the Rights of the Essays

The Provisions of Convention on the Rights of the Essays The Provisions of Convention on the Rights of the Child. The International programme on Elimination of Child Labour was ILO's response to provide direct assistance to countries to tackle child labour and give teeth to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child made effective in 1989. Today it has 30 funders and 86 programme countries ILO in its Report. "The end of child labour; within reach" released in 2006 says, in 2004 there were 218 million children trapped in child labour of whom 126 million were in hazardous work. However the number of child labourers globally fell by 11% over the last four years, while that of children in hazardous work decreased by 26%. (www.ilo.org/declaration) IPEC the campaign instrument against child labour conducted by ILO commenced in 1992 and has made several break throughs in advocacy; tackling the worst forms of child labour; developing a learning culture and mainstreaming child labour within the decent work agenda. ILO is also aware of future challenges. Child labour elimination may be mainstreamed into key development and Human Rights frame works like Millennium Development Goals and poverty reduction strategies. Child labor first emerged as a major public policy issue with the impact of the industrial revolution. The first wave of industries at countries offered several packages of intervention to overcome presence of child labour like advocacy campaigns; public inquiries; minimum age legislation; education provision for working children. These have been expanded, replicated by many developing countries ILO has expanded its efforts through IPEC programme in some 90 countries. It has been observed that child labour declines with increase in GDP growth; improved school attendance; reduction of absolute poverty; The elimination of child labour is linked with provision of compulsory, free and accessible education. Without educational opportunities it is likely that children will enter the labour market and take on dangerous and exploitative jobs. Though the Dakar forum of 185 countries resolved to provide all children of primary age free schooling of quality by year 2015 and eliminate gender disparities by year 2005 much remains to be achieved. Although concept of education for all has not taken off the ground at an international scale, efforts are made with community groups, parents, employers, and government officials to remove children from work and enroll them in school. An example is efforts of an NGO(MV foundation) made in India in state of Andrah Pradesh. It enabled 150,000 to be enrolled and retained in schools and more than 4,000 boned labourers released and of 500 villages under project 168are free of child labour. These results were achieved through awareness raising and demand for education of children; support Teachers through special training; support parents to provide alternatives to labour of child withdrawn; provide clearing schools to prepare children for formal education. (source: Child Labour a Global concern, www.schoolsthebestplacetowork.org) UNICEF has been advocating education as a preventive strategy against child labour (www.unicef.org/evalvatebase/file) child labour evaluate rights 27 Feb 2004 National International comments PDF. Some ILO actions against child labour since 2002. SCREAM stop child labour (sup poring children's Rights) through education the arts and the medias is a community based education and social mobilization programme that commenced in 2002 it is directed to children and youth in some situations programme works with world Scout Movement, in Arab States it works with UNESCO (p 29,30) World Day Against Child Labour initiated in June 2002 is another tool. Annually it has focused on particular issues of relevance like child domestic labour, trafficking, elimination of child labour in mining and quarrying . ILO Red Card to child labour has expanded campaign to sports and removal of children from abusive sports good production. There have been efforts to improve knowledge base on child labour. This is linked to research data collection and field operations and surveys. (P46) Links have been observed between child labour and globalization. "Globalization can help reduce child labour in countries where there is a relatively largepool of workers with at least a basic education complemented with active social policies." A few studies have also shown that "child labour appears to diminish as foreign direct investment increases"(pg 19). Special country projects directed at eliminating child labour have been identified. The CSR Movement (corporate social responsibility) encourages voluntary codes of conduct in industries where child labour may prevail like garments, sports goods, footwear, toys. Employer organizations like the Federation of Uganda Employers, have been actively involved in preventing employment of child labour in agricultural sector. The Employers Organization in Yunan Province, China (p 70) has taken hand the arrest of trafficking women and children. Trade Unions have joined hands against child labour in Andhara Pradesh (p72) aimed

Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 9

