PRC 2012: What's next in plastics-to-oil?

Mixed waste plastic that is commingled and contaminated creates recycling obstacles and generally presents a low-value stream that inevitably leads to landfilling. Plastics-to-oil (PTO) technology can address this issue, but is there a promising future for the commercialization of PTO? New research funded by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) will be presented that critically examines this issue and three companies offer their perspectives on the future of PTO technology.

Don't miss the 2012 Plastics Recycling Conference, to be held March 20-21 in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information, visit www.plasticsrecycling.com.

To return to the Resource Recycling newsletter, click here.

Pratt opens hub-and-spoke-type facility

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

Paper and packaging manufacturer Pratt Industries has opened a new recycling facility in Wichita, Kansas that will bale collected materials and send them to other locations for further sorting and processing.

The facility will accept old corrugated cardboard, mixed and office paper, newspaper, LDPE film, aluminum and metal cans, as well as plastics Nos. 1 through 7. The materials will be baled and then sent to Pratt's materials recovery facility in Denton, Texas for further processing. The recovered paper will be sent to Pratt's paper mill in Shreveport, Louisiana. Other recyclables will be sent to other end users.

Aside from the baling operations, Pratt is also offering customized waste audits for businesses throughout Kansas to assist companies with minimizing landfill costs by maximizing recycling.

To return to the Resource Recycling newsletter, click here.

Recycle-Bowl winners announced

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

A school in a small town in Alabama has won the first ever Recycle-Bowl, a competition sponsored by Keep America Beautiful that challenged 500,000 elementary, middle and high school students to recycle more of their waste.

Marshall Christian Academy of Albertville, Alabama bagged first place in the competition. Students at the school, which include grades K-10, recycled 41 pounds of material per child and reduced its garbage pickups by half.

The competition was held between Oct. 17 and Nov. 12 of last year in 47 states and saw participating schools recycle over 2 million pounds of recyclables. Prizes of $1,000 were given to the school in each state that recycled the most. A grand prize of $2,500 went to the top school. The competition was sponsored by Nestle Waters North America.

For a complete list of winners, visit www.Recycle-Bowl.org.

To return to the Resource Recycling newsletter, click here.

Quebec releases new recycled content certification

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

Quebec's Ministry of the Environment has launched a new certification program for products made with recycled content.

The new program called RECYC ECO will certify the percentage of recycled content in consumer products. After the products have been reviewed, they can display a label letting consumers know that the item they're buying is, indeed, made from recycled content.

A government bureau, which developed the certification, will oversee the operation of the program and the label will be owned and promoted by RECYC-QUEBEC, the organization that manages the province's waste-reduction efforts.

To return to the Resource Recycling newsletter, click here.

 

St. Petersburg may lose curbside recycling collection

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

Curbside recycling in St. Petersburg, Florida may be coming to an end due to a lack of participation.

The program was established two years ago from the efforts of local environmentalists. Early participation was strong, with more than 4,000 residents signing up for the service in the first month, reports the Tampa Bay Times. However, interest in curbside recycling has not kept pace with expectations of Waste Services of Florida Inc., which provides the service for the city. According to the paper, only 7,249 out of 76,290 homes have signed up for the $2.75-a-month service, which is not enough for the company to make a profit.

The paper reports that now areas of surrounding Pinellas County have higher curbside recycling participation rates at 30 percent compared to the city's 9.5 percent rate. City officials suggest that there needs to be a bigger marketing push to keep the program afloat.

To return to the Resource Recycling newsletter, click here.

 

The wide world of recycling

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

A coalition of Australian environmental groups are claiming that there is a black hole in the national beverage recycling rate, Dubai makes its first big foray into residential recycling and Scotland seeks to push its recycling rate even higher.

Environmental groups in Australia are claiming that 320,000 tons of bottles and cans are unaccounted for in the national recycling inventory, reports The Sydney Morning Herald. The Boomerang Alliance, the name of the coalition of organizations that looked into the numbers, reached this conclusion by comparing industry data with a new government report.

