PepsiCo’s 2017-2018 Recycle Rally program encouraged participating schools to start recycling, bringing in more than 160 million recycled beverage containers from the 4,000 schools enrolled in the program.

Recycle Rally, formed under Purchase, New York-based PepsiCo and its Performance with Purpose initiative, aims to increase the recycling rate of beverage containers by encouraging recycling habits in K-12 students.

“We recognize that teachers care about the planet as much as we do, and they serve as tremendous advocates to help students to get in the habit of recycling,” says Tom Mooradian, manager of Environmental Sustainability at PepsiCo. “Once the students become consistent recyclers, then they often bring their families and friends along too.”

Mooradian says Recycle Rally makes recycling fun by using interactive tools, such as customized “your impact” reports, frequent promotional events and reward points that can be redeemed for recycling equipment and merchandise. Recycle Rally also provides educational activities, videos and worksheets to assist teachers as they implement the program.

“Recycle Rally schools can take advantage of contests and promotions, have opportunities to earn valuable prizes for their school and gain access to resources that can help tie students’ real-world experience with recycling into the classroom-learning environment,” says Mooradian.

According to the company, as part of its national recycling competition, PepsiCo Recycling awarded $20,000 to first-place winner Arnold Elementary School, San Antonio, and $15,000 to second-place winner Pine Forest High School, Fayetteville, North Carolina. The collection of more than 160 million beverage containers marks a near 450 percent increase from last year’s totals, reports Mooradian.

He says any school can get involved with Recycle Rally. Adults affiliated with a K-12 school can sign up here. He also encourages students under 18 to get involved by reaching out to a school employee or the PTA.

“We have heard from many participating schools that Recycle Rally has not only helped increase interest in recycling but has also served as a catalyst for students to develop leadership skills and bond with one another,” says Mooradian.

PepsiCo says it strives to design its packaging to be recyclable, compostable or biodegradable. It also aims to increase recycled materials in its plastic packaging, reduce packaging’s carbon impact, and in partnership with the PepsiCo Foundation, work to increase recycling rates.

“We’re proud of how our partnerships and programs like Recycle Rally contribute to increasing recycling rates across the nation,” Mooradian says.

Panelists at the Stainless & Special Alloys Committee meeting at the 2018 Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) World Recycling Convention & Exhibition, which took place in late May in Barcelona, Spain, largely agreed that global trading in stainless steel scrap is suffering from a one-two punch.

Speakers and industry analysts at the meeting pointed to government policies (often trade related) and consolidation among stainless producers as over-arching reasons why stainless scrap sellers are not enjoying a true global market.

Rick Dobkin of United States-based Shapiro Metals said in Asia—the world’s leading metals producing region—“overall demand for stainless steel scrap has diminished in the second quarter” of 2018. Melt shops in China continue to rely on nickel pig iron, while manufacturers there also are bringing in stainless hot-rolled coils from Indonesia.

In the U.S., the imposition of a 25 percent tariff on imported stainless products has caused the price of primary nickel, stainless products and stainless scrap “to rise in tandem,” said Dobkin. “Mills are busy and processors maintained relatively high prices to keep scrap flowing into their yards,” he added.

Analyst Olivier Masson of United Kingdom-based Roskill Information Services Ltd. said stainless steel output has demonstrated growth throughout this decade and the previous one at a combined average rate of 5.4 percent. Annual output has risen by a multiple of “about 2.5 times since the year 2000,” he said.

Regarding trade patterns, Masson said “Chinese cold-rolled exports have ceased to grow” because of anti-dumping duties in both the U.S. and the European Union. Those producers are “targeting other nations,” he said, including Canada and Mexico.

Indonesia, meanwhile, “could have powerful effects going forward” on the global stainless market now that it is converting some of its own nickel pig iron into semifinished and finished products.

In a panel discussion that concluded the meeting, Masson indicated Chinese companies such as Tsingshan Holding Group may be using Indonesian production as a “workaround” to potential nickel iron pig iron export bans by the Indonesian government.

Some of Tsingshan’s production in Indonesia is part of a joint venture with U.S.-based metals producer ATI, and ATI is seeking a tariff exemption for slabs produced at its mill there, as another type of “workaround” in the escalating global trade conflicts.

Panelist Jason Schenker of U.S.-based Prestige Economics predicted that in “the next 12 to 24 months, tariffs are going to be a big problem” in the metals industry and the global economy overall.

Regarding whether stainless scrap can begin replacing nickel pig iron as feedstock at Asian stainless steel melt shops, Schenker said, “There probably is a number that begins to make sense,” but he did not venture what that per-ton dollar figure might be.

Whether electric vehicle (EV) production will drive nickel prices higher was another topic of discussion among the panelists. Schenker said, “The battery question has been around a while,” and that expectations have been driving price increases already this decade.

Masson said he thinks nickel demand will rise with increased EV sales, “but I generally think we need to be looking at the expectations” in that market and whether “established sectors might be more important” in determining nickel demand, including the oil and gas sector.

Moderator Barry Hunter of U.S.-based Hunter Alloys LLC expressed concern about consolidation within the stainless steel production sector, pointing to the existence of “two major mill” companies in both the U.S. and Europe.

For stainless scrap to move beyond its home region, there are currently “very limited elsewheres” for it to go, said the veteran trader Hunter. “I think mills today are getting scrap for a discount because of a ‘captive audience’ for domestic scrap,” he stated.

The 2018 BIR World Recycling Convention & Exhibition was at the Sofia Hotel in Barcelona May 27-30.

Speakers at the Shredder Committee meeting of the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) which met in late May at the BIR’s World Recycling Convention & Exhibition in Barcelona, Spain, addressed both the cost-effectiveness of shredding and how it could be accomplished safely.

