Kice Industries, based in Wichita, Kansas, has announced it has introduced an upgraded top bag removal filter to its filter line. The improved filter is an option available for most Kice filters, the company says.

“One of the main improvements is the quick-release laterals, which are easily removed without the use of tools for installing filter bags,” says Andy Forrester of Kice Industries.

In addition, the filter bags can be replaced without having to enter a dirty air chamber.

“We also sought to improve lid hold-downs and handles,” Forrester adds. “Removal of the filter lid(s) allows for complete access to the clean air chamber.

“Overall, this new design is simple, requires less maintenance and eliminates any safety concerns related to new hinged top filters,” he continues.

Founded in 1946, Kice Industries is a fourth-generation, family-owned business with a team of approximately 300 employees. Kice Industries designs complete industrial air systems and builds most of the equipment specified for these systems. Applications include pneumatic conveying, dust control and aspiration. 

The Recycling Partnership, Falls Church, Virginia, has announced the recipients of its Steve Thompson Memorial Education Grants program. More than 50 recycling professionals from across the U.S. will head to Minneapolis for the 2017 Resource Recycling Conference, Aug. 28-30, to further their recycling education with the help of the grants.

At the end of 2016, The Recycling Partnership released its “2016 State of Curbside” report, identifying the key attributes of the highest-performing recycling programs in the U.S. The attribute found in all of the high-performing communities was engagement in “public action,” where local program staff were actively managing their programs. In other words, recycling professionals are the key to better program performance.

“To deliver powerful public actions that will enable these programs to recover more, better recyclables, recycling professionals need tools—tools that we have available and that they will receive from the experts and leaders at the Resource Recycling Conference,” says Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership. “We are thrilled to make this investment in the future of the recycling system.”

The organization also announced eight additional funders for future grants: Cascadia Consulting Group, the Closed Loop Fund, Dow, Keep America Beautiful, ReCollect, Re-TRAC Connect, Recycle By City and the Sustainable Packaging Coalition.

“You can accomplish more with others than you can do alone, and we thank these companies and groups for joining us in bringing 53 recycling professionals from 34 U.S. states and the District of Columbia to the Resource Recycling Conference,” Harrison says.

This is the second year The Recycling Partnership, in association with Re-TRAC Connect, Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Resource Recycling Inc., Portland, Oregon, has offered the Steve Thompson Memorial Grant to bring recycling professionals to the Resource Recycling Conference, paying for travel, lodging and registration. Last year, 10 grants were awarded from a pool of more than 200 applications. This year, 53 grants were issued from more than 500 applicants, The Recycling Partnership says.

Thompson, who died in 2016, served as executive director of The Recycling Partnership's precursor organization, the Curbside Value Partnership, before retiring in 2014. The grants are meant to honor him and his life's work. 

Austria-based industrial shredder manufacturer UNTHA says it has witnessed significant growth in Italy following a collaboration with Ecotec Solution, an environmental technology firm based in that nation.

According to an UNTHA press release, in the second half of 2016 and the first half of 2017, Ecotec Solution has secured six “high-value projects” for the Austrian shredding firm.

Those projects include the installation of three XR mobil-e units for waste-to-energy facilities. One is in Trieste, Italy, handling bulky materials for cement fuel preparation, and two others are shredding pretreated municipal solid waste (MSW) to “create varied products, including an infeed material for heat treatment.”

Other sales include a static XR3000C shredder for solid recovered fuel (SRF) production; an XR2000R shredder to process MSW; and a TR2500 post-shredder to produce a refined cement fuel from a pre-treated light fraction.

“In the face of a complex waste landscape, we work hard to help Italian clients realize the benefits of the value chain,” says Ecotec Solution’s Managing Director Martin Mairhofer. He adds, “We need to recommend the world’s best technologies to do this, and our knowledge of UNTHA’s shredding technology has really helped in this respect over the past 12 months.”

Elaborating on the specific challenges facing Italian waste and recycling firms, Mairhofer comments, “Landfill sites are closing and, due to a lack of more traditional waste disposal options, companies are looking for new channels for their residual materials. High prices for SRF make this non-traditional treatment method an attractive alternative, but a significant degree of investment is required to design and build commercially robust plants.”

Concludes Mairhofer, “UNTHA’s advancements in single-step, high-performance and cost-efficient fuel preparation technology have opened up new margin opportunities for the industry’s more forward-thinking players. These are the companies that are going to fill the waste gap in our evolving market.”

UNTHA has now installed more than 9,000 shredders worldwide, including more than 150 of its most XR models.

Argentina’s finance ministry has reportedly calculated that the nation’s economy (as measured by gross domestic product, or GDP) grew from 2.5 to 3 percent in the second quarter of 2017 compared with the same quarter in 2016.

An online news item on the Business Recorder website cites a source within the nation’s finance ministry who says the government expects Argentina’s GDP to grow between 3.5 and 4 percent in the third quarter of 2017.

The same source reportedly said that consumption growth of 4.8 percent in May 2017 compared with May 2016, was one of the drivers of second quarter growth.

The second quarter and projected third quarter rebounds occur after more moderate GDP growth of just 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2017 and GDP decline of 2.3 percent in the final quarter of 2016.

The same source also indicated the economic rebound good bode well for the party of Argentina’s president Mauricio Macri, which faces midterm elections in October 2017 and needs to show a recovery is in effect after a difficult 2016.

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) report analyzing Latin America’s economy, released in April 2017, concluded that “In Argentina, the economic recovery is underway.”

The IMF’s analysts write, “Real GDP is expected to grow 2.25 percent in 2017, driven by a rebound of private consumption (as real wage growth turns positive amid falling inflation), stronger public capital spending, and a pickup of exports reflecting more favorable external demand and the exceptionally good harvest season.”

The IMF predicts Argentina’s economic growth will “remain at about 2.5 percent in 2018 and 2019, when fiscal rebalancing accelerates, whereas the rebound of private investment and exports continues at a gradual pace, against the backdrop of a strong exchange rate and slow progress of structural reforms.”