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.

Raleigh Metal Recycling, Raleigh, N.C., which operates Raleigh Metal Recycling and Goldsboro Metal Recycling, has entered into a long-term operating agreement with J&G Scrap Metal Recycling, Wilson, N.C.

“With all the changes in North Carolina metal theft laws, we wanted to partner with a company that could support us with technology that would ensure we met all aspects of the law,” says Jeff Charles, owner of J&G Scrap Metal Recycling. “When we heard that the Raleigh Metal Recycling operation and their technology was written up on CNBC’s website and the Wall Street Journal, it helped us make our decision."

Charles adds, “We have known Greg Brown and his team for many years, but after talking to many possible partners, the advances made by Raleigh Metal Recycling seemed the best of the best.”

“We are very pleased that Jeff chose to team with us," says Greg Brown, president and CEO of Raleigh Metal Recycling. “It is a competitive market, and Jeff knows all the players, so we were pleased that after his talking to our competition he chose us to partner with."

Brown adds, “Jeff has run a great operation for years and we look forward to growing with him in the future.”

The company will now be called Wilson Metal Recycling JG. The recycling center’s operations will expand to include electronics recycling. The new Wilson Metal Recycling JG also will take in all types of batteries and will continue to purchase material from the public, industrial and demolition companies.

Raleigh Metal Recycling operates three scrap recycling plants in eastern North Carolina.

Cambridge, Ontario-based Shred-Tech has introduced the MDX-2 Ultra High Security shredding truck, which the company says is an advancement its MDX-1 truck.

The MDX-2 can produce DIN (German Institute for Standardization) 4 (medium to high security) sized particles with the press of a button. In regular shred mode, the MDX-2’s ST-15H shredder can shred up to 6,500 pounds per hour, while in high security mode it can shred up 1,100 pounds per hour, according to Shred-Tech.

MDX units can shift between regular and ultra high security mode instantly, the company says, and do not use screens or stacked shredders to achieve ultra-high-security shred size.

Standard features, such as Shred-Tech’s digital Plus-1^® controls, enclosed bin tunnel, universal gripper tipper and predictive idle with remote start / stop, are included on the MDX models.

Shred-Tech specializes in solutions for everything from paper, tires, municipal solid waste and plastics to e-scrap, metals, wood and medical and hazardous waste.