BPF's Recyclers Argue for Change to Producer Responsibility System

British recycling group is seeking to boost plastics recycling in the U.K.

May 9, 2012
Recycling Today Staff

The British Plastics Federation’s (BPF) Recycling Group has proposed that the producer responsibility system governing packaging recycling should be increasingly weighted in favor of U.K. recycling. In its recent publication, Proposal to Amend the PRN/PERN System for Plastics, the Group has illustrated how it believes the implementation of the packaging regulations has created a focus on quantity rather than quality which has resulted in the UK becoming increasingly dependent on export markets for its plastic waste.

The BPF is an association of plastics-based companies operating in the United Kingdom. The BPF promotes the interests of its members principally through its four Market Sector Groups and its many common interest Business Groups.

In the publication, the BPF claims that the disadvantages that U.K. reprocessors face under the current system not only undermine the government’s goal of increased resource efficiency but are also a barrier to creating new employment and wealth generation opportunities in the industry.

BPF’s Chairman Roger Baynham says, “Our aim is to help create a quality driven waste infrastructure which would place the plastics recycling sector in the vanguard of the UK’s emerging low carbon manufacturing revolution and in so doing future proof markets for plastic waste.”

The BPF’s Recycling Group is proposing to the U.K. government that, in the case of plastics, that the producer responsibility system be modified through the creation of separate targets for post consumer plastics that are converted into products through U.K. reprocessing and exports of unprocessed waste . Obligated businesses, through their compliance schemes, would be required to obtain a steadily increasing percentage of their evidence from U.K. reprocessed tonnage. The recycling group is proposing a road map with an equal 50:50 split between the two routes in 2013, progressing to a 70 percent target for U.K. reprocessed tonnage and 30 percent unprocessed export tonnage by the year 2017.

“Our proposal purposely does not undermine the competitive principles of the existing system, and we are delighted that BPF and in particular its Packaging Group have endorsed this proposal to improve the efficiency of the plastics recycling chain. Critically such a strategy would drive investment and help the UK plastic recycling sector to develop knowledge and technologies which can be exported round the world,” Baynham adds.

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Fujitsu Adopts Casella’s Power of Three

Company’s New York manufacturing, logistics and supply chain facility continues effort to reduce waste.

May 9, 2012
Recycling Today Staff

Electronics Ferrous Glass Nonferrous Paper Plastics

Fujitsu Frontech North America Inc. (FFNA), headquartered in Foothill Ranch, Calif., has announced its Plattsburgh, N.Y., office has joined Casella Waste Systems’ Power of Three closed loop recycling service.

The premise of Casella’s Power of Three program is for a waste management company to collect a customers’ recyclables, process the material into a new product and then sell the new product back to its customer.

Fujitsu says it was the first company in Clinton County, N.Y., to combine the Power of Three with Casella’s Zero-Sort program. With Zero-Sort, all of Fujitsu’s paper, plastic, glass and metal are combined in one container. Casella’s Zero-Sort Rutland, Vt., processing facility mechanically sorts the material. Once sorted, the baled paper is shipped to SCA’s paper mill in Glens Falls, N.Y., where it is converted into 100 percent recycled paper content products. The material is then delivered back to Fujitsu by Foley Distributing.

Terry Beyer, Fujitsu Plattsburgh plant manager, says, “Fujitsu is very excited to be part of the Zero-Sort recycling program and now the Power of Three Program with Casella Waste System. Working with Casella’s Power of Three system, we are on a clear path to truly reusing our waste. It is exciting to be part of such an important and impactful effort.”

AFRA Publishes Aircraft Recycling Best Practices Guide

Recycling association also awards recycling accreditations to ELG Metals and Huron Valley Fritz West.

May 9, 2012
Recycling Today Staff

The Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association (AFRA), based in Washington, D.C., has published a Best Management Practices (BMP) Guide for the recycling of aircraft materials.

The association also announced the first AFRA accreditations under its new BMP have been awarded to ELG Metals, Los Angeles, and Huron Valley Fritz West of Tucson.

The accreditations and new BMPs were announced during the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries’ 2012 Convention and Trade Show held in April in Las Vegas.

AFRA says the accreditation assures that recycling facilities operate in a safe and environmentally responsible fashion and allow businesses to find sustainable solutions.

According to AFRA, aircraft recyclers represent a growing portion of its membership, and the guide is designed to help them capture the maximum value from aircraft at the end of their service, by increasing the amounts of materials that can be recycled and raising the overall residual value of the materials used for aircraft.

The guide has been developed by AFRA members, including aircraft and aircraft parts manufacturers, maintenance companies, leasing operations and disassembly companies.

AFRA’s deputy director Bill Carberry, who is also a strategy analyst with Boeing Commercial Airlines, played an integral role in helping to develop the guide. “Our idea was to have an industry-prescribed document to set the standards for how aircraft should be taken apart in an environmentally responsible way,” Carberry says. He notes that the document provides training, tools and guidelines to help ensure that disassembly occurs in the proper order.

