Tag Archives: recycling

Re|focus event looks to drive demand for recycled materials

June 10, 2015,  Washington, D.C.

by William R. Carteaux & Kim Holmes

SPI plans new event for April 2016 in Orlando

As professionals in plastics manufacturing, it is incumbent upon us to lead the industry in developing strategies that drive innovation, particularly when faced with an issue like recycling that affects the entire supply chain. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency figures suggest that only 9 percent of plastic was recycled from the municipal solid waste stream in 2012 (latest figures available). SPI thinks it’s time to create strategies that will help drive demand for recycled materials, thus we’ve launched the Re|focus Recycling Summit & Expo.

The potential to grow the use of recycled plastics in manufacturing is enormous. The U.S. plastics industry is the 3rd largest manufacturing industry in the U.S., producing nearly $400 billion in products. Frankly, it is impossible to look at those numbers and fail to see the potential to drive demand and create new opportunities for the recycling industry. Reducing supply chain obstacles and eliminating manufacturing barriers so we can make that happen in a meaningful way is the goal of Re|focus, slated for April 2016 in Orlando, Fla.

We’ve discussed this topic with many of you, and we think we agree that Re|focus fulfills an unmet niche in the recycling conference market. SPI plans to join brand owners and processors, as well as others who have never engaged in the recycling conversation for discussions that emphasize solutions. The event will challenge attendees to “refocus” on product design and manufacturing with an eye toward recycled content, design for recycling and driving sustainability in manufacturing. Creating a stronger market pull for recycled content will directly benefit recyclers and municipal collection efforts.

Industry leaders who look closely at what we have planned will see that SPI has conceived a fresh, new approach to addressing sustainability issues. With the recycling rate having been essentially stagnant for the past 10 years, doing more of the same will only produce the same results. It’s time for a new approach, new conversations and new tools for the industry. It’s time for Re|focus. We will no longer wait for the plastics industry to join the recycling industry’s conversation; instead we will take the conversation to them.  It is also important to note that all funds generated from the Re|focus Summit & Expo will be reinvested into the industry’s recovery and sustainability efforts.

If you have questions about this event, contact us. Re|focus is an exciting, innovative approach to one our industry’s most critical issues. To learn more, please visit http://www.refocussummit.org.

William R. Carteaux

SPI President and CEO

Kim Holmes

SPI Senior Director of Recycling and Diversions

Weighing the next 40 years of recycling

Editor’s Note: This story appears in Waste & Recycling News’ commemorative issue, “40 Years of Curbside Recycling.”

Recycling at high-rise apartments offers a great opportunity to collect a large amount of materials from one location, but containers that tenants empty their household bins into can fill fast, especially on weekends.

Instead of toting the potential commodities back to their unit, some residents trash them.

Overcoming the hurdles to convenient recycling at multiple-family housing needs to be addressed, said Steven Thompson, executive director of Curbside Value Partnership, a non-profit group that works with cities and states to increase participation.

“You have to have architects designing multiple chutes on the 30th floor instead of just one for trash,” Thompson said. “That’s going to take a lot of work and a lot of time.”

He hopes it is one of the changes that come about in the next 40 years for curbside recycling.

“There are conundrums the industry doesn’t have its head around, like rural areas,” Thompson said. “It’s very hard to cost-effectively recycle when you have three miles between mailboxes.”

The 40th anniversary of curbside recycling begs the question: What will it be like in the next four decades? What quandaries will be cleared up? What new ones will pop up?

Waste & Recycling News asked some of the leaders in the industry to look into their crystal balls and offer a glimpse of what may be in 2053.

The predictions, aspirations and cautions ranged from boosting the recycling rate beyond 34% to finding profitable solutions to problems and to this warning: Without more attention to quality control during processing, the pendulum could take an ugly swing backward to manufacturers using virgin material.

Steve Miller, CEO of Bulk Handling Systems, sees several trends moving forward, such as more mixing of materials, better technology to extract materials, and higher quality of extracted materials for reprocessing today’s common recyclables.

There will be less left to waste if advances in refuse-derived fuel take some big steps forward in the next four decades, he added. All eyes and many minds are on the organic fraction of the waste stream and anaerobic digestion.

Miller expects the industry to next go after materials like used paper plates, tissues and towels, and plastic films.

“[They’re] not in sufficient quantity to have a commodity value to them but when thought of as an energy source they have a high-caloric value to them and could be utilized that way,” Miller said. “When you go forward I think there will be much more work in that area.”