Industry groups are contesting their assertion, claiming that the recycling rate of beverage containers is at 52 percent for 2010-2011. The Boomerang Alliance insists that the real number is about 38 percent, with 8 billion containers being littered or landfilled each year. Additionally, the alliance is holding the numbers up as proof that the beverage industry is even further away from meeting 2010 target of recycling 65 percent of its containers.

As part of its efforts to lessen its environmental impact, Dubai, a large city located in United Arab Emirates, will begin offering as many as 3,700 waste recycling bins to households in select neighborhoods, reports www.gulfnews.com. The pilot project is part of a broader initiative called "My City My Environment." Currently, recycling bins are placed in several public places and this is the first time the municipality has taken steps to encourage recycling at the residential level.

With the release of figures showing that recycling efforts are saving local authorities in Scotland more than 20 million GBP ($31 million), the country's government has launched a campaign calling on the public to do even more.

"Our recycling campaign aims to encourage people to recycle more, more often. We have had huge successes with past campaigns which have supported significant increases in household recycling. Latest figures show Scotland's households already recycle nearly 44 percent of waste but there's a lot more we could all be doing," said Scottish Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead in a prepared statement.

As part of the campaign, the government will be holding a road show, and shoppers at Ocean Terminal centers will be encouraged to try out new interactive recycling banks.

Advertisement

The City of Toronto has issued a RFP to procure processing services for multiple contracts for a total of up to 60,000 tonnes per year of Leaf &Yard Material (L&YM) and up to 30,000 tonnes per year of digester solids at facilities located in Ontario owned and/or operated by the Contractor. The RFP is available here.

To return to the Resource Recycling newsletter, click here.

PRC 2012: Come early and learn

Come a day early to the 2012 Plastics Recycling Conference in Atlanta to take advantage of some terrific networking and learning opportunities. On Monday, March 19, SPE's Plastics Environmental Division has designed a full day of workshops to help attendees learn "The Latest Need to Know on Recycling."

From an introduction to plastics recycling according to Adrian Merrington of the Michigan Molecular Institute to research and application of post-consumer recycled plastic in electronic products from the Lexmark Corporation's James Drummond, there is something for everyone at SPE's workshops. Go here to learn more and to register or click on the banner below.

To return to the Resource Recycling newsletter, click here.

NewsBits

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

The State of Nebraska recently announced the awarding of $1,554,178 in 61 grants for "litter cleanup, recycling and public education programs and activities." Go here for the complete list.

As part of Recycle-Mania, the "Spirit of Recycling" contest asks participants to send in videos on what makes their school unique and how that ties back into recycling. Entries are being accepted until Feb. 21 and more information can be found on the contest's website.

They may be in Tennessee, but they can still live like Eskimos. A school in Sevierville, Tennessee recently completed a project that involved constructing an igloo from recovered cardboard and milk jugs, reports The Mountain Press.

To return to the Resource Recycling newsletter, click here.

Domestic e-waste generation surges in Africa

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

A new report from the Basel Convention offers surprising insight into the role domestic generation of e-waste plays in African nations.

According to the Basel Convention's Where are WEEE in Africa report, "it is assumed that in 2010 between 50 – 85 percent of e-waste was domestically generated out of the consumption of new or used EEE of good quality with a reasonable life-span."

The findings are the latest in a series of studies that examine the flow of electronics in west Africa, with this specific study focusing on Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria. Despite several recent high profile toxic dumping busts, the report found that the majority of electronics imported into the countries were functional.

For example, the study found that 30 percent of the electronics imported to Ghana in 2009 were non-functional. Of those non-functional electronics, half were refurbished and resold locally and half were dumped. Independent university research, such as a series of studies conducted by Arizona State University, have corroborated these findings.

Like much of the developing world, personal electronics use has surged in Africa. Ten times as many Africans now have access to personal computers, compared to a decade ago.

