Austria-based Alpla Group says it is acquiring BTB PET-Recycling, Bad Salzuflen, Germany, in an investment designed to further develop the region's bottle-to-bottle recycling loop. BTB processes used polyethylene terephthalate (PET) beverage bottles sourced from Germany's reverse-vending system into food-grade rPET (recycled PET) pellets that are primarily used to make new preforms for PET bottles, including beverage bottles.

First, BTB presorts, shreds and washes the input material, which is then sorted again prior to melting and pelletizing, resulting in food-grade rPET. The company’s processing volume is roughly 20,000 metric tons, or 22,000 short tons, of PET bottles annually, Alpla says. BTB employs approximately 35 people, all of whom Alpla says it will retain.

Georg Lässer, head of corporate recycling at Alpla, says, “BTB produces highly efficiently using established technology. The team in Bad Salzuflen is highly motivated and does a fantastic job. For us, buying this company is an investment in the future, enabling us to increase the existing capacities and further strengthen the bottle-to-bottle loop.”

“By acquiring BTB , we are investing in a very structured company which has been operating successfully within the local circular economy for years and which is already supplying our preform business in Germany with rPET,” adds Georg Pescher, managing director of Alpla in Germany. “What's pivotal here is a functioning system comprising a bottle return infrastructure, bottle production and bottling companies in the direct vicinity of the recycling plant.”

The parties signed the contract Sept. 28 and have agreed not to disclose the purchase price or any further details.

Alpla and its partners recently invested in the construction of a recycling plant in Targu Mures, Romania, through a joint venture, PET Recycling Team Targu Mures. The plastic granulate produced there will come from PET collected from household waste and will be used to manufacture new PET bottles. The company is targeting annual production of 15,000 metric tons, or more than 16,500 short tons, of food-grade rPET. 

In the U.K., Alpla says it has been cooperating with the British waste management company Biffa to source food-grade rPET from Biffa’s recycling plant in Seaham. 

In early 2021, the Alpla Group announced that it would invest an average of 50 million euros annually until 2025 in the ongoing expansion of its recycling activities. In particular, the company says it plans to globalize its activities in the area of high-quality recyclates to close the materials cycle in as many regions as possible. In all, the annual capacity of the Alpla’s recycling companies, joint ventures and partnerships amounts to approximately 130,000 metric tons, or 143,000 short tons, of PET and 60,000 metric tons, or 66,100 short tons of polyethylene.

GFL Environmental, Ontario, has acquired Peoria Disposal Co. (PDC), based in Peoria, Illinois.

According to Central Illinois Proud, PDC Municipal Marketing Manager Eric Shangraw confirmed the sale of the company’s landfills, transfer stations and hauling services on Sept. 24. The deal goes into effect Oct. 1.

Shangraw said the company’s employees were notified of the sale Sept. 22 and noted that the company’s employees will be retained by GFL. Matt Coulter, a vice president at PDC, will stay with GFL as an area vice president. 

Founded in 1928, PDC is a vertically integrated waste management solutions provider operating throughout central Illinois and eastern Missouri. The company’s end-to-end waste management solutions include four solid waste landfills; four transfer stations; a material recovery facility; a RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) Part B transfer, storage and disposal facility; a centralized wastewater treatment facility, and 16 transportation terminals that support a fleet of more than 300 collection and hauling vehicles. PDC’s presence across the region, integrated service model and commitment to service quality, safety and sustainability has enabled the company to secure long-term contracts with municipal, commercial and industrial customers throughout the region.

Cleveland-based Brown Gibbons Lang & Co.'s (BGL's) Environmental & Industrial Services investment banking team served as the exclusive financial advisor to PDC in the transaction. The specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed.*

In a news release announcing the transaction that GFL released Oct. 1, the company's founder and CEO Patrick Dovigi says, "We continue to demonstrate our ability to successfully execute on our growth strategy of pursuing strategic and accretive acquisitions. The acquisition of PDC provides us with a unique opportunity to acquire one of the best family-owned and -operated vertically integrated set of assets in the United States while expanding our solid waste footprint within the U.S. Midwest. PDC has a leading market position in a secondary market with some of the strongest operating margins in our industry. The acquisition of PDC also provides us with the opportunity to advance our sustainability initiatives by unlocking significant value from landfill gas to energy projects at the PDC landfills, as part of GFL Renewables."

