Norway-based equipment and technology provider Tomra Systems ASA says its current President and CEO Stefan Ranstrand will be succeeded by Tove Andersen by Nov. 1. Andersen joins Tomra from Norway-based agricultural products and chemicals provider Yara International, where she is currently executive vice president, Europe.

The Tomra Sorting Recycling business unit offers automated sorting equipment to recycling plant operators while its Tomra Collection Solutions business unit designs and sells reverse vending machines (RVMs) for the automated collection of recyclable beverage containers.

“I’ve seen the great work that Tomra is doing to enable the circular economy while also ensuring resource responsibility and minimizing waste across the food, recycling and mining industries,” Andersen says. “It is really motivating to be joining Tomra to lead the resource revolution.”

She continues, “I’m very excited to take on the role as the new CEO of Tomra. I’ve seen the impact Tomra is making and to join this company with sustainability at the core of its strategy is a privilege.”

Ranstrand, who has been Tomra’s president and CEO since 2009, says, “I am thrilled to welcome Tove Andersen as the new CEO of Tomra. Tove has vast international experience working for Yara, a company like Tomra that has sustainability at the core of its strategy. I look forward to seeing the impact Tove will make in leading the resource revolution.”

He continues, “I am pleased to be able to personally welcome Tove to Tomra and look forward to working alongside her during the transition. The people of Tomra are what make this company achieve great things for our planet. Tove shares our values of passion, innovation and responsibility. She will be a great leader to take Tomra into the future.”

Tomra says it has roughly 100,000 installations in more than 80 markets worldwide. It employs some 4,300 people globally and had total revenue of $1.2 billion in 2020.

Presenters at an ISRI2021 session titled “Financing to maximize growth” examined some of the pros and cons of accessing credit for capex needs and delved into the various types of financing firms operating in the capex lending arena.

For waste and recycling companies, there is no “one size fits all” approach to borrowing money, the presenters at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries-hosted session seemed to agree. Rather, a variety of factors can influence when it is best to approach a commercial bank, seek a specialty leasing or financing arrangement, or dip into cash reserves.

Brandon Roznovsky, chief financial officer of Brenham, Texas-based Brannon Industrial Group, said he is familiar with the scrap sector’s preference to both save cash and to spend it on equipment purchases to avoid debt obligations. However, Roznovsky said a low-interest-rate environment combined with tax incentives available in 2021 “make it a pretty good time to borrow.”

Kevin Canepa, director of sales at Pittsburgh-based Vision Financial Group Inc., said there also is an opportunity cost aspect to conserving cash rather than paying upfront for plant and equipment. “Finance experts generally recommend that you have a cash reserve of three to six months,” said Canepa, the wisdom of which can be seen in light of the circumstances of restaurant owners and others affected by COVID-19-related restrictions.

Having that cash on hand “demonstrates financial stability, allows you to meet bank covenants for liquidity ratios and financial statements, and it allows you to look at opportunity costs,” said Canepa.

As an example, he continued, “If I were to pay $300,000 for [a] car crusher today, what’s the opportunity cost for not having that cash, versus leasing it and paying $10,000 a month [and] getting an immediate cash return on your investment?”

Such cash may be needed if an acquisition opportunity arises, or the chance to buy a parcel of land that has come onto the market adjacent to one’s transfer station or scrap yard.

Both Roznovsky and Mike Taranovich of Bradenton, Florida-based Proterra Recycling Systems Inc. said boutique lenders and lease providers such as Vision Financial can expedite the financing process because of their familiarity with the waste and recycling sector.

“I’ve dealt with [banks] who didn’t have a clue what a cardboard screen was or an optical sorter, and it just really slows down the entire process,” said Taranovich. “By dealing with people who know the market, I don’t have to re-educate [a lender] every time, and that speeds up the process.”

In terms of tax incentives, Section 179 of the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tax Code offers several potential benefits to corporations that purchase equipment in 2021.

The deduction and 100 percent bonus depreciation can be used for new equipment, used equipment and qualifying software, with a deduction limit of $1.05 million and a spending cap of $2.62 million.

According to Vision Financial, “If you buy or lease a piece of qualifying equipment, you can deduct the full purchase price from your gross income. It’s an incentive created by the U.S. government to encourage businesses to buy equipment and invest in themselves.”

The website of Denver-based technology firm Enavate says Section 179 applies not only to equipment but also “qualifying software.” According to Enavate, that means not only “off-the-shelf” software but also “software as a service (SaaS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM)” products, plus some other specialty products.

U.K.-based packaging producer DS Smith, with U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, has announced it is investing $140 million in research and development that will include developing new materials to replace plastics and a testing program to strengthen corrugated cardboard and reduce G-force shock in-home delivery packaging.

A key driver behind the investments is the company’s Now and Next sustainability strategy, offering customers 100-percent-recyclable packaging within two years and replacing 1 billion pieces of supermarket and e-commerce plastic by 2025. 

The additional investment over five years includes the creation of a prototyping and testing facility in the U.K. to fast-track next-generation technology and work with research partners globally.

“How we live our lives is changing fast due to many factors, and how we all take care of the environment is a top priority,” DS Smith CEO Miles Roberts says. “We are now investing more than previous years to ensure that we are leading this change and can offer customers packaging that has less impact on the environment.

“We continue to focus on reducing our impact of our operations on the environment but importantly, we are able to contribute to wider society by providing circular packaging solutions that eliminates waste and reuses valuable resources,” he adds.