Guest speaker Marion Andres Albuja Rivadeneira of Ecuador-based steelmaker Adelca said the electric arc furnace (EAF) melting operations of the company have profited greatly since committing to the wider use of shredded scrap as feedstock.

The company worked with The Shredder Co. (subsequently reorganized as Newell Recycling Equipment) in 2010 and 2011 to install a 4,000-horsepower shredder to process the mix of baled and cut scrap it had been melting in prior years.

By committing to using 80 to 90 percent ferrous shred as feedstock, Albuja says the company can now use two charge buckets for every five it formerly used, and its tap-to-tap time from scrap charging to hot metal has gone from 67.7 minutes on average to just 40 minutes.

“Productivity almost doubled,” said Albuja, who also noted that the company has saved on energy costs and is replacing fewer electrodes thanks to using shredded scrap instead of solid bales.

“The shredding process has a strong impact in the steelmaking industry,” Albuja said. He said his company has found it does this by “reducing the direct cost [of steelmaking] up to $60 per ton, and by increasing the productivity of the EAF.”

The $60 per ton figure, he added, does not include electrode savings, which have become significant as the cost of electrodes has risen this decade, sometimes equating to savings of another “$20 to $25 per ton of liquid steel.”

Guest speaker Chris Bedell of United States-based David J. Joseph Co. presented the results of a safety study conducted by his company, which operates 17 shredding plants in the U.S. Bedell said in 2017 the company experienced just seven injury accidents at its shredder yards, roughly one-fifth of the 34 accidents it experienced in its overall facility network.

In studying injury accidents, the company has experienced at its shredder yards since 2008, Bedell said DJJ found that some 75 percent involved maintenance tasks and just 25 percent were related directly to production.

Many of the maintenance tasks that caused injuries involved conveyor repair and cleaning, while production mishaps were most likely to occur during the picking process. Minor injuries frequently occurred among newer employees, but Bedell cautioned that when veterans with 10 or more years of experience got injured, “it was more likely to be serious.”

Bedell said DJJ would work through BIR and the Washington-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) to obtain data from other shredder operators with the goal of formulating and implementing new safety policy recommendations.

Shredder Committee Chair Scott Newell III of U.S.-based Newell Recycling Equipment provided an update of the BIR’s World Shredder List. The BIR says currently 322 shredding plants are operating in the United States, 307 in Western Europe and 110 in Japan.

China is the world’s fast-emerging shredder market. According to Newell, in 2017 the BIR knew of just 70 shredding plants in China, but now there are 200 either operating or being installed. Newell said part of this is a function of the Chinese government incentivizing the nation’s steel industry “to use more scrap.”

The 2018 BIR World Recycling Convention & Exhibition was at the Sofia Hotel in Barcelona May 27-30.

The International Trade Council of the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) chose to assemble an eight-person panel of recycling industry leaders and veterans to discuss the events of the past 12 months when it convened in late May in Barcelona, Spain.

In the discussion at the 2018 BIR World Recycling Convention & Exhibition, moderator Michael Lion of Hong Kong-based Everwell Resources Ltd. opened by saying that in his 50 years as a scrap trader, he had “never seen issues and problems to compare to this.”

Those issues include the Chinese government’s sudden bans and restrictions on imported scrap as well as a trade war and tariff battle that has only escalated since the panelists convened in late May.

In China, Lion said that not only had specifications for imported scrap become tighter, but agencies and inspectors have become more rigorous in the belief that the restrictions are favored at the very top by Chinese President Xi Jinping. “In the end, how inspectors interpret these regulations is critical. Right now, this comes from the top, and at this point no one wants to put their head above the parapet [and complain],” he stated.

Tom Bird, who works for Hong Kong-based scrap firm Chiho Environmental Group (which also has facilities in China), said China’s government has pledged to fight pollution and the nation’s regulations are tightening equally for operators within China. He said many “mom and pop shop” recyclers in China are not able to comply, and “we can expect rapid change in this area.”

Ranjit Baxi of London-based J&H Sales International pointed to the Chinese government’s desire to bolster its own recycling industry. “Why spend foreign currency to bring in scrap?” he asked. “China wants to employ thousands of people and save millions in foreign exchange” by maximizing its own recycling of metal, paper and plastic.

Both Bird and William Schmiedel of Sims Metal Management said China’s crackdown on low-grade scrap imports is being emulated in neighboring nations such as Thailand and Malaysia. “Southeast Asian countries are already starting to look at this very closely,” said Bird. “They don’t [necessarily] want these redirected materials.”

Schmiedel said the groundwork is being laid for recyclers to demonstrate “ingenuity” and to make investments into recycling materials such as motors and low-grade wire and cable in the United States and Europe, which are currently major exporters of these materials.

Murat Bayram, who works from Germany for United Kingdom-based European Metal Recycling (EMR), noted that equipment makers he has talked to cannot deliver many types of processing machines for 12 months or more because of the orders they are receiving for wire and motor processing equipment. “I’m a little concerned about overcapacity,” he remarked.

Schmiedel said Asia’s attention to its imported scrap quality can help raise processing standards globally. He says when Sims Metal Management exports materials, it looks for buyers who process “with proper and correct ways.” He continued, “We are going to follow the correct procedures to clean materials in an environmentally sensitive manner. We should do it there as we would in our own country.”

BIR Director General Arnaud Brunet said the woes of 2018 may cause disruption to all and financial harm to some firms, but there is a silver lining. “It’s painful today, but beneficial tomorrow. This is a call for the industry to do better,” he stated. “Quality is the future of our industry.”

The 2018 BIR World Recycling Convention & Exhibition was at the Sofia Hotel in Barcelona May 27-30.