Today, the company employs more than 900 people at 12 subsidiaries on six continents.
Eriez’s story began in 1942 when the company’s founder O.F. Merwin installed a permanent magnet in a grain mill. Eighty years later, the magnetic separation, flotation, metal detection and material handling equipment technology company has a workforce of more than 900 people at 12 wholly owned international subsidiaries on six continents, is a world leader.
Eriez serves the mining, processing, packaging, food, recycling, aggregate and metalworking industries. The company says its process engineers and scientists have developed innovations in the areas of rare earth magnets, superconducting technology, flotation, vibratory feeders, metal detection, auto scrap recycling equipment, suspended electromagnets, eddy current separation and proprietary manufacturing techniques.
Eriez remains a family company, with O.F. Merwin’s grandson Richard Merwin serving as chairman. Richard Merwin’s late father, Bob Merwin, had a global vision for Eriez and took the company into international markets in the 1950s.
Richard Merwin says, “Our board of directors, past and present, has embraced and supported deliberate and bold ongoing initiatives for global strategic growth. Their consistent, sound and ethical guidance is a major factor in Eriez’s continuing success.”
Eriez President and CEO Lukas Guenthardt adds, “We are lucky to have ownership and a board of directors who value long-term investments and profitable growth over short-term profits. We have worked hard at building and maintaining loyal customers that value the quality and trust the reliability of our products and services. With a focus on continuous product advancement and market expansion, both domestically and overseas, Eriez is poised to thrive for years to come.”
While product innovation has contributed to Eriez’s position as a global leader, the company’s management asserts that it is the company’s employees who really make the difference. “The integrity, commitment, responsiveness and unmatched customer service provided by our outstanding staff is what truly keeps us on the leading-edge,” Guenthardt says.
Eriez employees give generously of their financial resources, time and talents to philanthropic causes. “As a corporation and as individuals, we are dedicated to making a lasting, positive impact on the well-being of the communities where we live and work. We believe this approach produces an atmosphere where businesses and communities can collaborate and prosper,” he adds.
The company’s network of longtime sales representatives also has played a significant role in the company’s history and success, according to the company’s leaders, as has its focus on marketing communications. “We put a strong emphasis on sustaining maximum customer engagement,” says Eriez Senior Director of Global Marketing and Brand Management John Blicha. “We believe in making significant investments, both in terms of time and finances, to advertising, branding, public relations, trade shows, digital marketing and customer education.”
Blicha says Eriez has special events planned throughout the course of 2022 to commemorate this milestone anniversary and recognize customers and employees for their loyalty and partnership.
The association’s Steve Alexander says claims regarding the additives’ recyclability are “unfounded, untested and possibly misleading as outlined by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guide.”
Steve Alexander, president and CEO of the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), Washington, has issued a statement regarding the potential effects of degradable additives on mechanical recycling of postconsumer plastics.
The statement reads in part, “Claims regarding the recyclability of degradable additives are unfounded, untested and possibly misleading as outlined by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's Green Guide. No third-party testing data has confirmed these recyclability claims. APR urges companies making such claims to share their supporting data with the recycling community.”
Alexandar says the APR is worried that the additives could negatively affect mechanical recycling of postconsumer plastics by compromising “the integrity or useful life of plastic packaging or durable products made from recycled resins that contain these additives.”
He continues, “The use of such degradable additives in packaging may render the packaging nonrecyclable because they lower the functionality and sustainability of recycled postconsumer plastics when included with recyclable plastics. Because degradable additives contaminate the plastics recycling stream, they must be kept isolated from recyclable packaging.”
Alexander adds, “The degradation of otherwise recycled plastics means lost opportunities for the repeated use of molecules through recycling, which according to the 2018 Life Cycle Inventory Analysis of Recycled Plastics, has less environmental impact than single use of molecules.”
His statement concludes, “Although APR has provided test protocols for time-dependent degradation for over 10 years, due to the concern and risks involved, APR does not consider items containing degradable additives eligible for APR Design Recognition Programs. It is also illegal in Alabama, California and North Carolina to label a plastic product both ‘degradable and recyclable.’”
Recently, a U.K.-based tech startup, Polymateria, says it found a way to alter the properties of plastic to make it biodegradable and recyclable at the same time with the use of a proprietary additive.
The U.S. Plastics Pact also has identified oxo-degradable additives, including oxo-biodegradable additives, on its Problematic and Unnecessary Materials List, saying these items "are not currently reusable, recyclable or compostable at scale in the U.S. and are not projected to be kept in a closed loop in practice and at scale by 2025."
