The coalition aims to increase access to recycle polypropylene in curbside recycling programs and ensure robust end markets for the material.

Advanced Drainage Systems Inc. (ADS), a provider of water management solutions and a plastic recycling company based in Hilliard, Ohio, has announced that it has joined The Recycling Partnership and its Polypropylene Recycling Coalition. According to a news release from ADS, this initiative is in line with the company’s goal of developing solutions that promote environmental stewardship by protecting water and keeping plastic out of landfills.

ADS reports that it recycles more than 550 million pounds of plastic each year. The company converts plastic from curbside recycling into pellets that are extruded into pipe that is designed to last up to 100 years.

“ADS is proud to establish relationships with organizations that recognize the important role water and recycling play in improving the quality of life,” says Brian King, executive vice president of marketing and product management for ADS. “This partnership continues ADS’ work in creating and sustaining positive social change through a circular economy.”

The Recycling Partnership, which is based in Falls Church, Virginia, started the Polypropylene Recycling Coalition to focus on helping to increase access for people to recycle polypropylene (PP) through curbside recycling programs, ensuring more processing facilities can sort PP successfully. The coalition also aims to stimulate a more robust end-market for high-quality recycled PP for reuse in packaging.

“We are delighted to have ADS as our newest corporate partner,” says Beth Schmitt, senior vice president of corporate engagement for The Recycling Partnership. “We appreciate their advocacy and support for our mission and believe we will do great things together to positively impact our environment.”

Executive Jeff Chalovich is ending his 23-year career with WestRock in August.

Atlanta-based board and packaging producer WestRock Co. says long-time executive Jeff Chalovich, currently chief commercial officer and president of the Corrugated Packaging business unit, is retiring from the company in August.

WestRock CEO David B. Sewell says Chalovich had “an incredible” 23-year career with WestRock. Moving forward, the company has announced what it calls “an evolution of its commercial and operational leadership structure and team reporting” to Sewell.

Chalovich has held various management and leadership roles in the company’s commercial, containerboard and corrugated packaging businesses. “Jeff is well respected across the industry as an expert in corrugated packaging, and he has led the commercial and corrugated team incredibly well during his time with our company,” Sewell says. “As a member of our leadership team, Jeff has led the development of our commercial organization and set the strategic and operational foundation for our corrugated packaging business. I and the rest of the WestRock team wish Jeff the very best in retirement.”

The new WestRock structure “aligns with the focus I have highlighted on enhancing our commercial strategy, operational excellence and productivity across the enterprise, which are all important levers to meet and exceed the needs of our customers by delivering differentiated solutions that will accelerate profitable growth,” says Sewell. “I am confident the changes we are making will further strengthen our company and create value for our shareholders.”

People with new executive leadership roles at WestRock include:

Packaging producer says the milk sachet can “be recycled in accordance with industry standards.”

Switzerland-based packaging producer Amcor says it is producing “the first designed to be recycled plastic packaging for powdered chocolate” to be put on the market in Latin America.

The company claims the new pouch or sachet “reduces the package’s carbon footprint by 53 percent and water consumption by 84 percent when it is recycled. The new sachet was made available to consumers in in Colombia in May.

“The new sachet is designed to be recycled in accordance with industry standards,” says Fabio Gonzalez, Amcor Colombia R&D Manager. “This development reaffirms our commitment to ensuring all our packaging is designed to be recyclable or reusable by 2025.”

In Chile, Amcor says it has introduced designed to be recycled packaging for dry soups and the first food flexible packaging made with recycled content in Australia. The firms says it also introduced the world’s first designed to be recycled retort pouch for wet pet food in the Netherlands, as well as.

The Amcor news release announcing the milk sachets made available in Colombia does not indicate what material or materials comprise the pouches.

While Europe may move to retain more of its nonferrous scrap, politicians in two other nations could enact policies to keep it out.