Leadership - Essay Example Leadership theories are the theories which study different aspects of the leadership and come up with the ideas of what makes a successful leader. Some theories like Contingency theory focuses more on the different situations that affect the leadership while theories like ‘situational theory’ focuses more on the behavior pattern of a leader in a particular situation. However, even though theories help us to understand the behavior and thinking patterns of a leader in his private and public life, it cannot confine the leader in a particular set of behavior patterns. Leaders are leaders because of their boldness, their power and their belief. These are the characters of spirit and not jut mind or body. Leaders are those who go beyond their minds and their bodies and function from their heart. The qualities of decision making, motivating people, understanding their needs and being flexible are very important for being a successful leader. At the same time, the behavior pattern and thinking pattern of a leader is also are very important. History is an evidence that leaders, whether they are political or corporate, have different characters from people who are not leaders. They are dynamic, accept change gracefully, stick to their belief and take risks. They are fighters and do not hesitate to put their life in danger when fighting for the truth. Leadership theories help us to understand the way the leaders function. According to the contingency theory, the success of the leader depends not only on his or her abilities to lead, but also on different external situations and factors. These factors are beyond the control of the leader. The external factors could be the behavior of the people who follow him,

GUIDELINES ASSIGNMENTS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

GUIDELINES ASSIGNMENTS - Essay Example For this reason, adults often migrate from rural to urban areas hoping to find good employment opportunities that the local business cannot provide them. Because of this situation, a large percentage of young adults relocate to the city leaving their elderly parents behind. The study aims to establish a relationship between incidence of depression among elderly parents and outmigration of children ( Abas et.al, 2009). The study was conducted among a rural area in Thailand using a population based survey of 1,147 ageing parents (p.56). The subjects were recruited based on the following criteria: must at least be 60 years old, a parent of at least one living child, and Thai-speaking. Certain conditions were set by the researchers to establish the term â€Å"outmigrant† child. The researchers classified an â€Å"outmigrant child† as someone who has not come home for at least three successive months and lives no less than 15 km from the area being surveyed (p.55). The resea rchers formulated a survey wherein teams were dispatched to interview the subjects. Assistance from local administrators were sought to be able to have access to the community. The research was carried for 3 months (November 2006-January 2007) in Kanchanaburi, western Thailand (p.54).

Implementation Controls and Executive Summary of Massives Marketing Essay

Implementation Controls and Executive Summary of Massives Marketing Plan - Essay Example Political stability, positive economic growth, technological capability, strategic geographical location and business friendly conditions would be the criteria that will govern what country to choose. Japan, which suffices all the criteria, would be the most likely candidate. An alternative would be India due to its booming Information Technology industry and its strategic geographical location in the Asian region. This move would also help in attaining or even surpass the targeted number of partnerships. The company is currently charging a minimum of $30,000 for its software licenses. The company also charges 20% of the license fee for annual software maintenance and $25,000 for its web auditing services. The decrease would result to $1,500 cut for licensing, 10% cut on maintenance and $2,500 for auditing services (Massive Network, 2006). Reducing prices, all the while assuring product and service quality, provides a competitive edge the company can bank on. Although this translates to losses in revenue in the short run, it provides an attractive choice for future clients and assures continued patronage. This reduction will apply to future as well as present transactions. The acquisition of Massive by Microsoft has provided the means to acquire the necessary funds to conduct research and development to widen product and services range ( Wash, Microsoft Acquire Massive

Internship Paper Essay Example for Free

Internship Paper Essay My role with the _____ County circuit courts varies pretty much daily. Originally I was assigned to circuit court three. As it turns out though, they have had a high school intern coming since the beginning of the semester also, who is interning for a class she has. I believe she comes in three times a week. In addition to this, they have a floater who rotates through all of the courts, there are seven, so they have more than enough help in their court. Most days when I go in, I start in court three, and then end up going to court services to help the ladies out there. When I am in court three, I basically do the filing that has accumulated throughout the day. Depending on the day, and if the other intern or the floater has been there, there might be anywhere from ten minutes to an hours worth of filing to do. After this is done, I might pull the mail, meaning pull any files that correspond with mail the court has received. These might be warrants, certified mail, requests to continue, follow up letters referencing a court case, etc. A few times, when there has been a computer available, I have been able to enter information into the JUSTIS system, mostly through certified mail cards. Sometimes I would enter information for small claims cases, and then if the attorney or plaintiff/defendant would need copies of the information, I would mail those out. I would say the majority of my time spent at the courts was