Editorial: Generating jobs in Badin

Monday’s announcement that an electronics recycler will open shop in a former smelting plant in Badin is a shot of encouraging news for the town, for Stanly County and the region.

Any time you’re announcing new jobs these days, it’s cause for fireworks and confetti, and the Electronic Recyclers International project could mean 200 jobs for Badin. It also represents new investment in the community by ERI as well as Alcoa, which each will ante up $5 million toward improving the former plant site that shut down in 2007. Alcoa had previously committed more than $7 million in contracts to redevelop the former Badin Works site.

While 200 jobs doesn’t replace the 1,000 jobs Badin works supported a half century ago (or the 3,000 before that), this promises to be a significant step in repurposing the Alcoa property and providing more economic diversity for Stanly County. As officials noted, recycling discarded electronic components is a growth industry. Given the world’s apparently insatiable appetitite for new kinds of communication and computing devices, that growth isn’t likely to slow anytime soon. In addition to bringing jobs, electronic recycling helps keep potentially toxic items out of landfills, while facilitating more sustainable manufacturing practices.

For Alcoa, which has been locked in a bitter battle with the state over relicensing of its Yadkin hydroelectric dams, the ERI initiative helps counter arguments that the shutdown of the Badin smelting operation and resulting loss of jobs greatly diminished its value as a corporate citizen. While ERI is just one new business, Alcoa officials previously said they were talking with several potential partners representing different business sectors. This could be a catalyst for other companies to follow.

With state officials focused on front-burner issues like the budget, the Alcoa relicensing saga has dropped out of the public eye, temporarily at least. Both the company and advocates for recapturing the federal hydroelectric license advocates have expended a lot of time and energy waging a public relations battle. While that battle will continue, if loss of the Badin works jobs is a critical part of the argument for recapturing the license and control of the dams, then Alcoa’s ability to help replace those jobs is a strong argument in its favor.

The relicensing debate covers other issues, of course, including environmental cleanup and the waters of the Yadkin River as a publicly held resource. Rather than fighting over control of the dams, however, we’d much rather see the state and Alcoa working together to bring in new private industries that can help revitalize the economy in Badin and beyond.