The company says it plans real-world analysis of e-commerce home delivery supply chains, including measurement of G-force impacts on packages in transit, to reduce waste and prevent damaged parcels.

For example, DS Smith will insert a live GPS tracking sensor into a parcel or pallet in transit to measure G-force, which includes vibration, motion and impact, providing instant feedback on the materials, carrier handling, road conditions and other effects on the box throughout its trip in the supply chain.

Using this data, DS Smith says it can make recommendations on fiber usage, required strength and performance of packaging.

Through its R&D center, the company will accelerate investment in new materials development, including fully recyclable, translucent packaging to replace plastic windows in sandwich and ready-meal packs, and research into alternative natural fibers and new packaging designs, such as plastic and bubble wrap replacement.

DS Smith says it also will expand its barrier technologies, such as the company’s recent piloting of “Touchguard,” a packaging coating that resists the transmission of viruses, and its patented Greencoat, a moisture-resistant alternative to wax coating.

The company also will analyze different fibers in recycled paper and corrugated packaging to optimize resilience and recycling properties. That work could include adding chemicals, heat or even friction to make individual fibers bond better, providing more strength, DS Smith says.

The company launched its Now and Next strategy in the fall of 2020 and includes industry-leading goals, focused on the circular economy.

As well as conventional target areas of reducing carbon emissions, water and waste, the packaging company has challenged itself to cut 250,000 heavy truck journeys from the roads, replace 1 billion pieces of plastic from supermarkets and online shopping and educate 5 million young people on the circular economy.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has advised the city of Chicago to complete a specific, additional environmental analysis prior to reaching a decision on a permit requested by Cleveland-based Reserve Management Group (RMG) to expand Southside Recycling. RMG closed its General Iron Industries Inc. facility, which processed scrap metal and operated an auto shredder, on the north side of Chicago to open this facility on the south side. The company is seeking a permit to expand its south side location.

According to a letter written by EPA Administrator Michael Regan to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot the first week of May, the EPA is concerned about potential pollution from Southside Recycling.

“Substantial data indicate the current conditions facing Chicago’s southeast side epitomize the problem of environmental injustice, resulting from more than a half century of prior actions,” Regan writes. “This neighborhood currently ranks at the highest levels for many pollution indicators used by the U.S. EPA’s EJSCREEN tool, including fine particulate matter, air toxics cancer risk, respiratory hazard, traffic proximity, lead paint, Superfund site proximity, hazardous waste proximity and wastewater discharges. Almost 250 facilities in the southeast area of Chicago are actively monitored by state and federal enforcement authorities under federal environmental laws. Since 2014, more than 75 facilities in the southeast area have been investigated by the U.S. EPA, Illinois EPA and the city for noncompliance with the Clean Air Act."

He continues, “Because of these well-known degraded environmental conditions, the siting of this facility in Chicago’s southeast side has raised significant civil rights concerns. … U.S. EPA believes the issues raised by the [Housing and Urban Development] complaint deserve your careful consideration as the city weighs its environmental permitting decision on the RMG facility.”

According to a statement from Lightfoot, she has requested the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) to initiate “an environmental study recommended by the U.S. EPA and to delay a final decision on RMG’s permit application seeking to expand its metal recycling facility operated on the Southeast Side, pending completion of this further analysis."

In a statement, Southside Recycling writes that the Illinois EPA and the city of Chicago have independently reviewed the cumulative air quality modeling that has been performed, validated the findings and concluded that even when the existing air quality was considered, the new Southside Recycling facility will meet or exceed all applicable environmental and health standards.

“Southside Recycling is subject to likely the most stringent set of federal, state and local regulations of any metal recycling operation in the country,” Southside Recycling says in a statement regarding the EPA’s latest recommendation. “The advanced pollution control system at Southside Recycling is creating a new industry standard that will serve as a national model for capturing and controlling emissions from large recycling facilities. The U.S. EPA knows this is in stark contrast to other metal shredders, including the only other one in Chicago that continues to operate in Pilsen but has none of the air pollution controls and enclosures that Southside Recycling has. Delaying Southside Recycling’s permit will only exacerbate the environmental justice burden in Pilsen. And, after carefully reviewing the charges of environmental racism, a federal judge concluded there was no evidence to support the baseless allegations.”

Lightfoot says she thinks the CDPH study will be “the last step in an extensive set of permits needed by RMG to safely operate its large metal recycling plant in an area already zoned for industry.”

The city had contacted the EPA earlier this year seeking guidance regarding RMG’s application, considering the size and location of the facility.

“The city relies on state and federal agencies to help us appropriately assess a business’ potential impact on the surrounding community. In the case concerning RMG, the U.S. EPA has expressed several concerns,” Lightfoot writes. “The city shares the U.S. EPA’s commitment to environmental justice and public health, and we look forward to partnering with them to conduct a fair, thorough and timely health impact analysis to inform our future decision-making on the RMG permit application.

“My administration aims to foster economic growth and jobs in our communities, while improving the health and quality of life for our residents. In pursuit of this objective, I have directed the city’s chief sustainability officer and the Department of Public Health to propose a new cumulative impact ordinance for consideration by the city council before the end of this year. The ordinance would require an assessment of the additional environmental impact of an industrial business operation on the surrounding community when reviewing a permit application. We are also exploring additional policy steps the city can take to protect our most vulnerable communities from pollution as this ordinance is being developed," Lightfoot's statement adds.