As we enter 2018, the market for most grades of curbside recyclables remains unchanged, although aluminum prices have seen a recent uptick.
As we enter 2018, the market for most grades of curbside recyclables remains unchanged, although aluminum prices have seen a recent uptick.
Brent Bell, Waste Management
Leaders from Waste Management and two giant consumers of recovered fiber last week detailed the variety of ways their operations have been impacted by recent import shifts in Asia. They also laid out some ideas to help lift material quality.
Credit: pjhpix/Shutterstock
A recycled paper mill operator and packaging producer will be purchased by WestRock for $3.5 billion.
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.
The global recovered paper market experienced “a quite challenging year” in 2017, according to an expert at paper industry research firm RISI. And those challenges are only expected to continue as Chinese import restrictions ramp up.
Update: China has filed its official contamination proposals with the World Trade Organization, and they list a 0.5 percent threshold for most recyclables, down from the 1 percent limit that was previously considered.
China will shift its planned threshold for contamination in scrap paper imports from 0.3 percent to 1 percent, seemingly in response to concerns the original proposed limit would be impossible to hit.
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Pratt Industries plans to break ground on a sizable recycled containerboard mill in the Midwest next year, a move that’s part of the company’s vertical integration strategy.
Graphic Packaging closed down its Santa Clara, Calif. facility in early December. Photo: Google Maps
Graphic Packaging closed its Santa Clara, Calif. recycled paperboard mill at the beginning of December, citing high costs and market volatility as contributing to the decision.
Less than one-quarter of the fiber used last year by consumer products company Kimberly-Clark came from recycled sources, the lowest percentage in at least six years.
Global packaging producer Sonoco recycled the equivalent of 57 percent of the packaging it placed on the market last year.