Scrap feedstock makes up 98 percent of metal producer’s Circle Green stainless steel.

Finland-based metals producer Outokumpu says it has set a “new standard for the world’s most sustainable stainless steel,” launching a product line called Circle Green it says has a 92 percent lower carbon footprint than the industry average.

Energy sources and consumption throughout the production change contribute to the low emissions footprint, but the company says using stainless steel and nickel scrap as raw material feedstock also is a critical factor.

“Recycled materials played an important role in producing the emission-minimized stainless steel [that] we call Circle Green,” Päivi Allenius, a vice president with Outokumpu, tells Recycling Today. “By using scrap we can avoid using primary raw materials, as their impact on the product's carbon footprint is the most important,” she adds.

Allenius adds, “Our recycled material content is normally at 90 percent and in this case it was clearly even more than that—98 percent.”

Circle Green, in addition to having a 92 percent lower carbon footprint than the global average, has a 64 percent smaller footprint compared with Outokumpu’s regular production, says the company.

“We are extremely proud to introduce a new product line, Outokumpu Circle Green, which is truly an innovation in the stainless steel industry and a result of our focused learning journey,” says Niklas Wass, an executive vice president with the company. “The first batch was produced in Tornio, Finland, and was delivered to one of our strategic customers, Fiskars Group, to use for cookware. I’m extremely proud that we have launched a product that has a true impact on our customers’ climate ambitions.”

Wass continues, “We see increasing global customer demand for low-carbon footprint stainless steels, from construction to heavy industry and consumer products. I’m very happy to say that Outokumpu is now ready to answer this demand. In this first phase, we will concentrate our efforts to serve a few strategic customers, but we are already looking at ways to scale up the production.”

In addition to using more scrap, Outokumpu says it achieved emission reductions with “meticulous production and quality optimization” that led to higher energy efficiency. Biogas, biodiesel, bio coke and low-carbon electricity are being used in production to eliminate 95 percent of all Scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions, says the firm.

“Our emission-minimized product answers the global need for more sustainable and long-lasting products that help to build a more sustainable future,” says Wass. “The material was produced on an industrial scale with our existing production assets. This is a key step and an essential achievement towards meeting Outokumpu’s sustainability goals.”

The program aims to recycle plastic protective covers used for boats.

New Jersey-based Valhalla Boatworks has become the most recent addition to the list of boat manufacturers currently recycling plastic protective covers through the Yamaha Rightwaters plastics recycling program. To date, the program, which launched in August 2021, is responsible for returning 17,911 pounds of polyethylene and polypropylene sheet plastics back into base materials, reducing the amount of plastics in U.S. waterways.

Created, owned and operated by the Viking Yacht Company, Valhalla Boatworks offers four center consoles from 33 to 55 feet.

“Yamaha Rightwaters, through initiatives such as the plastic recycling program, continues to create opportunities for marine sustainability and conservation. Valhalla Boatworks is enthusiastic about being part of the journey,” says John Leek IV, general manager of Viking Mullica. “By participating in this program, it’s our hope that we can help significantly reduce plastic in the nation’s waters.”

The Yamaha Rightwaters plastics recycling program leverages a reverse logistics strategy to return the protective covers from select boat builders, retail dealers and its three boat production facilities. Additional contributing manufacturers include Contender Boats, Regulator Marine, Xpress Boats, Yamaha Jet Boat Manufacturing, Skeeter, and G3 Boats.

The materials ship from participating boat builders and dealers to Marietta, Georgia-based Tommy Nobis Enterprises, which separates recyclable plastics from other materials, such as plastic zippers, cords and eyelets. Tommy Nobis Enterprises then ships the feedstock to Atlanta, Georgia-based end-to-end plastics recycling business Nexus for processing into raw materials, which range from gasses to waxes. Those materials are then used for other products.

The NextCycle program selects new and expanding businesses and organizations through a competitive application process and connects them to resources and expertise.

NextCycle Colorado, a program designed to boost manufacturing solutions for recycled or recovered content in Colorado, will host a pitch competition Wednesday, June 22, from 5 to 8 p.m. at eTown Hall in Boulder. During the competition, businesses seeking to connect with private investors will pitch ideas. 

The competition is the culmination of NextCycle Colorado programming, which pursues creative ideas to improve recycling and composting end markets. This year’s event will showcase nine teams that spent the last four months receiving mentorship from industry leaders and subject matter experts as well as technical support from Resource Recycling Systems (RRS), a consultancy based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

“This is an exciting time for recycling in Colorado, as we’re putting progressive efforts in motion that have the potential to really move the needle and improve recycling rates statewide,” says Jill Hunsaker Ryan, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). “NextCycle has helped foster important innovations from local businesses, and I look forward to the creative solutions these latest teams bring to Colorado.”

“By investing time and resources into the teams, NextCycle Colorado creates stronger recycling businesses for the state,” says Kendra Appelman-Eastvedt, recycling grants supervisor at CDPHE. “These businesses will create new jobs, products and services and, most importantly, continue the momentum toward our goal of recycling more in Colorado.”

The NextCycle program selects new and expanding businesses and organizations through a competitive application process and connects them to resources and expertise. NextCycle teams have been awarded more than $1.5 million in Recycling Resources Economic Opportunity program grants from CDPHE since the program’s inception in 2018. 

