A briquetter supplied by Weima helps the company manage its production scrap.

The city of Peoria, Illinois, is home to eyeglass manufacturer Maui Jim, which is known for its fashion-forward approach to sunglasses and prescription eyewear.

The company’s sustainability goals increase the value of its products to modern consumers as Maui Jim has taken steps to implement green practices during production and recycling initiatives for its end-of-life products.

The process of creating custom lenses involves loose, airy scrap and cutting fluid. Each lens starts out as an 11-millimeter-thick piece of plastic that is machined and polished to the correct shape and thickness.

“As we start the whole process of making a pair of prescription lenses, they go into what we call an orbit lens generator,” Paul Ponder, vice president of prescription manufacturing at Maui Jim, says. “It creates swarf as it cuts that lens down to prescription shape and thickness. That swarf is flushed out with a fluid, used to cool the lens during the cutting process. It is also used as a wetting agent to flush it through the evacuation tubes. That fluid, which is taking the waste out, is cleaned back up and then comes back to the machine for reuse.”

Bazell Technologies has worked with Satisloh to provide the best-in-class coolant delivery equipment that Maui Jim uses to generate lenses. The engineers at Bazell worked with Weima, a German company with a U.S. sales and service office in Fort Mill, South Carolina, to select the right briquette press for the job—in this case, a Vario model—to compress the lens swarf and separate the cutting fluid for reuse.

The shavings, once they have been separated from the cutting fluid, are then conveyed from the cleaning unit to the Weima briquette press. The machine sits in its own designated space just off the production floor. Its footprint is minimal, but its presence in the process makes it possible to recycle the fluid and the swarf.

“It takes the processing of the debris off the production floor and saves space,” says Paul Dick, president and managing director of Bazell Technologies, Concord, California. “This allows space for more lens generators on the production floor.”

With 12:1 compaction rates, Maui Jim saves space by processing scrap created during production shifts instead of storing it in its original form. The briquette press compresses these shavings into round, puck-shaped briquettes that are then picked up by a recycler to be transformed into postconsumer resin, or PCR, and integrated into other material streams.

Maui Jim found that the cost for the recycler to pick up this scrap was comparable with the landfill fees they would accrue. The value of this landfill diversion added to the reasons why Maui Jim opted to recycle this material instead.

Maui Jim’s recycling efforts don’t stop there. The lifetime warranty on each pair of Maui Jim glasses extends to lenses and frames. Each time a pair of glasses is sent in for minor repairs, the frames and/or scratched lenses are also picked up by a recycler to be made into new things. The consumer will receive a pristine pair of glasses, and the damaged frames or scratched lenses leave the facility to be given a second life.

“Certainly, we want to be environmentally friendly, doing everything we can to keep anything from going to a landfill,” Ponder says. “All our lens waste, all our frame waste, any defects or rejects—it’s all recycled. Our frame designers are always looking at ways to be environmentally friendly.”

Julie-Ann Adams replaces Lida Dik.

At the end of November, the members of the European Electronics Recyclers Association (EERA), which is headquartered in the Netherlands, were told Executive Secretariat Lida Dik would leave the organization.

Kurt Kyck, president of KMK Metals Recycling of Ireland, says, “Lida has performed marvelously for EERA and all of the members over the last nine years, and we would like to thank her for all her hard work. She has all the best wishes of everyone for continued success in her new career.”

The EERA board says Julie-Ann Adams of London-based Really Green Credentials has agreed to take over as executive secretariat beginning January 2022.

Really Green Credentials is a leading U.K. and EU authority on producer environmental compliance, specializing in verification and compliance of environmental management systems and international standards and in auditing waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) treatment operators and material routes.

Adams has detailed knowledge and extensive experience of all matters WEEE and EU as she has more than 20 years’ experience in the waste management and local government sector and was a key contributor in the development and implementation of the WEEE and Battery and Accumulator Regulations in the U.K., EERA says. She is acknowledged as a leading technical adviser on producer responsibility-led regulations and standards and in the general treatment and recycling technology and waste management arena. Adams has been an active member of the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) groups, writing and reviewing the EN 50625 and EN 50614 WEEE standards since 2009. 

Sims sold its majority stake in Sims Municipal Recycling for $45.4 million.

Australia-based Sims Ltd. has agreed to sell a majority stake in Sims Municipal Recycling of New York LLC (SMR) to a group of investors, including investment funds managed by New York-based Closed Loop Partners. Under terms of the transaction, Sims will sell 50.46 percent of Sims Municipal Recycling for $45.4 million and will hold two of the five Sims Municipal Recycling board seats.

According to a news release from Sims Ltd., this transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022.

Sims Municipal Recycling was formed in 2003 and offers curbside recycling, processing and marketing services in New York City. It operates four recycling facilities, three of which are in the New York-New Jersey metro area and one in Florida. This past year, Sims Municipal Recycling processed 660,000 metric tons of municipal curbside materials.

