Senate committee narrowly approves EPA nominee

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

President Obama's pick for the new director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is one step closer to starting work as Gina McCarthy's nomination moves to the Senate floor on a party-line vote.

The contentious nomination of McCarthy, blocked last week by Senate Republicans, was approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by a 10-8 vote, strictly along partisan lines. The nomination now heads to the floor of the Senate, where approval is not assured, with Senate Republicans threatening to filibuster unless given more information about how McCarthy would run the agency.

At issue, according to David Vitter of Louisiana, the ranking Republican on the Environment Committee, are five "key" transparency demands that he says that McCarthy and the agency have not answered, though progress has been made. And if more information is given by the nominee — who has already answered a record number of over 1,000 questions — Vitter will support the nomination.

"Should major additional progress be made in all of the five [transparency] categories over the next two weeks, I will strongly support handling the McCarthy nomination on the Senate floor without a cloture vote or any 60-vote threshold," Vitter said. "Should all of our requests in the five categories be granted, I will support the McCarthy nomination."

Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California told reporters expressed anger that the nomination was held up and called for a floor vote as soon as the nomination was passed out of committee.

"What does surprise me is that you take a woman like Gina McCarthy, who is clearly so bipartisan in her approach — worked for four Republican governors and one Democratic president — was unanimously approved by the very same people who now oppose her — and hold her up and keep her twisting in the wind," Boxer said.

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Free listings available for the Resource Recycling Equipment Buyers' Guide

If you manufacture recycling or composting equipment, be sure your company is listed in the all-new edition of our Recycling Equipment Buyers' Guide. Go to www.resource-recycling.com/buyersguide or click on the banner below to download a listing form. Send your free listing in today!

Enhanced listings with logos are available. Contact Resource Recycling advertising director, Rick Downing, with any questions. He can be contacted at rickdowning@oh.rr.com or (440) 257-6453.

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Environmental Services Group buys Curotto-Can

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

Solid waste and recycling hauling equipment giant, Environmental Solutions Group (ESG), is now even bigger, this morning announcing that it has acquired the Curotto-Can Company. Financial terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

ESG, which already owns Heil Environmental, Marathon Equipment Company and Bayne Premium Lift Systems, purchased the manufacturer of trash and recycling collection containers in a deal announced today. Curotto-Can, in the words of the company, makes an "automated carry can that mounts to the forks of a commercial front loader, converting the unit to an automated front loader."

"We are very excited to have John Curotto and his team as part of Environmental Solutions Group," said ESG president Pat Carroll in a press release announcing the purchase. "John is a fourth-generation hauler and an industry pioneer who approaches product design from the hauler's perspective. This maximizes benefits for the end user, which aligns directly with our philosophy at Heil and ESG."

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Connecticut mattress legislation heads to Governor

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

Connecticut is one more step closer to being the first state in the country to have an extended producer responsibility law for managing end-of-life mattresses.

The Connecticut Senate this week passed House Bill 6437 by a vote of 28-8 which sets up a mattress recovery program be funded by a point-of-sale fee of $8-to-$12. The bill requires the mattress industry to create a nonprofit organization to manage end-of-life mattresses and tasks that organization with "achieving continuous, meaningful improvement in improving the rate of mattress recycling in the state." That organization must submit a plan for approval by the commissioner of energy and environmental protection by July 1, 2014.

According to the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, there are 10,000 abandoned mattresses currently illegally dumped around the state, which municipalities more than $1.3 million annually to manage. "We seem to be a dumping ground for a lot of the mattresses, in Bridgeport," said Sen. Andres Ayala Jr. to the Connecticut Post. "It is a serious issue in our city."

The bill now moves to Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy for his signature.

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Portland, Oregon recycling program dealing with diapers

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

In switching to every-other-week trash pick-up, Portland, Oregon is finding more waste showing up in residents' recycling bins.

According to a report from Oregon Public Broadcasting, switching to every-other-week in October 2011 reduced the volume of garbage by 38 percent in program's first year, but has had to send more than 3,000 letters to homes that were caught tossing trash in their recycling bins.

More trash in recycling bins means a harder job for area materials recovery facilities. For instance, Portland-area MRF, Far West Fibers, is seeing an uptick in the number of dirty diapers its seeing on its conveyor belts. Far West Fibers president Keith Ristau told OPB that "prior to that you'd get a dirty diaper maybe once a month. Now we get 60 pounds per shift. It's not pretty.