Contaminated paper products, which can’t be recovered as a fiber source, and other components of the light and high-energy fraction could become a refuse-derived fuel that helps utilities power plants now using coal or natural gas.

Thompson also sees more waste-to-energy facilities on the horizon and his fingers are crossed the option doesn’t deter recycling.

“Waste-to-energy needs to be thought through so it doesn’t become a reason not to recycle,” he said. “People might say, ‘Oh we don’t need to do that. We’ll just burn it.’ There are ways they can co-exist nicely and have a high functionality but it needs to be carefully designed and implemented.”

For now, the industry is stumped as to how to remove the so-called “frozen fuel” of plastic film — grocery bags, dry cleaners bags, and the clear packaging for men’s dress shirts — that gets intertwined with recyclables.

“That material is substantially more than what people think,” said Nathiel Egosi, owner and founder of RRT Design & Construction. “It’s problematic to process because it’s difficult to remove in an automatic fashion.”

Egosi expects those pesky flexible plastic packages to be sorted in some systematic way in upcoming years.

“It’s not a desirable material in bales of plastic and other types of commodities,” he said. “The whole industry is working to develop a technique to get that plastic film out.”

MRFs will evolve to process more materials and do so more economically in the next 40 years, said Bill Moore, president of the consulting firm Moore & Associates. In the 1990s, a big MRF cost $1 million to build and handled 100 tons of material a day; today, $20 million MRFs process 1,000 tons daily, he said.

“I suspect we’ll grow that with more regional facilities,” Moore said. “MRFs will continue to look like sophisticated manufacturing operations. They bring in raw materials and process it. That’s the mindset. They are manufacturers creating value out of product.”

Mick Barry, a board member of the National Recycling Coalition, is rooting for dual-stream recycling to win out over single-stream. He’s concerned about commingled recyclables causing impurity problems with the finished product and turning off buyers.

Barry, who also is a materials broker, points to China’s “Green Fence.” The crackdown on imported waste is more than a short-term awareness campaign about sub-standard scrap, Barry said. He sees it as a long-term, quality-control initiative that affects one of America’s top exports.

There is no longer a ready market in China for impure bales of plastic, paper and other recyclables from the U.S. and Europe.

“We’ve got to clean up our act,” Barry said. “The [United Kingdom] sent too much junk in with plastic and they finally cut the U.K. off. They sent a message to the world: Hey, enough is enough. Don’t dump on us and blame us for being the garbage guys of the world.”

It’s critical that all U.S. recyclers remember their bottom line is creating a raw material from a used material and not simply recovering things from the waste stream, Barry said. His message: Have some pride of ownership.

“If we don’t go back to that, we will lose our position as the primary source of materials for manufacturing product back to the virgin base,” Barry said.

Kate Krebs, a former director of the NRC, envisions a future with no waste at all.

“Waste to me is a design flaw,” she said. “If you design a product correctly, you factor in not only the form and function but end of life. That thinking is permeating through our global manufacturing side. That helps us shift. If we really got the consumer marketing going and we continue to spread end-of-life strategies to the makers of product, looking ahead 40 years we should have a much more efficient, simple system.”

EndInMind Design Launches Unique Way to Encourage Recycling

RecyclerSackOur friend Jay Edwards and his partner Sheila Arora have come up with a cool new way to encourage recycling. They have launched the new EndInMind Design website, endinminddesign.com, and their first new product, RecyclerSack(TM). RecyclerSack is geared toward collecting recyclables, away from home, in places where participation in recycling is low, such as hotels. They have blended the functionality of a plastic bag for segregating recyclables from trash, with fine art, so your recyclables have a beautiful and fashionable place to be stored while waiting for collection.

This is their first product of what is likely to be many, fine art inspired, sustainable solutions. We wish them best of luck and look forward to seeing RecyclerSacks on our next road trip.

Researchers develop method for recycling plastic with printed ink

Researchers at the University of Alicante have developed a new procedure that removes printed ink on plastic films used in flexible packaging getting a product free from ink and suitable for recycling.

Click here to read full article.

Nominations Open for Innovation in Plastics Recycling Awards

Contact: Allyson Wilson (202) 249-6623  Email: Allyson_Wilson@americanchemistry.com

Annual Honors Now Calling for Entries through October 30th

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 17, 2012) – Nominations are now open for the 2012 Awards for Innovation in Plastics Recycling. Organized by the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the annual event honors companies and individuals who have successfully brought new technologies, products and initiatives into communities and/or the marketplace.

