Sacyr will be the first to deploy Honeywell's proprietary UpCycle Process Technology at a site in Spain.
Honeywell, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, says it has commercialized a process that expands the types of plastics that can be recycled, producing feedstock that enables manufacturing recycled plastics with a lower carbon footprint.
The company’s UpCycle Process Technology uses molecular conversion, pyrolysis and contaminants management technology to convert end-of-life plastics into feedstock for the production of recycled plastics. It is suitable for colored, flexible, multilayered packaging and polystyrene. When used in conjunction with other chemical and mechanical recycling processes—along with improvements to collection and sorting—Honeywell says its UpCycle Process Technology has the potential to increase the amount global plastic recycling rate to 90 percent.
The company says recycled plastics produced via UpCycle Process Technology can result in a 57 percent reduction of carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) emissions compared with the production of the same amount of virgin plastic from fossil feeds, according to a Honeywell Life Cycle Analysis published in October. The process also reduces CO2e emissions by 77 percent compared with conventional modes of handling postuse plastic, such as incineration and landfilling.
"Plastics play an important role in our society, including expanding the shelf life of food and making vehicles lighter, which reduces their emissions. Unfortunately, only a fraction of plastics today can be successfully recycled," says Vimal Kapur, president and chief executive officer of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies. "Honeywell's UpCycle process helps fix this problem. By broadening the types of plastic that can be recycled, UpCycle will revolutionize the plastics economy and play a critical role in improving the sustainability of many of the products we use on a daily basis."
Sacyr, a global engineering and services company headquartered in Madrid with operations in more than 20 countries worldwide, will be the first to deploy Honeywell's proprietary UpCycle Process Technology. Honeywell and Sacyr are partnering to form a joint venture where the two companies will co-own and operate a facility in Andalucía, in southern Spain, with the capacity to handle 30,000 metric tons annually of mixed plastics into Honeywell Recycled Polymer Feedstock. Production is expected to begin in 2023, Honeywell says.
Partnering with companies that have waste management experience will allow Honeywell to help close the loop within the plastics supply chain by bringing the recycling technology on-site to the collection source. The recycling plants feature a modular design, facilitating deployment and installation, according to the company.
"Our partnership with Honeywell will enable Sacyr to bring sustainable, circular solutions to market," says Domingo Jiménez, manager of Sacyr Circular. "The speed with which we can start up plants and the global viability of this solution has the potential to greatly accelerate the impact we can have on the communities we serve, the environment and society as a whole."
Honeywell's UpCycle Process Technology was created within Honeywell's Sustainable Technology Solutions (STS) group, which is part of Honeywell UOP.
This certification will help Graham meet its goal of using 20 percent PCR on average in its bottles by 2025.
Graham Packaging has announced that its Evansville, Indiana, location has received International Sustainability and Carbon Certificate (ISCC) Plus, a certification that enables the site to sell customers ISCC Plus certified postconsumer resin (PCR) that was created through chemical recycling. Graham received the certificate from SCS Global Services, Emeryville, California, an international leader in third-party certification, validation and verification for environmental, sustainability, and food safety.
ISCC Plus is an internationally recognized system of certifying products that result from advanced, or chemical, recycling using mass balance attribution of postuse plastic. This certification provides traceability along the supply chain.
“We are proud to be one of the few rigid packaging companies who are ISCC Plus certified to use advanced PCR,” says Tracee Auld, chief sustainability and growth officer. “This is a great milestone for Graham Packaging and will help us to meet our long-term goal of incorporating an average of 20 percent PCR across all bottles by 2025.”
With this certification, Graham adds advanced recycled material to its portfolio of mechanically recycled content. This advanced recycled material can be substituted for up to 100 percent of virgin resin in a container, delivering identical material performance while also helping to reduce the packaging’s overall carbon footprint, the company says.
“ISCC Plus certification is a major milestone on our sustainability mission because it will allow Graham Packaging to provide our customers packaging solutions made from sustainable, food-grade PCR,” says Marcelo Passos, president of Graham’s food and nutrition business unit. “We are proud of this work to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to sustainability.”
Richa Desai, director of sustainability at Graham, says, “We see advanced recycling as a complementary process to mechanical recycling and will use both in our dedicated mission to create sustainable packaging.”
The company, which is headquartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, says it plans to earn ISCC certification for additional facilities across its global locations in the future.
