Delaware-based research group Global Market Insights (GMI) has issued a study forecasting the global solid waste sector to become a $340 billion market by 2024.

GMI says the “growing adoption of recycling and waste-to-energy techniques to curb air pollution, along with increasing environmental concern, will stimulate solid waste management industry growth.”

The 554-page report, which can be purchased on the GMI website, concludes in part that legislation in the European Union and elsewhere will trigger investments in “composting, anaerobic digestion, [waste-to-energy] and recycling.”

In Asia, GMI points to Indonesia and its National Industrial Policy (No. 28/2008), which has “introduced incentives, including grants, tariff exemptions and soft loans, for the acquisition of waste treatment and pollution control equipment.”

The Nebraska Recycling Council (NRC), Lincoln, has released its “Community Materials Management Toolkit,” which compiles more than 390 resources covering 22 subject matter categories in solid waste, recycling and organics management. Located on the NRC website at https://nrcne.org/community-toolkit, it is designed for elected officials, municipal staff, industry, schools and community organizers looking for model ordinances, best practices, analysis tools and case studies that provide guidance on how to improve materials management practices.

Heather Creevan, executive director of the NRC, says the goal is to provide communities and organizations with resources they can actually use so that they don’t have to “reinvent the wheel.”

She also says the toolkit should be of interest to communities and organizations outside of the state. “The information is applicable potentially to other areas outside of Nebraska.”

The toolkit is organized into categories:

• Analysis & Decision-Making Tools;
• Construction & Demolition;
• Commercial Recycling by Sector;
• Compost;
• Funding Mechanisms;
• Green Teams;
• Haulers & Collection;
• Hazardous Waste & Toxic Materials;
• Hub & Spoke;
• Landfills;
• Lexicon;
• Materials & Markets;
• Measurement;
• MRFs;
• Planning & Public Policy;
• Public Education;
• Reuse;
• Rural Recycling;
• Schools;
• Sustainability & Resilience; and
• Zero Waste.

Creevan says the NRC plans to update the resources available in the toolkit and add additional resources over time.

A $40,000 2019 Waste Reduction and Recycling Grant from the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy helped to fund the project.  

Nebraska Recycling Council is a statewide, member-based, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to maximize the economic and environmental benefits of resource recovery in Nebraska.

 

Levitated Metals, a new company founded by President Ronak Shah, held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday, Jan. 15, to mark the start of construction of its heavy media flotation plant in New Caney, Texas, in the East Montgomery County Industrial Park about 35 miles northeast of Houston.

Shah most recently worked with Alter Trading Corp., St. Louis, as the company’s vice president of strategy and technology, a position he held for roughly six years. Prior to that, he was the company’s senior director of operations strategy. Shah also worked for Portland, Oregon-based Schnitzer Steel Industries as director of continuous improvement.

He says he has been planning Levitated’s heavy media plant, which represents an investment of nearly $10 million, since May of last year. “It’s taken a lot of work to get where we are now.”

The company will source zorba from auto shredder operators in the South, separating the aluminum from the copper, brass, zinc, magnesium, stainless steel and other metals using an advanced flotation process. Shah says the plant will produce 10 million pounds per month when operating at full scale.

“Zorba will be our primary feedstock and what the business model is primarily driven on,” Shah says, adding that the company also will purchase zorba fines and zurik within a roughly 500-mile radius of the plant.

“Recycled aluminum is a key step in the automotive supply chain,” he says. “The aluminum block engine of an end-of-life 2007 Ford Taurus has a very similar chemistry to that of a 2020 Chevrolet Silverado.  Customers reduce waste, save energy costs and are more efficient purchasing clean aluminum feedstock from Levitated Metals instead of other substitutes.”

Shah says the company’s 10-acre facility will begin production operations in September. The recovered metal packages of twitch (aluminum) and zebra (a mixture of brass, copper, zinc, nonmagnetic stainless steel and copper wire) will be marketed to smelters and processors in the U.S., Mexico and overseas, the company says.

“Texas, the Southeast United States and northern Mexico are home to dozens of melt operations,” he adds. “Levitated Metals is excited to be a valued supplier to them.

“My belief is that a large portion of aluminum will go to Mexico and the vibrant and large casting industry in the northern part of that country,” Shah continues. “I am also excited to sell into the Southeast U.S., which is home to a large number of smelters.

“Some aluminum and a large portion of the heavies will absolutely go overseas,” he adds.

Levitated does not yet have supply agreements in place but is in the early stages of establishing supply and consumer relationships, he says. “We are looking forward to meeting with suppliers and consumers.”

The company opted for heavy media separation over X-ray or sensor-based sorting, he says, because the process can make a very clean aluminum casting product by extracting more of the magnesium. “It makes a higher-quality aluminum alloy twitch,” he says. “In challenging markets, quality is king. That mostly drove my choice.”

Representatives from the East Montgomery County Improvement District (EMCID) were on-site for the groundbreaking. “We’re excited to welcome Levitated Metals to East Montgomery County. The company provides a very unique service, one that’s environmentally conscious,” says Frank McCrady, EMCID president and CEO.

Shah says he selected the greater Houston area for the plant because of its proximity to supply and demand, its busy container port and strong manufacturing workforce. Interstate Highway 10, I-45 and I-69 are main thoroughfares for aluminum shipments into the Southeast United States. “We are centrally located to a number of large auto shredders,” he says, “and on the main thoroughfare that feeds the automotive industry in the Southeast with aluminum from Monterrey, Mexico.”

Shah adds that Levitated is hoping to take advantage of backhaul opportunities into Mexico.   

The company will be hiring for marketing and operations positions later in the first quarter, he says.

Representatives from the company and construction team were present for the groundbreaking, as were neighbors from surrounding businesses, the Greater East Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce and several local aluminum suppliers.

Robin Wiener, president of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington, sent an email alert out to the association’s members notifying them of the Jan. 15 death of long-time ISRI employee Mark Reiter, who most recently served as vice president of government relations.

Wiener writes that Reiter worked for ISRI for nearly 30 years, despite saying when he first joined the association that he thought he would stay for a few years before moving on to something else. “But he fell in love with the industry and the members, and he literally never left,” she adds.

“Having had the pleasure and honor of working beside Mark for his entire ISRI career, I can honestly say that doing right for the membership was always at the top of his mind, and doing it with integrity was always his first priority,” Wiener writes. “Mark absolutely loved working for the recycling industry and was dedicated to advancing the interests of each and every member. What he loved most was using his experience and expertise to help empower individual members to feel comfortable meeting with their local, state and national representatives. Mark helped create ISRI's original grassroots advocacy network. He would tell members that ‘when meeting with your elected representatives, always remember that you are not a Democrat, you are not a Republican, you are an ISRI-ite!’ In other words, if you want to do what is best for the industry, you have to put ISRI above party politics.”

Wiener writes that Reiter was proudest of his work to lobby for the passage of the Superfund Recycling Equity Act (SREA) in 1999. “SREA saved the industry hundreds of millions of dollars and created the precedent for recognizing recyclers as distinct from disposal or waste operations. He truly made a difference for the industry,” she writes.

Reiter was defined by politics and the political process, Wiener says, sharing that he once said, “Being connected to politics keeps my engine going.”

She describes him as a “wonderful and dear friend to me and many others on staff, throughout the membership and here in Washington.”

Wiener says that as of Jan. 16, funeral arrangements are pending and that ISRI will set up a tribute page on its website that will be updated with details once they become available.