Nine teams will be showcased in the 2022 pitch competition: 

“Colorado NextCycle supports businesses and organizations at every level,” says Juri Freeman, managing principal at RRS. “The state has immense entrepreneurial talent, and the Pitch Competition is the opportunity to elevate the teams and take their businesses to the next level.”

Bolstering NextCycle’s efforts is a new law approved earlier this month that will create Colorado’s first Circular Economy Development Center, which aims to empower Colorado businesses to create products using materials that Coloradans recycle. The center will help CDPHE achieve its commitment to increasing how much residents are recycling across the state.

The Colorado NextCycle pitch competition is free and open to the public. Investors, funders, business and community leaders, media and anyone interested are invited to attend. 

Please visit Colorado NextCycle Pitch Competition for more information or to register to attend.

Funding for Colorado NextCycle is provided through the Recycling Resources Economic Opportunity program. 

The online program will feature six courses focused on paper and fibers recycling.

The Remade Institute, a 148-member public-private partnership established by the United States Department of Energy with an initial investment of $140 million, has announced a new training boot camp to accelerate the nation’s transition to a circular economy.

The live, two-day, online boot camp in advanced fibers recycling – part of the Institute’s Remade Academy – will take place from 11 a.m.to 4:30 p.m, Tuesday, June 21 and from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 22. The training, which focuses on paper recycling, encompasses six courses and leads to an awareness-level certificate.

Remade CEO Nabil Nasr says the upcoming recycling boot camp is part of Remade’s ongoing efforts to train workers across the United States in next-generation technologies. Remade training enables the U.S.’s transition to a circular economy which reduces energy consumption; decreases greenhouse gas emissions; reduces the use of raw and virgin, or primary, materials; and increases the supply and use of recycled, or secondary, materials. Additional benefits of a circular approach include an increase in manufacturing competitiveness, an increase in supply chain resiliency and a decrease in dependence on raw materials from outside the U.S.

“For U.S. manufacturing to stay competitive and have ready access to a resilient supply chain, manufacturers nationwide must accelerate their transition to a circular economy, and their workers must be trained in next-generation, circular technologies,” Nasr says.

Fibers recycling, including paper recycling, is critically important in the U.S. and around the world, Remade says. In the U.S.’ current curbside recycling system, paper and cardboard are frequently contaminated, resulting in more than 17.2 million tons, or 25 percent, or municipal solid waste paper and paperboard ending up in a landfill, according to Remade. Through the Institute’s ongoing research, Remake seeks to remove contaminants, increase recycling rates, and as a result, increase the supply of recycled papers to manufacturers in the U.S.

The boot camp’s six courses are led by Kecheng Li, Ph.D., professor and chair of the department of chemical and paper engineering at Western Michigan University (WMU), and are taught by professors and experts with WMU, Resource Recycling Systems and other organizations. Courses featured in the boot camp are:

The boot camp is open to all. Innovators, researchers and leaders in industry, academia, government and the nonprofit sector who are interested in learning more about the U.S.’s transition to a circular economy, especially in the areas of paper recycling and fibers recycling, are especially encouraged to attend. A certificate of completion will be issued to participants upon successful passage of a quiz to validate course attendance.

Registration information for the awareness-level bootcamp can be found here. Cost is free for Remade members and is $1,300 for nonmembers. Additional fibers recycling courses at both the practitioner level and expert level will be available to Institute members only on-demand.

Through its Remade Academy, the Institute offers members more than 50 hours of online training content focused on systems analysis, design, materials optimization, remanufacturing and end-of-life and recycling and recovery of four energy-intensive material classes: metals, plastics/polymers, fibers and electronic waste.

In addition, for the first time, Remade is also offering select short courses and certificate courses to non-members for a fee. Besides the upcoming boot camp, select courses available to nonmembers include:

The packaging producer has expanded its northbox line and installed an automated packaging line at its new facility in York, Pennsylvania.

Cascades Inc., a Kingsey Falls, Quebec-based packaging producer, continues to expand into the isothermal packaging market with advanced technology added to its Northbox line of meal boxes and has commissioned a new production facility in York, Pennsylvania.

The company has added its Northbox Xtend technology to its meal boxes, creating a moisture barrier that helps keep the insulation rigid. Cascades says the technology allows the boxes to keep food fresh during long transit times and in regions with higher temperatures, requiring less ice. The boxes also are made with recycled cardboard and determined to be recyclable by an external laboratory and prequalified by How2Recycle—a standardized labeling system in both the United States and Canada.

"We're pleased to innovate with our customers to offer them a variety of high-performance and adaptable isothermal packaging solutions," says Luc Langevin, president and chief operating officer of Cascades' specialty products group. "Since 2007, our recycled cardboard meal boxes have been perfected to meet operational and environmental challenges. Our expansion plan in the market is rolling out as anticipated, reinforcing our role as strategic partner that works in close proximity with customers."

Cascades new production site in York is the company's second in four months after the opening of a facility in Tacoma, Washington, in February. The company says it expanded its presence in the East to get closer to customers and strengthen its position as a strategic partner throughout North America.

The first phase of the expansion includes the installation of what Cascades calls a "state-of-the-art," highly automated packaging line for the production of its isothermal boxes. It installed similar technology at its Tacoma plant and said at the time of the announcement that the new sites allow it to increase production capacity and expand geographic coverage.