BAN finds trouble in its own backyard

Seattle-based watchdog group discovers Washington electronics recycler is exporting flat-screen monitors.

May 10, 2016
Recycling Today Staff

Basel Action Network (BAN), the Seattle-based group that manages the e-Stewards electronics recycling certification program, has revoked that certification for Total Reclaim, saying the Seattle firm “was identified by BAN’s e-Trash Transparency Project (an electronic tracking program) to have exported mercury-containing LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors to Hong Kong.”

BAN has posted several documents about the Total Reclaim situation to its website, including an “evidentiary report” and a statement from Total Reclaim’s Craig Lorch and Jeff Zirkle apologizing for the lapses in certification protocol.

“We are very sorry that we have let down our industry, our customers, our employees and all those who have believed in us,” write the duo. Lorch and Zirkle also write, "Economic challenges never excuse wrong behavior. The reality, though, is that squeezed by plummeting commodity prices; increasing labor costs; long-term, fixed-price contracts; and, especially, a dramatically increasing volume of flat-screen devices, we made a short-term business decision to export materials to undocumented processing facilities in Hong Kong."

As part of its e-Trash Transparency Project, BAN says it “placed 200 small GPS-based tracking devices into old printers and monitors and delivered them to Goodwill [Industries] and to various recyclers around the country.”

Two tracked devices went from Total Reclaim’s possession to the New Territories of Hong Kong, where units are disassembled in non-e-Stewards-certified facilities.

A May 9, 2016, BAN news release on the e-Trash Transparency Project also scrutinizes the recycling partnership between computer maker Dell Inc. and Goodwill Industries. BAN says 46 of the 200 tracker-planted electronic devices were delivered to Goodwill Industries stores in the United States and that “seven of these later reported their whereabouts in the Asian countries of Thailand, Taiwan and China (mainland and Hong Kong). Six of these were part of Dell Inc.’s Reconnect partnership with Goodwill.”

Says BAN Executive Director Jim Puckett, “Goodwill and Dell have had strong reputations for social and environmental responsibility. Our findings, however, shake the foundations of that public trust and cry out for the implementation of immediate reform when it comes to e-waste management.”

Steinert to display UniSort BlackEye at IFAT

New device is designed to identify, separate black plastic scrap.

May 10, 2016
RTGE Staff

Conferences & Events Equipment & Products Plastics

Cologne, Germany-based Steinert Group will display the UniSort BlackEye device at the IFAT trade fair in Munich in June 2016. Steinert says the BlackEye has been designed to tackle the challenge of “the pure separation of black plastics.” The new optical sorting system “enables recycling companies to produce purer granules that are so valuable that the investment in the device quickly pays off,” says Steinert.

Recycling companies who produce mixed granules from purchased black polyethylene and polypropylene (PE/PP) currently pay a market price of about €200 ($228) per tonne, depending on the material’s polyolefin (PO) content, according to Steinert. However, if they could divide the mixture into fractions such as PE and PP they would be able to obtain a price of up to €900 ($1,025) for the granules, says the firm.

Sensors in traditional optical sorting machines have to date been unable to distinguish the different types of black plastics from one another because the soot used to blacken the plastic absorbs the visible and infrared wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. “The UniSort BlackEye closes this gap and makes a pure separation of comminuted black components possible,” says Hendrik Beel, managing director at the Steinert Group. “The investment pays off quickly because it enables operators to produce pure and, thus, more valuable granules.”

Says Beel, “The UniSort BlackEye operates quickly enough to scan belts moving at up to four metres (13 feet) per second. During this time, it can scan about 35 million detection points or up to 5,000 objects. This makes it ideal for efficient industrial applications for crushed plastic parts measuring between 10 and 30 millimetres (0.4 to 1.2 inches).” On average, the UniSort BlackEye has a throughput rate of 1 tonne of plastic flakes per hour.

A video clip of the UniSort at work can be found on YouTube at this link.

Columbus, Ohio, recycler agrees to clean up properties

Owner to clean up recycling facility properties that were subject to a fire in May 2015.

May 9, 2016
Recycling Today Staff

Municipal / IC&I Paper Plastics

A Columbus, Ohio, recycler has agreed to clean up the recycling facility properties that were destroyed by a huge blaze in May 2015.

According to an article in the Columbus Dispatch, owner Ebrahim Hooshiarnejad will clean up the South Side recycling properties and will maintain their safety.

Franklin County Environmental Judge Daniel Hawkins signed orders May 5 requiring Hooshiarnejad to follow city codes at his properties at 611 Marion Road, the site of the May 1, 2015 fire; 521 and 659 Marion Road; 521 Innis Ave.; 1889-1891 Federal Parkway on the city's South Side; and 2040 Hamilton Road on the East Side, according to the article.

By June 1, 2016, the Dispatch reports materials cannot be stacked taller than 8 feet at the Hamilton Road, 521 Marion Road and the Innis Avenue and Federal Parkway sites. By Aug. 1, there can be no more than four adjacent piles and at least 8 feet between each pile. By Oct. 1, the stacks cannot be taller than 6 feet.

The stack limitations are aimed at preventing another towering blaze like the one that engulfed the 13-acre Marion Road site and caused $8 million in damage, according to the article. Three businesses recycled paper, plastic and wood pallets at that location. The fire was started by a Phoenix Recycling worker’s discarded cigarette.

Hooshiarnejad also must have all waste and debris removed from the 611 Marion Road site by June 1, the article states.

Assistant City Attorney Steve Dunbar said although Hooshiarnejad has been cooperative, it’s taken a while to finally get these orders, according to the Dispatch.

