The grant enables the MRF to recycle 4 million more UBCs annually.

A single-stream material recovery facility (MRF) operated by Rivers Recycling in Kilgore, Texas, has received a grant that allows it to sort aluminum used beverage cans (UBCs) with an eddy current rather than by hand. The grant was funded by can manufacturers Ardagh Metal Packaging and Crown Holdings. The installation of the eddy current separator will result in the recovery of 4 million more UBCs annually, 50 percent more than the MRF was capturing by hand sorting, according to a news release issued by The Recycling Partnership and the Can Manufacturers Institute (CMI).

The MRF, the fifth to receive funding from a grant program facilitated by CMI, processes roughly 18,000 tons of material per year from the east Texas area. CMI partnered with The Recycling Partnership to evaluate and select the grantees, execute the grant program and provide technical assistance to ensure successful implementation.

The environmental and economic impact of recovering and recycling these UBCs is significant, the CMI and The Recycling Partnership say. Recycling 4 million additional UBCs will generate more than $65,000 in new annual revenue and produce enough energy savings each year to power 1.5 million U.S. homes for one hour. Further, the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions avoided each year will be the same as is generated from charging more than 47 million smartphones.

The first four grantees in the program were the city of Milwaukee and Waukesha County, Wisconsin; Curbside Management, Asheville, North Carolina; GEL Recycling, Port Orange, Florida; and Independent Texas Recyclers, Houston. Collectively, the equipment installed from the five grants will result in an additional 71 million aluminum cans recycled every year, the CMI and The Recycling Partnership say. The impact of 71 million aluminum beverage cans recycled is more than $1.15 million in revenue for the U.S. recycling system and energy savings that could power more than 28 million U.S. homes for one hour.

"Aluminum cans enjoy widely recyclable status and industry-leading recycled content rates,” says Keefe Harrison, CEO, The Recycling Partnership, Falls Church, Virginia. “Yet, there is still a lot of valuable material lost in homes and at MRFs. We are happy to partner with CMI, Crown and Ardagh on this grant program, delivering swift and impactful solutions that further increase successful can capture. The Recycling Partnership applauds their investment, and we look forward to continuing to partner with the aluminum can industry to improve the system and support their circularity goals.”

“Can Manufacturers Institute members Ardagh and Crown are funding strong improvements at MRFs that ensure many millions of infinitely recyclable aluminum cans are recycled annually,” says CMI President Robert Budway. “The can industry grants show the financial and environmental benefit of purchasing equipment that captures more UBCs. Importantly, while the can industry will seek to further catalyze installation of additional can capture equipment, government funding and recycling facility investments should also focus on infrastructure that captures more high-value material like cans.”

Earlier this year, the CMI and its members, which include can sheet producers and beverage can makers, announced ambitious U.S. recycling rate targets that include a 70 percent recycling rate by 2030 and a 90 percent rate by 2050. The UBC recycling rate was 45 percent in 2020.

CMI, which is headquartered in Washington, has set the targets, outlining its approach for attaining them in four action pillars:

Three of the company’s sites have been certified.

Ineos Styrolution America, headquartered in Aurora, Illinois, says it has received ISCC Plus certification from ISCC (International Sustainability & Carbon Certification) for its manufacturing sites in Channahon, Illinois; Texas City, Texas; and Altamira, Mexico. The certification supports the use of advanced, or chemical, recycling technology and bio-attributed feedstocks for the production of recycled polystyrene and other styrenic products.

Recycled or bio-attributed products certified by the ISCC Plus standard use a mass balance approach to track the sustainability characteristics of the circular or bio-attributed content.

Germany-based ISCC is an independent multistakeholder organization providing a globally applicable certification system for the sustainability of raw materials and products. Developed to meet the high demands of environmentally, socially and economically sustainable production, this certification validates Ineos Styrolution meets the objectives of ISCC Plus and enables the further development of styrenics products derived from recycled plastics produced by Ineos Styrolution America.

Cassie Bradley, Ineos Styrolution sustainability commercial manager, Americas, says, “In the same way that polystyrene enables innovation in global industries, advancements in polystyrene recycling technologies are evolving. While polystyrene can easily be recycled using traditional mechanical recycling methods, polystyrene can also be recycled using recently commercialized advanced recycling technologies and has emerged as one of the most versatile closed-loop products.”

Ricardo Cuetos, Ineos Styrolution vice president, Americas, standard products, says, “Ineos Styrolution has strong sustainability initiatives that aim to improve and increase the recovery and recycling of postconsumer plastic waste and strengthen innovation for circularity. We focus on bringing long-term, truly viable solutions to the market that will ensure our materials can be recycled and used over and over again.”

In September of last year, Ineos Styrolution and AmSty, two global producers of polystyrene (PS), announced plans to construct a 100-ton-per-day facility in Channahon using Agilyx chemical recycling technology to convert discarded PS back into what the firms call “virgin-equivalent styrene monomer.”

LRS adds to its Midwest footprint with acquisitions in the waste diversion, recycling and portable services segments in Iowa.