spent in court services though. Here I would do a lot of work for Mary, who is in charge of juvenile cases. A few weeks ago, I did many spreadsheets with data about juveniles who were either in detention centers, or placed in treatment centers, ranging from 1998-2002. She has to have record of this and needed the material in an organized data format, so I did a lot of that. Ive also made many calls to agencies to see their per diem rates, or rates for those placed in those facilities per day that they stay. Another project I have done for Mary was tracking her mileage as she has traveled from facility to facility to visit the juveniles placed there. These facilities are located in various other places around the state, so  she often has to travel long distances to make these trips, and needs to track her mileage for record and compensation. These records also went back to I believe 1998 or 1999, and were recorded to the present date, so there was much tracking I had to do to figure out her total mileage per day, and then per year. Ive also worked several times with Lisa helping her. She is in charge of jurors and jury duty. She sends out notices once a month to those who are being called for jury duty for that month. I have helped her sort these names, put together the notices, and get them sent out to the potential jurors. This is a big job, as when it comes time to do it, she usually has boxes and boxes of notices needing to be sent out. Something else I have done for court services would be to take their daily outgoing mail and run it through the postage machine to be sent out. This must happen about 5-6 times a day would be my guess. I have only done this a few times, but each time I have gone back, there was a replenished supply to be sent out. Also, sometimes I would take documents that needed to be mailed out from circuit court three to court services and put them in their corresponding lawyers mail slots, or send them out with the outgoing mail. Also, a few times I have had to take packages or documents for someone in court services down to the courthouse. I have really enjoyed working in the court system, both in circuit court three and in court services. As a criminal justice major I think it has been a really good experience for me. I plan on graduating in December, and am hoping to go into Federal Investigations. Another interesting aspect of the internship where I did it was that I got to work somewhat along side of a fellow criminal justice major that I have known since our freshman year. She and I have had every criminal justice class together except for P100. We both applied for the internship, but never knew we would end up in the same place, since there were quite a few options of places to work! Also, my resident assistant from freshman year also works part time in the court system, so I was kind of reunited with  her, which was quite a coincidence, considering how big this campus is! Last page: The last page of the paper is supposed to be additional comments about our good experiences and shortcomings of the internship. My good experiences would definitely be the people that I met and worked with there. They are a wonderful group of people, from the few I already knew, my fellow CJUS major and my R.A from freshman year, to everyone that I got to know and work with there. And Mary was wonderful especially. I felt like I could talk to her about school stuff since she graduated from IU also, whether it be to gripe about classes or get advice about the major/future plans. I think the shortcoming I can think of would be that I ended up being an intern for circuit court three, not because I didnt like it, just for the fact that they already had a high school intern and a floater, so there really was not much for me to do there at all. I literally would go in court three for about a half hour or so and then spend the rest of my time in court services. Honestly I wish I could have been a general intern for court services or a second intern to Mary. Court services was where I spent the majority of my time and I loved it. I also was told when I did my orientation that I would probably get to sit in on court a few times and observe. To date I have not been able to do that. I dont know if the time hasnt worked out for when Ive been working, or if there just hasnt been much Id be able to sit in on. I remember Mary telling me that court three did have drug court, which I have heard them talk about a few times, and I would have loved to sit in on this, because the Drug Enforcement Agency is one of the Federal agencies Im very interested in. I would have definitely liked to participate in this aspect more than I was able to. I would say this has definitely been my toughest semester. I ended up dropping a class early in the semester because I was trying to take 19 hours, including the internship, so it was really even more since I had to  dedicate 10 hours a week to being there. At the beginning of the semester I thought I could handle all 19 hours and the internship, but I really felt like I didnt have time to even sleep, let alone study, so something had to go. I was literally booked solid all week as I worked most of the day Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays I had class from 8-5 and then Wednesdays I would work all day also. And while I didnt have classes on Fridays, I worked in my hometown at the job I have been working at for the past few summers; they let me come in part time and holidays so I can make some money. It was hard to juggle school, the internship, and my family situation this semester, but Im glad I was given the opportunity for the internship, I really do believe it was beneficial.

