Company says its drum magnet offers boosted recovery rate in shredder yards and in other applications, including waste-to-energy.

Erie, Pennsylvania-based Eriez says 2020 marks 10 years since its P-Rex (Permanent Rare Earth Xtreme) Scrap Drums were introduced to the market. Eriez Recycling Market Manager Mike Shattuck says the company has continued to develop and upgrade the drum during those 10 years.

“While we initially marketed P-Rex mainly for scrap recycling, today it is found in a variety of other successful applications and features many improvements,” Shattuck says.

Eriez describes P-Rex as having a powerful magnetic circuit that is up to 40 percent stronger than electromagnetic drums and is capable of moving ferrous scrap at twice the distance. “With a consistently high magnetic field from edge to edge, P-Rex has a much higher recovery than standard drums and facilitates more agitation to remove ferrous from debris, providing a cleaner ferrous product,” the company states.

Shattuck says the Eriez research and development staff set out to design a drum to recover electric motors (known as meatballs) and spheres from the shredded scrap recycling process as a means to keep those materials out of the fluff, in part to reduce the likelihood of fires. “Although P-Rex is extremely effective for this purpose, we soon became convinced that we could further harness the power of this drum in additional ways and incorporate improvements,” he comments.

Eriez also has partnered the P-Rex with its Shred1 Ballistic Metal Separator, with the P-Rex providing additional copper-bearing material to the Shred1. This increases the copper pickings, resulting in increased revenue, the firm says. “By utilizing the P-Rex in conjunction with the Shred1, copper pickings from many yards went from 6 to 8 pounds per ton to as high as 12 pounds per ton of shred,” Shattuck adds.

An “under-flow” process developed by Eriez uses the P-Rex Scrap Drum and its multiple agitations to provide what the company calls a cleaner ferrous product. Ferrous scrap is passed under the drum instead of over the top, allowing fluff to fall directly to the nonferrous conveyor instead of back into the line of feed.

With the multiple agitations of the  P-Rex and its traction plate technology designed to keep ferrous scrap from bunching up on the drum surface, the result is a much cleaner ferrous product, Eriez says.

“The huge field of the P-Rex and its extraordinary strength make it ideal for waste-to-energy plants where a large gap is required,” Shattuck says. “The raw strength also lends itself to slag recycling operations where trace amounts of ferrous may be attached to large pieces of nonferrous. The unmatched power of P-Rex is exceptionally effective in these very difficult applications.”

A video clip of the P-Rex in action can be found on this web page.

Companies create in-store drop-off network in attempt to boost low recycling rate of beauty product packaging.

Trenton, New Jersey-based TerraCycle has announced a partnership with fashion retailer Nordstrom designed to help divert beauty product packaging scrap by establishing recycling drop-off points in Nordstrom stores.

Through the program, called BeautyCycle, starting Oct. 1 customers can bring beauty packaging scrap to the beauty department at participating Nordstrom locations and dispose of them in TerraCycle Zero Waste Boxes. When full, the boxes will be returned to TerraCycle for processing, and the collected scrap will be cleaned, melted and remolded to make new products, according to TerraCycle.

The recycling company says currently less than 2 percent of the 120 billion plastic packaging units produced annually by the beauty industry is being recycled. “Nordstrom and TerraCycle are teaming up to intercept and properly recycle these hard-to-recycle items and ensure that they will never be landfilled, littered or incinerated,” states TerraCycle.

“TerraCycle’s mission has always been to ‘Eliminate the Idea of Waste,’ and we’ve proven that solutions do exist for items that may seem difficult to recycle,” says Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of the firm. “Nordstrom not only shares our commitment, but has taken it to the next level by spearheading the Nordstrom BeautyCycle recycling program to reduce the impact of beauty packaging waste on the environment and help pave the way for a greener future.”

Participation in the BeautyCycle program is free and open to anyone, says TerraCycle. The company says an interactive map of Nordstrom drop-off locations can be found on this webpage. 

Scott Williams to lead the company’s North American business.

Fuchs, a Terex brand with North American headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, has named Scott Williams to lead its North American business as director of sales.

Williams has extensive leadership experience in the scrap and recycling equipment industry, according to Fuchs, having held senior-level positions with Harris and Danieli. He also spent 12 years with Alcoa Inc., where he developed the Alcoa Recycling Co.’s aluminum used beverage can (UBC) recycling network and held manufacturing leadership roles in Alcoa’s Tennessee Operations, having participated in the company’s Line Leadership Development program.  