Closed Loop Partners manages venture capital, growth equity, private equity and project-based finance funds all focused on building the circular economy. Investors in Closed Loop Partners include pension funds, foundations, consumer goods companies and family offices focused on environmental, social and governance investing and the circular economy.

According to a statement from Closed Loop Partners to Recycling Today, Closed Loop Partners expects the acquisition to accelerate its focus on its investments in modernizing recycling facilities across the U.S. and closing the loop on materials. 

“This transaction demonstrates Sims’ leadership and commitment to innovate quickly—and at scale—and to maximize opportunities within the circular economy,” says Alistair Field, CEO and managing director of Sims Ltd. “I am delighted that we have been able to secure a high-quality, like-minded joint venture partner who will work alongside us to create a world without waste to preserve our planet. Closed Loop Partners has the strategic management focus and expertise to help more rapidly take [Sims Municipal Recycling] to the next level in expanding recycling beyond New York City. Together, we look to expand materials accepted by SMR, optimize recycling accessibility across New York City and significantly grow SMR’s service areas across the United States.”

Réal Hamilton-Romeo, global head of communications and marketing at Sims, says the company plans to remain a major owner in SMR. She says SMR's management and operations teams will remain the same after the transaction is finalized. Additionally, she says Sims Municipal Recycling will retain its name because of its strong brand recognition.

"Sims Ltd. and Closed Loop Partners share a common goal for a waste-free world," Hamilton-Romeo says. "As a joint owner of Sims Municipal Recycling, Closed Loop Partners will leverage its extensive network to further develop the curbside recycling business as well as expand Sims Municipal Recycling into additional municipalities and additional postconsumer recyclable streams. Sims Ltd. remains a major owner and will continue to be actively involved in Sims Municipal Recycling's growth as well as sit on the business' board."

Field adds that the company plans to use the sale price to help fund other transactions the company has made recently, such as its acquisition of Recyclers Australia and Atlantic Recycling Group, which has two locations in Baltimore operating under the United Iron & Metal name, including a shredder yard, as well as a location under the Montgomery Scrap name in Rockville, Maryland.

The sale of the Ohio-based paper and packaging producer is set to close in the second quarter of 2022.

BillerudKorsnäs AB, a pulp and paper manufacturer based in Solna, Sweden, is set to acquire Miamisburg, Ohio-based Verso Corp., a producer of graphic and specialty papers, packaging and pulp.

The sale is set to close in the second quarter of 2022, with BillerudKorsnäs agreeing to acquire the Ohio company for $825 million, or $27 per share.

Verso currently has two paper mills in Michigan and a roll-to-sheet converting facility in Wisconsin as well as distribution centers in Illinois and Pennsylvania, and according to the company, currently has approximately 1,700 employees in the U.S.

BillerudKorsnäs employs more than 4,400 employees and has production units in Sweden and Finland. According to the company, the acquisition is in line with its strategy to expand its paperboard presence in the U.S. as it “aims to build one of the most cost-efficient and sustainable paperboard platforms in North America” by converting several of Verso’s assets into paperboard machines.

BillerudKorsnäs plans to convert Verso’s largest mill in Escanaba, Michigan, into a sustainable, fully integrated paperboard production site, and says one machine is estimated to be converted by 2025 and a second machine in 2029, with a total capacity of approximately 1.2 million tons.

It also plans to continue operating the Quinnesec, Michigan, mill, which has a capacity to produce about 430,000 tons of graphic and specialty papers and 240,000 tons of market pulp per year.

"The combination of BillerudKorsnäs' expertise in high-quality virgin fiber packaging materials and Verso's attractive assets creates an excellent platform for long-term profitable growth,” says BillerudKorsnäs President and CEO Christoph Michalski. “We will obtain cost-effective production of coated virgin fiber material in the Midwestern United States.

He adds, “We also plan to sequentially transform part of the business into paperboard production while continuing to serve the U.S. customers. Our investments will create new U.S.-based jobs in a growing market and accelerate the transition from plastic-based packaging materials to renewable sources."

The purchase marks Fenix Parts’ first acquisition in the Midwest.

Hurst, Texas-based Fenix Parent LLC, operating as Fenix Parts, a recycler and reseller of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) automotive parts, has completed its acquisition of the assets of All Foreign Used Auto Parts Inc., Columbus, Ohio—its first acquisition in the Midwest.

Fenix was founded in 2014 to create a network that offers sales, fulfillment and distribution in key regional markets in the United States. 

All Foreign is a full-service automotive recycling facility servicing the central Ohio market.

Bill Stevens, CEO of Fenix Parts, says, “We are pleased to announce the acquisition of All Foreign in Columbus and are excited about the addition of its experienced and talented team to the Fenix family. We are committed to expanding our footprint beyond Fenix Parts’ established presence in the Northeast, Southeast and Southwest markets. The acquisition of All Foreign is our first step towards establishing a Midwest presence as we develop significant production capacity and expand our total addressable market. We are excited about our expansion plans into other Midwest markets. I want to give a special welcome to the team at All Foreign. We sincerely look forward to working with you.”

Fenix Parts says it continues to pursue opportunities that align with its strategic development plans.