China’s import shifts have meant plummeting OCC prices, a fact that’s been a boon to the bottom line of U.S. mill owners. But paper executives aren’t expecting the scenario to necessarily become the new norm.
Colin Staub is a reporter at Resource Recycling. He can be contacted at [email protected].China’s import shifts have meant plummeting OCC prices, a fact that’s been a boon to the bottom line of U.S. mill owners. But paper executives aren’t expecting the scenario to necessarily become the new norm.
A legal petition seeking to block a major Waste Management trash-sorting facility in the San Francisco Bay Area has been denied.
A large end user of OCC has acquired a single-stream MRF from QRS Recycling in order to secure more of the corrugated stream.
Collection-related fatalities made up nearly two-thirds of all waste and recycling industry deaths last year, according to figures from the Solid Waste Association of North America.
Chinese authorities plan to halt imports of more scrap categories by the end of the year, including post-industrial scrap plastic and a variety of scrap metals. The country also announced a list of even more imports it will ban by the end of 2019.
Canadian equipment manufacturer Machinex has introduced a “self-aware” sortation robot, which uses artificial intelligence to quickly remove materials from processing lines.
Many recycling associations are preparing for their biggest gatherings of the year, and three group leaders recently explained how China-related market disruptions will be tackled at their events.
China has issued its latest round of import permits for scrap paper and plastics, and approved volumes remain particularly low on the plastics side.
A major portion of the single-stream mix has fallen sharply from record high prices a year ago. Industry stakeholders recently opened up on the factors behind the shift, and how it’s impacting U.S. recycling operations.
North Carolina-based Plastic Revolutions is expanding to separate certain resins from mixed plastic bales, a response to growing supply as China’s import policies take hold.