Additional testing is underway with the aim of expanding cup recycling to all Sonoco mills that use residential mixed paper.

Sonoco has announced it is accepting paper cups in bales of mixed paper to be used as furnish for its Hartsville, South Carolina, paperboard mill.

Previously, 10 other Sonoco paper mills in the U.S. validated their acceptance of rigid paper cans in bales of mixed paper coming from residential material recovery facilities (MRFs). This new announcement extends acceptance to paper cups at the Hartsville mill. Additional testing is underway with the aim of expanding cup recycling to all Sonoco mills that use residential mixed paper, the company says.

“Sonoco is uniquely positioned as a leading recycler, paper mill operator and paper packaging converter to help push the industry to look towards future innovations and grow end-of-life solutions across the entire paper value chain,” says Elizabeth Rhue, vice president of global environmental, sustainability, and centralized technology. “After validating that our mills could recycle EnviroCan paper containers in residential mixed paper, we decided to further demonstrate the ability to recycle other similar polycoated fiber-based containers through the postconsumer mixed paper stream.”

“This is one of many steps Sonoco is taking to further our commitment to responsible material sourcing at our manufacturing operations while building material circularity into the broader industry,” Rhue says. “If a consumer recycles a paper cup or an EnviroCan paper container, and it is sorted into the mixed paper stream, the products can now be sent to our Hartsville mill to be turned into a number of new fiber products, including new EnviroCan containers.”

“Paper cups are made with materials that are highly desirable to paper mills because of its ability to improve new products with recycled fiber,” says Natha Dempsey, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI), Falls Church, Virginia. “Those paper mills, including Sonoco, who are a part of the Paper Cup Alliance have committed to supporting the industry in building the infrastructure and developing the practices that make paper?the?best choice for anyone who cares about the future of our planet.”

In late 2021, a number of paper mills signed a declaration of acceptance stating they would commit to increase recycling of paper cups, denouncing previous notions that the polymer coating found on the cups makes them unsuitable for recycling. Organizations Essity, Stockholm, Sweden; GP Pro, Atlanta; Graphic Packaging International, Atlanta; Great Lakes Tissue Co., Cheboygan, Michigan; ND Paper, Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois; Pratt Industries, Conyers, Georgia; Sustana Fiber, De Pere, Wisconsin; and WestRock, Atlanta. The group represents approximately 75 percent of mixed paper demand in the U.S. and Canada, according to the FPI.

The system will be installed at the new Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center in Columbus, Ohio.

Machinex will supply Rumpke Waste & Recycling, headquartered in Cincinnati, with a 56-ton-per-hour (TPH) residential single-stream system for the new material recovery facility (MRF) the company is building in Columbus, Ohio. Rumpke previously announced that Machinex was among the companies it selected to work with on the project.

In addition to featuring what Machinex describes as “best-in-class technology,” the Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center also will host a research center for college students and an educational area to raise environmental awareness. The equipment supplier says the project “nicely aligns with the Machinex mission to ‘design solutions for a sustainable tomorrow.’”

The system will sort recyclables that include papers, cardboard, high-density polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene and mixed plastics from local residential and commercial curbside collections. Effectively sorting these materials while maximizing purity rates, interconnectivity and high-technology equipment were the requirements for the design of this system for Rumpke. Machinex says its 50-plus-year history of designing and manufacturing high-performance equipment combined with its own artificial intelligence were why Rumpke selected the company as sits supplier.  

This 160,000-ton-per-year MRF will include several types of sorting equipment focusing on high automation to maximize recovery. The system will be equipped with 18 Mach Hyspec optical sorters for fiber, nonfiber and plastics sorting, along with three SamurAI sorting robots on the container lines for quality control. The automation will increase material recovery and purity without extra manpower, according to Machinex, which adds that its engineers developed a multistep solution involving material sizing with trommels to drive the appropriate material to its corresponding sorting equipment. 

Rumpke has partnered with Machinex on multiple projects.

Chris Hawn, CEO of Machinex Technologies, the company’s North Carolina-based U.S. subsidiary, says, “Working with Rumpke and their team has always been a pleasure. Going into large projects such as this, it is important that any buyer complete due diligence to understand market changes and the equipment necessary to tackle past, present and future challenges. We were fortunate enough to remain Rumpke’s selected vendor and, with the level of automation provided, they are prepared to handle what the future might bring."