"In the grand scheme of things, the amount of dirty diapers we get is an extremely small percentage, but it's by far the most disgusting percentage," said Ristau.

To help combat this issue, the City is giving free upgrades to larger trash cans for those who have medical conditions that cause them to create more materials not accepted in the recycling program, such as adult diapers.

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The wide world of recycling

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

Italy gets new aluminum recycling capacity, Nine Dragons continues to expand and the U.K. faces serious challenges to reach recycling targets.

Aluminum giant Novelis this week announced the opening of a new aluminum recycling and continuous casting line at its Pieve Emanuele facility in Milan, Italy. The 12 million Euro ($15.4 million USD) expansion is part of the company's plan to increase the recycled content of its rolled aluminum products to 80 percent by 2020. Novelis' products are currently made of 43 percent recycled content.

China's Nine Dragons Paper, one of the world's largest consumers of recovered fiber, announced plans to have six production lines launch over the next three years, which includes five production lines in China, as well as a packaging paperboard production line in Vietnam with annual production capacity of 350,000 metric tons. In total, the move is expected to add more than 2 million metric tons to the company's production capacity.

The U.K. is going to have a difficult time meeting new packaging recycling targets, according to new analysis from plastics recycling organization Recoup.

According to the 2012 UK Household Plastics Collection Survey, sponsored by Recoup, GlaxoSmithKline, Nampak Plastics and Wellman Recycling, the new targets require a 5 percent annual growth rate in plastic packaging recovery for U.K. businesses through 2017, which will take the required collection rate from 32 percent in 2012 to 57 percent. Plastic packaging collected from households will need to double from 470,000 tons collected in 2011 to over 913,000 tons by 2017. For context, over 1.3 million tons of rigid plastic packaging entered the U.K. household waste and recycling stream in 2011 alone.

The report highlights progress in many areas of plastic recycling. The plastic bottle recycling rate now exceeds 52 percent, for instance, and the recycling rate for plastic pots, tubs and trays is now over 20 percent. However, the report says without significant progress in the collection and recycling of packaging, the U.K. will miss its overall plastic recycling targets.

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RR Conference 2013: Looking at dual- and single-stream

It's widely known that single-stream recycling collection has become increasingly popular in North America. The primary factors cited for the switch include potential cost savings and the potential for higher diversion, but how has this switch actually impacted municipalities? A thorough assessment, prepared for the Continuous Improvement Fund, turns a critical eye towards nearly 30 single- and dual-stream systems as it examines implications regarding collection, processing, end-market material quality and diversion potential.

Find out what works for recycling at the 2013 Resource Recycling Conference to be held August 27-28 at the Marriott Louisville Downtown in Louisville, Kentucky. For more information, including information on booking a hotel room, session topics, or exhibiting and sponsorship opportunities, please visit www.rrconference.com or click on the banner below.

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NewsBits

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

San Francisco's sole waste and recycling hauler, Recology, is piloting a pay-as-you-throw program, which will reward residents for setting out their trash cans less. The "Pay Per Setout" program offers a 10 percent savings to residents for each week they skip setting out their trash cans, up to three weeks per month.

Want to bring the three r's to your back pocket? A blog called Alizul recently highlighted 10 unique wallets that can be made from recycled and reused objects.

Some shopping malls owned by Simon Property Group, Inc. have begun retrofitting their properties to include a "plastic room" which includes baling and storage operations for plastic bags, shrink wrap, packaging and other materials. The move is the latest recycling action by the company, which says it has increased diversion at its properties by 25 percent over the last two years.

Wisconsin has reached an electronics recycling milestone. The Associated Press reports that since going into effect three years ago, the Badger State's e-scrap recycling program has collected 100 million pounds of covered electronics for recycling.

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UK faces big challenges in packaging recycling

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

The U.K. is going to have a difficult time meeting new packaging recycling targets, according to new analysis from plastics recycling organization Recoup.

According to the 2012 UK Household Plastics Collection Survey, sponsored by Recoup, GlaxoSmithKline, Nampak Plastics and Wellman Recycling, the new targets require a 5 percent annual growth rate in plastic packaging recovery for U.K. businesses through 2017, which will take the required collection rate from 32 percent in 2012 to 57 percent. Plastic packaging collected from households will need to double from 470,000 tons collected in 2011 to over 913,000 tons by 2017. For context, over 1.3 million tons of rigid plastic packaging entered the U.K. household waste and recycling stream in 2011 alone.

