The COVID-19 pandemic has harmed numerous sectors of the global economy, but paperboard packaging and tissue paper have been notable exceptions. No matter what shape the economic rebound takes, that means Turkey is likely to have a growing demand for finished paper and board and the recovered fiber needed to make it.

In a recent interview with Recycling Today, Ercan Yürekli of Istanbul-based recycling and trading firm Yürekli Kağıt indicates his company is preparing to help fill this demand, as are many other companies that belong to TÜDAM, an association of more than 50 Turkish recycling firms.

Yürekli says new capacity is being constructed in the form of additional paper machines to make containerboard in Turkey. He described the new capacity as “recycling based,” meaning Turkey’s ability to absorb scrap paper is poised to increase in the next three years.

By 2023, Turkey’s paper and board making capacity will exceed 6 million tons per year,” he comments, adding, “Turkey will be a more important import market.”

Yürekli Kağıt collects printers scrap in and around Istanbul, but Ercan Yürekli says Turkey’s scrap paper collection overall focuses on old corrugated containers (OCC), and even the collection rate for that stands at “only at 20 to 25 percent.”

“Industrial OCC is collected, but household fiber is less so,” says Yürekli. “Our current 4 million tons per year capacity means we’re already net importers of scrap paper.”

Yürekli Kağıt is among the TÜDAM member companies that have branched out into global recovered fiber trading. The company also has invested to collect and bale fiber in Romania, via a subsidiary called ARD.

Yürekli says shipping fiber via truck from Romania (as well as from Greece and Bulgaria) can be done affordably. Fiber also is brought in via sea container from Germany, the Netherlands and other more distant points in Europe. With new capacity coming online in Turkey, however, he sees supply lines extending farther—including to North America.

“Our aim is to help Turkey become a bigger importer of fiber, up to 2 million tons per year by 2023,” says Yürekli of on the TÜDAM association’s goals. “Our firm would like about 10 percent of this share,” he adds.

He said Turkish fiber trading firms, including his own, “are trying to find connections from the United States and Canada. We do see opportunities.” Some of the same firms that “are already exporting to India and Indonesia” are ideal prospects, he suggests.

Regarding Yürekli Kağıt’s qualifications, he says, “We know the business, as collectors, so I think we can forge good connections.” As with the ferrous scrap recycling market, he says shipping from the East Coast of the U.S. probably “makes sense.”

As in other parts of the world, a decrease in materials collected in Turkey because of COVID-19 has caused demand to outpace supply. “At the end of the first quarter of 2020, our collections dropped 60 percent,” says Yürekli. “It was very hard in April to find supply; it was already a weak system, mainly run by street collectors, and then due to the total lockdown, nobody was on the street.”

He continues, “At that time, we changed strategy. We saw that the demand increase presented opportunities. So now, increasing our import capacity through our trading arm has become a priority.”

Yürekli says he has been a member of the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) “for many years,” and currently serves on the boards of both the BIR Paper Division and its Plastics Committee.

On the plastic side, Yürekli Kağıt is among the companies in Turkey that collects and recycles industrial scrap. As for household plastic bottle collection in that nation, he says Turkey has room to grow, which is why the nation is a “net importer of plastic scrap” as it is for fiber.

As the head of a family business that has been operating in Istanbul for about 60 years, Yürekli says while COVID-19 has been challenging, he nonetheless is excited about the opportunities the Turkish trading and recycling sector has in front of it in the new decade.

Sorting equipment maker Eriez says it has boosted its ability to offer materials sorting testing services for the recycling industry at its Central Test Lab (CTL). The CTL is located at the company’s Wager Road plant in Erie, Pennsylvania.

According to Eriez, the majority of test work for recycling applications focuses on ferrous and nonferrous magnetic separation. Test equipment used most frequently for recycling industry customers includes eddy current separators, magnetic drum separators, suspended permanent magnets and electrostatic separators.

The company says test procedures can be customized for each customer and can involve materials such as zorba, twitch, zebra, zurik and other mixed shredded metals, plus auto shredder residue (ASR) fines, wire choppings and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic flake contaminated with aluminum.

“After processing customers’ materials on the recycling equipment, we can determine recovery rates and make judgments on material grade,” says Chris Ramsdell, a recycling product manager with Eriez. “With these recovery and grade figures, we can often help the customer determine equipment payback periods to support their investment,” he adds.

After lab testing, Eriez says it can map out potential process flows, mix and match different pieces of equipment and determine recovery rates based on where a particular piece of equipment will be located in a process flow. “Our experience has shown we can provide reliable and accurate predictions for plant-scale results based on our lab-scale tests,” says Ramsdell.

LBX Company LLC, Lexington, Kentucky, has announced the addition of Bejac Corp. as the dealer for Link-Belt hydraulic excavators, scrap and material handlers and parts in the Las Vegas area.

The new Bejac branch is located at 3838 Octagon Road, North Las Vegas, Nevada, and features service bays, warehousing, a wash rack and a secure paved yard. The location will serve the Clark, Lincoln and southern half of Nye counties. Equipment can be purchased or rented and there is an on-site service for maintenance and repairs.

Bejac Corp., Placentia, California, has been a Link-Belt excavator dealer since 1993.

“Bejac has been a long-time partner of LBX and we are excited to grow alongside them in the greater Las Vegas market,” says Chris Wise, distribution development manager, LBX Company. “They have the right product expertise and a high commitment to customer service which aligns perfectly with our company values.”

More information on the new Link-Belt Excavator, parts or service can be found here.

The New Jersey Legislature is looking at requiring some containers be manufactured with a minimum amount of recycled materials as a way to reduce plastic pollution, reports NJ Spotlight.

The issue arose during a June 17 committee hearing on a bill (S-2515) that aims to require certain amounts of recycled plastic, paper and glass to be used in plastic and glass carryout containers, carryout bags and trash bags.

Gary Sondermeyer, vice president of operations at the Bayshore Recycling Corp. in Woodbridge, New Jersey, called the bill the most comprehensive blueprint for establishing a recycling market ever attempted in New Jersey.

“The point is to get as much of this stuff out of landfills and incinerators,’’ Sen. Bob Smith, chairman of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee and bill’s sponsor, told NJ Spotlight. He added it also would make recycling more feasible here while helping out municipalities who have seen recycling costs spike because the recyclables they collect end up in garbage dumps.

The legislation has won tentative backing from a range of business groups, although several had concerns that the percentages of recycling content mandated by the bill are not technically feasible. Environmental organizations also supported the measure, but only if it does not act as a substitute for a different Smith bill that would ban single-use plastic bags and tote bags.

According to the article, that bill (S-864) won passage from the Senate this past March but has yet to be taken up by the Assembly. It is one of the top legislative priorities for many prominent environmental groups but has faltered in previous legislative sessions.

Alex Ambrose of the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions, endorsed the recycled-content bill but expressed concern, echoed by others, that the measure could undermine prospects for the single-use plastic ban.

“We cannot recycle our way out of the plastic single-use bag problem. The single-use plastic bag is not a recycling problem. It’s a manufacturing problem,’’ she said.

Some business groups did not oppose the bill, saying their members are already trying to increase the amount of recycled content in various products like containers and bags. But some of the bill’s proposed recycled content requirements — ranging from 10 percent to 35 percent are just not feasible, they said.

Dennis Hart, executive director of the Chemistry Industry Council of New Jersey, urged the committee to establish a special committee to look at the specific recycled-content requirements outlined in the bill.

“What we’re saying is let’s do it the right way,’’ said Hart, speaking for the plastics manufacturing industry, which is not opposed to the bill. Lawmakers need to explore what is technically feasible and what is not, he said.