The organization’s CEO says the recovery in pricing has been “one of the few silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Following China’s ban on the import of several recyclables, some curbside recycling programs faced challenges. However, beginning in 2020, commodity prices for recyclables have recovered strongly in many cases, benefitting local recycling programs, according to a new report from the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), Silver Spring, Maryland.
In “Recycling Markets Have Strongly Recovered Since National Sword,” SWANA reports the prices and demand for recyclables from municipal curbside recycling programs have rebounded and are close to record highs in the U.S. and Canada. The report quantifies how much commodity prices have recovered from 2020 lows and discusses how increased domestic demand and consumer brand commitments to use recycled materials have improved market conditions.
“One of the very few silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the remarkable recovery of recycling prices,” says David Biderman, SWANA CEO and executive director. “This is encouraging investments in new technologies at MRFs and new carts at municipalities.”
The report cites the Northeast Recycling Council’s Report on Blended MRF Commodity Values in the Northeast from April to June 30, when the “blended” value of a ton of recyclables recovered at MRFs in New England increased by 160 percent to $134.26 compared with April through June of 2019.
Biderman announced the report and provided an update on recycling markets in his remarks at Wastecon’s Opening Ceremonies in Orlando, Florida, Nov. 1.
The full report can be downloaded at https://hub.swana.org/recycling-markets-2021.
A Nov. 13 kickoff event will give away recycling bins and distribute educational resources.
The town of Alfred, Maine, has contracted with Ecomaine, Portland, Maine, for recycling and solid waste management services that began Nov. 1.
Ecomaine’s single-stream recycling program allows Alfred residents to collect paper, cardboard, metal cans, glass bottles and jars and hard plastic containers Nos. 1-7 in a single container. The material will be transported to Ecomaine's material recovery facility in Portland for sorting and processing.
Ecomaine CEO Kevin Roche says, “Signing on Alfred makes geographic sense, given its location nearby many other Ecomaine member communities. And by adding the town to Ecomaine’s membership base, we’re increasing the total amount of Maine materials that we’re able to divert from the solid waste stream. Recycling markets and prices are greatly improved from this time last year, and this material can be captured and turned into new materials while saving both landfill space and money.”
Ecomaine also is promoting educational outreach opportunities, such as classroom presentations, grants and contests for member communities.
As part of the kick-off to the partnership, the town and Ecomaine will host an informational event Saturday, Nov. 13 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Alfred Transfer Station (79 Sanford Rd.). Ecomaine will give away a limited number of recycling bins, as well as educational resources about the new program.
“Education is a unique feature of Ecomaine’s programming in our member communities,” Communications Manager Matt Grondin says. “We look forward to providing our unique and robust educational outreach and programs in Alfred.”
Ecomaine is a member-owned, nonprofit recycling and waste-to-energy operation that serves one-third of Maine’s population in nearly 70 member communities. Ecomaine provides long-term solid waste solutions and works to raise public awareness of sustainable waste management strategies.
Nation’s government moves prior Nov. 1 deadline to Jan. 1, 2022.
The Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) has issued a statement saying it will not enforce its proposed higher purity standards for imported scrap metal in November or December of this year.
When announcing the standards in August, MITI indicated it would take effect for shipments entering Nov. 1 of this year, after a two-month “interim period.”
In a statement posted to its website Nov. 1, MITI has announced that “the interim measure will continue to be enforced until 31 December, 2021. MITI believes the extended interim period will allow the industry to undertake the necessary preparations towards the Certificate of Approval (CoA) implementation.”
That CoA process remains a source of numerous questions for scrap recyclers around the world, with traders resisting what they see as a potentially burdensome and costly inspection Materials Recovery Facilities’ Approval Scheme being managed by the government-affiliated SIRIM agency and its appointed (and currently hard to find) Foreign Inspection Bodies.
The standards themselves demand ferrous scrap shipments that must consist of 94.75 percent iron and steel, with a maximum 0.25 percent nonmetallics and nothing considered by MITI as “electrical and electronic” scrap.
The aluminum and copper specifications demand identical percentages, which would result in a ban on coated wire and cable scrap and cause uncertainty for mixed, shredded grades (which can contain fragments of printed circuit boards).
Malaysia’s steel industry is a sizable consumer of imported ferrous scrap. In the past several years, the nation also has grown as a leading destination for the world’s nonferrous scrap, with secondary aluminum alloy and brass producers thriving in the nation.
The latter group is represented by the Malaysia Non-ferrous Metals Association, which has been attempting to work with overseas recycling and trading organizations to keep the door open for scrap shipments.
The full Nov. 1 MITI announcement can be viewed on this web page.