The report highlights progress in many areas of plastic recycling. The plastic bottle recycling rate now exceeds 52 percent, for instance, and the recycling rate for plastic pots, tubs and trays is now over 20 percent. However, the report says without significant progress in the collection and recycling of packaging, the U.K. will miss its overall plastic recycling targets.

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Resource Recycling Conference: Labeling "How2Recycle"

Variation in recycling programs, unclear labeling and inaccurate recyclability claims make proper recycling a real challenge. To combat these barriers, GreenBlue's Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC) created the How2Recycle Label to provide consistent and transparent on-package recycling information to consumers. The recent soft launch of the How2Recycle had participation from a dozen companies, but SPC hopes to have the label on most consumer goods packaging by 2015. This timely presentation by industry expert, Anne Bedarf, offers the nitty-gritty details about this promising tool, including how you can get involved.

Find out what works for recycling at the 2013 Resource Recycling Conference to be held August 27-28 at the Marriott Louisville Downtown in Louisville, Kentucky. For more information, including information on booking a hotel room, session topics, or exhibiting and sponsorship opportunities, please visit www.rrconference.com or click on the banner below.

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PetroChem Wire: Recycled PP down sharply in April

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

Prices for CoPP and HoPP pellets declined 4 cents per pound in April in response to lackluster demand and softer prime polypropylene prices.

CoPP black repro material was offered in late April as high as 60 cents per pound delivered, with no takers. Bids ranged from 49 to 52 cents per pound FOB, down from March sales of 53-56 cents per pound. HoPP MC regrind sold at 35-38 cents per pound FOB in April, versus March sales at 39-42 cents. Offers of HoPP and CoPP black and mixed color regrind as high as 43 cents per pound delivered attracted little or no buying interest. Spot prime HoPP fell 3 cents during the month of April to end the month priced at just over 63 cents per pound FOB Houston.

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 or (713) 385-1407. To see sample issues of PCW publications, click here.

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Senate committee narrowly approves EPA nominee

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

President Obama's pick for the new director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is one step closer to starting work as Gina McCarthy's nomination moves to the Senate floor on a party-line vote.

The contentious nomination of McCarthy, blocked last week by Senate Republicans, was approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by a 10-8 vote, strictly along partisan lines. The nomination now heads to the floor of the Senate, where approval is not assured, with Senate Republicans threatening to filibuster unless given more information about how McCarthy would run the agency.

At issue, according to David Vitter of Louisiana, the ranking Republican on the Environment Committee, are five "key" transparency demands that he says that McCarthy and the agency have not answered, though progress has been made. And if more information is given by the nominee — who has already answered a record number of over 1,000 questions — Vitter will support the nomination.

"Should major additional progress be made in all of the five [transparency] categories over the next two weeks, I will strongly support handling the McCarthy nomination on the Senate floor without a cloture vote or any 60-vote threshold," Vitter said. "Should all of our requests in the five categories be granted, I will support the McCarthy nomination."

Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California told reporters expressed anger that the nomination was held up and called for a floor vote as soon as the nomination was passed out of committee.

"What does surprise me is that you take a woman like Gina McCarthy, who is clearly so bipartisan in her approach — worked for four Republican governors and one Democratic president — was unanimously approved by the very same people who now oppose her – and hold her up and keep her twisting in the wind," Boxer said.

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Nebraska exceeds agricultural plastic container milestone

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

With its latest collection numbers, Nebraska has collected over 2.1 million pounds of agricultural plastic containers for recycling since its program began 22 years ago.

Beginning in 1991 as a joint venture between the Nebraska Department of Agriculture, the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality and University of Nebraska Lincoln Extension, the Nebraska Pesticide Container Recycling Committee was established the following year with backing from a coalition of eight organizations, three statewide departments and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The program targets pesticide containers between 1-2.5 gallons and agricultural drums between 15-55 gallons. In 2012, the program collected approximately 70,000 pounds of material for recycling at its 38 statewide collection sites.

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Patent watch

Takaroku Shoji Co. Ltd. has filed Patent Application No. 20130109281, outlining a method of removing paint from the surface of a plastic bumper.

