The company invested in a four-shaft Untha RS100 e-scrap shredder to handle refrigerators.

Light Bros., a metal recycling specialist based in the U.K., has installed a new Untha shredder to boost its ability to handle refrigerators. The company invested in a four-shaft Untha RS100 e-scrap shredder in order to process 350 refrigerators per day, collected from civic amenity sites and take-back schemes. Once shredded, the liberated metals, plastics and foams can be segregated and sold for recycling.

“This is the second RS100 to have been added to our fleet,” says Andy McColl, general manager of Light Bros. 

McColl says the company has operated another RS100 model for about 12 years; however, he says that model needs refurbishment. “To avoid any operational disruption, we’ve invested in an additional machine with a much stronger pusher,” he says. “That way, our current RS100 can be rebuilt for use elsewhere on the site, and our stock spares can now be used for either shredder.” 

McColl adds that the company has operated shredders besides the RS100 model, such as a twin-shaft shredder manufactured by another firm. However, that model was not robust enough to handle heavy-duty waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling applications. 

“So, we once again chose an Untha RS100 because of the technology’s proven resilience, low whole life running costs and rapid delivery time,” McColl says. “These factors really matter for a growing recycling business handling difficult-to-shred items such as e-scrap.” 

The company is indefinitely idling paper mills in Duluth, Minnesota, and Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.

Verso Corp., a Miamisburg, Ohio-based North American producer of graphic and specialty papers as well as packaging and pulp, has announced plans to indefinitely idle its paper mills in Duluth, Minnesota, and Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, in an effort to offset “unprecedented market decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

In January, the company had reported that it was considering ways to dramatically increase the recycled-content board and kraft paper production at the Duluth mill. In a Verso Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing section on its mill strategy earlier this year, the company says it had “started a conversion into recycled packaging and kraft paper grades, of which we will be producing 90,000 tons [per] year starting in January 2020. A full conversion to make 375,000 tons is being considered.”

Verso reports that it is exploring alternatives for both mills, including restarting if market conditions improve, marketing for sale or closing the sites permanently. The company says its decision to reduce production capacity is driven by the accelerated decline in graphic paper demand resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The stay-at-home orders have significantly reduced the use of print advertising in various industries, including retail, sports, entertainment and tourism,” Verso says in a news release about the idled mills. 

In addition, Fastmarkets RISI has reported that North American printing and writing paper demand fell by 38 percent year over year in April, and operating rates for printing and writing paper are expected to drop below 70 percent in the second quarter of 2020. 

“It is critical that we maintain a healthy balance sheet and focus on cash flow, while balancing our supply of products and our customers’ demand,” says Verso President and CEO Adam St. John. “After a comprehensive review of postpandemic demand forecasts and capacity, we made the difficult decision to idle the Duluth and Wisconsin Rapids mills. We expect the idling of these facilities to improve our free cash flow. The sell-through of inventory is expected to offset the cash costs of idling the mills.”

Verso reports that it expects to idle the Duluth mill at the end of June and the Wisconsin Rapids mill by the end of July, resulting in the layoff of about 1,000 employees. Verso will continue to supply graphic and specialty papers in roll and sheet form, as well as packaging papers and pulp. 

“Decisions to idle facilities are always difficult because they impact employees, their families and communities,” St. John says. “Verso is committed to treating all of our affected employees with fairness and respect. As always, safety is our highest priority and will be our primary focus during this difficult time.”

U.K.-based AMI says developed nations will boost plastic sorting and recycling capacity in the 2020s.

Bristol, United Kingdom-based Applied Market Information Ltd. (AMI) is predicting global mechanical recycling activity will yield 77 million metric tons of recyclable plastic by 2030. AMI’s research shows that figure being more than double the 35.7 million metric tons of plastic scrap that were converted into new products in 2019.

