CP Manufacturing, headquartered in San Diego, is celebrating 40 years of supplying equipment and processing solutions to the recycling industry in 2017.

“At CP Manufacturing, we’ve always been driven by the simple goal of providing high-performance recycling machinery that lasts,” says Bob Davis, second generation and owner of CP Manufacturing. “For 40 years, CP has been a pioneer in the recycling industry, and we will continue to drive the industry forward for the next 40.” 

CP Manufacturing, a family-owned business, was born out of the scrap metals industry. CP’s sister company, IMS Recycling, was founded in 1954 by Charles M. Davis, who invented the world’s first aluminum can flattener in the early 1970s. Later, the CP2000 Can Flattener transform the scrap industry, the company says.

CP Manufacturing was formed in 1977 in response to growing demand for aluminum can flatteners and densifiers. Since then, the company has developed dozens of patents and expanded its equipment and solutions portfolio as recycling and waste handling evolved.

In the 1980s and 1990s, CP recognized the growing trend of curbside recycling. As the United States and other countries worked to increase the effectiveness of recycling by making it easier for consumers to participate and more cost-effective to implement, CP says it dedicated its research and development efforts to assist in this effort.

Since 2003, CP Manufacturing has acquired several other recycling equipment manufacturers and solutions providers, including MSS Inc., Krause Manufacturing and Advanced MRF. This family of companies, known as CP Group, was founded to provide one-stop-shop turnkey recycling systems for a variety of recycling and waste diversion operations.

Today, CP is an award-winning provider of some of the largest and most advanced material recovery facilities (MRFs) in operation. CP says it has built more than 450 MRFs worldwide and continues to invest in R&D and automation technology to stay ahead of the changing material streams. The company still offers the original can densifier product lines.

“We are and always have been a family-owned and operated company,” says Ashley Davis, a third-generation family owner and sales and marketing director of CP Group. “What sets us apart is that we treat our customers like family. Their success is our success. We’re with them for the long haul.” 

Jordan Reduction Solutions, based in Birmingham, Alabama, has hired Chris Kennelly as its new sales manager, effective May 1, 2017. 

Kennelly has long been associated with Jordan Reduction Solutions in various sales capacities, serving for several years as the southeast regional sales manager. Now, he will manage sales for the company nationally and internationally. 

Kennelly has experience in the Jordan Reduction Solutions product line as well as with auxiliary and complementary product lines.

He and his wife, Lupita, bring bilingual support for English and Spanish and Jordan Reduction Solutions says it will be working with them to expand its Spanish literature and international sales reach within the coming months.

Pictured above, from left: Ron Sherga, EcoStrate CEO;
Mark Lewon, ISRI chair; and Hayley Sherga of EcoStrate. 

Arlington, Texas-headquartered EcoStrate SFS Inc., has received the 2017 Design for Recycling (DFR) Award from the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Washington, for its ability to create composite plastic products from postconsumer, high-polymer-content scrap materials that are difficult to recycle. (EcoStrate was profiled in the April 2014 issue of Recycling Today.)

ISR describes its DFR Award as its “most prestigious award.” It is awarded annually to the most innovative contribution to designed with recycling in mind and recognizes proactive steps made by manufacturers that have actively incorporated DFR principles into products and processes.

“ISRI is proud to present the 2017 Design for Recycling Award to EcoStrate for its innovative technology that demonstrates a commitment to sustainability in the design and manufacture of its products,” says Robin Wiener, president of ISRI. “The revolutionary process developed by EcoStrate has the potential to open new markets not just for plastics recyclers but [also] for those who handle electronics, textiles and other commodities. It is a prime example of how manufacturers and recycling industry can work together to expand sustainable manufacturing and recycling.”

Through the development of a new process, EcoStrate manufactures traffic signs, indoor/ADA signs, flooring and other surface materials from polymer content derived from used electronics, textiles and various other scrap. Prior to use by EcoStrate, ISRI says many of these materials were entering the waste stream because of their noncompatibility with recycling technologies. Through this new manufacturing process, EcoStrate has created the ability to pull new materials into the recycling stream. Furthermore, each of the products EcoStrate produces is recyclable.