Austrian inventors Helmuth Schulz and Gunther Klammer have filed Patent Application No. 20130107659, which describes a device for mixing plastics using a pair of interlocking screws.

Patent Application No. 20130105365 has been filed by MBA Polymers, Inc. The application describes a method of separating and purifying plastics in a waste stream.

Shaw Industries Group, Inc. has submitted Patent Application No. 20130112790, which relates to a continuous flow process to recycle carpet waste.

Eastman Chemical Company has outlined a carpet recycling method that involves separating and heating the face fiber and backing material, which is described in Patent Application No. 20130112727.

Patent No. 8,431,677 has been awarded to Galactic S.A. for a method of purifying polymer streams contaminated with over 50 percent PLA.

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.

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NewsBits

Early analysis of 2012 data shows that both production and recycling of plastics are growing in the European Union, according to trade group PlasticsEurope. Production grew more slowly in 2012 than in the previous year, but the overall recycling rate for the EU (which excludes energy recovery) ticked up to 25.1 percent.

Some shopping malls owned by Simon Property Group, Inc. have begun retrofitting their properties to include a "plastic room" which includes baling and storage operations for plastic bags, shrink wrap, packaging and other materials. The move is the latest recycling action by the company, which says it has increased diversion at its properties by 25 percent over the last two years.

Hong Kong may soon expand its plastic bag ban, according to a recent report in Plastics News. Plastic bag use has declined 75 percent since the ban went into effect. The proposed expansion would increase the number of stores and businesses affected — currently numbering 3,000 supermarkets and convenience stores.

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Basel meeting ends, but debate continues on reuse and refurbishment

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

More reactions are coming in on a disagreement over reuse and refurbishment at the recently-concluded Basel Convention meeting in Geneva.

Last week, representatives from developing countries voted against proposed rule changes that would have exempted non-working, but potentially repairable electronics from the Basel Convention's hazardous waste control procedures. Since a consensus could not be reached at the meeting, the proposal was not adopted. Current rules allow devices to be exported for repair and reuse.

The Information Technology Industry Council, which had advocated for the change, says it "strongly backs tough protections to prevent products at the end of their lives from being dumped in places without the facilities or specialization to handle them." ITI says the proposal was necessary to allow warranty returns to OEMs to be considered products, rather than wastes.

Despite assurances that the revisions would be in service of greater repair and refurbishment among OEMs, environmentalists cheered the failure of the proposal as a victory against the flow of hazardous waste to the developing world.

"ITI has lost a lot of credibility in this process. They tried to flex their lobby muscle and place a monumental loophole in Basel," said Basel Action Network executive director Jim Puckett. "The basic rule of the guideline concluded that if something is not working or its functionlaity has not been tested, then it is deemed to be a hazardous waste. The older mobile phone (MPPI) and computing equipment (PACE) guidelines for transboundary movement had basically concluded this as well but included an exemption for warrantied material... ITI over-reached and begin demanding wide-open exemptions for virtually all exports of e-waste as long as a destination of repair was asserted. It would have opened the doors wide to fully legal trade because all one would have to do is claim that your material was bound for repair. This would have spelled the demise of the electronics recycling industry in North America and Europe as we know it because there would be a disincentive to actually dismantle or shred materials as export of whole equipment would be totally legal."

However, industry groups and many of the developed nations that backed the proposal say that could not be farther from the truth.

Rick Goss, ITI senior VP for environment and sustainability, flatly denied the allegation that technology companies were trying to send unusable electronics overseas, saying that BAN's press release — which asserted the proposal would "widen the floodgates of a tide of toxic techno-trash" — was "inflammatory misinformation."

"Electronics companies operate [repair and refurbishment] facilities around the world. We want to ensure that the Basel Convention recommendations don't have unintended consequences of preventing companies from fixing or refitting products that still have useful life in them," said Goss in a statement. "We want to avoid requirements that could unintentionally prevent a customer from sending a product back to the manufacturer for repair; a lessee from returning used computers and servers to the lessor; a manufacturer from conducting important diagnostic work on a piece of failed equipment; or, a company from shipping a used part to a foreign market to fix sophisticated medical equipment or a computer server."

