Sims Recycling Solutions (SRS), a West Chicago, Illinois-based provider of electronics recycling and information technology asset disposition (ITAD) services, has earned ISO 27001:2013 certification at its Noida, India, facility. SRS holds ISO 27001 certifications at its plants in the Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.

This information security management standard reassures SRS clients that their IT and electronic assets are always managed securely, the company says.

The ISO 27001 standard recommends a suite of requirements for organizations to maintain control of information security, SRS says. The system includes an approach to managing data, ensuring that processes meet data security requirements.

The company says its operational approach prioritizes security and uses the global standard to ensure all facilities adhere to the same security protocols consistently.

"We continue to roll out ISO 27001 certification throughout our global operations because it has a robust framework to monitor, track and measure our information security as it relates to protection of SRS company data, as well as our clients," says Sean Magann, global vice president of SRS. "Every time we go through the process of reviewing our own internal security controls in a new region, we are able to build on our existing systems and continually improve."

SRS notes that its certifications include ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001, R2 (Responsible Recycling) and NAID (National Association for Information Destruction).

Circulate Capital, the New York-based investment management firm dedicated to incubating and financing companies and infrastructure that prevent ocean plastics in South and Southeast Asia (SSEA), has announced the first close of its $106 million Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF). The organization says CCOF is the world’s first investment fund dedicated to addressing Asia’s plastic crisis and is also one of the 10th largest ASEAN-based venture capital funds in the market.

CCOF’s founding investors include PepsiCo, the first investor, and Procter & Gamble, Dow Chemical Co., Danone, Unilever, The Coca-Cola Co. and Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LLC.

With 60 percent of ocean plastic originating from this region, Asia is the biggest source of plastic leakage into global oceans. A recent Ocean Conservancy Report identified a net financing gap between $28 and $40 per ton for plastic debris collection in the five top ocean polluting countries in the world: China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

“The good news is that we are able to reduce nearly 50 percent of the world’s plastic leakage by investing in the waste and recycling sector in Asia, and even more if we invest in innovative materials and technologies,” says Rob Kaplan, CEO of Circulate Capital. “This is why we are here in Singapore—a strategic hub of Southeast Asia—to prove that investing in this sector is scalable for the region and can generate competitive returns while moving closer to solving the ocean plastic crisis.”

To address the financing gap between available private capital and the resources needed by Asia’s waste industry systems, CCOF will provide debt and equity financing to waste management, recycling and circular economy startups and small-to-medium enterprises in South and Southeast Asia focused on preventing plastic pollution and advancing the circular economy. Circulate Capital says it has identified more than 200 potential investment opportunities across a range of industries in the region, with its first investments targeted for the end of 2019.

Circulate Capital says its investment model seeks to mobilize institutional investors by blending concessionary funds with investment capital. Its objective is to demonstrate that investments in turning waste into value can ultimately provide attractive financial returns. 

“For the beverage sector, the more recycled content used in any type of packaging, such as 100 percent recyclable plastics, the lower the carbon footprint,” Matt Echols, vice president, communications, public affairs and sustainability, Coca-Cola Asia Pacific, says. “That’s why at Coca-Cola we have invested in Circulate Capital and have committed to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle and can we produce by 2030. Packaging does not need to become waste. By investing in the waste collection and recycling sector in this critical region, beverage packaging can become a valuable material used again and again—a step closer towards a circular economy.”

“Circulate Capital plays a critical role in solving the issue of plastic waste in our environment,” says Bambang Candra, APAC vice president, Dow Packaging & Specialty Plastics. “Supporting companies and infrastructure that are addressing plastic waste will catalyze the development of systems designed to advance a circular economy for plastics.”

The European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers (FEFCO), headquartered in Brussels, says the use of paper in packaging grows annually because of the material’s environmental performance and increasing demand related to e-commerce and delivery services. While the packaging recycling rate is currently 85 percent, to achieve higher recycling targets while expanding the functionality of paper-based packaging, it is important to start from the design phase, considering the intended purpose as well as the end-of-life, the organization says. To aid in this, FEFCO says it has joined with the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI), the International Confederation of Paper and Board Converters (CITPA) and the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) to create recyclability guidelines that provide guidance for designers to make sure functionality goes hand in hand with recyclability.

“These recyclability guidelines and best practices can certainly ensure a higher quality of recycling,” says Angelika Christ, secretary general at FEFCO. “This is vital for the corrugated board industry since we already incorporate on average 89 percent of recycled content in our product. Retailers, customers and end users can be certain that the paper sector effectively recycle the packaging put on the market. We want and we need every fiber back.”

The associations intend for these guidelines to become the go-to document to learn more about the implications of certain converting steps on the recyclability of paper-based packaging. The developers say they are convinced that widespread awareness among the value chain (including retailers and brand owners) can truly improve the recyclability of products. They also say the guidelines will help meet national protocols and requirements and further close the circularity of the industry.

The guidelines can be downloaded at www.fefco.org/recyclability-guidelines.

Buxton Natural Mineral Water, headquartered in the United Kingdom, has announced that its whole range of water bottles will be made from 100 percent recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) by 2021. Buxton is a part of the Nestlé Waters group. Buxton’s bottles are already 100 percent recyclable and will remain 100 percent recyclable when the company makes this transition, Nestlé Waters reports in a news release.

The company’s 75-centiliter and 1-liter bottles made from 100 percent rPET were launched in November as well and the rest of the range, currently made with a minimum of 20 percent recycled plastic, will follow by the end of 2021. According to a news release from Nestlé Waters, this change is the result of Nestlé Waters’ longstanding commitment to sustainability, to reduce its impact on the environment and to promote a circular economy.

“We are incredibly excited to be able to put our commitments to sustainability into practice,” says Michel Beneventi, business executive officer for Nestlé Waters U.K. “The high-quality recycled material retains the same all-important properties as PET, resulting in a product that is lightweight, durable, resilient and still 100 percent recyclable. We would have liked to have made all our Buxton bottles from recycled material much sooner, but there are many challenges to achieving this. The material we use needs to be high-quality food grade.

“The availability of a domestic U.K. supply of this material is still relatively limited,” Beneventi continues. “Today, the rPET used for our Buxton bottles has to be sourced outside of the U.K., as we don’t currently have the infrastructure available at scale in this country to create volumes needed. We would love to be able to produce the bottles for our British water in the U.K. Therefore, we’re working with industry partners, nongovernmental organizations and government to improve the national recycling rate, supporting the U.K.-wide deposit return scheme and engaging with consumers about their recycling to help make a circular economy for plastics a reality.”

This year, Nestlé released its vision that none of its product packaging, including plastics, should end up in a landfill or as litter and that all 100 percent of its packaging will be recyclable or reusable by 2025. Buxton is ahead of this target with this announcement, Nestlé Waters reports in a news release.

“As a packaged goods company, we have a hugely important role to play in helping to address the amount of plastic produced in our industry and a collective responsibility to help shape a more sustainable future,” says Anna Turrell, head of sustainability for Nestlé Waters UK. “We will continue to push the boundaries to address this challenge.”