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Sorting through the multifamily challenge

Published: November 20, 2024
Updated:

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Courtesy of Park La Brea

This article appeared in the November 2024 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.

With higher population densities, space constraints and the constant arrival of new tenants, multifamily housing often presents one of the biggest chasms for residential recycling and composting programs to cross. Park La Brea, a 4,255-unit community in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles, has bridged the gap for 12,000 residents spread across 49 buildings thanks to continual outreach and collaboration, several officials said.

“We’re an 80-year-old property, but that doesn’t mean we have to operate like we’re 80 years old, and for me, this is very much a big environmental push,” said Aryn Thomez, vice president of property management for Prime Residential, which owns the complex. “We wanted to do right by the environment and also stay ahead of the legislative curve.”

Thomez noted the key to a successful composting program in a multifamily property — especially one as large as this — is a collaborative approach between management, the on-site team, the hauler, composter and others. In Park La Brea’s case, Valet Living collects the compost at residents’ doors six days a week, EcoSafe provides 2.5-gallon liners to residents, and final organics collection is done by Athens Services, which also collects recyclables and trash.

“Maintaining cohesive relationships between multiple departments and consistently engaging residents is crucial for an effective organics recycling program,” said Jennifer Duet, sales strategy manager for Athens. “If any one entity tries to do it on their own, it’s more likely to fail, so it’s better to have everyone on board.”

Bringing in the residents

Recycling had been available at the complex for more than a decade. But when the program began in 2022, residents unsurprisingly met it with something of a mixed response.

“Before we even launched it, we had a very comprehensive communication plan to put it out there to our residents and discuss the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ and not make it seem like we were forcing it down their throats,” Thomez said. “We spent a lot of time to show them how this benefits them and the value it creates.”

It took time for people to adapt, but with two years behind it, Park La Brea is seeing a much better adoption and engagement to the composting program. About half of residents are signed up for composting through the valet service; there’s also a green bin in the basement for those who don’t want to wait for pickup or aren’t signed up.

“Especially as new residents come in, you’re starting to see a demographic where this is very important to them,” Thomez said. “We are continuing to see good increases in adoption quarter over quarter.”

As of January 2022, all residents in California, including those living in apartment complexes, have been required to compost organic waste properly. Exactly a decade earlier, recycling was made mandatory. It’s up to the property owners to supply and allow access to an adequate number and size of containers with the correct labels or container colors for each. Park La Brea goes a step further with its services and also stands out for being the largest complex in California to compost.

In the beginning, Athens developed educational materials, including videos, signage and startup kits, to help both property managers and tenants understand what’s accepted in the composting bins and how best to succeed in the program.

“Along with our signage and residential handouts, the Athens Multifamily Manual is designed for property managers as an easy-to-use guide, which includes a step-by-step checklist, communication templates, lease language and participation surveys, making it a comprehensive resource to support an effective program,” said Jessica Aldridge, director of sustainability and zero waste for Athens.

Originally, for recycling and composting for those living in the complex’s 18 13-story towers, things needed to be brought down to the basement. That’s why Valet Living and EcoSafe were brought in, to make it easier for residents to adhere to the composting plan.

“A lot of properties will make it an optional service if residents want it, but the way Athens did it was to give everyone the opportunity to do it just by stopping by to get a bin, or by going door to door to make sure people knew how it worked,” said Gary Bilbro, director of U.S. sales for EcoSafe. “They worked hard to ensure the highest level of participation possible.”

To make it as easy as possible for residents, Valet Living picks up six days a week, instructing people to leave their compost bags outside their doors each evening. The valet service also ensures the appropriate bags get to the bins and picks out obvious contaminants.

New bags are kept in the laundry room, so residents can simply restock whenever they need. There’s also a green bin in the basement for those who don’t want to wait for pickup.

“Park La Brea’s success stems from management’s proactive approach in equipping tenants with the necessary tools to fully engage in the program,” Duet said. “By providing kitchen-pail bag dispensers, valet service for the towers and routine organics barrel cleaning for the garden apartments, the company has made recycling and composting more convenient and accessible, creating a smoother and more enjoyable experience for everyone involved.”

Richard Risemberg, a Park La Brea resident for the past two years, moved in right after the Valet Living service began and said the composting program has been working well.

“They provide this service, it’s $35 a month, and pick up the general garbage and separate the recyclables, and then provide us a separate little can for the compost, and provide the compostable bags to line it with,” he said, adding he trusts the system. “I think the city keeps watch on things and so do think things are getting composted correctly when they take things down to the master bins.”

Risemberg is a part-time landscaping gardener and has used city-supplied compost and mulch on numerous products, so he knows stuff is getting back out the way it’s supposed to be.

“Once in a while, they do run out of the bags, but that’s the only issue I have encountered,” he said. “Overall, I believe this is working and it’s a very good thing for all.”

Other residents have not been as impressed and have complained to management, and even some of their local politicians, about the problems they see.

For instance, seven-year resident Michele Palermo, a writer and executive producer who wrote the composting episode for Martha Stewart Living about eight years ago, opted out of Park La Brea’s compost program because she believed it wasn’t working.

“I don’t feel like it was vetted properly, and it amounts to people leaving really stinky food outside their door in the evening when people are coming home from work, and I think it’s an invitation for vermin,” she said. “Plus, if you go around the complex in the morning, all of the trash seems to be piled together — trash, recycling and composting. It’s kind of a mockery, and it’s bothersome because it’s not doing anything for the environment.”

Others complain that when they go to empty their compost into the larger collection container themselves, often they are full of items that don’t belong. Resident Stephen Manning has been recycling for more than half his life, and though he was originally excited about the composting program, he’s abandoned it because he heard from a driver making the pickups that many times they end up putting the items removed in the regular landfill anyway because of this problem.

Both Prime Residential and Athens Services disputed this account, and other residents talked favorably about the program on the Park La Brea Facebook page. In a complex this large, there will always be people who aren’t following proper protocol.

“Residents are holding us accountable now, which is great; we want people to get involved and help us if they see something that doesn’t belong in the compost bin,” Thomez said. “Some people make this much more complicated than it needs to be. We just all need to hold each other accountable and we will get there.”

Law of the Land

With California’s SB 1383 now in effect with an aim to reduce organic waste disposal by 75% by next year, properties are required to provide tenants with clear, annual communication and easily accessible, clearly marked containers that show what’s acceptable for recycling and composting.

“Continuous education and outreach from both property management and Athens are critical to driving behavior change, increasing participation and reducing contamination, while also reducing confusion about what belongs in the organics container,” Aldridge said. “Regular reminders keep tenants informed and on track with proper recycling and composting practices.”

Park La Brea goes above and beyond the law, such as by holding an annual Earth Day event where they go over the particulars of the program and provide further tips for composting correctly.

Overall, the complex’s experience demonstrates it’s not just about a given property being “good” or “bad” at recycling and composting, those in the industry say — it often comes down to access to services, getting property managers on board and providing ongoing outreach and communication with tenants.