AMI says the boost in plastic recycling will occur despite the COVID-19-related slowdown that could affect volumes from 2020 to 2022. The forecast is part of AMI’s newly available report titled “The Global Mechanical Plastics Recycling Industry 2020 – Capacities, Capabilities and Future Trends.”

“Sustainability is ever more relevant across all societies and geographies,” says AMI. The research firm says as a result, how to recycle discarded plastic “is on the policy agenda of national governments around the globe, with new policies and legislation bringing new targets for the recycling of plastics.”

The AMI report refers to the impact of China’s government policies erecting a barrier to a destination that former imported up to 7 million metric tons of plastic scrap annually. While importers in Southeast Asia filled part of that void, “It is clear that the reliance of countries on being able to export their [scrap] cannot be guaranteed,” writes AMI.

Stepping into the breach, predicts the market research firm, will be a boost in mechanical recycling and recycling infrastructure in developed nations as “the only truly sustainable solution.”

Long-time industry reporter Mark Anthony says cash reserves have dwindled for many contractors.

Demolition contractors in the United Kingdom, where COVID-19 and accompanying restrictions have hit the economy fiercely, may soon begin filing for reorganization. That is the warning from long-time industry observer and reporter Mark Anthony, publisher of the “This Week in Demolition” e-newsletter.

“Starved of the oxygen of work for three months or more, many demolition firms will now find themselves in a weakened state,” writes Anthony in the June 8 edition of his weekly e-newsletter.

Continues Anthony, “I am aware of at least one big name company that is reportedly attempting to negotiate a ‘pennies in the pound’ survival deal with its creditors. In all likelihood, they will not be alone.”

The slowdown of demolition activity throughout Europe was portrayed in a 74-page report issued in May by the Brussels-based European Demolition Association (EDA). The reported indicated project managers had been forced “to reschedule more than 50 percent of the demolition projects in Europe.”

Anthony says the potential shakeout in the U.K. will have been assisted by COVID-19, but underlying factors had already existed.  Should contracting firms collapse, “The headlines will likely suggest that their demise can be attributed directly – and wholly – to the COVID-19 crisis,” writes Anthony.

He continues, “There is a very real possibility that the first demolition companies to fold will be those that were already displaying signs of metaphorical business obesity or heart disease. Those companies that are lean and fit have the greatest chance of survival.”

Anthony says surviving companies “will be more resistant to any economic disease that grips the industry and the nation in the coming months and years. They will be more agile and hungry, allowing them to bob, weave and pivot to dodge whatever a recession throws at them. The same, sadly, cannot be said for the lumbering companies that are weighed down by inefficiency and that have survived until now on past glories.”

COVID-19 and personnel changes have removed momentum for planned contracts.

A previously reported effort in Russia to create ferrous and nonferrous scrap export trading contracts has apparently stalled. Factors cited in media reports include a downshift in scrap generation caused by COVID-19 restrictions and changes in personnel at key Russian government agencies.

A May 30 news report in the Hellenic Shipping News publication says the exchange effort “has been put on hold indefinitely.” The effort was considered too “labor intensive” in a COVID-19 landscape that requires attention to other areas.

The exchange contracts would have been compulsory for scrap emanating from state-owned corporations and sold within both the domestic and export market, according to the report.

On the export front, Russia shipped out slightly more than 4 million metric tons of ferrous scrap in 2019, according to statistics gathered by the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR).

That figure already represented a 27 percent decline in volume compared to 2018, and 2020 is on pace for another drop in volume if COVID-19-related restrictions continue to hamper Russian economic activity.

Beyond the economic considerations, according to the Hellenic Shipping News, some former backers of the exchange concept may no longer wield any influence over the effort. “The Russian government reshuffle in January led to the departure of industry and trade ministry officials who were promoting the change,” reports the publication.

Internal politics may cause the idea to gain and lose favor in turns. Steel companies in Russia generally favored the idea of having a means to control scrap exports. However, for a nation that needs overseas currency at the same time demand and pricing for its oil have been problematic, scrap exports can help fill the gap, say observers.