Austrian plastic recycling equipment maker breaks ground on 16,000-square-foot facility.

Austria-based plastic recycling equipment producer Erema Engineering Recycling Maschinen u Anlagen GmbH is building a 16,700-square-foot research and development (R&D) center at its main campus in Ansfelden, Austria. Completion of the project is scheduled for next February.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on the site April 6 for two buildings with nearly 16,700 square feet of space that will include office space for some 50 people. “The R&D center will offer cross-departmental and cross-company test machines and laboratory for research and development of plastics recycling technologies to further advance the circular economy,” the firm states.

“Plastics recycling is currently evolving very rapidly from a niche to a trend,” Erema says, adding, “this is driven by the legislative targets for plastics recycling that the European Union and many countries around the world have enacted, as well as by the European Green Deal, which aims to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent and in which the circular economy plays a very central role.”

The company says there is not just one recycling solution for different types of plastic scrap but rather different ones depending on the type of plastic, the product and the application intended for the recycled plastic.

“It makes a difference whether clean production waste is recycled and returned to the production process or whether printed and contaminated packaging materials collected in yellow bags are recycled and used to make food packaging again,” says Markus Huber-Lindinger, managing director of Erema.

“While some plastics processing loops, such as for PET [polyethylene terephthalate] bottles, have already been closed, many other plastic waste streams still require a great deal of R&D in cooperation with everyone involved in the value chain to produce recycled pellets that meet the very highest standards for the production of new products,” says Huber-Lindinger. “More space will be available for this in the new center.”

Company started by designing reverse vending machines in 1972.

The Norway-based Tomra Group and its Germany-based Tomra Recycling business unit celebrated the company’s 50th anniversary early this April.

Each of the group’s four divisions - Collection, Food, Recycling and Mining – marked the milestone by declaring a collective mission for the future to “transform how we all obtain, use and reuse the planet’s resources to enable a world without waste,” says the company.

Tove Andersen, Tomra’s president and CEO, remarks, “We live in a world that needs big transformation. We urgently need to improve sustainability, develop the circular economy and make more efficient use of resources--challenges which Tomra’s solutions can help address.”

She continues “Fifty years after its humble beginnings, Tomra can be proud of the fact that it is a highly respected global market leader. This is living proof of our ability to adapt, innovate, and provide the solutions our customers really need. This is also a time to look forward because we are now opening the chapter in Tomra’s story where we step up our role leading the resource revolution.”

Tomra was founded in Norway on April 1, 1972, by brothers Petter and Tore Planke. After seeing a local grocer struggle with the manual collection of empty bottles in its store, the brothers developed what Tomra calls the first fully automated reverse vending machine (RVM) in their family garage.

Over the years, Tomra’s technology has expanded to include sorting systems for the recycling, mining and food processing industries. Tomra currently employs more than 4,600 people globally and has annual sales of 1 billion euros ($1.09 billion).

Tom Eng, senior vice president and head of Tomra Recycling, comments, “We continue to innovate and support our customers in achieving their business goals as well as those set by legislation. As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, we would like to recognize our customers and partners that made our long-standing success possible.”

Tomra Recycling describes itself as a global supplier of sensor-based sorting technology and connected digital services designed to transform discarded items into valuable secondary raw materials. The company has installed more than 8,200 sorting units in more than 100 countries.

Swiss company calls its AmPrima bags and pouches “recycle ready.”

Switzerland-based packaging producer Amcor has announced two new applications for its AmPrima “recycle ready” packaging line for Europe. The polyethylene (PE) product line is being expanded for coffee and dairy products, Amcor says.

“The AmPrima range has already been proven to work for our United States customers, and we’re happy to now offer it in Europe,” says Noemi Bertolino, a vice president with Amcor. “For the latest applications in coffee and cheese, Amcor has run over 50 trials, and we are delighted to bring our customers a simple switch to more sustainable packaging. Fitting a wide range of packaging needs, the versatility of AmPrima demonstrates our commitment to ongoing innovation and finding more sustainable solutions where they previously did not exist.”

The company sees the new products as being in line with an upcoming EU packaging directive and with Amcor’s 2025 pledge to develop all its packaging to be recyclable or reusable and to increase the use of recycled content. AmPrima, the company says, is recycle-ready in most flexible PE packaging recycling streams.

The AmPrima range is designed according to Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging (CEFLEX) guidelines and is certified by the Germany-based Institut cyclos-HTP for recyclability.

New in April 2022 is AmPrima PE PLUS for roast and ground coffee. “Suited for all typical coffee pack formats and sizes, [the] full PE packaging is treated for thermal stability, allows easy transition on existing filling machines, and has an innovative barrier coating for product protection,” Amcor says.

According to Amcor’s analysis, AmPrima PE PLUS has the potential to replace more than 200 current nonrecyclable coffee packaging specifications.

Also launching in April is AmPrima PE PLUS for cheese, available in a variety of formats including flow wrap for hard cheeses, pouches for grated, and pouches for leak-prone cheeses such as mozzarella. “The launch of AmPrima PE PLUS for cheese will allow brands to choose a full PE solution with robust product protection that fits the requirements of most European PE recycling streams,” Amcor says.

Steelmaker makes investment in modular nuclear power systems provider.

Charlotte, North Carolina-based Nucor Corp. has announced it is investing $15 million in NuScale Power LLC, which it calls a developer of small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear plants.

Nucor, which has boasted of the low-carbon footprint of its scrap-fed electric arc furnace (EAF) business model, is pointing to further decarbonization targets as the reason for the investment.