A further objective, Carberry says, is to recover aircraft-grade materials so they can be recycled yet still remain within the aerospace industry. “That was a strong objective,” he says.

“The whole AFRA effort is to improve the end value of aircraft materials, and Boeing really supports that,” Carberry says.

AFRA says the new BMP Guide has been incorporated into its accreditation program, adding aircraft materials recycling to an already extensive list of retired aircraft management activities that were built into previous versions of the program. The guide will be used to review and audit a recycler’s facilities, procedures and documents, which are assessed and monitored by an independent auditor on an ongoing basis.

AFRA is a not-for-profit association with 57 members from 16 countries.

L&P Wire-Tie Debuts Pinnacle II

New wire-tie system builds upon company’s Pinnacle system.

May 9, 2012
Recycling Today Staff

Equipment & Products

L&P Wire-Tie, a Carthage, Mo.-based manufacturer of bale containment systems, has introduced the Pinnacle II Wire-Tie System with CORE Modular Technology.

L&P says its Pinnacle II offers the modularity introduced in the company’s original Pinnacle system in 2010 and adds advancements designed to make it more robust. It is ideal for high-volume recycling centers that produce 200 to 400 bales per day, the company says of the Pinnacle II.

The Pinnacle II’s tying head is fully serviceable from the front and can be disassembled in as little as 15 minutes, according to L&P, reducing the time needed to make repairs and adjustments. The interconnection is now located outside of the machine, so the machine’s operator can replace cables can be replaced accurately and quickly.

The Pinnacle II’s sequential segment gear offers variable speed, which is designed to minimize wear by gaining momentum as the machine cycles in the tying process, reducing speed at the end of the cycle. L&P says the design is unique to four-twist-knot machines, providing durability while lowering maintenance expenses.

Operators can use a lower gauge wire, lowering costs without compromising quality, according to the company. Wire gauges can be changed by swapping out the CORE—the heart of the Pinnacle II, which contains 80 percent of the tier’s wear parts. Housed within the Pinnacle Knotter, operators can access the CORE when service is required and replace it with a spare CORE within five minutes to maintain uptime, L&P says.

“We know that the only way recyclers can make money is to keep their operation up and running,” says Jim York, president, L&P Wire-Tie. “The new features offered by the Pinnacle II build on the enormous success of the original Pinnacle product. CORE modularity allows operators to service the machine and quickly return to production. The sequential segment gear and greater accessibility add durability and significantly speed maintenance.”

The L&P Pinnacle II Wire-Tie System is capable of handling bales of various sizes requiring 13 to 18.5 feet of wire per strap.

ReCommunity MRF Features CP Installation

CP Group built and installed 25-ton-per-hour MRF for ReCommunity in Beacon, N.Y.

May 9, 2012
Recycling Today Staff

Equipment & Products Municipal / IC&I

The CP Group, headquartered in San Diego, has designed, manufactured and installed a new single-stream recycling facility at ReCommunity’s MRF in Beacon, N.Y. The system began running April 23, 2012, and is processing 25 tons per hour, according to the CP Group.

The 56,000-square-foot MRF serves residents and businesses in Dutchess County, N.Y. It recovers mixed fiber, OCC (old corrugated containers), plastic, glass, aluminum and steel and is expected to process 57,000 tons in 2012 and 90,000 in 2013, the company says.

“We are very pleased with the facility,” says Ron Santos, Northeast regional manager at ReCommunity. “CP has exceeded our expectations with the overall design and the system performance. They have been very responsive to anything that we have needed; we are very impressed with their customer service.”

Kevin Sullivan, senior project manager at CP Manufacturing, says, “Our goal at CP on all of our projects is to meet or exceed our customers’ expectations. Given the feedback we’ve received, I believe the Beacon facility will be one that both the CP Group and ReCommunity can be proud and hold with high regard.”

Included in the facility is the CP Group’s IPS Conquest 200S, a high-production multi-material baler with patented dual-hinge sides, allowing material to fall into the 72-inch wide charge box, the company says. The Conquest’s hydraulically actuated wire tying capability is designed for simplicity, ease of adjustment and long component life, according to t he CP Group. The Conquest 200S can produce 1-ton paper bale every 60 seconds, the company claims.

The facility includes several CP disc screens for automatic separation: a CP scalping screen that separates glass, small debris and single-serve containers from fiber; an OCC screen that automatically separates OCC from other fibers; a CP GlassBreaker screen and glass cleanup system to break, separate and clean glass; two NewScreens that are designed to remove newspaper from mixed paper, containers, dirt and debris; and a CPScreen, which automatically separates containers from mixed paper using patented disc screen technology.

The system includes a CP Group optical sorter, the MSS Aladdin, which sorts plastics by color as well as by resin type, generating three products from a single input stream. Film Vac systems and an air drum separator were supplied by the CP Group’s partners, Impact Air and Ken Mills Engineering.

The CP Group consists of CP Manufacturing, Krause Manufacturing, IPS Balers, MSS Optical Sorters and Advanced MRF.

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