Development of Recycling Company

Development of Recycling Company Executive Summary Recently, the growing utilization of plastics are specifically used domestic purpose and produced from industrial and consumer applications and need to combined with increased consumer awareness surrounding solid waste recycling, has led to an increased demand for recycled plastic resins and products for our general purposes. One of the quickest increasing types of collected plastic materials for recycling is polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from post-consumer beverage and water bottles. Replay Plastics will capitalize on the opportunities in the recycled resin and packaging markets through two main divisions: a Recycling Division and a Packaging Division. The Company will create a PET cleaning and refining plant where located in the western United States (all 16 major North American PET recycling plants are currently located in the eastern United States or Canada). To be honest, Its initial capacity will be 46 million pounds, and it will utilize post-consumer bottle feed stock presently collected in California, Oregon and Washington States, which collect over 200 million pounds per year. The Company will be vertically integrated and utilize almost all of its recycled material in its Packaging Division and any surplus materials (clean flake) produced will be sold to outside companies. The extruded sheet may then be sold to manufacturers who will thermoform it into high-visibility packaging or use it in other high value added manufacturing operations. The strapping will be sold to companies who ship large packages or pallets, such as the lumber milling industry. The Company currently has commitments available from customers to purchase the entire product produced. MANAGEMENT Ben Braddock, President who has experienced since 30-years of history and related with encompassing all aspects of Polymer Raw Material, Plastic Conversion Methods, and Venture Development. Moreover, he has founded great ventures in the plastic converting industry, and assisted in the launch of five plastic converting manufacturing plants. In his personal life, Sam McGuire, Executive VP and COO, is a graduate Engineer with almost over 20 years experience in the post-consumer plastics recycling industry and is the inventor of the primary cleaning refining technology used in the process for this project. He has received a patent for his technology and has been directly involved in over twenty-five major post consumer plastics recycling projects. Carl R. Smith, CFO, has over 30 years investment and merchant banking and management experience. He has assisted in raising over $500 million and served as board member and/or officer in over 40 public and private companies. FINANCIAL SUMMARY Moreover, after a four month grow-up period to build the recycling and packaging facilities, buy equipment, and incorporate the business, Replay Plastics will begin a quick turnaround of product. Sales will begin in May, and with over $15 Million in sales the first year, we will see a first year net profit of $2.3 Million. The owners are investing $500,000 each, for a total of $1.5 Million, and are securing an $800K long-term loan. The Company is also looking an investment of $2,700,000 in order to begin operations. Then, these funds will be used for the purchase of one recycling line and one manufacturing line, for create of the plant facilities and for working capital. An outside investor providing this amount would receive 48% equity in Replay, and receive an IRR of 69% from simple dividends alone over the next 5 years. At the end of that period, we will consider a public offering of stock or a buy-out by a related business. Recent information on private sales of similar industry companies has indicated that transactions under $25 million have averaged 5.3 times EBITDA, while transactions in the range of $25-250 million have averaged over 7 times EBITDA. Further details can be found in the Financial Plan, below. 1.1 Objectives Sales passing $15 million in first year, $31 million in year 2, growing to $43 million. Gross margin of 35% or more in first year, 45% in second year then 50% or more. Net profit of 13% in year one, then exceeding 20% annually starting in year two. 1.2 Mission Replay Plastics is a generally manufacturing company dedicated to converting waste plastic materials into commercially viable products, utilizing environmentally friendly recycling and manufacturing methods. We intend to make enough profit to generate a significant return for our investors and to finance continued growth and continued development in quality products. We will also maintain a friendly, fair, and creative work environment, which respects diversity, new ideas and hard work. 1.3 Keys to Success The main keys to the success of the Company are: Secure Supply- Contract for supply of post-consumer bottles and post-industrial manufacturing waste for PET raw material feed stock. Marketing Contractual arrangements for the sale of virtually all initial production. Management Strong senior management with extensive, broad-based, industry-specific experience. 