The report offers several recommendations, most notably that increased domestic generation of e-waste is a recycling and refurbishment challenge that is not being sufficiently addressed. The report concludes by saying:

"High volumes of domestically generated e-waste require well-functioning local take-back and recycling systems. Challenges include the establishment of appropriate collection strategies, ensuring that high volumes of valuable and non-valuable waste fractions are collected equally and that those fractions reach appropriate treatment and disposal facilities. In addition, connecting informal collectors to a formal recycling structure is pivotal, along with appropriate capacity building and training."

To return to the E-Scrap News newsletter, click here

EPA budget takes hit

By Jake Thomas, Resource Recycling

Earlier this week, the Obama Administration rolled out its budget for the upcoming fiscal year, proposing $8.34 billion for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, $105 million less than assigned to it the previous year.

The president's "FY 2013 EPA Budget in Brief" makes only a few fleeting mentions of the agency's functions to increase recycling. But a section titled "Recycling and Waste Minimization" in the document mentions that during the upcoming fiscal year "the EPA will continue to advance the sustainable materials management (SMM) practices and a cradle-to-cradle perspective representing an important emphasis shift from waste management to materials management."

Additionally, it also states that the EPA will work toward the "safe handling of used electronics to increase the amount of used electronics managed by accredited third party electronics recyclers," a continuation of the administration's past efforts to address the issue of e-waste disposal.

Funding for the EPA's activities under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the law that gives the agency a mandate to regulate hazardous waste and to conduct other activities, rose slightly under the president's budget from $112.46 million for FY 2012 to $117.2 million in FY 2013. Specifically, funding for waste minimization and recycling activities conducted by the EPA saw a slight increase from $9.54 million for FY 2012 to $9.64 million FY 2013 in the proposed budget.

However, the president's budget is facing tough scrutiny from the Republican-controlled House and will almost certainly emerge with major changes.

To return to the Resource Recycling newsletter, click here.

To return to the E-Scrap News newsletter, click here

Regency Technologies, Dlubak partner on CRT glass

By Jake Thomas, Resource Recycling

E-scrap recycling company Regency Technologies has partnered with Dlubak Glass Company, a processor of scrap TV and PC monitors, on a joint operation that will recycle CRT glass.

Under the agreement, Regency Technologies will open a new location in Upper Sandusky, Ohio adjacent to Dlubak Glass. The companies are hoping that the arrangement will allow them to completely breakdown, dismantle and recycle devices containing CRT glass. Regency Technologies will dismantle the devices and send glass to Dlubak, which will process the material using a furnace. The cullet produced from the process will be used in road surface paving material, building construction and aggregate products.

To return to the E-Scrap News newsletter, click here

 

Certification scorecard

With the roster of companies attaining third-party certifications or audits continuing to grow, E-Scrap News has compiled a round-up of the firms announcing certification this past week.

• Premier Surplus' Cumming, Georgia, facility is now certified to ISO 14001 and R2.
• Greenstream International's Austin, Texas facility is now certified to the R2 standard. The location is also certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

Has your firm completed a CHWMEG audit or an ISO 9001, ISO 14001, R2, RIOS or e-Stewards certification? Email henry@resource-recycling.com to be included in this section and in E-Scrap News' quarterly directory.

To return to the E-Scrap News newsletter, click here

NewsBits

The board of directors for the National Association for Information Destruction has announced candidates for the 2012 election. The election will take place March 31 at the annual NAID conference in Anaheim, California.

Sims Recycling Solutions has renewed a five-year service contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to de-manufacture electronic devices generated by the massive government entity. The company has been providing this service to the DoD for the last 13 years.

Sprint, the City of Orlando, Keep Orlando Beautiful, Creative Recycling and the National Basketball Association are teaming up on an electronics recycling drive in conjunction with the NBA All-Star Game. Those that drop off used electronics will receive two tickets to the NBA All-Star Jam Session on Thursday Feb. 23 or Friday, Feb. 24. E-scrap can be dropped off at the Orange County Convention Center.

