Mr. Jones: NSI is a company that we put together in the mid-80s and it was originally going to be a regional distribution company. We found that we were having difficulty getting the product that we needed so we started to make a little bit of this and a little bit of that. As time went on we also started to grow outside of the region that we had originally intended to be in. We were going to supply a four-state area so it started to get bigger. We moved into the Southeastern part of the United States. We went into Texas and all of a sudden it kept growing from there. Primarily a sorbent is used to control liquid that is inadvertently spilled or if there is a problem with leakage and machinery, things like this. When you look at the major, major catastrophes in the world, much like the Valdez oil spill for example, a product that we made is used in spills like that. Our customer base is everywhere from the General Motors of the world, the GEs down to mom- and-pop, one- and two-man companies. We basically manufacture three product lines. The number one line, our largest seller, which is about 60% of our business, is the product that is used to take oil off of the top of water. In other words, what we do is if you look at television sometimes when there is an oil spill you see these big white long tubes floating out on the water and what those are doing is they are absorbing oil. That is one of the things that we make. I should add that the line that we use to absorb oil off the top of water is not proprietary to us. There are several other companies in the world that manufacture that product along with us. The other product line that we have is what we call our maintenance sorbent line which is our ULTRA line and that is proprietary to us. No one else has it except us. It is a, very unusual product but it is widely used in manufacturing facilities because it will absorb coolants, it will absorb grinding fluids, cutting fluids and things line that. The third line that we have is what we call our RESCUE line and it deals with extremely aggressive assets. Normally, for example, when you hear about a spill on a highway or in some thoroughfare someplace, when a Hazmat Team responds they normally have product like our RESCUE on there because they don't know what they are responding to so they have to have a sorbent that will deal with any liquid. But a sorbent primarily is used to control liquid and turn a liquid to a solid and it's amazing how it works. Our ULTRA line, for example, absorbs 40 to 60 times its own weight. It is an amazing product. We can take a sock that weighs one pound and when we absorb liquid into it, it winds up weighing 40 pounds. So it is a very, very unusual method but it is a method that is required. The EPA requires that all plants, all manufacturing companies have spill contingency plans, emergency response plans and all of those plans must include the use of sorbents so that they can deal with the spill. There is no other way to deal with an unpredictable spill except by the use of sorbents because you certainly can't mop it up and you could squeegee it all day but you don't get rid of the liquid. The thing with this is that we control the liquid and we can then pick the absorb socks or pads, you can pick them up and put them in a drum and your spill is over with. So that is essentially a capsulation of what our company is about and what the industry is about.
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