“Implementing food scraps collection at a multifamily complex may seem challenging, but with the right tools and strong partnerships, we can successfully divert household food waste from landfills and channel it toward more environmentally beneficial uses,” Aldridge said.

For those looking to install a similar program in a multifamily complex, Thomez noted it starts by just “cutting the cord” and going all-in.

“Your residents will follow suit; if they see it’s important to you, it will be important to them,” she said. “And if you share with your residents the ‘why,’ it makes it a much more palatable and easy conversation, and you will see adoption become easier.”

Keith Loria is a freelance writer and can be contacted at  [email protected].

Fossil-free plastic packaging: Pipe dream or realistic scenario?

Published: November 20, 2024
Updated:

by

Courtesy of Neste

This article appeared in the November 2024 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.

With slight differences across regions, some 30-40% of global plastics demand comes from packaging production. Low cost and functional properties make plastics an intriguing packaging solution. Yet it comes at a price from a climate perspective: With 90% of global plastics being made from fossil resources, our appetite for wrapping things in plastics takes a toll on the environment. In theory, plastics are well-suited for recycling, but there are various hurdles to turn this theory into practice at global scale, including the need to collect and sort, the limits of existing recycling technologies when it comes to impure, multi-material or layered materials, and demanding and sensitive plastic applications.

Considering the highly valued properties plastics offer and the limited availability in many cases of alternatives at scale, there is a wish to continue using them. Yet the question will be how can we make plastics production, use and waste management more sustainable. In parallel to recycling, do we have options to move from fossil-based to non-fossil based solutions?

I am convinced that there is reason for hope.

If it can be recycled, it should be recycled

Our priority should be to recycle whatever can be recycled. On the one hand, existing mechanical recycling has to be expanded. Whenever mechanical recycling can be done, it should be done. However, the aforementioned limitations of mechanical recycling lead to the need for new recycling technologies such as chemical recycling. Thus, whenever mechanical recycling is not feasible, for example due to waste streams being too mixed or impure — or the final products being too demanding quality-wise — chemical recycling can close the gap. A lot is happening in this regard.

At Neste, we are ourselves currently investing in chemical recycling capabilities at our refinery in Finland, focusing on turning liquefied waste plastic into high-quality raw material for new plastics, but other companies are also pushing new recycling technologies. Chances are good that this will enable us to increase recycling of plastics including plastic packaging in the future. But a question will remain: Will recycling be enough? Unfortunately not.

Demand for plastics and packaging is increasing at global scale. Aside from that, collection, sorting and recycling aren’t perfect processes. They come with material losses. Thus, even at a recycling rate of 100% (and we are currently only at some 10% globally!), we wouldn’t be able to meet the demand for new plastics just through recycling. Meeting the demand will require us to tap into other (renewable) material pools — and one of these is biomass.

Biogenic carbon is available in large quantities as a more sustainable feedstock

Plastics made from bio-based materials aren’t new, and there is a broad range of different approaches and technologies to turn biomass into polymers. They all share one basic concept and a common advantage, though: using biogenic carbon instead of fossil carbon, and as a result reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the lifecycle of plastics.

So let’s focus on the route of using bio-based waste and residues to achieve that goal, as this is also what we at Neste are experts on. Initially, we used these materials — for example, used cooking oil or residues from vegetable oil production — to produce fuels like renewable diesel or sustainable aviation fuel. We still do so, but the renewable hydrocarbon products our refineries produce can also be used to replace fossil naphtha or propane in the production of plastics. In fact, bio-based waste and residue oils and fats can be used to produce a one-to-one replacement for fossil plastics feedstock that can also be used in a blend with fossil feedstock. The plastics and chemicals produced that way are just the same as those made from conventional fossil raw materials, be it common polypropylene or polyethylene, PET or similar.

This is why we call it a drop-in solution: same performance, same characteristics, different raw material, different carbon footprint. The difference in the carbon footprint can be quite significant. Replacing fossil feedstock with bio-based feedstock may see GHG emissions plummet by more than 85% over the plastics’ lifecycle.

The question of scalability and availability

Plastics made with bio-based materials are not a vision but a reality already today. Neste alone — and we are not the only ones active in this field — has a production capacity for renewable products of 6 million tons, set to grow to 7.5 million tons within the next three years. Other providers are increasing their capacities as well, so there are good chances that bio-based materials can contribute to the defossilization of plastics, and thus plastic packaging, at industrial scale.

While production capacities are one thing, the required raw materials are another. The amount of commonly used waste and residue oils and fats is finite. Experts predict that the global availability of such resources could exceed 44 million tons annually from 2030 onwards. Considering the current global plastics production is somewhere around 440 million tons, this limited supply highlights a significant gap. Furthermore, it’s important to acknowledge that these oils and fats are not solely designated for plastics production; they are also utilized in manufacturing fuels and other products, emphasizing the need to explore alternative solutions. This means that further renewable carbon pools will be required. Research and development efforts are looking at various options for that, including algae, lignocellulosics or so-called novel vegetable oils, which are vegetable oils that do not compete with food and animal feed production and feature regenerative agricultural concepts. Aside from these bio-based options, a long-term alternative is Power-to-X, which converts CO2 and green hydrogen into hydrocarbons.

The time is now to pave the way for defossilization

The next years will be decisive to enable a future for fossil-free plastics and plastics packaging. New recycling solutions like chemical recycling are in a commercialization phase, and now is the time to ramp them up. While already available in large volumes, bio-based materials need to be incorporated at a broader scale throughout plastics production. These will be decisive factors to ensure that alternative solutions, on top of mechanical recycling, can play their role in defossilizing the industry in the long-term. I am confident it can be done.

Maiju Helin is head of market development for polymers and chemicals at Neste. Previously, she was head of sustainability and regulatory transformation and of stakeholder management for Neste’s Renewable Polymers and Chemicals business. Prior to Neste, Maiju worked at UPM Biofuels in various roles.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not imply endorsement by Resource Recycling, Inc. If you have a subject you wish to cover in an op-ed, please send a short proposal to [email protected] for consideration.

Expanding the tire recycling front

Published: November 20, 2024
Updated:

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24K-Production/Shutterstock

This article appeared in the November 2024 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.

Tire recycling, by and large, means chopping up tires and doing one of two things with the pieces: using them as-is, such as in mulch or artificial turf pellets, or burning them for fuel. But these traditional markets haven’t been keeping pace with new tire generation, according to the latest data from the U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association, an industry advocacy group. And researchers, public officials and others across the country are working to push tire recycling in new directions, including into the same roads those tires once traveled.

More than 3.8 million tons of used tires were processed into usable products in the U.S. in 2023, a 79% diversion rate, according to the association’s biennial End-of-Life Tire Management Report, the newest version of which was released in October. The figure was an uptick from 71% two years prior but was also the exception topping off a decade of decline from the peak of 96% in 2013, according to the association’s previous data.