“We know that plastics are valuable materials and should be given a second life after initial use,” said Steve Russell, Vice President of Plastics at ACC. “Honoring those who have helped to advance plastics recycling demonstrates the vibrancy of the plastics recycling industry in making innovative products, jobs and contributions to the U.S. economy.”

Last year Axion International, Inc., Nepco Industrial Company Ltd. and Trex Company were selected to receive awards.

Learn more about the annual recycling awards, including eligibility and nomination instructions.

Method Introduces Product Line with Packaging Made from Ocean Plastic

Entertainment Close-Up

October 15, 2012

Environmentally-conscious cleaning product company Method announced it is launching its latest solution in sustainable packaging bottles made from a blend of plastic recovered from the ocean and post-consumer recycled plastic.

According to a release, this limited edition packaging is for a new Method product, a two-in-one hand and dish soap, available at Whole Foods Market stores nationwide.

Method said scientists estimate that several million tons of plastic make its way into the oceans every year, polluting the environment and hurting marine populations. Through this new use of recovered ocean plastic, Method is demonstrating how a business can tackle environmental problems, and that there are smarter ways to make plastic than using virgin material. Nearly all of Method’s packaging is made from post-consumer recycled material, which helps keep additional plastic out of landfills and oceans.

Over the past year and a half, Method employees have worked with local volunteers from Sustainable Coastlines Hawai’i and the Kokua Hawai’i Foundation to hand-collect several tons of plastic from the beaches of Hawai’i, where the kinds of rigid, opaque plastic needed to make this packaging are most abundant. A portion of the product’s proceeds will go to these two Hawaiian organizations as part of Method’s efforts to establish an ongoing business model and supply chain for collecting and sorting plastic marine debris.

Method noted that it partnered with recycler Envision Plastics to develop a new recycling process to make the bottles. The process allows plastics recovered from the ocean to be cleaned, blended, and then remanufactured into recycled plastic that is the same quality as virgin high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic.

“Our goal with ocean plastic packaging is to show that the most viable solution to our plastic pollution problem is using the plastic that’s already on the planet. Method’s ocean plastic bottle demonstrates in the extreme that recycling is possible. By recycling and reusing plastic to make our bottles, we turn off the tap of plastic flowing into our oceans and take the first, most important step toward solving the ocean plastic problem,” said Adam Lowry, co-founder and chief greenskeeper of Method.

“Method is really demonstrating how smart business initiatives can make a big impact for our planet. We’re proud be partnering with them to raise awareness around this global issue and showcase new ways to use and reuse the plastics that are already on our earth,” said Errol Schweizer, executive global grocery coordinator for Whole Foods Market.

((Comments on this story may be sent to newsdesk@closeupmedia.com))

Copyright 2012 Close-Up Media, Inc.All Rights Reserved
Entertainment Close-Up

Want lower taxes? Recycle more

If you’re concerned about the high cost of living, read on. There’s one simple thing we can all do to help our towns and us save money: Recycle more.

New Jersey is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its mandatory recycling law — the nation’s first — and is re-energizing the movement by emphasizing that “going green” can save greenbacks while helping the environment.

The state’s goal is to raise our recycling rate to 50 percent, meaning that at least half of the stuff we throw away doesn’t end up in landfills or incinerators.

Right now, the numbers are less than stellar. Only 16 percent of the state’s municipalities have met the 50 percent goal. A third of our towns recycle less than 25 percent of their trash.

“People are not recycling the way they should,” said Assemblywoman Grace Spencer, chairwoman of the Assembly’s Environment and Solid Waste Committee, who wants to find ways to make recycling easier and more consistent from county to county.

Although the state hasn’t hit its recycling goal, the trend seems to be moving in the right direction. Between 2009 and 2010 (the most recent year for which figures are available), New Jersey’s overall recycling rate climbed from 37 to 40 percent for municipal trash.

That translates into real savings for taxpayers, through cost avoidance and sales of recyclable materials.

Here’s how it works: In 2010, an extra 364,000 tons of metal, glass, plastic, paper and cardboard were not sent to landfills or incinerators. That resulted in $26 million in savings from avoided disposal costs. At the same time, the recyclables were sold for $45.5 million, adding up to a total savings of $71.5 million.

To reach the state’s 50 percent recycling goal, another 1.1 million tons must be recycled each year. It’s a challenge, but achievable. Other states have done it, and New Jersey can, too.