Throughout 2021, prices for aluminum, copper and other types of nonferrous scrap have trended upward, with processors and traders citing global demand outpacing supply as a prevailing factor. At the Non-Ferrous Division meeting of the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) 2021 World Recycling Convention, panelists portrayed actions and attitudes in two nations that nonetheless view the increasingly valuable materials as “waste.”

While presenters from Malaysia and India described policies in those two nations casting doubts on their ability to import high-volume amounts of nonferrous scrap, another recycler’s overview of conversations surrounding the Green Deal in the European Union pointed to fears of future export restrictions on that continent.

Eric Tan, president of the Malaysia Non-Ferrous Metals Association, says his group is in dialog with government officials there to prevent the enactment of a set of import guidelines released earlier this year by Malaysia-based inspection agency SIRIM QAS International.

Nonferrous metals are essential to a “low-carbon future” involving electric vehicles, solar energy and increased digitalization, said Tan, and Malaysia can benefit by processing and melting scrap to produce those metals. “Availability and consistency in raw materials supply would induce more manufacturing activity in Malaysia,” he stated, which “paves the foundation for skills transfer, know-how and R&D” to help the country’s economy evolve.

Instead, Tan said, “Many existing investments will go down the drain if the [import] guidelines enter into force,” and Malaysia’s potentially bright nonferrous future will run into a wall. “Our association is trying to convince the authorities” not to enact those guidelines, said Tan, adding that opposition to scrap seems to stem from media and social media reports linking it to plastic in the ocean.

As currently configured, Tan noted, the guidelines’ requirement that scrap metal brought in must consist of 94.75 percent or more of one type of metal would completely prohibit trade in stainless steel, brass and cast iron alloys.

Dhawal Shah of Mumbai-based Metco Marketing said primary metal producers lobbied to create a system for tracking scrap imports that recyclers and secondary metals producers worry might lead to potential restrictions on those imports.

“This is all extra work for our industry,” said Shah. “Whether Malaysia or India, recyclers have to somehow deal with the overanxiety of lawmakers.”

Scrap imports contribute up to 40 percent of the metals production feedstock in India, said Shah, in a nation that strives to produce yet more metal overall. “There is a deficiency of scrap in India that is being met through imports,” he stated. “These imports net-net are helping India commercially, socially, economically and environmentally. It helps the very objective of the circular economy.”

While traders and processors in those two nations worry about import restrictions, Murat Bayram, who works in Germany for United Kingdom-based EMR Ltd., said as yet unfinalized policies tied to the EU’s Green Deal have the potential to suppress export trading there.

Bayram said carbon neutrality by 2050 is the overarching goal of the Green Deal, and secondary metals production indeed helps reduce emission. He stated, though, “The circular economy doesn’t end at the border of Europe. We need to think green worldwide.”

Regarding “dumping” materials on less developed nations, Bayram commented, “We try to explain to politicians that one briquette of [recycled] copper has a value of $1,500, so you will not find this copper littered across beaches across the globe.” In the EU, however, metal recycling is regulated under waste laws and regulations, and these will be subject to changes under the Green Deal.

In the nonferrous sector, “European capacities simply cannot hold the sheer volume of [scrap] materials coming in on a daily basis” to European scarp yards, said Bayram. He described Europe’s metal recycling industry as a fast-growing one that provides “local and non-outsourceable” jobs and provides products to smelters in and outside of Europe.

Bayram, sounding just as alarmed about export restrictions as Tan and Shah did about those on the import side, concluded, “Export restrictions, if put into place, would result in nothing short of the collapse of the current, green recycling infrastructure that relies on unhampered access to markets all over the world.”

Demand for recycled-content resins is putting pressure on recyclers to boost the collection of plastic scrap.

The traders and processors who collect, bale and reprocess plastic scrap may feel as if they are a player in the Pokémon universe. While their mission may not be to “catch ‘em all,” they are under increasing pressure to find enough plastic scrap to meet growing global demand for sustainable materials.