John Sheerin, the organization’s senior director of end-of-life tire programs, said the bump was likely from temporary factors. The dip in miles driven at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, meant a dip in used-up tires to manage, and higher natural gas prices resulting from Russia’s war on Ukraine made tire-derived fuel more appealing for furnaces, paper mills and similar facilities.

Barring these blips, U.S. tire consumption rises ever upward, Sheerin said, and the tide is against carbon-emitting fuels like TDF and the coal it often supplements. The problem requires development of end markets like rubber-modified asphalt, an association priority that has been gradually drawing more support at the state and federal level.

“We have a ways to go,” Sheerin said. Still, “a lot of things are going in the right direction, and there’s a lot of energy in the field right now.”

Street-level work

Used tires are of course a universal issue, often the biggest class of material collected by weight for the local programs that accept them. States from Alabama to California devote millions of dollars to grants and other programs for tire management, like the $2 million awarded by West Virginia to 22 businesses and local governments early this year. Connecticut in 2023 passed the country’s first statewide extended producer responsibility law for tires, which state officials expect to go into practice next year.

In Tennessee, state officials have taken deliberate steps to grow the used-tire supply chain, said Chris Pianta, an environmental program manager for the Department of Environment and Conservation’s Office of Sustainable Practices.

Since 2015, a small fee on new vehicles has gone into the Tire Environmental Act Program, which awards yearly grants for a mixture of private and public organizations. To build options and lower transportation costs, the first several years’ grants focused on increasing the number of local tire processors, Pianta said. The state has since gone from just one processor to half a dozen.

“I think we’re definitely in a better spot than we were nine years ago,” he said, noting that the grants over their history have contributed more than $10 million to 30-plus projects that diverted 7.6 million tires. “Hopefully we’re starting to make a dent.”

One such processor was Memphis Tire Recyclers, which started in late 2021 after its founders saw an opportunity in addressing hoarded and illegally dumped tires around the city, said Corteney Mack, its chief business officer and co-owner.

Memphis Tire received more than $460,000 from the state grant program in 2022 to buy equipment and facility upgrades, in some cases years earlier than the owners originally planned. The business now has three locations and customers buying all of the crumb rubber, tire-derived aggregate and tire-derived fuel it can make.

“It definitely helped take our business to new heights quicker than we anticipated,” Mack said.

Now Tennessee’s grant program has diversified into more, smaller recipients with projects that directly use scrap tire products, Pianta said. The bulk of this year’s $1.6 million in grants went to tire-rubber trails at state parks and other public areas, for example. Another $147,000 went to a Memphis nonprofit called the Binghampton Development Corporation to install bicycle lane barriers along 6 miles of city streets.

The BDC works to build job skills and work experience for communities in need, such as those with histories of substance abuse or with the criminal justice system, said Andy Kizzee, director of the BDC business hub. The organization has been around for two decades, but over just the past few years it has partnered with the city of Memphis, local professionals and others to recycle a variety of challenging materials. The push all began about three years ago with the confluence of two community problems.

“Memphis has the second-most pedestrian and bicycle deaths in the country, and we’ve got a huge illegal dumping problem,” Kizzee said. So a local urban planner, Laura Murray, partnered with a local industrial artist, Tad Pierson, and with the BDC to try to help both problems at once by converting dumped tires into barriers shaped like camelbacks, upright panels or three-leafed clovers. The barriers are bolted directly to the pavement and alert drivers if they start crossing the line.

Courtesy of Binghampton Development Corporation

Grants from the state tire program, the nonprofit People for Bikes and elsewhere funded a 1-mile pilot in 2022, and now the project is ready for another leap that’ll start in January, Kizzee said. And it will reach beyond dumped tires to make a bigger dent in the tire issue.

“We’ll be sourcing those from tire shops — small mom-and-pop tire shops that wouldn’t necessarily have a contract with a hauler or tire processor,” he said.

Into the asphalt recipe

Tennessee’s approach has also touched on a relatively small but growing trend toward rubber-modified asphalt, a type of pavement that incorporates finely ground tire rubber as an ingredient. The resulting mixture can extend road lifespans, reduce repair costs over time and bring other benefits, according to a state-of-knowledge report released in 2021 by the tire manufacturers association, the University of Missouri and The Ray, a nonprofit pushing for more sustainable transportation.

The technology has been the subject of testing in multiple states, including on several hundred miles of roads in Alabama, Georgia and Michigan. The University of Tennessee-Knoxville received a state grant of about $350,000 in 2023 for similar research.

A small sliver of old tires, about 3%, was used for asphalt applications in 2023, according to the manufacturers association report released in October. But the nation’s highways and roads represent a massive possible end market for the hundreds of millions of used tires generated every year, said Baoshan Huang, a professor in UTK’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering who’s overseeing the tire research project.

“The biggest potential application is to put it into asphalt pavement,” he said. “Our society, our community, does have a need to utilize this waste tire rubber, and also there are technologies that can use it more effectively.”

UTK is partnering with the state Department of Transportation to test the asphalt on sections of roads, developing mixtures and experimenting with such details as how much to de-vulcanize, or essentially cook, the rubber to get the best results.

It’s a common topic of research across the country, since every state sets its own pavement specifications and has its own climates and other concerns, said Sheerin with the manufacturers association.

“You can’t just throw some rubber in there and say it’s good,” he said. “They want to see work on the ground in their state that has lasted for some time.”

Sheerin reiterated the many potential benefits to rubber-modified asphalt, including its durability and its ability to be recycled multiple times as roads are resurfaced. The Tire Recycling Foundation, which works in concert with the association, received $3.8 million from the U.S. EPA in July as part of a round of grants supporting low-carbon manufacturing. The money is meant to help develop robust environmental product declarations that show environmental impacts across the life of a product, which could help spur more widespread adoption of the technology.

“At present it’s a relatively small market,” Sheerin said, “and it needs to grow substantially.”

E-Scrap Conference 2024 highlights

Published: November 20, 2024
Updated:

by

Big Wave Productions/Resource Recycling, Inc.

This article appeared in the November 2024 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.

Orlando, Florida, was e-scrap central in late September and early October as around 950 industry leaders attended the 21st annual E-Scrap Conference, one of Resource Recycling’s three annual conferences. Dozens of sessions and an expo hall brought the e-scrap, ITAD and ITAM industries together to discuss how coming laws might affect them and the best ways to build public trust, industry resilience, compliance and circularity.

Untapped potential in plastics

With domestic demand building slowly, U.S. recyclers must look to other industries to absorb their e-plastics volumes, several executives said during a session focused on electronics’ non-metal side on Oct. 2.

Since North America offers little in the way of electronics manufacturers who might buy recycled e-plastics, the automotive sector in Asia and Mexico is a key area of growth, especially for ABS and polypropylene, said panelist Zhan “Bo” Zhang, director of BoMet Polymer Solutions. Japan and South Korea are among the top five countries for automobile production, for example, and they sell to Europe, which has upcoming mandates that new vehicles contain 25% recycled plastics.