Company says its sales rose more than 12 percent compared with 2020.
The Switzerland-based Liebherr Group says it achieved sales of 11.64 billion euros ($12.7 billion) in 2021, calling that a 12.6 percent increase from its 2020 revenue figure. Its revenue in 2021, the equipment maker says, matched its 2019 sales figure.
Achieving the mark was not easy, the company says. “From the second quarter in 2021, to some extent, it was extremely difficult to procure various raw materials, components and electronic parts,” states the firm. “This resulted in price increases and bottlenecks in global supply chains. Despite that, Liebherr recorded a significant increase in sales revenue compared to the previous year. The Liebherr Group grew in eleven of its 13 product segments and in almost all of its sales regions.”
Liebherr says revenues in its earthmoving, material handling technology, deep foundation machinery, mobile and crawler crane, tower crane, concrete technology and mining product segments were 17 percent higher than in the previous year, checking in at more than 8 billion euros ($8.7 billion).
In its other product segments, which include maritime cranes, aerospace and transportation systems, gear technology and automation systems, refrigerators and freezers and components and hotels, Liebherr achieved total revenues of 3.6 billion euros ($3.9 billion), a 3.9 percent increase compared with the previous year.
The company points to “positive development” in North America, Central America and South America, “where strong growth came especially from Brazil.”
In 2021, the Liebherr Group achieved a net profit for the year of 545 million euros ($595 million), which it calls “above the level before the pandemic.”
At the end of the year, the Liebherr Group employed more than 49,500 people worldwide, representing an increase of nearly 1,700 compared with one year earlier.
Alternative drive technologies for machinery continue to be a focal point of research projects at Liebherr, says the company. In 2021, the company says it worked on “hydrogen-powered combustion engines and their injection technologies, as well as electric drives.”
Development include two all-electric truck mixers on five-axle chassis frames, two electric crawler excavators (R 976-E and R 980 SME-E) and the battery-powered crawler cranes LR 1160.1 unplugged and LR 1130.1 unplugged.
The company says it invested 742 million euros ($810 million) in its production sites and its global distribution and service networks.
Looking ahead, Liebherr Group says it has started 2022 “with a very good order situation.” The company adds, “Opportunities arise from expected increase in demand in various industrial sectors in which the Liebherr Group is active. However, the negative effects on the activities of the Liebherr Group due to the war in Ukraine can already be seen. Liebherr is monitoring and assessing the current situation in Ukraine and Russia on a daily basis and is currently in the process of adjusting its Russian activities to the extensive sanctions imposed on the country.”
Automaker will start using recycled-content aluminum wheels next year.
The Munich-based BMW Group has announced it will start to use light-alloy cast wheels made from 70 percent secondary aluminum next year in its “new generation” of the Mini Countryman vehicle.
The use of scrap-content aluminum wheels was part of a larger announcement by the automaker regarding its commitment to using “cast aluminum wheels produced with 100 percent ‘green’ power for its BMW and Mini brands from 2024 onwards.”
For the Countryman, the combination of 100 percent green power for production and 70 percent secondary raw material content can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 80 percent compared to conventional manufacturing processes, says the vehicle manufacturer.
“Green power is one of the biggest levers for reducing CO2 emissions in our supply chain,” says Joachim Post, a member of the board of management of BMW AG who is responsible for its purchasing and supplier network. “We have already signed more than 400 contracts with our suppliers, including suppliers of wheels and aluminum, requiring them to use green power.”
The BMW Group says it procures about 10 million light-alloy wheels per year, with 95 percent of those are made from cast aluminum.
States the automaker, “Aluminum has good recycling properties, making it easier to melt down old wheels as part of the circular economy. This eliminates the need for energy-intensive electrolysis to produce the primary raw material. At the same time, the secondary raw material must also meet the BMW Group’s premium requirements for quality, design, safety and mechanical properties.”
The BMW Group also cites its involvement with the Australia-based Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI), as “making an important contribution to creating an environmentally and socially responsible aluminum value chain.”
Systematically increasing the percentage of secondary aluminum, says BMW, “makes a further contribution to sustainability, in line with the principles of the circular economy the BMW Group aspires to.”
