The Minnesota State Legislature has directed the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to prepare a report that details its recommendations for a statewide recycling refund program for beverage containers.

The MPCA says the goal of the program is to achieve an 80 percent recycling rate. Supporters of the deposit program, or bottle bill, say the study finds that a recycling refund system described by the MPCA would result in the additional recycling of about 107,000 tons of beverage containers in the state.

In addition to the increase in the quantity of beverage containers recycled, the quality of the collected commodities would be improved over that of the existing recycling systems, say bottle bill advocates.

Annual costs increases associated with achieving these higher recycling levels are estimated to be:

• $29 million to operate the recycling redemption system, incurred by beverage producers;
• less than $1 million incurred by the state of Minnesota, not including state tax loss impacts that may occur from reduced in-state grocery sales; and
• undetermined costs incurred by consumers in transporting beverage containers to redemption sites.

A group that has formed in opposition to the proposed bottle bill says the MPCA report drastically underestimates the true cost of such a system. “The proposed deposit scheme would cost $219 million per year, not the $29 million contained in the MPCA draft report,” says Tim Wilkin, a spokesperson with Recycle Smart Minnesota. The group describes itself as a coalition of retailers, food and beverage businesses, farm organizations, grocers, restaurants and distributors.

“While the report talks about the $179 million required annually to run the more than 400 proposed redemption centers, it doesn’t recognize the costs consumers would experience in transportation, which we estimate as $40 million per year,” adds Wilkin.

Supporters of the container deposit policy say annual cost reductions projected to result include:

• $ 5.6 million realized by local authorities and individual single-family home waste and recycling service subscribers; and
• undetermined savings to state and local authorities for reduced litter cleanup.

Recycle Smart Minnesota says the Gopher State is already a regional leader in recycling rates and says “a deposit scheme would hurt consumers with added costs and inconvenience.”

The current aluminum beverage can recycling rate is about 62 percent, based on sales data and waste composition study results, says Recycle Smart Minnesota, but the MPCA draft report shows only a 53 percent rate. Similarly, with glass containers, the draft report speaks of a 47 percent recycling rate, but the waste composition data suggests a 66 percent rate, according to Recycle Smart Minnesota.

A draft of the cost-benefit analysis report can be found at www.pca.state.mn.us/apfc83w.

Benlee, a Romulus, Mich.-based manufacturer of truck trailers, has introduced a line of roll-off pup trailers. The company says the new line complements Benlee’s existing line of trailers.

“As the leading manufacturer of rolloff trailers and roll-off trucks, it was a natural fit for us to add pup trailers to our product line” says Greg Brown, president of Benlee.

“In today’s market, consumers are trying to do more with the equipment they already have. Benlee roll-off pup trailers allow you to do exactly that,” Brown adds. “Our roll-off pup trailers allow haulers to carry two containers each trip instead of only one.”

Benlee’s roll-off pup trailers are offered with two or four axles and with or without hydraulics. A live or wet pup is complete with hydraulic lines and cylinders and can use the truck’s hydraulic system to load, dump and unload itself. A dead or dry pup does not have hydraulics and must be loaded and unloaded with the roll-off truck or trailer. Options such as tarp systems and auto air inflation systems for tires are available.

Benlee’s roll-off products are part of the company’s overall three integrated operations:

• Designing and manufacturing vehicles used in scrap, recycling, trash, demolition, environmental, energy and other specialty markets;
• Repair, service and frame straightening, where vehicles can be rebuilt from the ground up; and
• A parts operation that ships a broad range of parts the same day an order is received, including from Benlee’s Internet parts store, including tarps, hydraulic valves, cylinders, cables and other roll-off parts.
   

More information on Benlee’s products can be found at www.benlee.com.
 

ZincOx Resources plc, headquartered in the U.K., has reported that Korean Recycling Plant (KRP), its wholly owned subsidiary, is in the final months of ramp-up stage to full production, which remains on target for the second quarter of 2014.

In a press release, ZincOx says its efforts, together with improvements in the zinc price, should result in 2014 becoming a turnaround year. The average London Metal Exchange (LME) zinc price for 2013 was $1,909, and “we have recently seen this price averaging $2,050 which can have a significant impact on the company’s earnings profile," the company says. 

Because of a number of repair requirements the company underwent at the plant in 2013, production was limited during November and December 2013. For the full year, production at the zinc operation totaled 24,577 metric tons.

Andrew Woollett, ZincOx executive chairman, says, “We are very satisfied with the recent performance of the blind flange concept, which enabled production to continue while one line of heat exchangers was repaired. The timing of the refractory repair in December was unfortunate as it stalled our ramp-up momentum, but this has already been re-established, and we remain confident of achieving targeted full capacity. We are looking forward to a very productive 2014 and also to a firmer zinc price, which recently seems to be responding to the planned closure of major zinc mines.”