Extending U.S. mandates beyond beverage bottles and into other industries could enable processors and recyclers to expand, added Hong Yoon, CEO of Hanil Eco Solutions, based in Southern California.

South Korea has a relatively small and stagnant population and thus a small supply of old vehicles, Yoon said. In addition, Korea does not shred used vehicles, opting instead to sell them to Russia and other countries. As such, Korea has a limited supply of post-consumer resin.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has a vast supply of used vehicles destined for shredding, Yoon said: “I want recyclers to understand that the material you’re shipping to Malaysia and other parts of Asia will be a strategic resource in the future that you have control of.”

As for current recovery streams, the recyclers on the panel agreed that they would like to see cleaner, more segregated e-scrap streams to help improve profit margins as well as yields. Yoon said Hanil also tries to find ways to recover more e-scrap so the onus isn’t only on feedstock suppliers.

In the EU, extended producer responsibility laws have definitely helped clean up recycling streams, said Pablo León, CEO of Spain-based recycler Sostenplas. This has made feedstock volumes more homogenous, though countries vary in collection practices, he added.

Nevertheless, upstream processors may not know what U.S. recyclers are looking for in regards to quality, said Clive Hess, president of ITAD processor CompuCycle.

“What we consider clean material is not clean material,” he said, using the example of printers shipped with paper and ink cartridges still inside. Hess described CompuCycle as a relative newcomer to the industry. It upgraded its six-year-old Houston plant with a float-sink system in November 2023 and in July 2024 added an electrostatic system to separate out ABS, polystyrene, polyethylene and PP.

A major roadblock for recycling of any plastic in the U.S. is the lack of mandates. European EPR schemes have contributed to material getting recycled, Leon said, but in the U.S. demand may lag because end users think there is no supply. But if no one recycles ABS, for example, there will be no demand for it, either.

In addition, in Europe recycled plastics have been available for decades, so the manufacturing industry is accustomed to using PCR, he said. Demand “is not something you build in one or two years.”

Zhang said that in the next three to four years, interest will grow but uncertainty will remain, including upcoming implementation of amendments to the Basel Convention, whose regulatory effects on supply are yet unclear.

Hess said processing e-plastics has to become more economical, with domestic
costs far higher than international. “There’s a very large supply of our product,” he said. “We just need to be able to process it economically.”

– by Antoinette Smith

Celebrating Billy Johnson’s life

Industry leaders opened the conference on Sept. 30 with a tribute to the Recycled Materials Association’s chief lobbyist, Billy Johnson, who passed away suddenly the Saturday before. Johnson, who had worked for ReMA for two decades, was “a tireless advocate for the recycled materials industry, and for the well-being of all of our members,” a ReMA statement said. “He was incredibly effective at raising our voice on Capitol Hill and within five Presidential Administrations, ensuring that our industry was known throughout Washington and the interests of all members were protected.”

Others spoke fondly of Johnson during the conference’s opening plenary session. Colleague Cheryl Coleman, ReMA senior vice president of advocacy, safety and sustainability, recalled his kindness, while Craig Boswell of HOBI International emphasized how much Johnson did for the industry and how his presence was a staple at conferences.

Over his years of work, Johnson secured a special accelerated depreciation allowance for qualified recycling equipment through the Recycled Investment Saves Energy Act, challenged the market dominance of railroads on demurrage and accessorial charges, and achieved an essential business designation for the recycled materials industry from the Department of Homeland Security during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

– by Marissa Heffernan

Reuse and recycling not at odds

During the opening plenary session highlighting current key trends in e-scrap and ITAD, industry experts discussed device repair, design regulations and battery fire dangers.

Walter Alcorn, vice president of environmental affairs and industry sustainability at the Consumer Technology Association, which represents OEMs, said manufacturers are seeing a continued focus on device repairability. He projected that will translate less into a mass movement of consumers repairing their own devices and more into more independent repair shops. Manufacturers have begun to open up to this idea much more than in years past, he added.

“That is a Rubicon we’ve crossed,” he said, referring to treating independent repair shops the same as authorized refurbishers. “We’re pretty much there.”

That’s a positive for e-scrap processors, who are dealing with lightweighting in devices contributing to lower volumes of precious metals recovered.

“There’s more value in reusable parts components,” Alcorn said. “The resale markets continue to be an important source of revenue.”

ReMA’s Coleman added that despite how it’s sometimes framed, recycling isn’t really at odds with reuse. Even with far greater adoption of refurbishment and reuse, those devices will still ultimately make their way to the recycling stream, she explained. So it doesn’t take away from commodities recovery in the end.

“Eventually it’s coming our way,” she said. “Maximize its use.”

And it’s an environmental win, said Jim Levine, senior vice president of North American operations for major ITAD firm Iron Mountain.

“We all know that repurposing and reuse is a lot more stress-free on the environment than recycling is,” Levine said.

That said, Levine highlighted room for improvement in device design for repair. He advocated for manufacturers to take an approach that embraces modular design allowing for easily removable and replaceable batteries rather than producing products with a glued-in battery. Alcorn strongly objected.

“The last thing I would want to see is consumers trying to figure out what battery to put in their smartphone,” Alcorn said. “If you put the wrong battery into the wrong phone, sometimes you get a thermal event, sometimes it doesn’t work.”

– by Colin Staub

Certification workshops

A pair of sessions dug into the finer points of e-Stewards and R2, two frequently competing, though sometimes collaborating, certification programs that recognize the safe, responsible reuse and recycling of electronic devices. Earning these certifications brings benefits to the recipient both directly and indirectly, their respective representatives said.

E-scrap and ITAD firms’ customers, for example, more and more insist on such a certification in order to comply with data protection laws where violations can cost tens of millions of dollars. Such missteps by Morgan Stanley in the late 2010s cost that company more than $160 million in settlements and fines, for example.

“It just makes life easier for multinational companies to work with R2,” said Patty McKenzie, education and outreach director at SERI, the owner and administrator of R2 certification.

Certification can also help companies stand out in answering RFPs and going about their business, said Daniel Puckett, business director for e-Stewards — if the recipients show off their certification on websites, in pamphlets and in bids for contracts.

“They shout to the whole market, ‘Hey, we know what we’re doing,’” he said of the e-Steward badges.

The two certifications scrutinize similar business aspects, such as material destinations and Basel Convention compliance, but also differ in important ways, the officials said. R2 certifies individual facilities, for example, while e-Stewards applies to companies.

– by Dan Holtmeyer

Goodwill sets its sights on recycling

Published: October 15, 2024
Updated:

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Zsolt Biczo/Shutterstock.

This article appeared in the October 2024 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.

While Goodwill Industries International has long been associated with the reuse portion of the waste management hierarchy, the nonprofit secondhand store giant is making inroads to being a national heavyweight in recycling textiles, glass and other materials, several of its leaders recently said.

“Today, our positioning to drive change in circularity is unmatched,” Steve Preston, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International, said during the Rockville, Maryland-based organization’s first Sustainability Summit, held in mid-August in Washington, D.C.

