The People’s Republic of China churns out more steel, aluminum and copper than any other nation on Earth, so if it’s scrap consumption percentage rises in 2021, the ripple effects are likely to be noticed.

A late February online presentation by Ian Roper and Joyce Li of Shanghai Metals Market (SMM) touched on scrap use in several of China’s base metals markets, along with other trends affecting the nation’s output and use of steel, stainless steel, aluminum and copper.

For the past two years, China’s government was known for the barriers it was putting in place to imported scrap, with the clock ticking on a proposed outright ban for seemingly all types of metal and nonmetallic scrap on Jan. 1 of this year.

The government ultimately decided against the self-imposed blockade. Instead, the nation set up a system that resulted in the return of considerable amounts of copper and aluminum scrap in the final two months of 2020, and the delivery of the first few shipments of ferrous scrap under a new “resource” classification.

Li remarked that China is far from self-sufficient in copper, with its “self-sufficiency rate” having dropped from 40 percent in 2010 to 22 percent in 2019. The restrictions on imported scrap in 2019 and 2020 thus led to increased copper cathode and aluminum ingot imports into China by mid-2020.

Although scrap import volumes rebounded in November and December, Roper noted red metal scrap imports into China dropped by about 300,000 metric tons in 2020. He said SMM expects a rebound in scrap imports in 2021, though it could be at the types of high prices that caused metals theft to become a hot button issue in North America and Europe, as in 2012.

In the ferrous market, Chinese steel producers seem to be gravitating toward electric arc furnaces (EAFs) and other technology designed to lower emissions and to consume more scrap. Even if Chinese producers import about 1 million metric tons of scrap in 2021, Roper said that is an amount that will make an impact in a region where mills in nations like Vietnam are bidding for the same scrap. With any additional tons purchased. The main effect, he said, could be “to lift global and regional steel scrap prices.”

Roper also said stainless steel, not electric vehicle (EV) batteries, was the biggest driver of nickel consumption in China in 2020. He said stainless produces in 2021 likely will be supplied by growing volumes of Indonesian nickel-pig iron and thus will have a limited appetite for scrap.

On the EV front, Roper said lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries are beginning to gain market share in passenger vehicles in China compared with ternary nickel, manganese and cobalt (NMC) battery packs. It is one reason, he said, SMM thinks nickel-pricing EV europhia “could be overdone at the moment.”

A question underlying all 2021 scrap purchase levels in China is the fate of that nation’s overall metals consumption strength in 2021. While China’s government spent money in 2020 to roar back from COVID-19, by August it was meeting with property developers to deliver a message about “three red lines” (debt-to-cash, debt-to-assets and debt-to-equity ratios deemed too high to cross).

Roper, who is based in Singapore for SMM, cited the “three red lines” policy on property loans as a potential barrier to steel consumption. Li, while considering copper’s consumption outlook in 2021, said China may have ended its “golden decade” of rampant apartment construction.

In both sectors, infrastructure spending could provide an alternative pathway to more metals consumption. However, Roper said he does not see “big infrastructure spending” as likely in China in 2021, though one “pocket of [metals] consumption” will involve urban subway and metro system buildouts.

PreZero Stiftung & Co. KG, a plastics recycling and reprocessing company owned by the Germany-based retail group that operates Lidl and Kaufland stores, is providing recycled-content resin to make household goods sold in those two stores.

The Neckarsulm, Germany-based Schwarz Gruppe says its Lidl and Kaufland stores are now placing products made with “at least 95-percent-recycled plastic” into its retail locations. The PreZero plastic has been produced from recycled packaging scrap, says the German company.

“We promote the production of new products from packaging [scrap] and offer them for sale in the retail divisions,” says Thomas Kyriakis, CEO of PreZero.

The packaging scrap collected and sorted by PreZero is cleaned at two of its own recycling facilities in Europe and is then reprocessed into plastic granulate. Household products made from the recycled-content resins include buckets, clothes hangers, garbage cans and storage boxes.

The first products became available at Kaufland stores in mid-January, and the product line will expand over the course of the year, according to Schwarz Gruppe. The products will be available in all Lidl stores in Germany at the end of February.

Schwarz Gruppe says the effort is part of its REset Plastic strategy, and the recycled-content products are a means of promoting the group’s vision of “less plastic – closed loops.”

The retailer and its PreZero business unit have been active in early 2021, including by rebranding with the PreZero name recycling assets in Sweden it acquired from France-based Suez. PreZero also has opened a sorting plant in Belgium early this year, and has announced the acquisition of a United States-based polyethylene (PE) film and bag manufacturer.

Rutland, Vermont-based Casella Waste Systems Inc. has announced that eight of its customers have been honored for leadership in sustainability at an inaugural Casella Sustainability Leadership Award Ceremony, a virtual event held in February.

The customers were honored “for excellence in resource sustainability across seven categories, including: partnership, innovation, recycling, organics recovery, donations and reuse, closed loop economy and education,” says the waste and recycling firm.

“It gives us a sense of great pride to honor these eight customers for their leadership and outstanding work in advancing sustainability,” says John W. Casella, chair and CEO. “We hope that by bringing attention to their efforts, others will be inspired by their passion, commitment and success.”