“Sustainability is driving the business decisions of leading companies around the world,” says Nucor President and CEO Leon Topalian. “As America’s largest steel producer and a significant energy consumer, we are looking for safe and reliable sources of power generation that are consistent with our sustainability goals. The continued development of small modular nuclear reactors is critical to ensure our nation has carbon-free, baseload power, which is why we are making this investment in NuScale,”

Nucor has entered into an agreement to fund NuScale via a private placement in a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Spring Valley Acquisition Corp. The steel producer says it intends to merge that SPAC with NuScale. “This capital will support the path to commercialization of NuScale’s proprietary and innovative SMR technology, the NuScale Power Module,” the firm states.

The steelmaker describes SMRs as nuclear reactors that can operate independently or in tandem with other modules to produce carbon-free electric power on a smaller scale and at a lower cost than traditional nuclear power. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved NuScale's technology, representing a significant milestone that no other SMR developer has achieved, Nucor says.

The company says it also has “supported the development of solar and wind energy projects” through three power purchase agreements it has entered into in the past two years, which will help enable the construction of 600 megawatts of renewable power generation.

The investment in NuScale complements these efforts, says the firm, since an “effective electric grid requires both baseload and intermittent power sources, which is why both nuclear and renewable energy must be part of the solution to achieve carbon reduction while maintaining grid reliability.”

Nucor operates several EAF steel mills in the U.S. as well as downstream steel products facilities and scrap processing yards in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Experts discuss the challenges of data destruction while so many still work from home and how automation can increase efficiency and value.

Last year saw the highest number of data breaches on record. According to an Identity Theft Resource Center 2021 report, there were 1,862 breaches last year—up 68 percent from 2020, which surpassed the previous record of 1,506 set in 2017.

Concern is rising among recycling professionals surrounding data and privacy, particularly when it comes to electronics recycling, and panelists at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) 2022 Convention and Exposition, held March 21-24 in Las Vegas, discussed navigating information technology asset disposition (ITAD) compliance as more companies have seen a recent increase in device volume.

According to the WEEE (waste electronic and electrical equipment) Forum, an estimated 57.4 million tons of e-scrap were generated last year and 53.6 million metric tons were generated in 2019—a problem it attributes to higher consumption rates of electronics, shorter product life cycles and limited repair options.

“There are real constraints that are being added in the market,” said Russ Ernst, executive vice president of product and technology at Finland-based Blancco. “The concern is really about if any of those assets that go through the waste-processing process or go through a refurbishment process to go back onto the market, there has to be an awareness that if any asset comes back onto the market with personally identifiable information, you are held liable—you are responsible for that asset.”

Ernst said from an ITAD standpoint, many view data erasure, or data sanitization, as the “last step between when that device is going through its first life before it transitions over to its second life into the circular economy.”

But with data erasure comes compliance requirements that vary from industry to industry, making it difficult to know whether a business is in compliance and where to begin when it comes to regulatory standards. “As the world’s population is becoming part of this type of privacy legislation, it’s important across every single market, every single industry,” Ernst said. “As we start to think about where things are changing in the market, it’s going to become much more important to understand even your customers' or your customers’ customers' compliance requirements.”

Karen Fedder, director of ITAD, North America, at Blancco, said IT asset managers have become very educated “through other people’s mistakes,” as it pertains to the rise in data breaches, adding that emerging standards are requiring data erasure regardless of physical destruction. “If you have the opportunity to do that erasure, it’s an extra level of security,” she said.

Ernst said that as new compliance requirements are implemented, a major focus should be obtaining an erasure certificate—some kind of proof that asset has gone through a data sanitization process. “In today’s world, with the mass proliferation of data-bearing assets, you start to think about just the number of mobile devices on the market today. Everything is collecting data. … That’s probably the key in terms of navigating those compliance requirements.”

The panelists also discussed managing device volumes amid labor shortages. Fedder said the ITAD industry is seeing more devices coming back than prepandemic and that most companies are having record volume. “They’re sitting on a lot of money,” she said. “You have to be able to process that fast enough to be able to start recouping they money. You’re sitting on millions of dollars, potentially, hundreds of thousands depending on the size of your business.”

But concerns remain about shredding vs. erasure, and both Fedder and Ernst said companies can assure clients that erasure is both safe and effective. “This is where some of the legislation in the standards have to be really ratified and finalized in terms of making sure there is something you can point to and say, ‘Yes, this is secure because it meets [this standard],” Ernst said.

He added, “This is where we’ve seen a huge change in terms of taking those drives, going through a secure data sanitization and still had that erasure certificate by asset, by individual serial number, that can prove the data has been removed from that drive instead of going through physical destruction.”

But the challenge is navigating the record volumes with fewer staff as labor shortages continue throughout the industry. Historically, much of the material has been processed manually—getting the numbers, having an operator know which device is getting processed for which client. “The way to get around that now and be able to get that higher revenue and not do it by the pound and rather do it by the device is through automation,” Fedder said.

“There’s various ways to do it,” she added. “Knowing in advance what the clients want [and] have the operator do the minimal amount of work, and by doing that you can hire people that aren’t necessarily very skilled [yet] and get them on the floor quickly.”

She added that often it takes 12 to 16 weeks to get an operator up to speed. Often, one device will get different grades from different operators based on their level of skill and experience. Automation then can increase processing and therefore increase value.

Device volumes also have ballooned as the pandemic increased the number of devices required as much of the world shifted to remote work and the 5G network was introduced. “The real important thing from a circular economy perspective is that the devices from a year-and-a-half ago that only had 4G … still have a lot of retail value, especially for regions in the world that are not 5G-enabled,” Fedder said.

Ernst echoed the push for automation at every step of the process. “It comes down to efficient handling of those different types of materials,” he said. “There are opportunities for automation on every single business process you have…and thinking about how certain materials need to be handled in a consistent way.”