Goodwill as a brand is recognized by over 90% of the U.S. population, Preston explained, and more than 80% of Americans live within 10 miles of one of its 3,300 stores. In 2023, Goodwill diverted 4.3 billion pounds of products from disposal.

“We have over 135,000 employees, massive logistical networks with warehousing, transportation and technology to support it,” Preston added. “As a result, when we look at what could be, we know that we have the ability to be the most consequential player in our lane, to drive circularity in North America.”

Doing that requires not only collaboration across Goodwill stores but also “increasingly with formidable partners outside of Goodwill,” he said. Those include stakeholders in technology, automation and other fields.

Many of the nonprofit’s recent moves have been the result of a simple fact that much of what’s donated for resale often can only be thrown away — in huge volumes. Nick Carlson, business development director for Goodwill of West Michigan and board chair for the Michigan Recycling Coalition, said his Goodwill organization sees about 30% of the material that comes in head to a landfill because it’s not in a condition to be resold.

“We’re trying to think of ourselves as material managers,” Carlson said.

Other regional leaders shared similar sentiments. Colleen Morrone, president and CEO of Goodwill of Delaware and Delaware County, said three regional Goodwill organizations receive 113 million pounds of donations per year, equivalent to the weight about 25 fully-assembled space shuttles.

“That’s a lot of donations, and when we look around the room and add up everybody else’s donations, we’ve got a lot of space shuttles,” she said.

Besides running a regional Goodwill, Morrone leads Goodwill’s international sustainability committee, and she and her fellow D.C.-area directors over the last few years had a series of conversations about how to increase diversion from their locations.

“I also knew that in order for us to build a successful recycling solution, Goodwill of Delaware and Delaware County could not do it alone,” she said. “Businesses that are interested in using our non-saleable products as feedstock need them at scale.”

Lisa Rusyniak, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of the Chesapeake, noted that boosting diversion also brings a financial benefit for Goodwill stores in reduced disposal costs. And she emphasized it fits squarely within Goodwill’s mission, both environmentally and fiscally.

“With our commitment to maximize the value of every item donated to us, combined with the pricing volatility of the salvage market, it’s imperative that we find markets for all of our non-sellable donations,” Rusyniak said.

How stores are approaching diversion

Goodwills around the country have embarked on a number of region-specific projects. Morrone described a partnership with Trex, the recycled-plastic composite decking producer that is a major end user of LDPE and LLDPE. The Greater Washington, Delaware and Chesapeake Goodwills have sent Trex nearly 20 million bags, “an important ingredient in the creation of their sustainable decking boards that are used by many of us in our homes across the country,” she said.

She added those Goodwills are also working on a partnership to send glass products to a processor that will pulverize them into sand. The resulting material has “the potential to be used in concrete abrasives, cleaning supplies and maybe even beach restoration,” Morrone said.

At Carlson’s Goodwill organization in Michigan, a project with plastics processor HydroBlox Technologies turns polypropylene and polyethylene into stormwater drainage management systems. Pittsburgh-based HydroBlox uses the plastics to produce 100% recycled-content products of porous plastic that’s used in construction to increase drainage.

In Phoenix, a regional Goodwill organization earlier this year launched a rigid plastics recycling project targeting HDPE and PP. And that pilot effort is gearing up to grow into a self-sustaining commercial operation. Beth Forsberg, senior vice president of sustainability for Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona, said her regional Goodwill is recovering plastics No. 2 and No. 5 — not only from its own waste stream but from other partnering groups as well.

“We are actually putting them through everything from the shredding process to creating pellets,” Forsberg said.

Housed in a 10,000-square-foot facility, in its pilot stage the project involved installing a wet wash system, drying drum, an extruder, a pelletizer, a sheet press and a molding machine, stakeholders told Resource Recycling earlier this year. At the time, the pilot project anticipated having a capacity to process 500 to 600 tons of scrap plastic per year.

Forsberg announced that the project is scaling up beyond the pilot stage. Within the next four to six months, “there will actually be a product,” she told the summit.

The facility is processing a variety of inbound product types, including materials that are rarely recycled like yard signs.

“All the political signs are clean plastics that can be shredded and made into other materials,” Forsberg said.

Market potential

Goodwill partnering with recycling firms and expanding the types of diversion it does has the potential to rebrand the organization to consumers, Steve Alexander, CEO of the Association of Plastic Recyclers, said at the summit. APR owns Resource Recycling, Inc., publisher of this magazine.

He made a case to attendees that Goodwill has “an opportunity to expand your reclamation footprint, that will reposition you along with what you’re doing on textiles, as the consumer sustainability organization.”

Alexander pointed to extended producer responsibility laws that are increasingly passing in U.S. states. Some of those laws, such as Oregon’s, include a mechanism to provide funding to collection depots for the materials covered.

In Oregon, nine Goodwill locations are on the approved depot list, meaning they’ll receive funding from Circular Action Alliance, the producer responsibility organization managing Oregon’s system. And Alexander noted there is also the material commodity value on the back end.

“Essentially, you can double-dip: You get paid to be a repository, and then you get paid when you sell and market the material,” Alexander said.

Additionally, while only a handful of states have currently passed EPR for packaging — California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota and Oregon — Alexander said it’s only a matter of time before it’s a “de facto standard,” albeit likely not through federal legislation. That means more opportunities on the horizon to take advantage of Goodwill’s sizable footprint.

Alexander said he sees a particularly strong opportunity for Goodwill to become a leader in film and flexible packaging recovery, a stream that has had significant challenges in collection of late.

“Industry has spent millions, hundreds of millions of dollars trying to force film and flexible material into existing collection programs, curbside programs,” he said. “It doesn’t work, because it doesn’t go through the sorting process.”

Having dedicated drop-off locations, and an organization like Goodwill that is deepening its involvement in sorting and grading inbound materials, could be a significant opportunity for film recovery, he said.

In pilot, hub model shows promise

Widely known for its secondhand clothing, Goodwill has taken a particular interest in boosting textile recycling.
For the past two years, Goodwill’s national organization carried out a $1.3 million textile recycling pilot project funded by the Walmart Foundation. The organization released some of the takeaways from that project during the summit.

The goal was to “transform usable textile donations into feedstock for textile recycling,” said Preston, the Goodwill Industries International CEO, and it focused on developing an infrastructure to aggregate and sort textiles in preparation for either reuse or recycling at scale.

“As part of the research, we analyzed fiber composition of post-retail textiles and learned that approximately 60% of the material was found to be suitable for existing recycling technologies,” he said. “That finding reinforces our position as a key player and a feedstock supplier in the emerging textile recycling ecosystem.”

The grant also went towards testing a system of four regional textile hubs in Canada, Michigan, the Northeast U.S. and Southeast U.S. At each hub, Goodwill tested methods of sorting and grading textiles to identify what could be reused or recycled.

“As part of the grant, each of the four regional hubs developed business plans and advanced sortation models that can be replicated across the Goodwill network and adopted by other social enterprises for the advancement of textile circularity,” Goodwill added in a statement.