To return to the E-Scrap News newsletter, click here

 

EPA works to explain shifting recycling rate

By Henry Leineweber, Resource Recycling

The Environmental Protection Agency has found itself having to explain recent changes that dramatically altered its calculation of the PET recycling rate.

When the EPA released its 2010 Municipal Solid Waste Characterization Study, the PET recycling rate was calculated to be 29.2 percent. As a point of reference, the PET recycling rate for 2009 and 2008 – using the same methodology – was 28.0 percent and 27.0 percent, respectively.

However, using the new method of calculating the PET recycling rate, which subtracts caps, lids and other materials, the PET recycling rate for 2010 was revised down to 21 in November of 2011.

"We need to start reporting what is actually recycled, not what is collected for recycling," said Susan Collins, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute in a letter to the EPA last September. "Process losses occur at the materials recovery facility when contaminants are removed and even greater levels of contamination are removed when materials arrive at paper mills, plastics reclaimers and the like."

Collins was one of many industry stakeholders that participated in a process to improve the accuracy of the recycling rate, but has since raised questions about the way the methodology was revised and what happened to the stakeholder input.

"We've calculated the PET recycling rate the same way for the past 40 years," explains EPA acting branch chief Ron Vance, speaking with Plastics Recycling Update. "In last year's report, we used a revised methodology that we developed with public input, and really tried to give it a fresh look – make it more accurate."

"It essentially crashed the recycling rate," admits Vance. "As a year-over-year comparison, it was obvious the new numbers were going to be a problem. So we re-revised them."

The revised fact sheet and data tables released last November, were then amended to include a "gross" recycling rate of 29.2 percent, which reflects the traditional methodology, and the "net" recycling rate of 21.0 percent, which uses the new methodology. Both methodologies estimate the total volume of PET using commodity production numbers from the Department of Commerce.

The EPA says it is now moving to a phased rollout of the new methodology, to provide more accurate year-over-year recycling rate comparisons. The public comment process on future revisions will be done in stages and may take longer than a year. However, the EPA says revisions to account for caps, labels and other materials in the PET stream are definitely on the way.

To return to the Plastics Recycling Update newsletter, click here

To return to the Resource Recycling newsletter, click here.

PetroChem Wire: HDPE buyers wary, prices stable

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

Uncertainty about prime grade polyethylene pricing in January kept recycled PE prices from further erosion in the beginning of 2012 despite tepid demand from some end-use markets.

In pellet markets, HDPE fractional melt pipe grade mixed colored material remained low at around 50 cents per pound, while natural film-grade HDPE pellets remained at the high end of recycled HDPE pricing near the mid-60s–cents-per-pound level. HDPE regrind pricing stayed in the low to mid-40s-cents-per-pound-range for many grades, with natural film-grade recycled HDPE holding around 50 cents per pound.

In the prime HDPE domestic spot market in early February older inventories were clearing out and being replaced by higher cost material, but buyers were reluctant to purchase prime material at the full 6 cents per pound price increase. But by the second week in February, offers of prime fractional melt HDPE were being made in the mid-60s cents per pound delivered east of the Rockies.

For more information about PetroChem Wire's Repro/Regrind Resin Report and daily prime grade polymers and monomers report, or to arrange a free trial subscription, contact Cindy Bryan at cidy@petrochemwire.com.

To return to the Plastics Recycling Update newsletter, click here

Bag and film report authors respond to criticism

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

The controversy around the recently released National Postconsumer Plastic Bag and Film Recycling Report continues, with Moore Recycling Associates and the American Chemistry Council both defending the report from criticism.

Responding to criticism that the report used "selective reporting and a questionable methodology," levied by Californians Against Waste, Moore Recycling Associates issued a statement saying CAW used "very misleading facts and figures in an attempt to downplay the positive news."