“Using EcoStrate’s proprietary technology platform, we’ve worked hard to create products and solutions that utilize the more challenging polymer waste streams,” says Ron Sherga, CEO of EcoStrate. “EcoStrate products can utilize 100 percent postconsumer scrap from e-scrap, textiles and packaging that are fully recyclable back into numerous EcoStrate products. Our traffic signage substrates and other composite products improve safety, lower cost and create environmental offsets in large end markets. These end markets are capable of large volume waste diversion and support the reduced usage of harmful chemicals and virgin resources. Our material sources and product solutions have a global impact in developing markets as well as here in the USA.”

EcoStrate received the award April 27, during the ISRI 2017 Convention and Exposition in New Orleans.

To be eligible for ISRI’s Design for Recycling Award, a product must be designed/redesigned and manufactured to:

• contain the maximum amount of materials that are recyclable;
• be easily recycled through current or newly designed recycling processes and procedures;
• be cost-effective to recycle whereby the cost to recycle does not exceed the value of its recycled materials;
• be free of hazardous materials that are not recyclable or impede the recycling process;
• minimize the time and cost involved to recycle the product;
• reduce the use of raw materials by including recycled materials and/or components; and
• have a net gain in the overall recyclability of the product while reducing the overall negative impact on the environment.

ISRI began presenting its DFR Award more than 10 years ago. Previous winners include Samsung, LG Electronics, Dell Inc., Cascades Fine Papers Group, Hewlett-Packard, The Herman Miller Co. and Wind Simplicity.

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), Arlington, Virginia, has announced that more than 4 billion pounds of consumer electronics (CE) have been recycled since 2010 through the eCycling Leadership Initiative (ELI). According to the Sixth Annual Report of the eCycling Leadership Initiative, approximately 630 million pounds of CE were recycled in 2016, which is more than double the amount recycled when the program was launched.

“As consumer demand grows for the latest consumer tech products, so does our industry’s commitment to increasing sustainability,” says Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA. “We want to make recycling your older tech devices as easy as purchasing new ones. And through the eCycling Leadership Initiative, we’ve proven how technology manufacturers and retailers are having a real impact on improving the environment. Ensuring a healthy planet for future generations to enjoy our greatest innovations isn’t just smart business—it’s essential to the future of the consumer technology industry.”

Spearheaded by CTA in 2011, ELI is a collaboration among manufacturers, retailers, collectors, recyclers, nongovernmental organizations and governments at all levels. The initiative’s key goals are to improve consumer awareness of the available collection sites sponsored by the industry, to increase the number of collection opportunities available to consumers and to provide transparent metrics on ecycling efforts.

Highlights of the ELI report include:

• According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, consumer electronics have the fastest growing recycling rate of any product category in the U.S.
• The consumer tech industry has dedicated more than $1 billion to recycling consumer electronics—more than any other industry has ever spent on recycling consumer products in the United States.
• More than 8,000 responsible recycling locations are now available to consumers throughout the United States.
• By the end of 2016, all the recycling facilitated by ELI’s participants was conducted in third-party certified recycling facilities.

A recent study from The Rochester Institute of Technology’s (RIT) Golisano Center for Sustainability, with support from Staples and CTA, found that while the number and type of products sold have increased, net material consumption has declined to levels not seen since the early 1990s. RIT also reports the use of materials of concern, such as lead and mercury, has declined significantly in the manufacturing of tech devices.

“We applaud the manufacturers and retailers who made this initiative a remarkable success,” said Walter Alcorn, vice president of environmental affairs and industry sustainability, CTA. “Today, our favorite tech devices are smaller, lighter and recycled more often than ever before. And by working together, the industry has demonstrated its ability to harness innovation and raise consumer awareness—an effort we hope will have lasting benefits for the environment.”