Jeffrey Snyder, director of Recycling at Rumpke Waste & Recycling, says that by working with Machinex on the Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center “we remain confident that we can continue delivering the best recycling solutions to our customers for years to come.” He adds, “The future of recycling is now, and we are excited to partner with Machinex to deliver best-in-class recycling to our customers and communities.”

David Sheppard, a commercial director at EMR Ltd., says the established ferrous market also is part of the circular economy.

When a member of the public decides to recycle his or her end-of-life vehicle, washing machine, dishwasher, fridge or other consumer product with EMR, the steel or iron (known as ferrous metal) it contains joins a circular economy that supplies the next generation of products, buildings and vehicles. 

Consumer products aren’t the only sources of ferrous metal. EMR also collects and processes metal from demolition sites, decommissioned oil rigs and ships, as well as the offcuts from steelmakers themselves as they trim and resize metals in the manufacturing process. 

Recycling ferrous metal as sustainably as possible means ensuring our operations are as efficient as possible. To achieve this outcome, EMR must focus on two things: reducing the contaminants in ferrous materials so that the steelworks have a high purity product to melt and increasing the density to ensure the maximum volume of material is loaded for each batch that is melted. 

The biggest cost after the material itself–and one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions–is transport. But, how can our business ensure the maximum amount of material is delivered for recycling for every journey made and also meet the objectives of providing a clean dense product for the steel mills so they can be less reliant on the nature-depleting virgin iron ore?

One process is by shredding the ferrous metal, breaking it down into small pieces. This is particularly useful where an item is more complex and is made up of several different materials. Shredding allows EMR to recover plastics, nonferrous and other materials from the steel via our sophisticated mechanical separation techniques. 

The environmental benefits of producing cleaner, purer recycled steel mean that shredding and the separation of shredded steel is a major focus of investment for EMR. By expanding the supply chain for this high-quality recycled steel grade with a more precise chemistry, our business can play a vital role in the creation of ‘green steel’. Green steel is produced with much lower carbon emissions but can still perform to the high standards required for modern electric vehicles and appliances and in sustainable construction. 

We are developing methods to separate elements such as copper that would otherwise contaminate the tight chemistry specifications that are required in the finished steel grades. The copper and other metals that we separate from the steel also can be recycled for use in wiring or electronic devices. The same goes for the plastics that we recover from the shredding process.

In addition to shredding, EMR also processes metal via baling. This is where high-powered machines compress the material into tightly packed cubes. This, again, creates an efficient way of transporting the material to steel mills as well as allowing the steel mill to use more scrap in each melting cycle with the improved density of the material.

Finally, for larger pieces of metal–often from the demolition industry–there is shearing, which can cut the material down to a more workable size. Metal mills usually have strict sizing requirements for any ferrous metal entering their foundries. Where metals are too thick to be cut by our shears, EMR teams can “burn,” or cut it, using a high-temperature torch cutter to create manageable pieces for processing. 

Again, by delivering metals at the size required, EMR can ensure this important element of the circular supply chain runs smoothly and efficiently.  

Once recycled steel leaves EMR, it will be sent to steelmakers around the world. EMR maintains strong, long-term relationships with all the businesses we work with to ensure that the sustainability and safety of their operations match our own high standards.    

Historically, most steel has been made in a blast furnace via the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) process. Increasingly, however, steelmakers are using electric arc furnaces (EAFs), which can be operated with a high percentage of recycled steel and without the direct use of fossil fuels. This process results in around a 70 percent carbon reduction. Most steelmakers are trying to increase the amount of recycled steel they use, and this requires recyclers like EMR to continuously improve the specifications of their products

This is why EMR’s investment in creating purer, shredded steel is so important, not just for our business but also for the planet. 

And it fits with EMR’s wider pledge to become a net zero business by 2040, a commitment that is being tracked by some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists through the Science Based Targets Initiative. We’re already transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy and, wherever possible, EMR is replacing diesel-powered machinery with alternatives that can run on green electricity.  

We know that people put their trust in recyclers like EMR whenever they bring end-of-life items to our depots. The investments our business is making at every stage of the recycling process means you can rest assured that EMR is both a responsible and sustainable choice, whether you are bringing us an old, broken washing machine or are saying goodbye to a much-loved family car.

