The company says its equipment is ideal for metal fabrication applications.

Alpena, Michigan-based Endura-Veyor says its scrap metal handling and conveyance solutions can reduce worker injury and maintenance time, which ultimately boosts process efficiency and uptime.

The lineup of equipment is ideal for metal fabrication applications ranging from steel belt, drag chain, fabric belt, z-style, magnetic conveyors and magnetic separators. In addition to the equipment itself, a full range of options and accessories are available to further customize and create solutions that fit unique applications.

Endura-Veyor’s conveyance solutions have the potential to handle a variety of scrap and other shredded metal materials while also excelling in harsh metal stamping, forming and fabrication environments, the company says. This can be seen on Edura-Veyor’s Steel Belt Conveyors, which are a staple in metal fabrication operations in light of their durability and ability to handle wet or dry scrap material with great efficiency. The Steel Belt Conveyors feature removable bottom pans, side access covers, abrasion-resistant steel reinforcements and more.

The Top Flight Drag Conveyor features chain-driven flights that push a high volume of sharp, loose, bulky and problematic materials. This conveyor is equipped with an abrasion-resistant, hardened steel trough or channel that contains loose materials and is designed to be less susceptible to jams, overloading, maintenance and premature wear.

In environments with space limitations, Z-Conveyors can provide more versatility, according to the company, which says its rugged, modular construction makes the most efficient use of production and processing space and reduces transition points. The Z-Conveyor design features one continuous belt and can be customized and configured to meet specified needs.

Endura-Veyor says when considering conveyor solutions for metal recycling, it is important to also consider magnetic separators and conveyors that are engineered to “attract” materials even under the toughest metal handling conditions. Magnetic Slide Conveyors are also available for applications that require products to be dropped on and then secured from the bottom surface. Alternatively, Overhead Magnets are available to lift products out of a stream of other materials from the top, firmly securing for further handling.

Endura-Veyor’s Magnetic Slide Conveyors are chain-driven and have no external moving parts for added safety, making them suitable for challenging ferrous applications such as machining chips and stamping scraps. Endura-Veyor’s heavy-duty strength magnets are custom fit for each application by optimizing the magnetic circuit and ultimately improving the production.

The Debris Mitigator is an optional feature for many conveyor types the company provides. Fine, shredded materials can cause maintenance problems for conveyors and conveyor belts. This feature provides a way for material that migrates underneath the belt to exit through the frame, so it does not collect and buildup between the belt and the frame. According to Endura-Veyor, the Debris Mitigator provides for a quick visual check of buildup and lowers the need for maintenance of cleaning under the belt and the frame, prolongs the life of the belt and reduces costly downtime.

Delterra will receive $6 million in multiyear funding, as well as a $3.5 million challenge grant and additional in-kind support, from McKinsey & Co.

McKinsey & Co. is a founding partner in a new environmental nonprofit known as Delterra, which has adopted the company’s Rethinking Recycling initiative as a flagship project. McKinsey & Co. will provide $6 million in multiyear funding, as well as a $3.5 million challenge grant and additional in-kind support, to help realize Rethinking Recycling’s goal of delivering recycling to countries across Asia, Latin America and Africa.

McKinsey.org launched Rethinking Recycling in 2018. Over the last three years, the initiative has built scalable, self-sustaining recycling ecosystems in Indonesia and Argentina, including solutions for plastics and organic waste, according to a news release issued by Delterra. The nonprofit says it believes the initiative has reached an inflection point and is ready to further accelerate and scale its impact.

In the coming years, Delterra says it will add other initiatives to its portfolio that are designed to develop scalable solutions that redesign human systems for the good of people and the planet. 

Through its proof-of-concept and scale-up programs in Indonesia and Argentina, Delterra says Rethinking Recycling is on track to bring recycling and waste management services to more than 250,000 people by 2022, most of whom had no access to recycling solutions before. Its programs have also achieved recycling rates of up to 60 percent, which is higher than those of most U.S. cities. To date Rethinking Recycling has improved the livelihoods of more than 450 waste workers, many of whom are marginalized women, by increasing their salaries by up to 200 percent and providing them with access to health care and safe working environments, Delterra says.