You can do your town, yourself and the environment a favor by recycling everything you can. In the 25 years since the mandatory recycling law was signed by Gov. Tom Kean, it’s gotten much easier.

Back in 1987, most households had to separate metals from glass and further separate glass by color. Today, in contrast, many of us have the convenience of single-stream recycling. That is, we can toss all glass, plastic and metals into one container. In addition to newspapers and magazines, most junk mail and office paper can be recycled.

But, as Spencer noted, there are inconsistencies that pose a challenge. “Why is it that a yogurt container accepted (for recycling) in Essex County isn’t accepted in Ocean County?” she asked.

The state, Spencer said, must also make it easier to recycle old clothing and electronics, safely dispose of long-lasting light bulbs that shouldn’t go in the trash, and compost food waste.

For more information about recycling, go to the state’s website at http://www.state.nj.us/dep/dshw/recycling.

Michele Byers

Executive director

New Jersey Conservation Foundation

Far Hills

Handle on recyc…

Handle on recycling

Eugene packaging firm aims to use more recycled plastic in its handles

 By Saul Hubbard

The Register-Guard

 Published: August 19, 2012 12:00AM, Midnight, Aug. 19

Like many businesses that make products using virgin plastic, Eugene-based PakTech is facing an identity crisis.

The national marketplace, responding to a more environmentally conscious consumer base, is shifting slowly toward recycled plastics, forcing plastic manufacturers to adapt.

Since the 1990s, PakTech, a family-run business based in two factories in an industrial section of west Eugene, has produced the handles that bind the multi-packs of food products that can be found on the shelves of Costco stores and other bulk retailers.

The company’s handles are used on everything from juice, soda, beer and salsa to cleaning products, mouthwash and fabric softener. The company’s most popular handle is what they call their TwinPak — which binds two items — but their product line is malleable: new handles are being developed constantly to meet the specific needs of their customers’ products.

It’s a niche industry. But PakTech dominates it nationally, with an estimated 95 percent share of the market, thanks in part to design patents it holds on several key characteristics of its molded plastic handles.

The company also has strong relationships with Costco and Wal-Mart-owned Sam’s Club, which often send food producers trying to meet the retailers’ multi-pack requirements PakTech’s way.

PakTech sells 300 million handles a year — at prices ranging from a few cents to more than a dime — more than double the volume it moved a decade ago.

While declining to release specific revenue numbers, Amie Thomas, PakTech’s vice president of sales and marketing and daughter of company founder Jim Borg, said that sales have increased consistently — and the recession did little to slow them.

“Packaging is the second biggest industry in the world,” Thomas said. “But people don’t think about it unless it’s causing them problems.”

Last summer, PakTech started what could turn out to be a major transition for the business: integrating “post-­consumer” or recycled plastic handles into its product line.

From a production standpoint, the transition is simple. The handles are made in huge industrial mold presses: small plastic resin pellets, blended with coloring, are injected into aluminium molds, heated, solidified through pressure and cooled with water — all in about eight seconds.

Using recycled plastic pellets, which PakTech purchases from a California supplier, doesn’t change that process.

The challenge lies in getting food producers to accept the recycled plastic handles, Thomas said, even though they are priced the same as the virgin plastic handles.

But virgin plastic pellets produce brightly colored and shiny handles, while the recycled pellets can produce a dull or matte finish.

PakTech’s customers also can be wary of switching to a new product that they fear might be less sturdy and durable, Thomas said. It can take some time for customers to conduct the tests they need to be satisfied with the new products, she said.

Still, just a couple of weeks ago, PakTech’s biggest customer — a major U.S. soft drink company — signed up to use the recycled handles.

“That was great,” Thomas said.

A year into the transition, about 10 percent of the handles PakTech sells are made with recycled plastic. Thomas said that, eventually, the company would like to sell recycled handles exclusively, although she acknowledges that might be an overly optimistic goal.

PakTech currently has 126 permanent employees, up from 60 in 2001. While some of the company’s low-skill workers have been replaced with automation over time, the company’s high-skill, technical work force has grown. Those high-skill workers build applicators, large automated machines that attach PakTech’s handles to products as they move along a customer’s assembly line. PakTech sells and ships about 15 applicators a year.

Although some of the newer machines cost several hundred thousand dollars, the applicator side of the business largely has been a money loser over the last decade, Thomas said. But customers need the equipment to attach the handles rapidly, so selling applicators helps the company sell more of their primary product, she adds.

