The facility will make rubberized mulch from recycled scrap tires.
Liberty Tire Recycling, a tire recycling services provider headquartered in Pittsburgh, has announced plans to open a new manufacturing facility this February in Sanford, North Carolina. The company says the new facility will produce rubberized mulch made from recycled scrap tires.
According to a news release from Liberty Tire Recycling, the plant will create 30 new jobs in the area.
“Liberty is excited to make positive economic and environmental impacts in the region,” says Liberty CEO Thomas Womble. “A new Liberty facility means fewer scrap tires in the waste stream and more jobs for hardworking North Carolinians.”
As part of the company’s commitment to focus on sustainability, Liberty says it also appointed Amy Brackin to serve as its vice president of sustainability to develop an environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy.
“Our new rubber mulch facility in Sanford is in direct response to consumer acceptance of rubber mulch as a sustainable alternative to wood mulch,” Brackin says. “Our North American retail partners recognize and appreciate our sustainability story and how it positively impacts their value chain.”
Liberty Tire Recycling recycles about 190 million tires annually, reclaiming about 3 billion pounds of rubber each year. The company uses recycled rubber to make rubber-based products that are sold at 15,000 retail locations across North America.
Both Senate and House committees will vote on two bills related to catalytic converter thefts in the state.
Lawmakers in Washington state are scheduled to vote on two bills related to catalytic converter theft. According to a report from The Seattle Times, a spike in catalytic converter thefts in the state have prompted state lawmakers to address the issue. The Seattle Times reports that there were 241 reported catalytic converter thefts for the first half of 2021.
Washington Senate Bill 5495, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Wilson and introduced Dec. 6, 2021, would add precious metals to a list of transactions that scrap metal businesses must record. Washington House Bill 1815, sponsored by Rep. Cindy Ryu and introduced Jan. 6, would create a task force to review state laws related to catalytic converter theft and develop recommendations for the future. It also would establish a pilot project through the Washington State Patrol to put identifying information on people’s catalytic converters so they can be tracked. Both bills are scheduled for committee votes Jan. 27.
Some industry proponents expressed opposition to SB 5495 during a Jan. 25 public hearing, including the Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI). Holly Chisa, representing ISRI’s Pacific Northwest Chapter as a lobbyist, said that it is already illegal under current law for scrap yards to purchase stolen material. She said scrap yard operators are required to document purchases of personal metal property and maintain those records for five years. Chisa added that she prefers HB 1815 to SB 5495.
Production in China tapers off, but rest of world recovers from slack in 2020.
The Brussels-based World Steel Association (Worldsteel) says the nations reporting figures to it produced some 1.95 billion metric tons of steel in 2021, representing a 3.7 increase in output from the prior year.
The uptick occurred despite China, which makes about half the world’s steel, scaling back its output by 3 percent last year. While China may have reached peak steel output associated with its rapid urbanization and transportation buildout, steel producers in other nations experienced double-digit boosts in output associated with a rebound from COVID-19 and related restrictions in 2020.
The world’s next three largest producers after China—India, Japan and the United States—each experienced output increases from 15 percent to 19 percent. The European Union also witnessed an output rise of more than 15 percent.
Turkey, a prominent buyer of ferrous scrap on the world stage, saw its steel output rise by more than 12 percent in 2021 compared with the year before. Another ferrous scrap importing nation, Pakistan, enjoyed a nearly 40 percent rise in steel output.
Nations with more modest increases in steel production included Russia (6.1 percent), South Korea (5.2 percent) and the United Kingdom (3.9 percent). Only a few nations joined China by logging decreased output, including Indonesia (-2.9 percent), Iran (-1.8 percent) and Malaysia (-1.8 percent).
Pennsylvania-based firm says it has installed one furnace in Ohio and anticipates additional expansion.
Bridgeville, Pennsylvania-based Universal Stainless & Alloy Products Inc. says it has installed a new remelt furnace at its North Jackson, Ohio, plant, and it intends to add two more furnaces as part of a capital expansion program.
“Through our capital investment in 2021, we successfully added a new vacuum arc remelting (VAR) furnace in our North Jackson facility, which has been installed, commissioned and integrated into our operations,” says Universal board Chair, President and CEO Dennis Oates in a statement accompanying the firm’s most recent earnings report.
“We have also added an 18-ton vacuum induction melting (VIM) crucible, which expands our vacuum induction melting capacity to support the growth of premium alloy products, and improves the efficiency of our melt operations,” the CEO adds. “The VIM crucible is in the final stage of commissioning.”
Oates continues, “As part of our strategic plan for 2022, we are pleased to announce that our board has now authorized the acquisition of two additional VAR furnaces to further support our growth and efficiency and expand our product applications.”
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on its website, Universal Stainless lists its “key raw materials” as “carbon and stainless scrap metal and alloys, primarily consisting of nickel, chrome, molybdenum and copper. Scrap metal is primarily generated by industrial sources and is purchased through a number of scrap brokers and processors.” A conflict minerals statement signed by the company also lists tungsten scrap as a raw material.
In 2021, the company’s net sales figure of $155.9 million was down 13.2 percent compared with $179.7 million in 2020. However, Universal Stainless had a net loss of $19 million in 2020; it improved on that considerably in 2021 with a net loss of less than $760,000.
Looking ahead, Oates comments, “As 2021 came to a close and 2022 begins, we see our markets coming back and, through our operational initiatives, we are in a much stronger position than one year ago. While supply chain and other issues will continue to present challenges, we remain determined to make further progress in the coming year and take full advantage of our recovering markets, especially aerospace.”
Packaging firm expands PET recycling capacity in Luxembourg.
Plymouth, Michigan-based Plastipak, which makes plastic containers, says it has completed a “major investment to significantly expand its PET recycling capacity” at its manufacturing site in Bascharage, Luxembourg.
The original PET recycling facility in Luxembourg opened in 2008. The new expansion, says the firm, increases annual production capacity at the plant by 136 percent. The installation and commissioning of the expansion took 12 months, says Plastipak.
The recycling facility is co-located with a Plastipak preform and container manufacturing facility that converts washed rPET flakes originating from post-consumer bottles into food-grade recycled PET (rPET) pellets.
The rPET produced at the site is converted into new preforms and containers produced at the Bascharage facility, which principally serves the German and Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) food and beverage markets. Plastipak has additional recycling facilities in France, the United Kingdom and the United States and is building a new recycling facility at its plant in Toledo, Spain.
“This latest investment to increase our capacity in rPET production actively demonstrates Plastipak’s long-term commitment to bottle-to-bottle recycling and our leadership in the PET circular economy,” says Pedro Martins, executive managing director of Plastipak’s European division. “Plastipak is the leading producer of food-grade rPET in Europe, with the majority of the post-consumer recycled material we use in Europe produced in-house.”
“Plastipak began producing post-consumer recycled resins for packaging customers in 1989 and has had many expansions in North America and Europe since then,” says said Dave Stajninger, Plastipak’s Global recycling Business Manager. “We are excited to continue supporting our global packaging customers in achieving their sustainability goals.”
Plastipak describes itself as a major convertor of recycled PET, which represents 27 percent of the total resin consumed in Plastipak’s European sites in 2020. In Bascharage, the proportion of recycled resin consumed in 2020 was 45.3 percent.