Guiding Cooper Capital Specialty Salvage, LLC, Ronald F. Milardo delivers salvage solutions to recover marine assets. Ronald F. Milardo maintains knowledge of all-size vessel salvage techniques. The Costa Concordia is one of the most noteworthy salvage operations in recent years.

The large cruise liner carried its crew members and 4,252 passengers. On January 13, 2012, off the coast of Giglio, Italy, it hit a reef and floundered, rolling on its side. Engine rooms flooded as the ship lost power and began to tilt severely. With starboard side staterooms plunged underwater, elevator shafts also flooded. Some 32 passengers died, and dozens more were injured, with the ship remaining partially submerged off the coast for 20 months before a "parbuckling" operation was undertaken.

Over 17 hours, professionals harnessed rotational leverage and pulled the ship upright. Then, with the vessel afloat, the salvage operations commenced. 

From 2013 to 2017, more than 350 workers spent one million hours stripping the Costa Concordia of its components, from equipment to steel. The 78 contractors involved recycled 53,000 tons, or 90 percent of the ship's materials, across Italy. The effort helped the environment and became a landmark in Italian naval engineering.