The Portland Cement Association is currently in its centennial year. With the US economy proving to be steady and advances in technology spurring the cement industry on to greater efficiency and emissions control, ICR spoke with PCA President and CEO, James G Toscas, to gain a greater understanding of what is driving the PCA on and what the main objectives are for the next 100 years.
ICR: In 2016 the Portland Cement Association (PCA) is celebrating its centennial year. How would you describe the PCA’s main role in supporting the industry over this period?
James Toscas (JT): The PCA originally started out organising the recycling of cement sacks. Cement was sold in sacks and of course once it went to the construction sites they emptied the sacks and the sacks would pile up. So they thought, well let’s bring them back and refill them. See even back then we were sustainable! But it got a bit messy as one company’s sacks would get confused with the others. They used to have a deposit on them and people would steal them and trade them in for the deposit. So the industry decided to get together and organise a way to handle these cement sacks. That was the first time that the US cement companies ever got together to do anything as a group. That was the beginning of what became the PCA.