Shannon Bouton, president and CEO of Delterra, which is headquartered in Washington, says, “We are a very different organization today than when we first formed in 2018 as part of McKinsey.org. In many ways, adopting a new name and identity of our own is the next logical step in our growth journey. We are thrilled that our Rethinking Recycling programs will continue to operate in our new home, Delterra. The team and I are very excited to create the next phase of impact and to deliver Delterra’s mission of redesigning human systems at scale for the good of people and the planet.”

Michael Silber, senior partner, global social responsibility, at New York-based McKinsey, says, “McKinsey & Co. is committed to helping organizations create positive, enduring change in the world and to realize sustainable, inclusive growth. Through McKinsey.org, we have incubated nonprofits to develop innovative approaches to the world’s most pressing problems. The Rethinking Recycling initiative has been an important part of our approach to societal responsibility, which includes empowering our people to give back to their communities, operating our firm in ways that are environmentally sustainable and socially responsible and working with our clients to serve all stakeholders and achieve holistic impact. As Rethinking Recycling transitions out of McKinsey.org to Delterra, McKinsey & Co. will continue our support of this initiative and the nonprofit.”

"Five years ago we embarked, as part of the city of Buenos Aires government, on the Barrio Mugica integration project, a historic transformation of one of the city's most iconic settlements,” says Donatella Orsi, director of economic integration, Ministry of Human Development, Buenos Aires. “Although hard infrastructure issues were the most pressing ones, we strongly believed that inclusive, collaborative projects focused on sustainability also had their place. Rethinking Recycling’s Barrio Mugica project is one of these highly successful initiatives of our integration project. Rethinking Recycling partnered with city staff and 13 local labor cooperatives to provide the residents with door-to-door waste collection and recycling services: a win-win for everyone. Cooperatives now benefit from the income generated by the sale of recyclables, and local residents are increasingly proud of their improved surroundings."

Company’s Liberty Steel EAF mill in Rotherham, U.K., will restart thanks to shareholder funding “injection.”

The United Kingdom-based GFG Alliance says it will “inject £50 million of new funding” into its Liberty Steel UK (LSUK) operating unit to enable the restart of LSUK’s Rotherham, England, electric arc furnace (EAF) mill.

“The provision of funding will set the platform to refinance LSUK operations in full [and] support the Restructuring and Transformation Committee (RTC)’s work of creating a profitable, restructured and focused business,” states the company.

The company’s RTC was established this spring. “The injection of £50 million of shareholder funds into Liberty Steel UK is an important step in our restructuring and transformation,” states Jeffrey Kabel, GFG chief transformation officer and a member of the RTC.

Adds Jeffrey S. Stein, chief restructuring officer and head of the RTC, “The funding we are injecting to Liberty Steel UK puts it in a strong position for business transformation and debt restructuring. The next stage in our global refinancing will be in Europe, where a significant number of new lenders are expressing interest in refinancing our steel assets.”

GFG, which acknowledges being on a “path to recovery following the collapse of its main lender Greensill [Capital] in March,” also has provided updates on its other business units.

In the United States, the company’s Peoria, Illinois, EAF mill and downstream facilities earned more than $28 million in the first half of this year, “up strongly from $5.8 million last year,” says the firm. GFG says steel volumes increased by around 40,000 tons, “buoyed by strong markets.”

In Australia, the company says it is has agreed to a debt restructuring with Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) for LIBERTY Primary Metals Australia (LPMA), which comprises its integrated mining and basic oxygren furnace (BOF) steel business and coal mine in that nation.

On the continent of Europe, Liberty says its Galati, Romania, BOF mill enjoyed its “best quarterly result since 2008” in the quarter that ended June 30 of this year. In the Czech Republic, its Ostrava BOF mill for the quarter ended June 30 enjoyed its best quarterly performance since 2011, according to GFG.

States Sanjeev Gupta, executive chair of GFG Alliance, “I’d like to thank all our stakeholders – government, union representatives, customers, suppliers and of course our employees and the local community – for the support they’ve shown GFG Alliance as we managed our way through the challenges created by the Greensill collapse.”