1.4 Potential Risks Unavailable or scarce raw material feed stock for production Replay is confident that it has secured good availability of low cost post-consumer PET bottles (feed stock) derived from post-consumer beverage bottles from California based recycling collectors, and has back up sources identified. Technology employed may be unreliable or unproven Replay will use a proven, patented technology that was developed by one of its principals for the cleaning and recycling phase. The extrusion division will employ commercially proven technology the industry is employing unique recycled PET technology which is used by prominent eastern U.S. manufacturers of PET extrusions. There may not be a market for the Companys products The Industry-wide experience of the Management Team has allowed them to identify markets for the Companys products. Their expertise and reputations have allowed them to obtain commitments for virtually all of the planned initial production. The location may not be near enough to markets The markets that have been identified are primarily in the western U.S., which will provide a distinct advantage to the Company because of freight costs and delivery timing. The Company may not be able to attract top management The Company has assembled a world class management team with proven ability and direct experience in the Companys market segments. Company may not meet environmental standards This environmentally-favorable venture provides for the development of technically feasible and economically viable solutions to PET plastic beverage bottle recycling, as well as environmentally aware in-house re-use practices which filter and return nearly all of the process water to the production lines. The Company may not be able to sell all of its production capability Through the Senior Managements industry-wide contacts, the Company has identified potential customers and received commitments for all of the production potential of the initial facility. Company Summary The Company will capitalize on the opportunities in the recycled resin and packaging markets through two main divisions: a Recycling Division and a Packaging Division. Recycling Division Using a patented process, the Company will create a PET cleaning and refining plant located in the western United States; we have chosen this region because all 16 major North American PET recycling plants are currently located in the eastern United States or Canada, despite western states favorable recycling attitudes among consumers. Its initial annual capacity will be 46 million pounds and it will utilize bottle feed stock from California, Oregon and Washington States, which collect over 200,000,000 pounds per year. The Company will become totally vertically integrated, and use all or almost all of its recycled material in its Packaging Division. Any surplus material produced will be sold to outside companies. Packaging Division We will create a plant (actual facilities to be shared with the Recycling Division) to manufacture extruded plastic roll stock sheet or high-strength strapping, employing state-of-the-art technology developed to utilize recycled PET resin. The extruded sheet will be primarily sold to thermoformers who will convert it into high visibility packaging, as well as laminators and fabricators. The strapping will be sold to commercial users for use as package or pallet strapping. The Company currently has commitments from customers to purchase all of the initial production capacity. Excess flake will be sold to outside customers. 2.1 Company Ownership Replay Plastics is owned by the initial founders, B. Braddock, S. McGuire and C. Smith, who are the proposed three executives of the operating entity. The plan was conceived and developed by these individuals, with the intent to apply their extensive experience and contacts in the industry to building a successful profitable corporation. 2.1.1 Potential Conflict Our COO, Mr. Sam McGuire, the inventor and patent holder of the recycling process to be used by the Company, is a principal in Company A of Chicago, IL. For many years, Company has designed, manufactured and assembled plastic recycling equipment, and has given us quotes on meeting our needs in this area. After a thorough investigation, Replay has found that Company A is able to source or supply the required equipment at considerably lower cost than any other company from which a quote was available. Mr. McGuire has disclosed that Company A has included a smaller than normal margin in their quote on goods they will manufacture, to cover overhead, contingency and profit which might result in a small benefit to him. They have agreed to source all of the equipment possible with no added margin. Replay has concluded that the savings available outweigh any other consideration and that we will purchase the cleaning and refining equipment from Company A. 2.2 Start-up Summary Our start-up expenses are budgeted at $210,000, which is mostly for on-site contractor services during facility preparation. $50,000 has been set aside for legal and accounting, $25,000 for special consulting that may be required during start up and $50,000 each for local engineering and lab equipment and supplies. $30,000 has been set aside as a contingency for the start up period. Our largest Start-up Requirement is the building of the recycling and extrusion facility. Its final value at completion is listed below as a long-term asset of $3,620,000 (excluding expensed items like consultants and engineering listed above). Aside from the building itself, we need $25,000 in machinery and fixtures, $500,000 of inventory (plastic bottle feed stock) and cash to cover us through the initial year. Start-up Funding Start-up Expenses to Fund $210,000 Start-up Assets to Fund $4,790,000 Total Funding Required $5,000,000 Assets Non-cash Assets from Start-up $4,145,000 Cash Requirements from Start-up $645,000 Additional Cash Raised $0 Cash Balance on Starting Date $645,000 Total Assets $4,790,000 Liabilities and Capital Liabilities Current Borrowing $0 Long-term Liabilities $800,000 Accounts Payable (Outstanding Bills) $0 Other Current Liabilities (interest-free) $0 Total Liabilities $800,000 Capital Planned Investment Founders $1,500,000 Investor $2,700,000 Additional Investment Requirement $0 