"After months of family meetings and input from trusted advisors, we made the difficult decision to put PDC up for sale,"  Royal Coulter, president and CEO of PDC, says in the news release. "We ran a process where we interviewed four other parties, and while GFL was not the highest bidder, after spending two days with Patrick, our family felt that GFL was the right company to take over PDC and continue the legacy that we have built in Peoria over the last 93 years. It is clear to us that GFL shares the same core values as PDC: entrepreneurial spirit, operational excellence, a focus on safety and a commitment to giving back to the communities that it serves. I am excited to be part of GFL's next chapter."

*Sources close to the transaction have indicated to Waste Today that previously reported financial estimates originally included in this article were inaccurate. As such, that information has since been removed and the article has been amended.

East Chicago, Indiana-based Scrap Metal Services LLC (SMS) has provided notice of what it calls a potential data event that occurred this July or August.

The company says Aug. 5 it “discovered unusual activity on certain of our computer systems.” SMS says it “quickly disconnected these systems from the network and commenced an intensive investigation that included working with third-party forensic specialists.”

The forensic investigation determined some SMS systems “were subject to access by an unknown actor sometime between July 28, 2021, and Aug. 5, 2021.”

The company continues, “SMS initiated an exhaustive review of its systems to identify potentially impacted data and determine the type of information and to whom it related. Following its initial review, SMS worked through Sept. 21, 2021, to identify and populate address information for any potentially affected individuals.”

SMS says it is working to notify potentially impacted people and has made a public notice “to make people aware of the issue and the steps we are taking in response. 

“SMS reported this incident to federal law enforcement and is notifying individuals and relevant regulators as required,” states the company.

The full version of the company’s notice, found on this web page, includes additional instructions for potentially affected people, including some state-specific options.

The North Carolina-based SMH Group US says it has added the Carlisle, Pennsylvania, branch of Wood’s CRW to its dealer network for Atlas material handlers. Wood’s CRW is now the Atlas material handling dealer for central and eastern Pennsylvania and for New York State, excluding New York City and Long Island.

 “We are excited to add a dealer to the network who has 60 years of experience with customers who require quick service and [who] understands the importance of uptime,” remarks Tom Hickson, general manager of the SMH Group.

Wood’s CRW is a heavy equipment dealer specializing in distributing construction equipment for general contractors and applications including crane and rigging, mining/quarrying, utility, industrial, forestry, and now with the Atlas line, ports and scrap processing.

The Williston, Vermont-based company has four locations in the Northeast covering all or parts of eight states. Its main product lines in addition to Atlas are Volvo Construction Equipment, Link-Belt cranes and excavators, National cranes, Mecalac and Shuttlelift Carrydeck cranes.

Germany-based Atlas has been manufacturing equipment for more than 100 years. Its material handlers include mobile industrial machines and industrial tracked machines designed to work on applications such as scrap, wood, bulky goods, recycling, port applications and vacuum operations.

SMH Group US describes itself as a leader in specialized equipment solutions for ports, recycling, scrap metal, demolition, waste and other applications. Wood’s CRW joins a network of SMH Group US distributors in North America that also includes Linder Industrial Machinery for Florida, North and South Carolina plus coastal Georgia; New Millennium Rentals for New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland; ROMCO Equipment for Texas; 5-R Enterprises for Illinois and northwest Indiana; Cowin Equipment for Alabama and western Georgia; and Chadwick-Baross for New England.

SMH Group says it is seeking additional dealers for the remainder of North America and interested parties can contact Tom Hickson at tom.hickson@smhgroup-us.com for more information.