The author is commercial director-ferrous for United Kingdom-based EMR Ltd. That firm has scrap processing facilities in the U.K., the United States, Germany and the Netherlands.

The company’s i3 was one of few sold globally with carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic exterior components.

Germany-based BMW GmbH has disclosed it is ceasing production of its electrically or hybrid-powered i3 hatchback. The model had, for about eight years, been one of the only widely available passenger cars made entirely with carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) exterior or body components.

An article posted to the Australian website CarExpert.com says a BMW spokesperson has confirmed production of the model is being halted after it has sold about 250,000 units worldwide.

That sales figure puts the model far down the leaderboard globally, but the i3 can be said to have had a cult following, with its demise being widely reported. The website of the BBC TV show “Top Gear,” in an early July blog post, calls it an “innovative little” car whose demise had been rumored. However, the preceding rumor “doesn’t make BMW’s announcement that production has ended any easier to take,” writes Greg Potts of “Top Gear.”

For auto recyclers and shredder operators, the phasing out of the model might be greeted with a sigh of relief. Whether because of recycling percentage mandates in the EU or market incentives globally, a plastic-bodied car is not necessarily a welcome sight at auto shredding facilities designed to make their profits on steel and aluminum recycling.

Beyond the end-of-life-vehicle recycling difficulties posed by the i3, an extended supply chain to bring CFRP to the vehicle’s assembly site in Leipzig, Germany, might have been a bigger headache to BMW.

According to CarExpert.com, “In the process of production, the raw material required for CFRP was shipped from Japan to a dedicated plant in Moses Lake, Washington, [on the West Coast of the United States] for processing, and then shipped to Germany for fabrication and installation.”

The winding down of i3 output does not necessarily mean the end of plastic’s challenge to sheet metal in the automotive world. CarExpert quotes a BMW spokesperson as saying the model “goes down in the company’s history as a pioneer of sustainable mobility.” The same article also indicates BMW’s engineers had learned “many new processes it could use for its future vehicles.”

The future of CFRP in mass-market vehicles remains unclear. An 11-page paper presented at a 2020 Institute of Physics Publishing (IOP) conference refers only to BMW as a user of the material for components such as roof panels.

Recyclops aims to make it easier for homeowners to access recycling services and recycle hard-to-recycle products, such as plastic bags, batteries and light bulbs.

The Larry H. Miller Co. (LHM Co.), headquartered in Sandy, Utah, has invested in Recyclops Inc., a technology startup that creates sustainability solutions, starting with recycling.

Launched in 2014 by CEO Ryan Smith, Recyclops, Orem, Utah, applies technology to environmental logistics, collecting hard-to-recycle materials and providing scaling strategies to expand recycling in rural areas.

LHM will partner with Recyclops to use its service in its residential community developments to improve sustainability efforts in recycling and reuse. Recyclops is in 30 different states and in 2021 enabled families to recycle and reuse more than 1.4 million pounds of waste, diverting it from landfills.

"The LHM Co. is excited to invest in Recyclops and the team Ryan has built. We believe in their service offering and its potential to not only grow as a business but to offer an innovative approach and encourage stewardship," LHM Co. Chief Strategy Officer Dave Smith says. "Recyclops is delivering easy-to-use solutions to homeowners and businesses, ensuring we reduce the amount of waste in our landfills and oceans and expand recycling to materials that weren't available under conventional methods."

Nearly 40 percent of American households do not have access to convenient recycling. Additionally, existing programs are only able to recycle 10 percent to 45 percent of household waste.

Ryan Smith of Recyclops says he’s committed to his mission to make sustainability a convenient reality in an accessible manner.

"The Larry H. Miller Co.’s mission to enrich lives is something that resonates deeply with Recyclops and what we've set out to do as a company," he says. "I am thrilled to have the LHM Co. as an investor in our seed round. Their growth capital will help us expand our service. We look forward to working with such a pillar in the community."

LHM’s investment supports Recyclops' introduction of a new, beyond-the-bin recycling service, Recyclops+, for hard-to-recycle materials, such as thermoformed plastic fruit and salad containers, plastic film and bags, lightbulbs, batteries, polystyrene foam, textiles and clothing. Recyclops+ will collect, transport, reuse and recycle these materials from homes along the Wasatch Front, specifically in Salt Lake and Utah counties.