Total Planned Investment $4,200,000 Loss at Start-up (Start-up Expenses) ($210,000) Total Capital $3,990,000 Total Capital and Liabilities $4,790,000 Total Funding $5,000,000 Start-up Requirements Start-up Expenses Legal Accounting $50,000 Stationery etc. $5,000 Consultants $25,000 Lab Equipment $50,000 Local Engineering $50,000 Misc Start up $30,000 Other $0 Total Start-up Expenses $210,000 Start-up Assets Cash Required $645,000 Start-up Inventory $500,000 Other Current Assets $25,000 Long-term Assets $3,620,000 Total Assets $4,790,000 Total Requirements $5,000,000 Products Replay Plastics will utilize two processes in the same facility to produce: Cleaned and recycled plastic PET flake (RPET), recovered from post-consumer beverage bottles and manufacturing waste produced by its sheet customers Extruded roll stock sheet PET. Extruded PET high-strength strapping for securing large packages or pallet loads; each using 100% RPET produced in-house 3.1 Product Description Roll stock sheet will be sold to custom thermoformers primarily to be used to produce high-visibility packaging. It will also be sold to manufacturers of laminates and fabricated plastic products. High strength PET packaging strapping is used to secure packages or pallets in such industries as lumber milling and corrugated and other paper production. Both products will be extruded from post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. The recycling programs in California, Washington and Oregon collect in excess of 200,000,000 pounds of PET bottles per annum. Replay initial capacity will be 46,000,000 pounds. Using a patented process, Replay will clean and refine the PET material from the post-consumer bottle stock and post-industrial manufacturing waste. The PET flake resin produced will be extruded into roll stock sheet or high-strength strapping. Although the Company expects to convert all of its bottle feed stock into extruded products, any surplus flake will be sold to outside manufacturers. 3.2 Competitive Comparison While quality and delivery are important factors to our potential clients, price is most often the determining factor in a buying decision. Good-quality packaging products manufactured from recycled (less expensive) resins, as close as practical to the end customers operations, will be most competitive and achieve a significant market share. These factors have helped to determine the business parameters of Replay Plastics. 3.3 Sourcing In excess of 200,000,000 pounds of post-consumer PET beverage bottles are collected and available as feed stock for manufacturers who can re-process this material into commercial products. The Company has excellent relations with the firms and associations that collect and distribute these materials and has been assured that its requirements will be available for the foreseeable future. The Company has entered negotiations with a California based source of post-consumer bottles and is confident that sufficient volumes are available on a contract basis from this source to satisfy its requirements. In addition, the Company intends to purchase production waste from its sheet customers and blend it into its feed stock. Currently, the majority of the post-consumer PET bottles collected in California, Oregon and Washington are exported to China. The Chinese have absorbed the amounts surplus to the use in North America. Their interest has kept the industry in the position of being able to maintain a steady price range for this bottle stock. A significant percentage of all sales of such bottle stock are managed by Plastics Recycling Corporation of California (PRCC), an industry funded marketing agency which operates similarly to a co-operative. They accept bids from potential buyers on behalf of the firms which act as consolidators, which accumulate stocks from the smaller, individual bottle-recycling depots. Some amount of the available stocks are regularly bought by recyclers in eastern North America who focus on the carpet manufacturers who use RPET resin in their process, but the high cost of transport from the western U.S. makes eastern sources more desirable. Replay has a good relationship with Company B, one of the larger consolidators in California. Company B has indicated a desire to contract to supply Replay with all of its raw material needs. They prefer to deal with a local consumer such as Replay, rather than the uncertainty and extra preparation requirements of the export market. There are other sources of post-consumer feed stock known to Replay, and we are confident that we will have sufficient materials available for our production needs. 3.4 Technology Sam McGuire, a key member of our Management team, is one of the original innovators of cleaning and refining technology for post-consumer PET, and we will be utilizing his patented process in our recycling facility. Sam has worked in the establishment and operation of facilities employing similar technologies over the last several years. On the manufacturing side, Management has been an integral part of the advancement of industry practices over the last twenty years or so, and includes in their knowledge base most, if not all, of the state-of-the-art available equipment and manufacturing techniques. Market Analysis Summary Strong demand for recycled plastics is working in the industrys favor. Major users of plastic packaging, apparently responding to consumer desires, have begun incorporating at least some recycled plastic content in their products as part of the growing interest in recycling. Recycled resin demand is on the rise as prices for the two major recycled resins, PET and HDPE, continue to hold value or appreciate against their virgin counterparts. In volume, PET is currently