On the heels of that project, the Walmart Foundation granted Goodwill another $2 million for a project “to follow the global journey of secondhand textiles,” the organization stated.

The focus on textile recycling comes against a landscape of daunting statistics. By 2015, there were an estimated 92 million tons of textile waste generated globally each year, according to Boston Consulting Firm, which produced a widely cited Pulse of the Fashion Industry report in 2017. The consulting firm projected that number would expand to 148 million tons per year by 2030.

According to the most recent U.S. EPA figures, in 2018 the U.S. produced 17 million tons of textile waste. Of that amount, 2.5 million tons were recycled, for a diversion rate of 14.7%. Globally, the number is lower than 1%, said Patrik Frisk, formerly CEO of Under Armour and current CEO of emerging textile recycling firm ReJu, during a summit panel discussion.

And the bulk of that material is PET — polyester — which makes up about 56% of all fibers produced globally each year, Frisk said. One factor complicating recovery is that clothing is made from a combination of different materials.

“The reason we’re not recycling more is because the technology to be able to separate the chemistry that exists when you combine things, is so difficult that it’s taken a long time for somebody to innovate their way there,” Frisk said. That technical challenge comes alongside a lack of regulation requiring such a system to develop, of collection networks and of scaled sortation technology specific to textiles.

ReJu launched in 2023 and began planning what it calls a “regeneration center,” which it anticipates will take three years to complete. The company, which has been closely following Goodwill’s efforts in textile grading and preparation for recycling, also launched a demonstration plant in Germany at the end of August.

“Can you imagine, we’re going to space, we’re driving electric cars, but we’re not sorting apparel even in a semi-automatic way anywhere in the world today?” Frisk said. He noted that textile sorting is traditionally done by product type, not by the type of base fiber material. While sorting by product type can be done manually, sorting by fiber composition requires additional equipment.

Frisk dismissed the idea of moving away from polyester in favor of natural materials for textile production, saying it’s simply “not possible.” Its attributes like water resistance, light weight, machine washability and durability are just too useful.

“We can’t live without it, unfortunately, for the foreseeable future,” Frisk said. “It’s an amazing product that we need to understand how to live with in a much smarter way.”

Building and reaching: EPA opens grant applications

Published: October 15, 2024
Updated:

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This article appeared in the October 2024 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.

If you missed the chance to grab a slice of the $198 million federal recycling grant pie last year, your second chance has arrived.

More than $100 million is available to local governments, Native tribes and other organizations for either recycling infrastructure on one hand or public education around the topics of food waste and composting on the other, the U.S. EPA announced in September. The announcement came as recipients of the first round in 2023 began hiring staff, collecting data, buying equipment and launching local outreach campaigns.

All of those millions came courtesy of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which allocated hundreds of billions of dollars to transportation, energy and other sectors.

“Thanks to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, EPA is deploying unprecedented resources to improve recycling services and increase educational outreach to communities,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a written statement. “When we work together to prevent waste that contributes to climate change, we support local economies, create jobs that pay well, and better protect the health of everyone in the community.”

As in the first round, the new grant program prioritizes proposals that would benefit “communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution” while bolstering a more circular economy nationwide, according to the announcement. It’s available in three buckets:

  • Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grants for federally recognized tribes and intertribal consortia: $20 million total for individual grants ranging from $100,000 to $1.5 million, to establish, grow or otherwise improve recycling collection and management systems. As of this writing, applications are due March 14, 2025.
  • SWIFR grants for political subdivisions of states and territories, such as cities and counties: $58 million total for individual grants from $500,000 to $5 million, for the same purposes as the tribal grants. Applications are due Dec. 20.
  • Recycling education and outreach: a single $39 million grant for a coalition project that would implement a national consumer food waste reduction campaign, increase the market for compost and boost education and outreach about composting. Applications are due Dec. 20.

Applying for federal grants can be an intimidating process, requiring meticulous documentation and detailed planning. But it’s also an arena where even small organizations that have never received a federal grant before can succeed, said Jill Buck, founder and board member of the Go Green Initiative. The California-based nonprofit received $1.1 million last year, its first EPA grant ever, to work with school district staff and high school students in Camden, New Jersey, to spread understanding and participation in recycling programs.

“It’s not for the weak of heart, I will tell you that,” Buck said of the application process, adding that applicants should start early and take advantage of EPA’s informational sessions and other technical assistance. “This is the ultimate reading comprehension exercise; you really have to be fastidious and have tremendous attention to detail when it comes to the instructions.”

Fitting all of the needed information within the page limit can feel “like squeezing a watermelon into a Coke bottle,” she said. “Then you need to demonstrate that you can handle the money.”

A clear and compelling purpose also helps, said Susan Caswell, sustainability director for Florida’s Osceola County. The county received about $750,000 for an education and demonstration effort with a particular focus on glass, which the county had to give up in its bids for county-wide recycling and trash pickup service in 2019 — “every single potential vendor asked us to remove glass,” Caswell said. Yet why the county doesn’t recycle glass is still one of the most frequent questions she hears, and some residents pay a private service to collect it.

The education campaign will work with local schools and feature a mobile glass pulverizer, not only to process the material right in front of residents’ own eyes but also to harness the latent interest in glass to inspire recycling initiatives in the area, Caswell said. The area is full of hotels and restaurants, for example, which generate “just a tremendous amount of glass.”

“We went for the education and outreach kind of as the first step in rethinking glass recycling for the county,” Caswell said. “It allowed us to tell that story in an effective way.”

Projects such as these also highlight how the EPA grants can have ripple effects, both in their targeted communities and in others that might follow their example. Buck said the New Jersey plan — particularly environmental clubs, internships and leadership development for high school students — already proved itself in Pleasanton, California. Since the Go Green Initiative launched a similar project almost a decade ago, the city has seen recycling rates and collections rise while contamination fell by 27%, according to a letter from the city to the EPA.

“They were getting out to businesses and church groups and civic organizations,” Buck said of the Pleasanton students. And as Caswell put it, when it comes to the youth, “if you get them engaged in it, then they start getting on their parents’ case to do better.”

First-person Perspective: Video monitoring is a catalyst for efficiency

Published: October 15, 2024
Updated:

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This article appeared in the October 2024 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.

Recycling facilities are the unsung heroes of our waste management system. These complex operations process vast quantities of materials, facing immense pressure to optimize efficiency while maintaining environmental and safety standards. Video monitoring technology has emerged as a powerful tool to address these challenges.

The Power of Sight

At the heart of successful recycling lies visibility. Video surveillance provides a comprehensive view of operations, from incoming materials to the final sorted products. By strategically placing cameras throughout the facility, managers gain real-time insights into every stage of the process.

