In our November 2021 issue, Recycling Today will present a map and list of the largest material recovery facilities (MRFs) in North America, but we need your help to ensure we have the most accurate data on which to base our rankings.   

If you feel that one or more of your company's MRFs belongs on the list, we ask that you please take a moment to provide your information before Oct. 8, 2021. Please fill out one form, available at www.RecyclingToday.com/form/2021-mrf-list-form, for each of the MRFs your company operates. The information you provide will help our editors ensure the accuracy of our list; otherwise, we will use estimates that we calculate with the help of industry sources.  

Key figures we are asking for are the annual total amount of outbound tons at your company’s facility as well as the total annual amount of gross tons of fiber shipped, as this will help us determine the largest MRFs that will be placed on the map and list. 

A conclusive, estimated or calculated figure for 2020 is preferred. If a 2021 estimate for newer or recently upgraded facilities is provided, please let us know and we will note it as such on the list.

To access the form, visit https://www.recyclingtoday.com/form/2021-mrf-list-form/.

Tigard, Oregon-based Agilyx Corp. has announced Carsten Larsen has been appointed chief commercial officer and senior vice president of business development for the company, effective Sept.1. Larsen replaces Bill Cooper who has joined Cyclyx LLC as its senior vice president of strategic relationships.

Larsen will be responsible for driving global growth through the acquisition of customers, initiation and development of projects, Agilyx says. “He will work with business partners to expand and accelerate the roll out of Agilyx chemical recycling solutions to address the challenge of post-use plastic globally,” the company states.

Larsen has more than 25 years of industrial sector experience, most recently having served as commercial director of plastics circularity for Europe, Middle East Africa and Asia Pacific for Dow Inc. In that role, he was responsible for plastic sustainability strategy development and implementation, says Agilyx.

“I would like to welcome Carsten to Agilyx at this exciting time in our development,” says Agilyx CEO Tim Stedman. “His breadth of knowledge, experience and relationships will be enormously beneficial to the company as we further strengthen our global reach.”

Agilyx describes itself  a leader in the advanced recycling of difficult-to-recycle plastic scrap. The company says via its chemical recycling technology, mixed plastic scrap including polystyrene, can be converted to new virgin-equivalent plastics, as well as chemical products and fuels.

Figures collected by the Brussels-based World Steel Association (Worldsteel) show global steel output of 161.7 million metric tons this July 2021 represented a 5.8-million-metric-ton drop compared with the previous month.

Contrary to the prevailing trend the previous two decades, output in China declined in July while production in the rest of the world increased in aggregate. Worldsteel shows China with a July production figure of 86.8 million metric tons, down by more than 7 million tons from a June figure of 93.9 million metric tons.

A government effort to reduce carbon emissions has been cited as the predominant reason for the steelmaking decline in China. Economists also are keen to determine whether a retreat from the massive infrastructure spending and apartment tower building of the previous two decades may also be contributing to a steel slowdown.

In much of the rest of the world, as economies continue to rebound from earlier COVID-19-related restrictions, steel output was stable or increased slightly in July compared with June. In the United States, steel output of 7.5 million metric tons in July represented a 5.6 percent increased compared with the 7.1 million tons made in June.

Output in Turkey—the largest buyer of exported U.S. ferrous scrap—decreased in July compared with June, however, declining by 5.9 percent.

China’s July output figure also represents a sizable year-on-year decrease, falling 8.4 percent compared with July 2020, according to Worldsteel. Turkey, however, produced nearly 23 percent more steel in July of this year compared with July 2020, putting in the category of nations showing a rebound from earlier in the pandemic.

The U.S. July 2021 figure represents nearly a 38 percent boost compared to its steel output in July 2020.

Six companies based in California have been convicted by a federal grand jury of scheming to avoid payment of $1.8 billion in import duties on semifinished aluminum imported from China.

A United States Department of Justice (DOJ) news release says the businesses also have been found guilty of conspiring with a Chinese financier to defraud investors by inflating the balance sheet of China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd. via the “sham” sales of aluminum in the U.S.

In 2016, Zhongwang announced its intention to buy Cleveland-based secondary aluminum producer Aleris (in a deal that was never completed), and in 2017 the firm took a controlling stake in a German aluminum extruder.

The DOJ news release describes the companies as “guilty of participating in a wide-ranging conspiracy to defraud the United States via a wire-and-customs fraud scheme in which huge amounts of aluminum – disguised as ‘pallets’ to avoid $1.8 billion in customs duties – were exported to the U.S. and were ‘sold’ to fraudulently inflate a China-based company’s revenues and deceive investors worldwide.”

Continues the DOJ, “The jury found two aluminum businesses and four warehousing companies – all of which were related to one another – guilty of one count of conspiracy, nine counts of wire fraud and seven counts of passing false and fraudulent papers through a custom house.”

The six companies, two of which carried the name Perfectus, were all based in Southern California, with offices and warehouses in Fontana, Irvine, Ontario and Riverside, California. The two Perfectus companies also were found guilty of seven additional counts of international promotional money laundering, according to the DOJ.

The DOJ cites evidence presented at a nine-day trial as convincing the jury that aluminum extrusions maker China Zhongwang Holdings Ltd., and the company’s former president and chairman Zhongtian Liu, conspired with the six companies and other individuals to avoid paying the $1.8 billion in anti-dumping and countervailing duties.

According to the DOJ, “The aluminum sold to U.S.-based companies controlled by Liu was simply aluminum extrusions that were spot-welded together to make them appear to be functional pallets. In fact, there were no customers for the 2.2 million pallets imported by the Liu-controlled companies between 2011 and 2014, and no pallets were ever sold.”

The annual reports of China Zhongwang Holdings claimed that the aluminum pallets were being sold to independent third parties, and these “sales” were used to inflate China Zhongwang’s reported revenue. In fact, says the DOJ, the aluminum was being stockpiled by Liu-controlled entities in more than 2 million square feet of warehouse space owned by the warehouse defendants in Southern California and New Jersey.

Since there was no actual demand for the pallets, defendants Liu and China Zhongwang arranged for aluminum melting facilities to be built and acquired, which were to be used to reconfigure the aluminum imported as pallets into a form with commercial value, states the news release. This would have included the attempted purchase of Aleris. (Most of the former Aleris assets now belong to Atlanta-based aluminum producer Novelis.)

U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner has scheduled a Dec. 13 sentencing hearing in the case.

Liu and three other defendants charged in the indictment in the case have yet to appear in court in the U.S. to face the criminal charges, the DOJ says.