LRS, headquartered in Morton Grove, Illinois, has acquired Johnson County Refuse, North Liberty, Iowa, and two portable restroom providers, Port 'O' Jonny in Hiawatha, Iowa, and Action Services Inc. in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The purchases grow LRS’ Midwest footprint across greater Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

All three acquisitions are effective immediately. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Founded in 1982, North Liberty-based Johnson County Refuse provides waste collection, recycling and roll-off container services in North Liberty and surrounding areas. Based on the acquisition, LRS begins providing waste and recycling services to nearly 20 Johnson County municipalities and more than 3,600 commercial customers. The company also welcomes 50 employees to the LRS family, including Johnson County Refuse Owner Steve Smith.   

"Across the Midwest, LRS has demonstrated vision and leadership by delivering sustainable and circular waste diversion and recycling services to help reduce the carbon footprint and assure customers their waste is being disposed reliably and responsibly," Smith says. "After more than 35 years of building a business on principles of sustainability and customer service, we couldn't be more proud to join forces with LRS, streamline operations, expand services, and double-down on delivering the best possible experience for our customers."

The combination of Hiawatha-based Port 'O' Jonny, founded in 1986, and Cedar Rapids-based Action Services, founded in 1991, will create a portable services regional powerhouse led by Action Services Owner Jay Kremer, LRS says. 

"We were attracted to LRS for several reasons as an independently owned business, namely the company's steadfast commitment to growing organically and through the acquisition of storied family-owned waste industry businesses," Action Services' Kremer says. "We look forward to seeing the legacy of our businesses flourish under the LRS banner and to maintaining a commitment to our valued customers who helped get us to this milestone moment."

LRS Chief Executive Officer Alan T. Handley says, "We are thrilled to welcome Steve, Jay, all employees and thousands of customers from each of these outstanding companies to our LRS family. This strategic trifecta of acquisitions gives us an immediate foothold in eastern Iowa, the ability to scale and introduce new services and the opportunity to consolidate operational redundancies to produce an even better customer experience.”

Its purchase of Johnson County Refuse adds more than 50 waste, recycling and roll-off trucks to the LRS fleet, while the purchases of Port 'O' Jonny and Action Services adds 25 portable services trucks.

Waste and recycling continue to be disposed at the Iowa City Landfill operated by Johnson County.

LRS first entered the Iowa market in 2019, providing commercial roll-off container services in Davenport and throughout Scott County. 

As of mid-December, LRS completed 18 strategic, largely vertically integrated acquisitions of independent, family-owned waste, recycling and portable services companies.

Maria Cargould, with more than 20 years of industry experience, joins the company.

Spaleck USA LLC, Mackinaw, Illinois, has added Maria Cargould to its sales team as dealer development manager.

Cargould says she grew up in the recycling industry and worked for Astec Industries, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for almost 22 years. In her tenure with Astec, she worked with the company’s dealers and end-users, helping with equipment, parts, service, training, stocking and marketing.

Martin Hurson, sales director of western and Central USA at Spaleck USA, says of Cargould, “Maria comes to Spaleck USA with a wealth of experience within the mobile equipment and materials handling industry, having previously worked with one of Americas most established separation and conveying specialist.”

Cargould works out of Chattanooga.

Spaleck USA is a subsidiary of Germany-based Spaleck and provides specialized conveying and separation equipment.

The city’s residential recycling contamination rate dropped from 33 percent in 2017 to 11 percent this year.

The District of Columbia Department of Public Works (DPW) and the administration of Mayor Muriel Bowser have announced that the city’s residential recycling contamination rate dropped from 33 percent roughly four years ago to 11 percent this year.

According to a news release from the city’s Department of Public Works, it attributes the decline in contamination to increased outreach to residents.

“Over the past four years, our education and outreach have been laser focused on making sure we show residents which items they should keep out of the recycling blue bins in order to reduce contamination, and we’ve seen fantastic results,” says DC’s Acting DPW Director Christine Davis. “In 2017, our residential recycling stream had a contamination rate of 33 percent, but this year, we’ve observed a rate averaging 11 percent. This indicates that we now have some of the cleanest residential recycling in the country.”

The DPW says it plans to continue recycling education outreach efforts focused on increasing recycling participation levels.

“While we’re doing a much better job of recycling right, we also want district residents who currently do not recycle to participate moving forward,” Davis says. “Today, we recycle around 50 million pounds of recyclables in DPW-issued blue recycling bins, and there’s roughly 45 million pounds of items we can recycle if diverted from our refuse stream.”

In mid-November, the department also launched an interactive story map called ArcGIS that provides a tour of how the residential recycling system works in DC as a new educational tool. The district also mailed postcards to the 105,000 households serviced by DC’s DPW to provide recycling guidelines.

According to DC’s DPW, the department received private grant funding from The Recycling Partnership, Falls Church, Virginia, to help design messaging tailored to DC residents.

“Through public-private partnerships, The Recycling Partnership is honored to partner with the district and communities nationwide to dramatically improve their residential recycling programs,” says Chris Coady, director of community programs at The Recycling Partnership. “When the district helps people recycle the right things in the right ways, it creates a cleaner, healthier community, protects the environment, supports local jobs, and provides a valuable supply of materials to be used in new products and packaging.”