At the Plastics Committee meeting of the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) 2021 World Recycling Convention, panelists in a June 2 online roundtable said they are happy to see higher prices for plastic scrap, but added that prices will have to maintain their lofty status to allow supply to meet what appears to be a new level of global demand.

Committee chair Henk Alssema of Netherlands-based Vita Plastics described a 2021 landscape of high prices coupled with it being “very difficult to fulfill supply obligations” because of shortages of material.

Max Craipeau of Hong Kong-based Greencore Resources Ltd. said the lack of feedstock “is a situation we might face in the future, with increasing demand from brand owners for recycled content.” Added Craipeau, “We have to be ready to face that. It has kind of been that way for PET [polyethylene terephthalate], and it will happen for the other resins as well. Recyclables will become more and more sought after.”

United States-based PET bottle recycler Sally Houghton of Plastic Recycling Corp. of California said while the shortages are a headache, the situation has an upside. “I think we’re in a very lucky position,” she stated. “We’re in a position we’ve been hoping we’d get to.”

Houghton added, “Here in California we are working very hard to increase our recycling rate, and the quality of our PET bales.” She said the steady demand also could help promote the collection of PET thermoform packaging. “Innovation and technology is coming along behind. It’s up to the industry to show its innovation.”

In addition to corporate sustainability-related demand for postconsumer resins (PCR), panelists pointed to government targets and mandates, such as those attached to the EU’s Green Deal. Houghton said California has enacted its mandate while the nearby state of Washington also has passed a PCR-mandated recycled-content bill.

Steve Wong of Hong Kong-based Fukutomi Corp., who also represents the ­­­­­­­­­­­China Sustainable Plastics Association, said trade barriers against plastic scrap shipped to Asia have created a severe “disconnection between what the market requires and what is available.”

Corporate and government recycled-content requirements for goods and packaging could be creating a global market for more than 100 million metric tons of recycled-content plastic, Wong said. Much of that will be needed in Asia. However, Basel Convention restrictions mean “in the Far East, especially, there won’t be enough material for recycled-content purposes,” he said.

The recycling company CEO also said there is not enough infrastructure in Asia for the collection and reprocessing of locally generated plastic scrap, especially for “buyers looking for high-quality and food-contact-grade” materials. Regional processors, Wong added, also “struggle” to contact or fully connect with brand owners or to understand their requirements.

A presentation from one such global brand owner was given by Eelco Smit, senior director of sustainability with Netherlands-based conglomerate Philips. Smit said several years of involvement with using recycled-content resins has taught Philips that, “If we want to transition to the circular economy, it starts with the way we design our products.”

Recycling end-of-life appliances or medical devices “is complicated,” said Smit, but at the same time, “We cannot expect product designers and engineers to be recycling experts.” He said Philips is stressing cooperation among stakeholders and training for some designers and engineers. Philips used some 1,900 metric tons of recycled-content plastics in 2020 and has a target of 7,600 tons used by 2025.

Plastic traders, along with all others engaged in container shipping, have paid high prices and had difficulty making bookings for the past 12 months. Theo van Ravesteyn, nonexecutive chairman with Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC), said such conditions are unlikely to subside anytime soon.

He said after three decades of “boom and bust” cycles and overly optimistic investments made in the container shipping industry, consolidation and alliances have created a sector that has “completely changed.”

Carriers have “managed capacity” throughout the post-COVID-19 shipping rebound, said van Ravesteyn. “Basically, prices are going up in all markets every day. All available ships are deployed currently [and] shippers are finally making a profit.”

The MSC board member said shipping lines would rather maintain their discipline and not reengage in “optimistically ordering ships and bigger ships” and “falling into a race to the bottom.” Concluded van Ravestyn, “We won’t go back to the days [where] shipping rates were zero” to ship scrap to China. “Those days are over.”