The 2021 annual conference of the International Molded Fiber Association (IMFA) will take place online April 13-14.

One of the event’s sessions will focus on sustainability and molded fiber, with IMFA writing, “We will hear first-hand from businesses that have successfully navigated from other substrates onto molded fiber: their challenges and victories, and things you may be able to take away to assist you or your team in walking this road.”

Molded fiber is often made using scrap paper as feedstock, with some firms tying the recycling-friendly process into the global sustainability movement.

The Wednesday, April 14, session, moderated by Mike Gallant of Canada-based molded pulp products maker CKF Inc., will include four panelists:  Shannon Boase, also of CKF Inc.; James Gallacher of United Kingdom-based Moulded Fibre Products Ltd.; Leona Neill of Canada-based molded pulp products user Red Sun Farms; and Frank Tavares of Massachusetts-based packaging producer UN1F1ED² Global Packaging Group.

More information about the IMFA 2021 online event can be found on this web page. 

The Brattleboro, Vermont-based Northeast Recycling Council (NERC) is convening what it calls a workgroup “to develop model legislation for minimum post-consumer recycled content requirements for glass beverage and food containers, and fiberglass insulation.”

The organization, which has a presence in 11 states in the northeastern United States, says the goals for the model legislation are to develop markets for postconsumer glass containers and to increase the use of postconsumer glass containers in the making of new beverage and food containers and fiberglass insulation.

“Glass is a highly recyclable material, and states consistently hear from stakeholders that markets for post-consumer glass must be strengthened to help develop more demand for this feedstock,” says Chris Nelson, supervising environmental analyst of the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection. “Postconsumer recycled content standards for new glass products will help to create more robust markets for glass recovered through recycling programs.”

NERC says its intent for the workgroup is to use virtual meeting technology to bring together “a broad group of impacted stakeholders from industry and public sectors to achieve a positive outcome.” The work group’s co-chairs are Nelson and Stephen Burm, director of industry and government affairs with global brewery firm Anheuser-Busch. They will receive technical assistance from Ed Ferguson, director of sustainability at Anheuser-Busch, says NERC.

“At Anheuser-Busch, we have a longstanding history of environmental stewardship and have committed to 100 percent of our packaging being made from majority recycled content or be returnable by 2025,” says Ferguson.

Potential stakeholders identified by NERC include brand owners, glass container manufacturers, fiberglass insulation makers, glass recycling facility operators, industry associations, retailers and beverage distributors, waste haulers, material recovery facility (MRF) operators, state environmental agencies, state recycling organizations and environmental advocacy groups.

The first NERC glass workgroup meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, April 8, with more information available on this web page.

Ipswich, United Kingdom-based Sackers Ltd. says it has signed a gender equality business pledge set up by Suffolk Business Women, an organization operating in its home region. The company says its commitment helped the effort reach 100 signatories.

Suffolk Business Women is part of the Suffolk Chamber of Commerce that describes its mission as “to facilitate the contributions of women in business and wider public life to the economic and social prosperity of the county.”

Businesses of all sizes and in all sectors in Suffolk are encouraged to sign the pledge to demonstrate a commitment to working toward supporting gender equality in the region.

Suffolk Chamber of Commerce Chairperson Michelle Pollard says, “More and more companies accept that they do have to change the way that they attract female candidates into certain roles and sectors. Research has proven time and time again that a more diverse workforce has been shown to encourage a wider variety of ideas and improve a company’s profitability.”

Sackers says its senior management team is made up of 50 percent men and 50 percent women. Among the women employees is Helen Crapnell, who is part of the company’s senior management team and is a board member of Suffolk Business Women.

“Regardless of size, location or sector, employing female personnel is no doubt good for business,” says Crapnell. “It’s about what skills an individual brings to the business, not what sex they are. Despite working in a male-dominated environment, I cannot stress how supportive Sackers has been in my career here. I’m told regularly by David [Sackers Managing Director David Dodds] that as long as I get the job done, he doesn’t mind when or where I do it. To have that at the back of my mind creates trust and loyalty, but I do the job when I am most efficient and have the freedom to do it well and you go the extra mile. That holds its weight in gold. They really do value the work-life balance, so I’m pleased that we’ve signed this pledge, as it represents the company’s commitment to women like me in business.”