  • Identifying Bottlenecks: Video analysis helps pinpoint areas where materials accumulate or processes slow down. This knowledge empowers facility managers to make data-driven decisions to streamline operations.
  • Enhancing Quality Control: Cameras enable real-time monitoring of material quality, ensuring only pure materials proceed to the next stage. This reduces contamination and improves overall product quality.
  • Prioritizing Worker Safety: Recycling facilities are inherently hazardous. Video surveillance acts as a vigilant eye, detecting unsafe practices and enabling prompt intervention. Additionally, footage can be used for safety training, fostering a culture of prevention.

Compliance and Cost Savings

Regulatory compliance is a top priority for recycling facilities. Video evidence can be invaluable in demonstrating adherence to environmental and safety standards. Beyond compliance, surveillance systems contribute to cost-reduction.

  • Preventing Downtime: By monitoring equipment performance, potential issues can be identified early, minimizing downtime and associated costs.
  • Optimizing Resource Allocation: Video analysis can reveal inefficiencies in labor and energy usage, leading to optimized resource allocation.

Choosing the Right Equipment

The harsh conditions of a recycling facility demand specialized equipment. Ruggedized cameras designed for industrial environments are essential for reliable performance. While the initial investment in robust cameras might be higher, the long-term benefits in terms of durability and reduced maintenance costs often outweigh the upfront expense.

Investing in video surveillance is not just about security; it’s about transforming recycling operations. By harnessing the power of visual data, facilities can enhance efficiency, improve safety, and contribute to a more sustainable future.

Heidi Schmidt has worked in the video technology space for almost 20 years, building expertise in CCTV, industrial video applications, new product development, video network solutions, and more. As global sales manager at Opticom Tech, she helps customers implement robust video monitoring solutions for unique and harsh industrial environments and can be reached at [email protected] or 269-719-5889.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not imply endorsement by Resource Recycling, Inc. If you have a subject you wish to cover in an op-ed, please send a short proposal to [email protected] for consideration.

First-person Perspective: The case for national data reporting

Published: October 15, 2024
Updated:

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This article appeared in the October 2024 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.

With negative mainstream media coverage eroding public trust in recycling, now is the time to make changes. An important piece of those improvements is accurate, standardized data collection.

The State of Recycling

In recent years, recycling has been hit with a wave of negative press, casting a shadow over the industry’s future. The most troubling aspect is that some critics advocate for dismantling the system rather than offering solutions to overcome known challenges and create a system that works for everyone. No matter how you cut it, recycling is an important service that plays a key role in reducing waste, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and protecting virgin resources. It also creates thousands of jobs and generates billions in revenue each year, thereby contributing to a strong economy.

Fortunately, the majority of Americans still believe in recycling. According to The Recycling Partnership’s Recycling Confidence Index, nearly 80% of people believe that recycling has a positive impact on waste reduction and is worth the effort. Despite that, less than half of those surveyed were confident their recyclables are being transformed into new products.

The data appears to validate this attitude, too. According to The Recycling Partnership’s State of Recycling report, only 21% of residential recyclables are being recycled and 76% of recyclables are lost at the household level.
This presents an opportunity to rebuild public trust in recycling through investment, policy and education. To transition to a circular economy, we must invest in the future by modernizing recycling systems and rigorously measuring efficiency at every stage.

The good news is that recycling is finally undergoing a much-needed revitalization. The U.S. EPA has committed $275 million in Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling grants and $75 million in Consumer Recycling Education and Outreach grants. The funding is already helping states and communities invest in infrastructure, research and data collection.

Another great sign of recycling revitalization is the emergence of extended producer responsibility programs for packaging. California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota and Oregon have all adopted printed paper and packaging EPR legislation. Although these programs are at different stages of implementation, The Recycling Partnership estimates that EPR in these states will lead to a 35% increase in materials recycled and a 24% boost in the national recycling rate.

Why Accurate Data is Essential

The importance of reliable, high-quality data cannot be overstated. It gives policymakers, investors and program managers the information they need to make informed decisions about where investments will have the greatest impact and direct resources to where they are needed most. What’s more, robust data systems promote accountability and transparency, ensuring that all stakeholders — from producers to consumers — are contributing to waste-reduction efforts and sharing the responsibility of managing waste.

Eunomia’s groundbreaking report, The 50 States of Recycling, demonstrates the power of large-scale data analysis in its state-by-state assessment of recycling rates for containers and packaging. It emphasizes the importance of quality data, writing that “reliable and verifiable data is critical to making effective policy and programming
decisions,” and observes that “states that have more comprehensive and current data, along with a state managed reporting system, achieve higher recycling rates.”

Beyond its practical applications, data also plays a crucial role in restoring public trust in the recycling system. When the public sees evidence that recycling programs are effective and that their efforts are making a difference, they are more likely to participate actively.

National Data Reporting as the North Star

As one would expect, in states that require regular reporting, local governments and waste management districts tend to collect data that aligns with the state reporting obligations. It’s the most efficient way to measure local program performance while streamlining state-mandated reporting requirements. If a national data reporting standard were to be introduced today, it stands to reason that states would also be motivated to adapt their reporting programs to align with the national standard, thereby simplifying their reporting responsibilities.

The lack of uniformity in how states and local governments measure waste diversion reflects the country’s unique tapestry of political boundaries, jurisdictions and authorities, state regulations, local ordinances, service models, funding mechanisms, population density, wealth distribution, access to recycling and more. What’s more, there seems to be an exception to every rule. Consequently, the dream of having an end-to-end reporting system that neatly rolls up data by jurisdiction, sector or industry can sometimes feel out of reach. But the dream lives on! Imagine a national data tracking system that collects standardized data from key players across all sectors and aggregates the results into insightful summaries that can be shared with all relevant stakeholders.

Many attempts at data standardization have been made over the years, and we’re no strangers to the game, either. Working in concert with The Recycling Partnership and BioCycle, we deliver the Municipal Measurement Program, a program designed to standardize municipal residential collection program data. It was created to facilitate peer-to-peer and national benchmark comparisons.

Another example worthy of mention is the EPA’s State Measurement Program, which was designed to encourage collaboration among state agencies and facilitate data-sharing. The program is no longer in operation, but it was on the right track.

Establishing a national data standard and reporting framework would act as a rallying call for all stakeholders to harmonize language and align methodologies to establish consistent measurement across the entire system.

The Path Forward

In addition to maintaining funding for infrastructure upgrades, program support and research, the EPA needs to continue collaborating with industry stakeholders to make sustained progress toward achieving all five strategic objectives outlined in its National Recycling Strategy.

One of the five strategic objectives, standardize measurement and increase data collection, will create a more resilient and cost-effective national recycling system. The strategy correctly explains that “different definitions and measurement practices create challenges to setting goals and tracking progress. Stakeholders across the recycling system agree that more consistent measurement methodologies are needed to measure recycling system performance.”

Achieving this objective will depend on the effective execution of these key activities:

  • Develop and implement national recycling system definitions, measures, targets and performance indicators.
  • Create a tracking and reporting plan.
  • Create recycled content measures.
  • Coordinate domestic and international measurement efforts.
  • Increase data availability and transparency about recyclable materials generated and the materials manufacturers need by:
    • Gathering data.
    • Improving data availability and transparency.
    • Improving the accessibility of data for product design and procurement.