the number one recycled resin. Supply of recycled PET is in excess of 800 million pounds per year. This figure is expected to grow, reaching over 1 billion pounds during the next few years. The plastics industry has developed new markets and applications for recycled resins from both post-consumer and post-industrial sources. PET leads the recycled recovered resins as the most visible and valuable, and its use is increasing. Of the total 3.7 billion pounds of PET consumed in 1997, just 16% was from recycled sources. Of the more than 90 billion pounds of plastics produced annually in the United States, less than 5% is from recycled sources. Plastics, after aluminium, represent the second highest value material in the waste stream and have the highest projected growth rate. Markets and uses for recycled plastics are rapidly expanding. Plastic containers are being collected at the curb for recycling in nearly 500 communities, representing more than 4 million households. U.S. demand for recycled plastic will continue to expand and new markets will develop as technologies permit the efficient segregation and reprocessing of high-purity resins. Improved quality of resins, environmental issues and higher prices for virgin resin will contribute to growth. Packaging is expected to be the largest market segment for recycled plastics, with sheet and lumber following. Surveys indicate that Americans are increasingly willing to collect and separate discarded packages, foregoing a degree of convenience to make products more disposable, and even paying a premium for a recycled item. Increasingly, communities are refusing to consider incineration until every effort is made first to recycle; public sentiment is strongly in favor of products that can be recycled or are made of recycled materials. In recent years, the household recycling rate of PET bottles has more than doubled to 30% of all PET soft drink bottles sold. In fact, PETs recycling rate is the fastest growing among all beverage containers. The future of PET recycling is even brighter than it has been in the past. PET intrinsic scrap value is second only to aluminium among container materials. The plastics industry has launched a research and development program aimed at increasing PET recycling. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), plastic soft drink bottles account for approximately 2% of the solid waste discarded in America. The EPA has set a national goal to recycle 25% of the municipal solid waste stream and the industry is committed to achieving its share of that important g oal. The recycling industry intends to accelerate the rate of plastic recycling as part of its commitment to develop solutions to the solid waste problem. Industry analysts have projected that 50% of all PET containers will be recycled by the year 2007. More plastics will be recycled annually than any other recyclable material. Replay believes a significant answer to Americas waste problem lies in creating high value, recycled thermoformable sheet and other extruded products for the packaging market. Although more than 200 million pounds of PET post-consumer materials are collected in the western United States each year, there is presently no local cleaning and refining facility converting the bottles into resins suitable for re-manufacturing. Originally, recycled PET (RPET) was used primarily in the carpet fiber industry, which is located along the eastern seaboard. The early development of the RPET industry was therefore focused in the eastern USA, with eastern states adopting the first bottle deposit laws that resulted in collection of post-consumer bottles that can be recycled. Recently, California, Oregon and Washington have adopted bottle deposit programs, and accumulation of recyclable materials in those states has begun. With all of the cleaning and recycling plants and the majority of consumers traditionally located in the eastern part of the country, development of consumers of recycled flake and down-line products, such as film and sheet, has been slow to develop in th e West. A strong demand for post-consumer bottles from Asia has prevented the buildup of inventories and reduced the pressure for the collection industry to find or develop western markets. There is currently no independent extrusion plant of recycled polyterephthalate (PET) sheet in the western United States or Canada that services the roll stock requirements of major custom and proprietary formers. With the development of the recycling industry for PET starting in the eastern part of the country, and the preponderance of consumers of sheet there as well, development of independent extrusion facilities using RPET has been slow to develop. It appears that in order to attract such companies, local sources of RPET would have to available. While there are customers in the West for the products, contracting a supply and shipping it from the East makes the venture unattractive. Our founders recognize that an opportunity exists and propose a vertically integrated conversion facility that will employ state-of-the-art technologies to produce extruded sheet and high strength strapping from 100% recycled PET post-consumer bottle stock, cleaned and refined in our own facility. 4.1 Target Market Segment Strategy The Company has chosen its target markets because recycled PET (RPET) is in high demand as flake resin by converters, as roll stock sheet used to produce high visibility packaging and as high strength strapping for the lumber industry. Sales are price-sensitive, so that proximity to markets and feed stock source provide a competitive edge. Replay Plastics identified an opportunity to take advantage of both circumstances in the western United States.