The aluminum company Alcoa, headquartered in New York City and Pittsburgh, has announced that it will review 500,000 metric tons of its aluminum smelting capacity and 2.8 million metric tons of its aluminum refining capacity for possible curtailment or divestiture. The company says the review is being undertaken to continue to transform the company’s upstream portfolio to create a lower cost, globally competitive commodity business.

The review will include facilities throughout Alcoa’s global system.

The company says its potential actions could affect 14 percent of Alcoa’s global smelting capacity and 16 percent of its global refining capacity. Currently, Alcoa has 19 percent (665,000 metric tons) of its smelting capacity and 7 percent (1.2 million metric tons) of its global refining capacity idle.

“Alcoa continues to take decisive action, transforming its upstream portfolio to create a lower cost, globally competitive commodity business,” says Bob Wilt, president of Alcoa’s Global Primary Products. “Our goal is to move down the global aluminum cost curve to the 38th percentile and the global alumina cost curve to the 21st percentile by 2016. The results from this review will help achieve those goals. We’ll take action only after a thorough strategic review to determine the best outcome for our shareholders and in consultation with our stakeholders.”

When reviewing capacity, Alcoa says it will consider alternative actions, ranging from partial to full plant curtailments, permanent shutdowns or divestitures. Decisions on curtailments, closures or divestitures will be announced as reviews are completed.

Equipment and technology company Sesotec (formerly S+S Separation), based in Schönberg, Germany, says it is helping develop solutions for identifying and sorting marked polymers as a member company within the European Commission (EC) three-year Polymark consortium and project.

The project, funded by the EC, was kicked off in June of 2014 under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) scheme. The mission of the project is to increase the availability of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for the production of new beverage containers. According to the EC, Polymark members are working to develop a technology for the automated detection and sorting of usable PET bottles.

The EU-funded project has a budget of €2.2 million ($2.35 million), of which the EU has contributed close to €1.5 million ($1.6 million).

According to Sesotec, Polymark aims to maximize the value from recycling and the re-use of PET while meeting EU rules on the re-use of food contact and non-food contact PET. The company says the technology it is developing will distinguish between food-contact plastics and non-food contact plastics, aiming to further optimize the high-value plastic scrap stream and ultimately create a more valuable use of these materials.

Consortium members include Petcore Europe, the European Federation of Bottled Waters (EFBW), the European Association of Plastics Recycling and Recovery (EPRO), 4PET Recycling BV and Closed Loop Recycling Ltd. Research and technology partners also include ColorMatrix, Fraunhofer Institut IPMS and Pera Technology Ltd., in addition to Sesotec.
 

Walker Environmental Group (WEG), headquartered in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, has helped nearby newsprint manufacturer Resolute Forest Products eliminate the need for more than 200 million cubic meters of natural gas since 2002 by processing and providing its landfill gas as a source of energy.

According to WEG, the energy from the landfill gas, used by Resolute's Thorold, Ontario, production facility, is equivalent to the natural gas used by approximately 80,000 Ontario homes. Resolute Forest Products is a manufacturer of 100-percent-recycled-content newsprint headquartered in Montreal.

"We're proud of our part in achieving this measurable improvement in Ontario's efforts to address climate change. By utilizing landfill gas, we are helping transform what was once considered a waste, into a valuable asset. We're also helping Ontario businesses wean themselves away from nonrenewable and greenhouse gas (GHG) intensive fuel sources," says Mike Watt, executive vice president of WEG.

Landfill gas, comprising mainly methane and carbon dioxide, is created when organic materials degrade in landfills. In 2009, Ontario's Ministry of Environment and Climate Change required landfill gas to be collected and flared at large landfills to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At its Niagara landfill, WEG goes above and beyond the regulation by further processing the gas and piping it to Resolute's nearby paper mill, reducing the mill's dependence on nonrenewable fuel sources.

"Our partnership with WEG has been a great success story. Using renewable landfill gas has furthered our commitment to reducing our GHG footprint," says Gord Cole, vice president and general manager Thorold Operations, Resolute Forest Products. “As a proud member of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Climate Savers program, Resolute has set among the most ambitious GHG reduction targets in the global forest products industry. We're very pleased that we have exceeded our goal two full years ahead of schedule, achieving an absolute reduction of 67.5 percent compared with a year 2000 baseline. Projects such as this with WEG contribute to our ongoing efforts and likewise provide a stable, low-cost, renewable energy source for our operations."

By displacing the need for nonrenewable energy sources, the project has reduced more than 375,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. This is equivalent to taking approximately 79,000 cars off the road.

"WEG has demonstrated its leadership once again in the development of a low carbon economy. This project supports a resilient Niagara Region that wastes less, and makes an efficient use of energy from waste resources," says Katrina Kroeze, executive director, Niagara Sustainability Initiative.

Walker Industries Holdings Limited is a fifth-generation, family-owned company with a focus on aggregates, emulsions and sustainable environmental solutions. It is known for its philanthropy and 'above and beyond' service to its customers and communities. Walker Environmental Group Inc. (WEG), a division of Walker Industries Holdings Limited, offers a wide range of environmental waste solutions for private, public and government agencies as well as disposal and recycling for industrial, commercial and residential customers of Southern Ontario. Businesses operated by WEG include two landfills, a waste transfer facility, six biosolids plants, a composting facility, four food and residual organic processing facilities, landfill gas projects in Ontario and Manitoba, and a company that hauls industrial, commercial and institutional waste. WEG is one of Ontario's largest handlers of nonhazardous waste.

Resolute Forest Products is a global leader in the forest products industry with a diverse range of products, including newsprint, specialty papers, market pulp and wood products. The Thorold plant produces 100 percent recycled newsprint. The company owns or operates some 40 pulp and paper mills and wood products facilities in the United States, Canada and South Korea, and power generation assets in Canada.