In addition, the emergence of EPR in states across the country offers hope and good reason to be optimistic about recycling’s future. These policies are likely to bring significant changes to the recycling landscape including:

  • Producers now share the responsibility of material collection and recovery.
  • Reduction of the financial burden placed on local governments in the collection and processing of materials.
  • Incentivization of producers to improve the recyclability of their products and packaging.
  • Motivation of the private sector to promote recycling in support of a circular economy.
  • Encouragement of industry collaboration to reduce costs and increase recycling.

As EPR programs are developed, it’ll be important for producer responsibility organizations to explore opportunities to connect to existing local government programs to streamline data reporting and facilitate data-sharing.

The implementation of national data reporting policies is not just a bureaucratic exercise, it is a necessary step toward creating a more efficient, transparent and effective recycling system in the U.S. With reliable data, policymakers can make better decisions, the public can regain trust in the recycling process and the nation can move closer to its national recycling goals.

Josh Reid is the CEO of Re-TRAC and parent company Emerge Knowledge Design Inc. This article first appeared in Policy Now.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author and do not imply endorsement by Resource Recycling, Inc. If you have a subject you wish to cover in an op-ed, please send a short proposal to [email protected] for consideration.

First-person perspective: Market-driven solutions to precious-metals supply

Published: September 26, 2024
Updated:

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This article appeared in the September 2024 issue of Resource Recycling. Subscribe today for access to all print content.

Global growth in uptake of electric vehicles, semiconductors, fuel cells, battery panels, medical devices and other products and components is fueling heightened demand for precious metals. Manufacturers of a diverse range of products favor these metals for their superior electrical conductivity, corrosion resistance, hardness and a range of other valuable qualities.

At the same time, precious metals are a limited natural resource. It is not uncommon for mines in South Africa, for example, to plunge 2 or 3 kilometers into the ground to reach their deposits. Many major mining operations around the world are advanced in their life cycles. While exploration for new sources is ongoing, the price of such efforts is very high.

Of course, the approaching shortage of precious metals is problematic not only from the perspective of simple industrial supply and demand; there also is the devastating impact on our environment and human well-being to be taken into account. According to a February 2022 research briefing to the U.K. Parliament, “Mining and mineral processing consume large volumes of water, including in arid regions. The discharge of water from mine sites can result in serious contamination of waterways. The industry uses over 8% of the world’s total energy each year to produce metals, and contributes to 10% of the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Improper storage of mine waste has resulted in humanitarian and ecological disasters.”

The mining of precious metals in particular involves long-established and well-understood methods and high safety standards, making it a much smaller contributor to environmental issues than some base metal or rare-earth mining operations. However, according to a study published by the International Platinum Association in 2023, the carbon footprint of recycled precious metals is still more than 90% less than primary mining.

Recovering Vs. Mining Precious Metals

There are so many recoverable precious metals — gold, iridium, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium and silver — that are being wasted today.

The World Health Organization has referred to e-scrap — computers, household appliances, medical devices, mobile phones, etc. — as “the fastest growing solid waste stream in the world,” of which only 17.4% was documented as formally collected and recycled. E-scrap typically contains precious metals such as gold and silver as well as platinum group metals, depending on the kind of material.

By contrast, the majority of waste and spent catalysts from industrial production worldwide is a ready source of recoverable metals that is already being recycled.

Even slightly improving the ratio of the precious metals that are recovered in various ways relative to those that are mined would offer tremendous, varied and widely shared benefits. To date, the relative complexities associated with recovering precious metals have made the process only a limited player in industry’s plans for attaining the resources that it needs. Market-driven trends, however, are changing the equation.

Changing Business Models

Primary among those trends is that the math of recovering versus mining precious metals is evolving.

As we see the various in-demand precious metals grow more scarce, we also are seeing those metals grow more expensive. Ironically, the trend toward scarcity will improve the business models for processes such as refurbishing and repurposing of components that utilize precious metals, and for more efficiently and effectively recycling recoverable metals from production scrap.

Many smartphones, for example, currently end up in landfills and/or incineration plants around the world; however, as the metals that mobile phones require grow more expensive to mine and procure, it will fuel a greater economic incentive to spur reuse of the devices. The potential impact on sustainability of a large-scale and global shift from discarding to reusing phones would be profound.

Furthermore, mining is inefficient and expensive relative to recycling. There are variables to be factored around the vein of the ore, but, in most cases, 1 ton of mined gold ore can be expected to yield about 5 grams of gold, while 1 ton of cell phones, about 10,000 units, could offer up to 280 grams of gold.

Changing Customer Demands

In many cases, manufacturers of products that rely on precious metals have new demands that are forcing change in the ways that they are sourced. Buyers in multiple industries are becoming more demanding of “conflict-free” resources via mineral sourcing programs that take into account human rights, environmental impact and ethics — as well as supplies that are sourced by less environmentally damaging means.

Plus, supply-chain disruptions in recent years have crystallized manufacturers’ attention on sourcing precious metals and other supplies geographically from nearer to where they will be processed. In this way, operations are rendered less vulnerable to geopolitical issues, and manufacturers potentially gain greater control over and visibility into their supply.

Consequently, recycling is moving closer to recovering and refining bases, enabling, for example, precious metals to be reclaimed from metal fragments and other waste generated during a manufacturing process. Integrating recovery and refining of precious metals with the manufacture of industrial precious metals products in this way can greatly contribute to sustainability and help ensure a steady supply of pure resources.

Indeed, decentralization in the recycling industry is key to reducing global reliance on mining. Increasingly, the precious metals industry is moving away from the traditional, CapEx-intensive solutions such as electric and plasma arc furnaces, which depend on very high utilization to turn a profit, and toward more environmentally friendly technologies. Relying on, for example, hydrometallurgical solutions that utilize chemical or microbial techniques facilitates the deployment of recycling operations next to where scrap is being generated and where the recovered precious metals are going to be used.

Ultimately, it’s likely to be these sorts of market-driven reforms that will drive real, lasting solutions to the world’s precious metals supply issues.

If properly recycled, there are significant amounts of valuable and finite resources to be reaped from e-scrap. Precious metal raw materials that are 100% recycled today are challenging to achieve without substantially more recovery, so it is crucial to grow understanding of precious metal recovery across manufacturers and general consumers alike.

Bodo Albrecht is president of Tanaka Precious Metals (Americas), responsible for all operations in North, Central, and South America, including sales, distribution and support for all Tanaka products in close cooperation with manufacturing, marketing, technical, research and development and related operations in Asia. He is a precious metals executive with deep roots in the industry, as well as in rare earth elements and strategic metals, with 20 years of international management positions with Degussa AG and 15 years running a consulting firm, BASIQ Corporation, before joining Tanaka.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not imply endorsement by Resource Recycling, Inc. If you have a subject you wish to cover in an op-ed, please send a short proposal to [email protected] for consideration.