Nearly 30 customers were nominated for their efforts, including municipalities, colleges and universities, industrial manufacturers and food and beverage producers. Winners were chosen by a group of Casella executives and outside panelists, including True Zero Waste Advisors.

“We’ve spent more than 45 years working toward a more sustainable future, and as we strive to help our customers reach their sustainability goals it is an honor to recognize their collective efforts,” says Casella. “The customers and communities we have the privilege of serving are leading the way and inspiring others to live and work more sustainability and that continues to be the most rewarding part of our work.”

The 2020 Casella Sustainable Leadership Award Winners in each category are below.

Partner of the Year: Designed to recognize a Casella customer advancing resource sustainability by forging great partnerships, the 2020 winner is Tompkins County, New York. The county has been working with Casella since the early 1990s and currently boasts a 60 percent recycling rate, says Casella.

Innovator of the Year: This category is designed to recognize a Casella customer advancing resource sustainability by embracing innovative solutions. The 2020 winner, UMass Lowell, has collaborated with Casella to establish food waste collection program. Efforts now include two InSinkErator Grind2Energy machines, plus a closed-loop bagged compost program, compost for campus gardens and an early-stage program for recycling plastic from research labs.

Recycling Champion: The 2020 winner of this category, New Jersey-based BD Pharmaceutical Systems, has made a commitment to recycling glass, which Casella calls its largest discarded material stream. In the last seven years, BD has maintained a glass recycling rate of more than 93 percent.

Organics Recovery Champion: 2020 winner DuPont Nutrition USA generates around 25,000 tons annually of an organic byproduct called Algefiber. DuPont has worked with Casella to help local farmers and others use the material that once headed for landfills to now improve soils and enhance crop yields.

Donations and Reuse Champion: Gorham, Maine-based Goodwill Northern New England and Casella have established a Green Move Out reuse program to capture items from college campuses when students move out at the end of each school year. Since its inception in 2015, Green Move Outs have recovered more than 100 tons of donated items from students.

Closed Loop Economy Champion: Carver, Massachusetts-based Read Custom Soils is described by Casella as a top customer for its Earthlife products made from recycled organics. Read Custom Soils makes them into specialized soil blends for applications including golf courses, green roofs and gardens.

Educator of the Year (two winners): Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, has created a Waste Minimization Task Force that convenes stakeholders monthly to discuss and advance waste minimization programs. One of the group’s initiatives has been a Green Move Out program, designed to divert materials for reuse and recycling over the course of several days at the end of each semester.

The city of Fairfax, Vermont, has focused on outreach and education, including the launch of a waste and recycling app, in cooperation with Canada-based Recollect, to give residents access to their collection schedules and a searchable tool to access recycling and compost education information.

 
Great Northern Fibers LCC, West Babylon, New York, has upgraded its fiber sorting line, which alternately processes commercial fiber and residential dual-stream news from Long Island communities. The incoming material contains a great deal of old corrugated containers (OCC), and the company’s existing OCC screen removes large pieces of this material. However, much of the small OCC was making its way into the paper stream, ending up either in residue or in the mixed paper grade.

To upgrade the system and recover more valuable fiber, Great Northern selected Van Dyk Recycling Solutions, Norwalk, Connecticut. The company completed the installation in late 2020.

Van Dyk proposed a 2,800-millimeter (or slightly more than 9-feet) wide optical sorter to remove small cardboard from the unders of the OCC screen. The optical sorter shoots positively on OCC, ejecting brown fiber from the remaining news stream. Van Dyk says the results are twofold: By removing brown grades from the paper, the news grade is now clean enough to sell as news, while the brown material captured by the optical sorter is blended into the OCC and baled.

The optical sorter is outfitted with a Deft Air wind tunnel on its acceleration belt to stabilize paper and prevent floating. When paper lies still, the optical sorter can increase the accuracy of its picks and also can process more material at a higher speed.

Photo courtesy of Van Dyk Recycling Solutions

Great Northern Fibers General Manager Joe Fiorillo says the facility’s OCC tonnage has dramatically increased, maximizing the company’s advantage on high OCC prices. “The improved quality of the product produced has enabled us to get more money for the product and also to find constant markets for it,” he adds.

In light of the optical sorter’s efficiency, Great Northern has been able to eliminate six hand-sorters while also increasing its tonnage processed per hour. “We were running with a shift and a half,” Fiorillo says. “Now we can produce the same overall tonnage with just one shift and fewer people.”

All residue is now centralized to one location, where a reversible belt feeds two compactors, making the system fully automatic. Storage bunkers replaced the original push-through bunkers to eliminate double handling of the material, according to Van Dyk. All materials are baled in a Bollegraaf HBC 120s baler, also supplied by Van Dyk.

Regarding the installation, Fiorillo says it was “on point, and the Van Dyk install team was very professional.” He adds, “What has impressed me the most about Van Dyk over the years is that every piece of machinery fits perfectly and is bolted together. Van Dyk measures, and then remeasures, to make sure everything fits.”

He also acknowledges the “impeccable” service he receives. “When we call for assistance, we get an immediate response,” Fiorillo says. “Overnight delivery on parts is very reliable and, in an emergency, they will even deliver same-day via courier. The fact that they keep all parts in stock is an amazing asset for their customers.”

Van Dyk can be contacted at 203-967-1100 or at info@vdrs.com  to request a tour of the Great Northern facility or for more information.