"It is true there was an increase in film and bag generation from 2009 to 2010 according to the EPA figures, but the increase of all bags, sacks and wraps was only 160 million pounds and the increase in recycling was 220 million pounds," read the statement. "And, over a three year period (2008-2010) recycling gains are even more impressive. According to the EPA data, recycling of bags, sacks and wraps grew by 120 million pounds, while sales of the same decreased by 60 million pounds."

Keith Christman, senior director of packaging for the American Chemistry Council's Plastics Division agreed.

"The way CAW uses data is misleading," says Christman. "They say that bag recycling is a failure, but the report itself combines bag and film recycling, since that's how they are collected and baled at grocery stores. Table 21 in the EPA's report shows that the bag and film recycling rate more than doubled from 5 percent to 11.5 percent between 2005 and 2010."

Both Moore Recycling and the ACC say they stand by their methodology and the findings of the report, arguing that recycling, rather than bans or taxes, is the best way to accommodate the controversial material.

To return to the Plastics Recycling Update newsletter, click here

Patent watch

Joseph Keating has received Patent No. 8,113,448, which describes a method of recycling carpet components.

Japanese firm Teijin Fibers Ltd. has received Patent No. 8,113,354, describing a method of sorting mixed plastic. Specifically, the process is designed to separate PET bottles from PE or PP caps.

Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University has filed Patent Application No. 20120035365, which describes a method for manufacturing porous material from scrap PET bottles and transition metals.

Oregon-based Agilyx Corp. has submitted Patent Application No. 20120034571, outlining a method for recycling plastic using sealed cartridges.

Patent Application No. 20120032009 has been filed by Berry Plastics Corp. of Indiana. It describes a process of separating plastics from metals.

Georgia-based Nyloboard LLC has submitted a patent application for a waterproof plywood substitute made from recycled carpet and textiles. The process is described in Patent Application No. 20120031543.

For more information on these or any patents, please consult the U.S. Patent Office database online.

Copies of patents can be ordered by number for $3 each from the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, P.O. Box 1450, Alexandria, VA, 22313-1450.

To return to the Plastics Recycling Update newsletter, click here

 

Significant new industry initiative to push recycling forward

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

Under the banner of Action to Accelerate Recycling, nearly 80 corporate, trade group, environmental and governmental leaders met for two days last week near Dallas to devise a plan to push recycling levels higher.

The event was sponsored by Alcoa and was produced with the assistance of other "Founders Circle" firms and groups, such as Waste Management, Owens-Illinois and the National Association for PET Container Resources. The attendees represented more than 70 percent of the soft drink industry, 90 percent of the glass container market and all of the aluminum cansheet industry. Executives from paper and plastic recycling firms were also at the meeting, as were those representing recycling collection and processing firms, and local and state governments.

The goal of the working meeting was to produce a plan to boost recycling rates by 20 percentage points in three years. Attendees were asked to consider ways to make "recycling the social norm, not the exception."

Participants we interviewed were generally supportive of the efforts of Alcoa and its partners. Similar initiatives have been undertaken by organizations, such as the National Recycling Coalition, but, "this is the first time such a project has been led by a company," noted one attendee. A beverage industry veteran said that "Alcoa deserves credit for pulling this together," while another attendee said, "I greatly appreciated the organizers' efforts."

That's not to suggest that the event was a love-fest. One of the executives we interviewed said that "knowing the challenges of consensus, opposing missions, disagreement, level of decision-making authority, experience … this process will take a while."

One attendee summed it well for the other attendees we interviewed. "Compared to a lot of voluntary initiatives I've seen over more than a dozen years, this meeting was different. Alcoa made a very conscious effort to get companies throughout the supply chain together to talk not just about containers, but other packaging and paper. What was also different was that there were 'rates and dates' specified, such as a 20-percent increase in recycling by 2015 in non-deposit states. That helped focus the discussion on how to direct resources from industry to things that would get measurable results. It was not just a discussion about how to 'raise awareness" or 'promote recycling.'"