Dominik Vierkotten, managing director of Germany-based Terex Fuchs GmbH, says, “We are excited to have Scott join our North America leadership team. He brings a wealth of industry knowledge and experience, which will help position Fuchs as the best choice in material handling.”

The nonwoven range for the hygiene industry will feature SABIC’s circular polypropylene.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has announced that it is collaborating with Fibertex Personal Care, a Denmark-based manufacturer of spunbond nonwovens for the hygiene industry, to create a range of nonwovens using high-purity recycled plastics from SABIC’s TruCircle portfolio and services. In a news release, SABIC reports that this will be the first nonwoven range based on recycled plastics in the hygiene industry.

The nonwovens will be made from SABIC’s circular polypropylene (PP), using feedstock derived from previously used plastics, certified under the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) Plus system. SABIC says the material is part of its SABIC PureCares portfolio of PP for personal hygiene applications that was introduced earlier this year. The certified circular PP material produced by SABIC is created for postconsumer mixed plastics that have been broken down into molecular building blocks and then repolymerized to create virgin plastics. The new material can be used as a drop-in solution while meeting the brand owner’s requirements for purity and consumer safety for hygiene industry applications.

SABIC says it applies a “mass balance” approach to polymers offered as part of its TruCircle portfolio and services, which span design for recyclability, mechanically recycled products, certified circular products from feedstock recycling of used plastics and certified renewables products from biobased feedstock. The company reports that the ISCC Plus certification verifies that mass balance accounting follows predefined and transparent rules. In addition, it provides traceability along the supply chain, from the feedstock to the final product.  

Fibertex Personal Care will provide certified circular nonwovens to its customers with its Comfort, Elite, Dual and Loft product range. These certified nonwovens can be adopted in downstream processes, without compromising convertibility, product properties or performance of the final product.

“This is an important step forward in supporting our sustainable strategy and important step in development and expansion of a supply chain for biobased and circular polymers. SABIC’s TruCircle initiative makes this possible,” says Mikael Staal Axelsen, group CEO of Fibertex Personal Care. “We are proud to cooperate with SABIC in developing the first circular nonwovens for the hygiene market.”

The online event will explore key issues affecting material recovery facilities and recycling.

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington, and the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), Silver Spring, Maryland, will partner for their MRF Summit, taking place Nov. 18 and 19.

“The essential role of recycling and the critical need for a more sustainable society has perhaps never been greater,” says ISRI President Robin Wiener. “ISRI is proud to partner with SWANA to bring together stakeholders from throughout the recycling supply chain for this timely event that will equip attendees with tools for innovative solutions to turn today’s challenges into tomorrow’s opportunities. November’s MRF Summit builds on the success of the event ISRI and SWANA jointly held in 2018 that attracted hundreds of representatives from brands and manufacturers; federal, state and local governments and the recycling industry and started a number of critical conversations that continue today.”

Peter Wright, assistant administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will be speaking during the MRF Summit, providing an update on the administration’s work on recycling in the context of America Recycles Week as well as the work the agency is undertaking year-round, such as the development of a national recycling strategy. In addition, several congressional staff members will speak to discuss the various bills that have been introduced in Congress to address recycling challenges and opportunities.

Participants will be given tools needed to expand public education and communications. Technology providers and MRF operators also will share how new technologies, including robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), are driving improvements. Participants will learn what tools and equipment are available now to generate high-quality material at a lower cost at facilities, the organizers say.

Adina Renee Adler, ISRI’s vice president of advocacy, will deliver a review of the challenges and opportunities that are expected in next year’s global market landscape. Advances in innovation, sustainability commitments and education have inspired growth opportunities for recycled materials, but impending restrictions on trade of these important commodities, including an amendment to the Basel Convention affecting plastic, will have bearing on achieving that growth. 

“We are very pleased to be partnering with ISRI again to host a summit focused on MRFs and recycling,” says David Biderman, SWANA executive director and CEO. “The MRF Summit is timely and needed, given the many changes occurring throughout the recycling system. We invite all recycling and scrap companies, local agencies, and others interested in preserving and expanding recycling to register and participate in this important event.”

The MRF Summit will provide educational sessions for best practices and the latest industry updates from top leaders in the field in addition to networking opportunities to make connections, meet with the event’s speakers and discuss the day’s sessions.