Remarks Clare Lanchester, a shipping manager at Sackers, “With two children under five, it is difficult to work full-time conventional office hours. Sackers Ltd. is very family-oriented and allows me to work around childcare needs. Without this flexibility, I would not be able to have the career I have today.”

Dodds says, “At Sackers, gender equality is high on our priority list. I would never hesitate to employ women in business, and our management team is made up of 50 percent women and 50 percent men. We do lack women in our manual roles, but this is not for any other reason than that the applicants are male. It would be nice to see more women applying and being successful in our manual labor roles and driver roles, too. Gender shouldn’t come into recruitment at all. Personally, I would recruit on attitude even over qualifications. If you have the right attitude, you can be taught anything.”

He continues, “We are a family business and that is a priority for us in our culture to support our staff and their families. This doesn’t just include women—all staff are supported in flexible working where their job allows it, to fit around their family needs. Happy families mean happy staff and that’s where you get productivity.”

The gender equality business pledge commits a signatory organization to do several things, including “acknowledging that business cannot reach its full potential unless it can benefit from the talents of all” and “acknowledging that advancing gender equality demands commitment and action from all levels of the organization, and in particular active leadership from those in senior roles.”

Sackers buys and processes aluminum, copper and other scrap metal, and it operates a commercial waste and recycling hauling business unit.

The Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr., Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee Chairman Paul Tonko and Energy Subcommittee Chairman Bobby L. Rush introduced the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action for our Nation’s (CLEAN) Future Act to the House of Representatives March 2. The proposed legislation takes aim at the climate crisis by seeking net-zero greenhouse gas pollution by 2050, with an interim target of reducing pollution by 50 percent from 2005 levels no later than 2030.

The targets come from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has said carbon pollution must be cut to net zero by 2050 to avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change, according to the bill’s sponsors.

In addition to a number of policies aimed at dramatically cutting greenhouse gas pollution in the power, building, transportation and industrial sectors, the legislation also targets waste reduction. It does so by imposing new clean air permitting requirements on industrial facilities that produce plastic and by reforming the U.S. recycling and waste management system to ensure that producers minimize the amount of waste they generate, including by establishing postconsumer recycled content standards for everyday products and instituting a national bottle deposit program. The bill also establishes programs to invest in community-level zero-waste initiatives to improve education and outreach around waste reduction, as well as to modernize the collection, recycling and reuse of electronic waste, such as batteries.

In response to the CLEAN Future Act, which also would pause new permits for advanced (chemical) recycling facilities, Plastics Industry Association President and CEO Tony Radoszewski issued a statement:

“Addressing climate change is a laudable goal, but the Clean Future Act—as currently introduced—aims to end the manufacture of one of our country’s most valuable and sustainable materials: plastics. Multiple life cycle analyses show that plastics are the most sustainable material in comparison to all existing alternatives, including glass, aluminum and paper.

"The negative economic consequences to this action are also very real. The plastics industry employs more than 1 million individuals across the United States, whose work touches countless related industries and sectors. As our nation recovers from the economic impacts of COVID-19, we should not pursue policies that would harm employment, especially in America’s manufacturing sector.

"We already have the tools and technologies to address plastic waste and to infinitely repurpose plastic into new materials and products through advanced recycling. It’s a process that is necessary for a sustainable society, and we support measures that invest in and encourage the further development of this technology. The Clean Future Act not only ignores the extreme value of advanced recycling, it hinders further development of this technology, moving us further away from a solution that would truly address plastic waste.”

However, the sponsors of the bill say it will create jobs. “This legislation will create millions of homegrown jobs in a climate-resilient economy, ensuring our workers and businesses can compete in the 21st century transition to clean technology that’s already happening,” Pallone says.

Tanko adds, “The CLEAN Future Act will ensure America realizes the opportunities that come from embracing and accelerating the clean energy transition.”

“Through policies that will create millions of new, good-paying jobs and reduce pollution in historically overburdened communities, this legislation drives our country further down the path toward a much-needed clean energy transition—and does so with equity and social justice at its center,” Rush says.