More than 80 percent of PakTech’s customer base is headquartered on the East Coast, but the company hasn’t considered relocating, Thomas said.

“That’s certainly one of the benefits of being a family-owned business; there are less outside forces to deal with.”

“We like the (Eugene) community. We enjoy being a good employer locally. … You can diss plastic all you want, but if we weren’t here there would just be someone doing this in China instead.”

PakTech has made some forays into the international marketplace in recent years, targeting Mexico and Latin America. Those efforts are still in the embryonic stage, Thomas said, although the company has opened a distribution center in Mexico.

Although many of the company’s patents, which last 10 years, will end soon — the “Unipak” patent already has expired — Thomas said there isn’t much concern about new competitors popping up.

“We have so much expertise and know-how in this business that it would be hard for a new company to come in and compete with us immediately,” she added. “They’d have to eat years of (financial) losses.”

Thomas said the plan is to keep the business in the family after her father, company President Jim Borg, retires (“which will be never,” she jokes).

Thomas and her brother, Zak Borg, current vice-president and director of engineering, are expected to eventually take over the reins.

“The succession is all very amiable, and we are learning the best way to run the company together,” Thomas said.

Women take up the cause of tackling plastic menace

V Mayilvaganan, TNN | Jul 24, 2012, 06.57AM IST

MADURAI: Naganakulam panchayat level federation (PLF) of women self-help groups (WSHG) has taken up a novel project of recycling plastic materials, shredding them into minute pieces that can be used for laying plastic roads. Ten districts in the state were taken up for the pilot project of recycling the plastic for road construction purposes and the order was issued by the government in the month of March. Out of the 10 districts, Madurai became the pioneer with district collector, Anshul Mishra officially inaugurating the unit at Naganakulam last Friday.

During the visit to the unit, situated in a small hall at Naganakulam, the women are eagerly working on their project as some are busy segregating the plastic bags and materials while few are involved in feeding the plastic materials into the shredding machine that grind the plastic into small particles. Within one hour, the women are able to grind 20 kg of plastic.

There are 480 members from 40 WSHGs in Naganakulam PLF and out of them eight WSHGs have come forward to work on the project. With each group sending one representative, there are eight women making the core group while others will support them in plastic collection and other things.

“We have asked all women self-help groups to collect plastic materials in their panchayat level and we will procure the materials for Rs five per kg. The shredded materials can be sold to Rs 16 per kg,” says G Aruna working with the machine. Public can also collect the used plastic carry bags, tea cups at their homes and hand over to us, she added.

V Karthikaiselvi, manager of District Supplies and Marketing Society under women’s project said the total cost of project was Rs 3.75 lakhs with full government subsidy. The shredding machine has cost Rs 1.60 lakhs while remaining funds will be spent on other purposes like maintenance. “Shredded plastic will be procured by the district rural development agency (DRDA) and they will use the materials for laying plastic roads in the rural areas,” she said.

R Ganesan, joint director/project officer, women’s project said the state government had proposed this project in January and passed an order in March. Ten districts were selected for the pilot study and Madurai was one among them and meticulous planning has helped them to start the project as the pioneers in the state, he said. “We have trained women in this work by February itself and ordered for the machine as soon as the order was passed. We are the first one to inaugurate the project and other districts are eager to follow our path,” he said.

“We came to know about the project during the PLF meeting held in May and we wanted to utilise the opportunity. While recycling of plastic can provide employability for our women, we will also involve in most important work of keeping the environment clean by recycling plastic. So, we opted for the project without a second thought,” says G Bothilakshmi, secretary of Naganakulam PLF.

Plastic Road Technology

Waste plastics, shredded into small pieces (2.5mm – 4.36 mm) and sprayed over hot aggregate (170 degree C); the shredded plastics melts and gets coated over the aggregate. This coated aggregate shows better binding property with bitumen. This waste plastic coated aggregate is mixed with bitumen and the mixer has better strength and resistance to water. The roads laid in this manner do not form potholes because of its lower water permeability character and it is also eco-friendly. Further, it helps to solve not only disposal of waste plastics effectively and usefully but also makes the road to withstand heavy load. The plastic road is the invention of R Vasudevan, dean, Thigarajar College of Engineering, Madurai and he patented the same in the year 2002. Vasudevan was also present for the inaugural function of the unit and he renders his support, said the women self-help group members.