He continues, “GFG’s injection of funding to restart the Liberty Steel UK operations is an important step on our road to creating a sustainable U.K. business. It will allow time to prove the operations can run efficiently which will enable us to finalize longer debt restructuring.”

Baled PET and HDPE scrap is in short supply on the continent as sustainability targets accumulate, says ICIS.

European plastic scrap bale supplies are tight across all major recycled polymer chains as growing demand from the packaging sector continues to expose shortfalls in collection and sorting capacities.

There are now major supply shortages across the recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET and rPET), recycled high density polyethylene (HDPE), recycled polypropylene (PP) and recycled polyvinyl chloride (PVC) chains.

Multiple players across these markets expect current shortages to last throughout 2021, and potentially across 2022.

Scrap bales - either from postconsumer or post-industrial origin - are the feedstock for the recycling industry, and low availability is adding pressure throughout the recycling supply chain.

For recycled-content PP, for example, flake and pellet players have had to limit operating rates by as much as 40 percent in recent months due to a lack of bale availability.

There are multiple factors in the current shortages, which differ slightly from market to market, including the onboarding of projects delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, logistic and workforce disruption due to COVID-19, changes to scrap input mixes and substitution of virgin material owing to shortages in the first half of 2021.

The common trend across all markets, though, is the lack of sufficient collection and sorting capacity.

Expansions in collection and sorting capacity have not kept pace with demand created by growing sustainability pressure on fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firms, ambitious brand targets, and the ongoing consumer and regulatory pressure against single-use plastic.

Across most of Europe, recycled materials collection is the responsibility of local authorities, and investment in collection systems has been limited since the global financial crash in 2008.

As an example of how sharp the gap can be, in Europe, at present, there is around 600,000 to 700,000 metric tons per year of postconsumer rigid PP input.

This would be sufficient to replace around just 5.5 percent of Europe virgin plastic packaging consumption, based on Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS) Supply & Demand database figures, assuming that every metric ton was used by the packaging sector with no wastage.

For recycled-content HDPE, there is around 700,000 to 800,000 metric tons per year of postconsumer rigid input, and a similar figure for recycled-content LDPE.

This would be enough to replace 11 percent of PP and 15 percent of LDPE virgin plastic packaging, respectively, under those same conditions.

However, wastage rates (the amount of material lost during production due to contamination or mechanical losses) are typically from 25 to 50 percent. Packaging does not have a 100 percent share of the market, and many applications can only use natural material. Natural material comprises around 10 percent of bale input.

This suggests that current collection capacity could replace less than 1 percent of current virgin polyolefins plastic packaging consumption.

Brands have increasingly begun to announce ambitious recycling content targets, which are typically for 25 to 50 percent recycled content, but can be as high as 100 percent recycled content.

As a result of ongoing bale shortages, downstream players are increasingly looking to create joint ventures with waste management firms and to backwards integrate over expectations that bale shortages could become endemic—largely the result of rising demand from the packaging sector.

Given the current lack of bale capacity some polyolefins players are expecting investment in selection systems for mixed plastic bales, and an increase in usage of mixed plastic feedstocks.

These are the same feedstocks that many chemical recyclers in Europe typically seek to use, potentially placing the two industries in direct opposition.

At present, many calculations on the economic feasibility of chemical recycling plants are predicated on the assumption that waste management companies will pay to have plastic scrap bales taken away, or that partially sorted bales will remain at low cost.

This is currently common because the alternative would be to pay gate fees for incineration or landfill, and as long as the money paid to chemical recyclers is below gate fee costs, waste managers are prepared to do it.

As this material increasingly becomes desirable or usable for the mechanical recycling chain, though, competition is likely to intensify and making material sold at negative values increasingly less likely.

Traditionally, September would be the time across the major recycled polymer markets when bale availability is at its highest.

For rPET, this is because its major input source is used plastic drinks bottles, more of which are consumed when temperatures are higher. It typically takes several weeks for the used bottles to make their way back into the chain, and so September is when extra volumes from the summer become apparent.

For recycled polyolefins, converters and recyclers typically shut down during July and August for routine maintenance, and lower consumption typically lengthens the bale market.