When asked why the proposed changes were necessary for OEMs to pursue refurbishment activities, Goss said "There is nothing currently in the Basel Convention text that impedes our members' refurbishment activities. That said, there are some national laws that do inhibit the reuse of devices."

The next meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Basel Convention (COP-12) is tentatively slated for 2015, where backers of the proposed rule changes will have another opportunity to convince developing countries to sign on. Rules are adopted at the meetings through consensus among signatory countries, which would be needed for any change to move forward. If a change were to be adopted, it would then be up to individual countries to update their national laws to reflect the Basel Convention update.

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E-Scrap 2013: Bring your own device and take-back

Companies, organizations and managers of large volumes of IT assets can't seem to get enough of the bring-your-own-device trend, where employees provide their own personal electronics for work. But the money saved on IT procurement and management costs come at a price. This presentation tackles the legal, data security and recycling problems associated with the BYOD trend and gives you the information you can use to handle the changing enterprise IT landscape.

The E-Scrap Conference will be held at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate in Orlando, Florida, September 11-12. Early-bird registration is available at www.e-scrapconference.com or by clicking the banner below.

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Sims rolls out mobile device asset management services

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

Sims Recycling Solutions announced this week it has expanded its asset management services to include cell phones and mobile devices.

Through the use of additional inspection and repair technicians at the company's West Chicago facility, as well as through Sims' partnership with mobile device database firm CheckMEND, the company now offers testing, data security, repair, resale and recycling services for conventional mobile phones, smartphones and tablets. The announcement comes just three months after SRS signed an agreement with CheckMEND to utilize the company's robust database on mobile devices, which includes over 150 billion records from over 30,000 agencies worldwide. The access allows Sims to compare collected device identifiers to those of lost or stolen devices.

"As an extension of our existing asset management services, we have added new ones that simplify the task of managing mobile devices," said SRS Americas president Steve Skurnac in a prepared statement. "By using our established global infrastructure, technical expertise and strategic partnerships, Sims is able to fully support the needs of those customers with broken, end-of-life or surplus devices. Our customers can be confident that the same secure, certified and environmentally sound procedures we use to process other electronics will be used to refurbish, remarket and recycle their mobile devices."

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IT spending propped up by new product categories

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

IT spending isn't meeting expectations, according to new numbers from several industry watchers.

International Data Corp. says worldwide annual IT spending growth will be 4.9 percent in 2013 — down from 5.6 percent growth in 2012. IDC placed much of the blame for the slowdown on weaker-than-expected spending in the second half of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013, as a result of uncertainty surrounding the sequester in the U.S., the European debt crisis, and a slowing Chinese economy. Worldwide, total IT spending is expected to hit $2.06 trillion in 2013. Including telecom equipment, IDC expects spending to be $3.7 trillion.

Market research firm Gartner generally corroborates these numbers, predicting global IT and telecom spending to reach $3.8 trillion for 2013. The company says this would equate to a 4.1 percent increase over 2012. Gartner says worldwide spending on devices, which include computers, mobile phones, tablets, printers and similar items, will total $718 billion this year — up 7.9 percent over 2012 despite flat growth in the PC market.

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OEMs push for more competition between WEEE compliance schemes

By Editorial Staff, Resource Recycling

OEMs aren't happy with what they say are the growing costs of compliance with WEEE collection and recycling laws in the U.K., according to several media reports.

According to Letsrecycle, Dell, HP, Samsung, Toshiba and other members of the Joint Trade Associations have released a statement in support of changes to the WEEE Directive's implementation to reduce the cost of compliance in the U.K. Specifically, OEMs argue that the cost of compliance has not been recalculated to reflect a rise in commodity prices, and recommend measures to incentivize competition and choice among compliance schemes.

The JTA represents eight IT trade associations and four producer-led compliance programs that collectively account for over 90 percent of WEEE stewardship in the U.K.

"The government's consultation presents the U.K. with a fantastic opportunity to move to an equitable system allowing maximum freedom and choice for all stakeholders; encourage those collecting WEEE with a net value to collect more and retain more income from properly treated WEEE; and, for the first time, create a system with competition and choice at all levels," said Samsung Electronics U.K. sustainability head Kevin Considine in MRW.

According to reports in LEDs Magazine, companies are backing a proposal that would allow for comparing costs between different producer compliance schemes. The JTA is encouraging all stakeholders to submit comments proposed changes before June 21.

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