“The pace has not occurred as quickly as we’d like to see,” he said.

Dunbar said materials can be moved from the warehouses to the 611 Marion Road site for the short term. Hooshiarnejad also must submit a revised zoning application for that site and a permit application to repair the remaining building. Seven of the eight buildings there have been razed, the article confirms.

Rubicon CEO is a finalist for Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Award recognizes entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence in areas such as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment.

May 9, 2016
Recycling Today Staff

Ernst and Young (EY), London, announced that Nate Morris, founder and CEO of Rubicon Global, Atlanta, is a finalist for the company's EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2016 Award in the Southeast. EY will announce the award winners at a special gala June 23 at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee.

Now in its 30th year, the EY Entrepreneur of the Year program has expanded to recognize business leaders in more than 60 countries throughout the world. The award is designed to recognize entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in areas such as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. A panel of independent judges selected Morris as a finalist.

Rubicon Global is working to disrupt one of the world's toughest, most antiquated and hostile industries, the company says. Rubicon is the waste and recycling provider for several members of the Fortune 500 in more than 18 countries. Morris strives to achieve the highest standards and encourages others to do the same. In addition to Rubicon, he also serves as the chairman of Morris Industries, a private holding company focused on disrupting legacy industries.

Morris was named a Fortune Magazine's 40 under 40, a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and serves on the Dean's Advisory Council at the University of Kentucky's Gatton College of Business and Economics. Morris is also a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) Bluegrass Chapter and the Council on Foreign Relations as well as an active board member of Endeavor Global Louisville.

"I'm extremely proud to be recognized as a finalist by Ernst & Young," says Morris. "Thanks to our incredible team, investors, advisors and colleagues, we've become a major force in disrupting the waste and recycling industry. A special thanks to Brent Callinicos, Rubicon board member and Uber advisor, for the nomination."

Regional award winners are eligible for consideration for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year national program. Award winners in several national categories, as well as the EY Entrepreneur of the Year National Overall Award winner, will be announced at the EY Entrepreneur of the Year National Awards gala in Palm Springs, California, on Nov. 19, 2016. The awards are the culminating event of the EY Strategic Growth Forum, the nation's most prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies.

Founded and produced by EY, The Entrepreneur of the Year Awards are nationally sponsored by SAP America, Merrill Corporation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

NRT launches optical sorting platform

The new SpydIR and ColorPlus optical sorters will launch at IFAT and WasteExpo.

May 9, 2016
Recycling Today Staff

Equipment & Products Municipal / IC&I Paper Plastics

Nashville, Tennessee-based National Recovery Technologies (NRT) has announced a next-generation platform for the company’s SpydIR® and ColorPlus™ optical sorters, which will debut during the IFAT 2016 and WasteExpo 2016 tradeshows. The new platform incorporates NRT’s proprietary In-Flight Sorting® technology and continuous auto-calibration, and introduces numerous new features, including performance-enhancing design and internalized controls, according to the company.

nrt optical sorter

The IFAT 2016 exposition is scheduled for May 30 to June 3 in Munich and WasteExpo 2016 will be June 6-9 in Las Vegas.

NRT says the new design of its optical sorters is a culmination of customer feedback and years of research and development aimed at improving the company’s already industry-leading recovery rates.

“For our customers, a couple of percentage points in recovery can significantly impact their bottom line,” says NRT President Matthias Erdmannsdoerfer. “Through mapping the trajectory of ejected commodities with high-speed cameras, we found that a small percentage were bouncing back and not being recovered. The new units offer a sleek, modern design, but more importantly the new shape provides advanced trajectory control that virtually eliminates ‘bounce backs’ of any ejected objects.”

The platform’s shape creates an even more controlled ejection pattern and laminar air flow, the company says. This improvement will significantly improve the recovery of fiber and film. “It’s a huge advancement,” says Erdmannsdoerfer.

The new design is delivered with an entirely self-contained electrical system and a completely new software package, featuring an intuitive human machine interface (HMI) and powerful analytics delivered by NRT Connect™, the company says.

“The new generation is smarter and makes the Internet of Things a reality for optical sorting,” Erdmannsdoerfer continues. “We are well past the traditional remote log-in for technicians—these machines are proactive, constantly monitoring activity and instantaneously sending reports and messages, such as performance metrics and the life expectancy of wear parts. In the case of a fault, the NRT Service Team is notified immediately.”

NRT says the plug-and-play design allows for a faster installation, commissioning and startup, and delivery of a proven solution. “We’re not simply a supplier of detection and ejection components. We manage the entire process, and this new generation is another step in our heritage as a provider of high-performance sorting systems,” says Erdmannsdoerfer. “Everything is designed to work together, from detection and ejection to flight trajectory. The air and cooling system, an accessible and upgraded ejection block, and larger clear side panels and other improved access points are all designed to deliver recovery, purity and maintenance benefits to the customer. We’re extremely excited to bring these game-changing optical sorters to market.”

To view the equipment in action, click here.

NRT is a global leader in the design, manufacture and installation of optical sorting solutions. The company is a member of the Bulk Handling Systems (BHS) Family of Cos., a worldwide leading provider of automated sorting systems to the waste processing and recycling industries. In Europe, NRT operations are headquartered in Amsterdam. Since its inception in 1981, NRT has been recognized as an industry thought-leader and innovator, and currently holds more than 35 U.S. and international patents. Today, NRT says it remains focused on technology innovation and offers industry-leading bottle sorting recovery and purity rates, thanks in part to In-Flight Sorting® and PET Boost® technologies.

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