Charles Keeling, Safety Director, Gershow Recycling, will give a presentation on safety at the American Society of Highway Engineers meeting on March 31 at Palmer's American Grill, 123 Fulton Street in Farmingdale. The meeting will run from 5:30-8:30 p.m.
Mr. Keeling is also president of the Long Island Chapter of The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE). Previously, he served as chairman of the Long Island chapter's Professional Development Conference and has contributed technical safety articles to its monthly newsletter.
Mr. Keeling has over 25 years of diversified safety experience and has been Safety Director for Gershow Recycling for five and a half years, where his responsibilities include planning, developing and coordinating the occupational safety and health of personnel, equipment and the environment to achieve safety effectiveness for the company. During his time at Gershow, he has spearheaded several large-scale training and disaster preparedness exercises with local fire departments, Suffolk County Fire Rescue Emergency Services and Urban Search and Rescue.
Additionally, Mr. Keeling serves on the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries' National Safety Environmental Council, where he has been a speaker for a technical presentation and has worked as a group leader to develop safety management practices for the scrap recycling industry. He was previously employed as a Police Officer for the New York City Police Department and was a volunteer firefighter for 25 years.
Prior to joining Gershow Recycling, Mr. Keeling was Safety Manager for Tully Construction, working at the World Trade Center disaster recovery and cleanup, doing construction for the Port Authority Trans Hudson World Trade Center Temporary Station, as well as construction of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection's (NYC DEP) Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant and the reconditioning of the NYC DEP's North River Wastewater Treatment Plant.
He holds an Associate in Applied Sciences in Fire Protection Technology and a Certificate in Fire Investigation from Suffolk County Community College. He is near completion of a Bachelor in Science in Community and Human Services/Emergency Management from Empire State College.
While at Suffolk Community College, Mr. Keeling was the leading student member who organized the formation of the college activity club, the Fire Science Society, which promoted fire safety at SCCC's Selden campus and served as the club's first president.
"My presentation will include identification of my employer, Gershow Recycling, which helped make this opportunity happen by supporting my efforts with ASSE and my presidency with the organization this year," Mr. Keeling said.
Gershow Recycling has seven locations in the Long Island and metropolitan New York area: Brooklyn, New Hyde Park, Freeport, Lindenhurst, Huntington Station, Bay Shore and Medford. For more information, call (631) 289-6188 or visit www.gershow.com.
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* Photo of Mr. Keeling is available upon request.
Started in 1964 by Sam Gershowitz, Gershow Recycling began as a two man operation with a tractor and trailer, a boom truck and the first portable car flattener. Now with the second generation carrying on the legacy, Gershow generates over 750 jobs, contributing millions of dollars to the local economy, while helping to preserve Long Island's environment. Gershow Recycling takes aluminum, brass, copper, steel, cast iron, appliances, cars and vehicles. In keeping with its philosophy of "Preserving the Future by Recycling the Past," Gershow Recycling purchases scrap metal that would have otherwise wound up in local landfills, and turns them into high-quality scrap products for recycling. The company produces both ferrous and non-ferrous products.