Several attendees noted that the growing governmental and corporate fervor for expanded recycling provided significant momentum for the meeting. This led to "good representation across the supply chain and very engaged participants," said one industry veteran.

That said, several participants noted that the agenda was "too ambitious" and because the attendees had various levels of understanding about municipal waste recycling, "responses were all over the board."

In terms of the options considered at the meeting, legislative concepts, such as extended producer responsibility (EPR) and container deposit systems, were taken off the table, even though EPR and deposit-system proponents were in attendance. One attendee said that "for some of us, our hands were tied behind our backs" by restricting the discussion to voluntary efforts. A key reason for not considering these options is that the goal was to develop a plan to boost recycling by 2015, which new EPR and deposit laws in 2013 or 2014 would not do. But the limitation in options pushed attendees to consider other ideas. "Taking this [EPR and deposits] off the table challenged the meeting," noted one expert.

Nearly everyone we chatted with applauded the project. "We looked at new ways to talk to consumers, which I found fascinating," said one key leader. "The willingness to look at many, many options was encouraging," said another participant. One widely-respected organization leader said "the breadth of the issues and challenges raised by the participants, all on target, made a compelling case for the need for stakeholder collaboration to move recycling forward in this country."

In the hopes of moving the ambitious plan from the conference hall to the curbside, "small groups [were formed and] identified specific steps to address outreach, residential collection obstacles, public areas, and capacity development," reported one attendee. From there, he said that "teams were established which will report back to the group in 30 days for the development of a master plan to achieve the identified goal of 20 points in three years."

The meeting facilitators have asked participants to work in separate groups to develop timelines for future outcomes. In terms of the likelihood of success for the Action to Accelerate Recycling initiative, one participant crisply noted that "the opportunity is there for the willing." However, one key player noted that a number of attendees remained hesitant to predict that an expanded promotion in itself will push recycling rates to lofty levels. The debate is likely to continue. As one respected official noted, for some participants, "a default reliance on 'education and outreach' as a primary strategy seemed out of step with the structural needs to revamp the whole system."

To return to the Resource Recycling newsletter, click here.

To return to the Plastics Recycling Update newsletter, click here.

PetroChem Wire: Recycled PET prices slide in early 2012

Prices for flake and pellet forms of recycled PET dropped around 2-3 cents per pound in January, but sales were relatively sluggish as buyers waited to see if the price declines would extend into February.

FDA-grade pellet pricing eased to the 90-93 cents per pound range last month for clear material and to the 82-85 cents per pound range for green material. Regrind rPET prices slipped to the low-60s cents per pound range for green strapping and staple fiber grades. Regrind clear rPET for filament fiber was in the low-70s cents per pound in January, with clear rPET regrind for food packaging uses around the mid-70s cents per pound.

For more information about PetroChem Wire's Repro/Regrind Resin Report and daily prime grade polymers and monomers report, or to arrange a free trial subscription, contact Cindy Bryan at cindy@petrochemwire.com.

To return to the Plastics Recycling Update newsletter, click here

San Francisco widens scope of bag ban

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

San Francisco will extended its plastic bag ban from large grocery stores and chain pharmacies to restaurants, gift shops, hardware stores, boutiques and other retailers under an ordinance approved by the city's Board of Supervisors earlier this week.

The ordinance also requires shoppers in San Francisco to pay 10 cents each for any other type of bag (i.e. paper) they request at checkout, reports Associated Press via The Washington Post. San Francisco became the first major city in the country to ban plastic grocery bags with a 2007 ordinance. Since then, similar bans have proliferated across the state and elsewhere.

The ordinance is supported by the mayor, the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the California Grocers Association and the city's Small Business Commission. It also creates an exemption for items such as loose nails, dry cleaning and bulk candy.

To return to the Plastics Recycling Update newsletter, click here