Colin Staub is a reporter at Resource Recycling. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Overall, e-scrap, scrap metal, C&D debris, rubber and organics recycling facilities reported 373 fires, down 4% year over year. | Piotr Zajda/Shutterstock
An annual report from recycling industry fire protection firm Fire Rover found that publicly reported MRF and transfer station fires in the U.S. and Canada dropped by 9% in 2023 compared to the prior year. Continue Reading
China’s withdrawal from the fiber export market and a rise in e-commerce created an opportunity for domestic mills to consume more recycled fiber. | BAO Images Bildagentur/Shutterstock
All but two of 25 confirmed recycled paper mill projects announced over the past five years are completed, and new capacity activity has slowed considerably, according to a recent review led by the Northeast Recycling Council. Continue Reading
Rumpke’s new Columbus, Ohio MRF is key to a partnership with Eastman Chemical that will create an end market for opaque PET materials, among other hard-to-recycle products. | Courtesy of Rumpke
A partnership between midwest recycling processor Rumpke and resin giant Eastman Chemical will create an end market for opaque and otherwise hard-to-recycle PET materials, driven by state-of-the-art sortation capabilities at Rumpke’s Columbus, Ohio MRF.
Robotics from Glacier can be made to fit any belt width and can target more than 30 distinct materials. | Courtesy of Glacier
The co-founders of emerging sortation robotics supplier Glacier say their robots provide an immediate quality benefit with a small footprint: They can be placed anywhere a manual sorter would be stationed. Continue Reading
Vinod Singh of Far West Recycling speaks during an Association of Oregon Recyclers presentation on recycling facility battery fires in February. | Dan Holtmeyer/Resource Recycling
At a Portland, Oregon-area transfer station, site superintendent Matt Tracy has noticed smaller lithium-ion batteries often behave like fireworks when they go into thermal runaway: They move erratically and can even become projectiles. Continue Reading
Robotic sorting systems that have reached end of life are being processed by electronics recycling firm First America. | Courtesy of First America
Robotic sorting systems are increasingly making their way into MRFs and other recycling facilities, where they sort recyclables and even disassemble electronics. Now, they’re entering one electronics recycling company’s facilities as part of the end-of-life stream.
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Rather than tossing the foodservice products in the trash, consumers place them in a return bin, where they’re collected and taken to a facility to be inspected, washed and redeployed. | Courtesy of Bold Reuse
A reusable packaging company’s durable drinkware and other foodservice products will be adopted by a handful of schools in Seattle and multiple U.S. soccer stadiums, the company recently announced. It’s adding new infrastructure to meet the additional demand. Continue Reading
After a slump in demand, the containerboard market is heating up again, bringing with it a need for recycled fiber feedstock. | DenisNata/Shutterstock
Major mill operators forecast a year of recovering demand in the containerboard market, translating to a greater need for the OCC and other fiber grades needed to supply those paper machines. Continue Reading
Cascades is permanently closing a recycled paper mill and two corrugated converting plants due to market conditions and other factors. | Pitipat Wongprasi/Shutterstock
North American fiber packaging giant Cascades announced that a recycled paper mill and two corrugated converting plants have closed permanently, citing a handful of factors including market conditions. Continue Reading
The U.S. exported 14.3 million short tons of recovered fiber in 2023, down 17% from 2022. | Nickpeps/Shutterstock
U.S. recovered paper exports in 2023 reached a 19-year low, driven by major multi-year declines in shipments into key overseas markets. Recovered plastic exports dropped slightly year over year, bringing a record low for another consecutive year. Continue Reading