In 2021, however, strong demand from the packaging sector has meant that the summer months have done little to rebalance the market. That bale supply is so tight in September is causing concern across recycled polymer chains, but particularly for rPET.

Traditionally, rPET converters and recyclers build stock in the summer months when temperatures are high and more material is typically entering the discards stream to offset lower volumes entering the chain in colder months.

Underlying demand for the rPET flake sector has strengthened in 2021 due to additional capacity coming onstream and an increasing number of players captively producing from flake through to pre-form. There also is increased interest in flake material from the bottle-to-bottle sector.

Increased demand for rPET is being stimulated by intensifying sustainability commitments from the packaging sector, and ongoing consumer and regulatory pressure against single use plastics.

Consumption of rPET flake has increased by as much as 60 percent compared with 2019 levels (2020 demand was negatively impacted by the pandemic), according to market estimates.

This has placed upward pressure on bale prices throughout 2021. Bale prices are the largest variable cost for the recycling industry, and this has increased production costs significantly during 2021. Rising electricity costs also have had an impact because of the higher cost of washing material.

“There is a risk that the escalation in recycled polymer prices and inability to increase supply due to structural constraints will begin to challenge some users in their ambitions to attain high recycled content levels and for some to use recycled content at even a minimum level,” says Helen McGeough, senior analyst, plastics recycling, at ICIS.

“The drive of the end markets has not been mirrored by developments and investment upstream in collection and sorting,” she continues. “Without focus on these fundamentals, the industry can expect high costs and supply limitations through 2022.”

Demand, meanwhile, shows no sign of slowing. With plastic packaging taxes due to come into effect in Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom in 2022, and brands approaching their 2025 content commitments, and other sectors such as automotive and fabric fiber becoming increasingly interested in sustainability, underlying consumption is expected to continue to grow.

ICIS has been highlighting collection and sorting capacity shortages for several years; never have they been more apparent than in 2021.

The author is Senior Recycling Editor at London-based Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS). 

Initial batch of nine companies seeking sustainability presence on “passport” includes two with sizable recycling involvement.

The London Metal Exchange (LME) has announced the first sustainability disclosures registered on the United Kingdom-based trading platform’s newly launched digital credentials register, LMEpassport.

Nine metals producers have listed disclosures under what the LME calls its “sustainability taxonomy,” which has been designed to cover environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects of how branded metals on the LME are produced.

“We’re delighted to see key members of the metals community taking the opportunity to provide greater visibility of their sustainability credentials,” says Georgina Hallett, LME chief sustainability officer. “Transparency can help facilitate meaningful progress in important target areas, and we’re pleased to support our brands in their vital work to drive the sustainability agenda across all base metals.”

While recycled-content metals would seem poised to benefit from such credentials, the initial batch of companies and their credentialed metals are predominantly tied to mining and primary smelting activities.

Mining firms including Freeport-McMoran, Anglo American and Antofogasta and primary smelter operators including Rusal (aluminum), CBA (aluminum), Thaisarco (tin) and Huayou Cobalt comprise seven of the nine companies in the initial group.

On the recycling front, Canada-based Teck Resources Ltd. has earned sustainability credentials for its Teck Cominco smelter. According to the Teck website, the firm’s smelter in Trail, British Columbia, Canada, accepted more than 40,000 metric tons of recyclable materials as feedstock in 2019 to produce lead and zinc. That feedstock was predominantly lead-acid batteries but also cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor glass and zinc alkaline batteries.

Also receiving credentials was Sweden-based Boliden AB for four of its metals production plants. That firm has a large-scale electronics recycling plant that helps supply material to its Rönnskär copper smelter in Sweden.

Marcia Smith, a senior vice president with Teck Resources, says, “At Teck, we are committed to producing the essential metals and minerals that the world needs in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. The LMEpassport will further enhance transparency in the metals and minerals supply chain and strengthen consumer confidence.”

“Our ambition is to be the most climate-friendly and respected metal provider in the world, and we are happy to contribute to sustainability improvements in our sector as base metals play a crucial role in the transition away from fossil fuels in society,” remarks Mikael Staffas, a group CEO with Boliden.