Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty, along with officials of plastics recycling company Allied Reprocessing recently held an open house at a new Allied facility in Ripley, Tenn. The company’s original building was destroyed by a fire in November of 2012.

The company is likely to invest $1.1 million and create 31 new jobs because of the expansion. “After some long days of planning and lots of hard work, we are growing and open to business,” said Will Douglas, owner of Allied Reprocessing. With $2 million already invested in equipment and infrastructure, Douglas says he plans to invest another $1 million during the next 12 months.

With the expanded facility the company expects to recycle 25 million pounds of plastic (12,500 tons) per year. Prior to the fire, Allied was able to recycle around 10 million pounds of plastic per year, according to Douglas.

As part of the expansion, the company has added new lines to process lightweight materials such as foam and film. Douglas says he also is considering buying equipment that will allow Allied Reprocessing to sort plastics by color and polymer.

“A keystone of Governor Haslam’s Jobs4TN strategy is investing in incumbent businesses,” Hagerty says. “Located in the heart of the nation’s distribution center, Allied Reprocessing can take advantage of our state’s exemplary logistical infrastructure, providing services through the Southeast. I am pleased Allied Reprocessing is reinvesting in Tennessee and creating valuable new jobs for the community.”

Allied Reprocessing started in 2009 and specializes in separating chrome-plated polymer parts and reprocessing them into reusable pellet materials for automotive suppliers. The company also focuses on removing, pulverizing, separating and re-pelletizing industrial plastics.

The expansion project will allow the company to add new lines to process agricultural plastic scrap, such as cotton bale wrap, and to separate mixed plastics.

Chicago-based CME Group, which operates a derivatives marketplace, has announced plans to launch North American physically delivered aluminum futures contracts beginning May 5, 2014, pending all regulatory approvals.

CME says the new contract will build on the firm’s existing suite of base metals products, including the Aluminum MW U.S. Transaction Premium Platts (25MT) futures contract, which was introduced in April 2012. These new aluminum futures contracts will offer global aluminum market participants a new tool for managing their exposure to volatile North American prices while giving them access to physical aluminum at a number of CME Group-approved warehouses across the United States, the company says.

“Aluminum is an indispensable part of our daily lives and is used in everything from building materials and transportation to packaging and wiring,” says Harriet Hunnable, CME Group Metals Products managing director. “Our customers want a North American physically deliverable aluminum futures contract from CME Group that provides them with greater transparency.

“Together with our Aluminum Midwest U.S. Premium contract, this new benchmark will enable industry participants to better hedge their North American aluminum price risk,” Hunnable says.

CME says the contracts will be 25 metric tons in size and will be introduced at a time when Midwest premium prices have increased more than 50 percent since the start of the year as a result of growing demand for this industrial metal coupled with supply constraints in the United States.

The new aluminum futures contracts will be available for trading on the floor and electronically via CME Globex as well as submission for clearing through CME ClearPort and will be listed by and subject to the rules of COMEX.

More information is available at www.cmegroup.com/aluminum.
 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the State of Texas Alliance for Recycling (STAR), recently held a workshop in El Paso, Texas, to help increase tire recycling on the U.S./Mexico border.

According to the EPA, each year, the U.S.-Mexico border region deals with millions of discarded tires, which pile up and attract pests. The EPA notes that finding ways to manage scrap tires is an important goal of the agency’s Border 2020 U.S.-Mexico environmental program. Over the past few years,the program has made progress by engaging local residents in cleanup efforts. This included removing 6 million tires from a pile in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which were converted into fuel.

The workshop brought together a variety of stakeholders from the United States and Mexico, including representatives from state agencies and municipalities, the tire industry, public utilities and elected officials. By bringing so many perspectives together, the workshop aimed to define the future of scrap tire management and develop markets for the material instead of simply filling landfills. Organizers say they hope ideas and practices discussed at the workshop can work throughout the border region as well as in other areas of the world where scrap tires are a problem.

For more information on EPA’s Border 2020 program visit www2.epa.gov/border2020.
 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued its Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials (NHSM) proposed rule, expanding the list of materials that are recognized as “non-waste fuels” to include processed construction and demolition (C&D) wood, paper recycling residuals and creosote-treated railroad ties.

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), Washington, D.C., and the American Wood Council (AWC), Leesburg, Va., have applauded the recent EPA ruling.

The two associations released a statement which says that with the listing of paper and wood products manufacturing facilities are one step closer to having the needed assurance that the fuels can be used in industrial boilers rather than having them disposed of through incineration or landfill.

“We welcome EPA’s listing of paper recycling residuals and railroad ties as fuels, which provide substantial energy value to our facilities,” says Donna Harmon, AF&PA president and CEO. “On average, about two-thirds of the energy we use is produced on site from renewable biomass, and these additions help reduce our reliance on nonrenewable fuel sources.”

“Structures made from wood store carbon for a very long time; at the end of their useful life, these renewable construction materials also can be used to produce bio-based energy,” says AWC President and CEO Robert Glowinski. “EPA’s listing of C&D materials diverts used materials from landfills, allows for capture of the inherent energy value, and lessens the reliance on fossil-based fuels. As an industry, we appreciate the clarity today’s decision provides for our air regulation compliance strategies.”

Manufacturing facilities rely on the NHSM listing to determine whether they are regulated under EPA’s boiler maximum achievable control technology rule or under the agency’s commercial and industrial solid waste incinerators rule. AF&PA and AWC will carefully review the details of the proposal and provide additional information during the comment period to support and potentially expand the proposed listings.

A link to the prepublication version of the proposed rule amendment is available here. 

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