Itronics Inc. was awarded the USA Gold Award, presented at The House of Commons, London, England, as part of the International Green Apple Environmental Awards contest, one of the largest and most prestigious of its kind in the world.
The award was presented to Dr. John Whitney, Itronics president. This is the eleventh year for the Green Apple Awards, which annually recognize the top environmental achievements in the world. There were more than 1,000 entries this year from industry and other groups making an effort to protect or enhance the environment. The contest is conducted by an independent, non-political, non-profit environmental group dedicated to recognizing, rewarding and promoting environmental best practices across the globe. The awards are supported by a number of professional bodies and organizations dedicated to reaching new levels of environmental success.
The judges, in recognizing Itronics, said: "More than 100 million gallons of potentially toxic photographic waste are generated by America’s laboratories, printers, copiers and X-ray machines each year. Dr. John Whitney set up Itronics not only to solve the problem – but also to turn an environmental negative into a plus. The silver element is a hazard to marine life, but the heavy metals are now stripped from the waste and recycled. What remains is then converted into environmentally beneficial fertilizers that are now on sale across America."
Whitney noted, "This is the second major environmental award we’ve received in London in recent weeks. The previous award was from the Institution of Chemical Engineers as part of its Worldwide Environmental Award ceremonies. We are pleased by the recognition Itronics is now receiving from those who care deeply about the world’s environment."
Itronics, through its subsidiary, Itronics Metallurgical, Inc., is the only company in the world with a "Beneficial Use Photochemical, Silver, and Water Recycling" facility that extracts more than 99 percent of the silver and virtually all the other toxic heavy metals from used photoliquids and converts the resulting liquids into environmentally beneficial, chelated, multinutrient liquid fertilizer products sold under the GOLD’n GRO trademark, and 5 troy ounce, 0.999 pure, Silver Nevada Miner numismatic bars. The environmentally friendly liquid fertilizers can be used for lawns and houseplants, and are available, along with GOLD’n GRO liquid fertilizer injectors, at the Company’s "e-store" catalog at goldngro.com. The popular Silver Nevada Miner bars are available at the Company’s ‘e-store’ catalog at www.itromet.com.
Headquartered in Reno, Nev., Itronics Inc. is a "Creative Environmental Technology" company and a world leader in photochemical recycling. The Company also provides project planning and technical services to the mining industry and operates the global Internet Information Portal, www.insidemetals.com. Dr. Whitney, Itronics president, was selected as Nevada’s Inventor of the Year for 2000 and is a member of the Inventor’s Hall of Fame at the University of Nevada-Reno. Itronics was one of five finalists for the 2001 Kirkpatrick Chemical Engineering Award, the most prestigious worldwide award in chemical engineering technologies. Itronics was awarded second place, Highly Commended in the Environmental Technology category, at the prestigious Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) 2005 Worldwide Environmental Award ceremonies at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, England. For more information, visit www.itronics.com