The recycling industry has not escaped the fallout from a tight trucking market. Recent regulatory movement and a growing driver shortage have contributed to rising freight costs, just months after extreme weather impacted the shipping sector. “We’re already in a pro-carrier environment, and we think this will continue for quite a while,” said Avery Vise, president of trucking research at...

Jim Levine and Neil Peters-Michaud at E-Scrap 2017. Photo credit: BrianAdamsPhoto.com As commodity prices fluctuate and reuse options proliferate, many e-scrap operators regularly confront a key question: shred or refurb? A panel at last year's E-Scrap 2017 in Orlando discussed the multitude of profitability factors that go into answering that question. “When we think of consumer electronics in our business,...

Scrap plastic exported out of the U.S. is moving to Southeast Asia, where reclaimers are dramatically increasing purchases as China closes its doors to recovered materials. New figures illustrate that shift. Malaysia nearly quadrupled its U.S.-sourced imports of plastics categorized as mixed/other last year, jumping from about 9,600 metric tons in 2016 to nearly 38,000 a year later, according to...

Recyclables exported out of the U.S. are moving to Southeast Asia, where reclaimers and mills are dramatically increasing purchases as China closes its doors to recovered materials. New figures illustrate that shift. Malaysia nearly quadrupled its U.S.-sourced imports of plastics categorized as mixed/other last year, jumping from about 9,600 metric tons in 2016 to nearly 38,000 a year later, according...

Colorado’s recycling advocates have taken on a new strategy aimed at boosting the state’s diversion rate. Over the past year, the Colorado Association for Recycling identified key goals and specific actions it will take to attain them, according to the group's director. Compared with many other states, Colorado ranks low in terms of recycling. It has a combined residential and...

Herbold’s HVT dryer model employs a vertical setup to tackle regrind from PET bottles, hollow bodies, polyolefins and other plastics. The vertical dryer “ensures longer dwell time in the drying chamber” and “offers the added advantage of significant space savings versus horizontal systems,” Herbold said in a release. The dryer accelerates material against the screened stator surface, which is the...

State officials are suing an Iowa electronics recycling operation accused of stockpiling and improperly managing millions of pounds of CRTs. The Iowa Attorney General’s Office filed suit against Recycletronics, a Sioux City, Iowa-area e-scrap company that closed last year. The state seeks civil penalties and financial payments, claiming Recycletronics stockpiled nearly 17 million pounds of CRTs and other electronics since...

Delegates from the Chinese plastics recycling sector will travel to the U.S. next month with an eye toward planning for the industry’s future. The China Scrap Plastics Association (CSPA) first announced its interest in researching U.S. investment opportunities in mid-December. An executive with the group recently offered more details to Plastics Recycling Update. Harry Lee, a manager at CSPA, said...

Chinese officials have announced the first batch of plastic scrap import permits for 2018, and the volumes laid out in those authorizations represent a massive reduction from one year ago. The China Scrap Plastics Association (CSPA) announced late last month that China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection approved permits for eight plastics importers. The permits allow a combined total of 9,335...

Certain tools such as pay-as-you-throw pricing and multi-family requirements have produced compelling diversion results in communities across the country. Leaders of several programs recently shared advice for colleagues who hope to achieve similar success. Recycling policies often come at the local level, as state legislation can be much more difficult to enact. “Often local governments can actually get more traction...