On the green energy side, BMW says since last year it has sourced aluminum from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) manufactured exclusively using electricity obtained from solar power. The aluminum produced in Dubai, UAE, is then processed in a BMW foundry in Germany, where it is used to manufacture body and drive train components. “The 43,000 metric tons of solar aluminum sourced in this way supply almost half the annual requirements of the Landshut [Germany] light metal foundry,” states the company.
Organizer of Singapore event says stakeholder conversations can accelerate the circular economy’s forward momentum.
As with any successful business conference or trade show, the organizers of the CleanEnviro Summit Singapore (CESG) later this month seek to bring together stakeholders from throughout targeted industry sectors.
Dalson Chung, the managing director of CESG, in an exclusive interview with Brian Taylor of Waste Today, says the power in such gatherings, in a recycling context, lies in part in their ability to “to come together to identify and accelerate the action needed to achieve a circular economy.”
Waste Today (WT): How can an event like CESG help support circular economy efforts in Singapore and the ASEAN region?
Dalson Chung (DC): A global platform like CESG is a great opportunity for thought leaders, senior government officials, regulators, policy makers and industry captains to explore and develop innovative solutions that will help build sustainable and climate-resilient cities.
These solutions would not have been possible for a single stakeholder to implement on their own, further highlighting the importance for the industry and stakeholders to come together to identify and accelerate the action needed to achieve a circular economy.
From governments of cities to technology providers to end user associations, CESG will facilitate the cross-sharing of knowledge amongst the brightest minds from the environment and sustainability industry.
CESG also places a heavy emphasis on spurring innovation as demonstrated by having an NEA Innovation Pavilion, dedicated to showcasing new technologies, innovations, products and services in the environmental sphere. One of these is SCARCE, an E-Waste Recycling Project by the Nanyang Technological University which can directly contribute to circular economy efforts in Singapore.
WT: What is your assessment of the current venture capital and financing climate in Singapore for entrepreneurs with a circular economy idea?
DC: The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is a dire warning for the world to take action against climate change, and Singapore is no different. However, the environment has to be conducive for action to take place. This includes having the right policies and regulations, and the right circumstances for capital to flow to the solutions that are available.
As companies focus on sustainability and the circular economy, Singapore is set to be a global hub for innovation and entrepreneurship.
In the recent budget speech that was announced by the Singapore government, it was highlighted that green finance is one of the fasting growing segments, and will issue $35 billion of green bonds by 2030 to fund public sector green infrastructure projects.
To that end, we foresee many new and exciting solutions and technologies to be funded in Singapore. As such, we’ve ensured that innovation and technologies will play a central role at the upcoming CESG.
There will be an Innovation Showcase and Pitch at the NEA Innovation Pavilion at CESG. Innovative ideas around managing e-waste, wastewater surveillance for COVID-19, cleaning robotics, and other innovations related to environmental services will be featured at the pavilion for companies to invest in.
WT: What are some ways in which the government of Singapore is funding or supporting increased landfill diversion? Has this level of support been increasing in recent years?
DS: Managing waste effectively has always been an important issue for land-scarce Singapore. We have made much effort across the people, private and public sectors to move Singapore towards becoming a zero waste nation.
Last year, the Singapore Green Plan 2030 was launched to catalyze a nationwide sustainability movement, to move toward a greener future. This included targeting to reduce 20 percent of waste sent to the Semakau Landfill by 2026 as an interim target before reaching the final target of a 30 percent reduction by 2030.
This year, we announced the $80 million Closing the Resource Loop (CTRL) funding initiative to support research and development on sustainable resource recovery solutions for key waste streams and on finding useful and safe applications for treated waste residues. This is on top of the $25 million awarded for the waste-to-energy program and $45 million under Closing the Waste Loop funding initiative in earlier years. Through the CTRL we aim to increase resource recovery and achieve a sustainable, resource-efficient and climate-resilient Singapore.
A key upstream measure to encourage sustainable production is the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. EPR requires producers, such as manufacturers and importers, to be responsible for the collection and proper treatment of their products at end of life.
Since July last year, we implemented an EPR scheme for e-waste, one of Singapore’s priority waste streams, which reduces our waste to landfill and ensures valuable resources from e-waste are recovered and used in manufacturing new products.
Efforts are also ongoing to develop and EPR for packaging waste, another one of Singapore’s priority waste streams. We will start with a return scheme for beverage containers and have been consulting the industry and public on the framework for the scheme.
We are also pursuing chemical recycling of plastics that converts plastic waste into pyrolysis oil, which can be used as feedstock for the manufacturing of chemicals and plastics.