Scrap plastic traders are facing challenges from increased freight rates and cancellations of bookings by shipping lines as Basel regulations are implemented. | Mariusz Bugno/Shutterstock
Recent changes to global regulations on scrap plastic shipments have shaken up the export market for plastics recovered from electronics.
Logitech estimates it will have shipped more than 50 million devices that include recycled plastic by the end of 2021. | Marco Curaba/Shutterstock
Logitech has used more post-consumer plastic in its keyboards, mice, webcams and other products over the past three years.
With a capacity of 6,000 pounds per hour, URT’s system was designed to handle the amount of shredded e-plastic generated in URT’s Janesville, Wis. plant on a single shift. | Courtesy of URT.
URT has installed equipment at its Wisconsin headquarters allowing the company to produce clean e-plastic fractions for sale to domestic buyers.
Because the U.S. is not a party to the Basel Convention, exports to the 180-plus countries that are parties to the convention will be more complicated, or may even be prohibited by local laws. | AnkaFed/Shutterstock
The U.S. government has made public an agreement with Canada to continue shipments of scrap plastic, including e-plastics, despite global regulations tightening next year. Environmental advocates are troubled by the deal.
A view of the recently installed e-plastics sorting and washing line at eCycle Solutions. | Courtesy of eCycle Solutions
A major North American e-scrap company has invested approximately $1.5 million into a plastics cleanup line, partly to get ahead of tighter international rules on plastics exports.
Shipping company MSC stopped accepting scrap cargo headed to China and Hong Kong as of June 1. | Fomin Roman/Shutterstock
A major shipping line will no longer accept recovered plastic and other scrap material shipments bound for Hong Kong, which remains a large market for U.S. e-plastic.
RePolyTex is gearing up to operate its Madison, N.C. facility at full scale, manufacturing a “plastic plywood” product from shredded e-plastics. | Courtesy of RePolyTex.
A U.S. plastics recycling and manufacturing facility is preparing to begin taking in plastics recovered from electronics. The plant will use that feedstock to produce construction materials.
Rolph Payet, executive secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions, speaks at the Plastics Recycling Conference and Trade Show. | Plastics Recycling Conference/Brian Adams Photography
Scrap plastic exporters should closely monitor policy changes in the countries they sell to as the global community prepares to enact more aggressive shipment requirements, according to the top staff member for the Basel Convention.
Mitsubishi described the acquisition as part of its plan to implement a variety of sustainability initiatives by 2030. | IgorGolovniov/Shutterstock
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation has purchased two European plastics recycling companies focusing on engineered plastics, bringing supply of these recycled resins in-house.
