The Latin America Committee of the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) will meet Tuesday, May 29, 2018, at 5:30 p.m. in Barcelona, Spain. The meeting is part of the wider BIR World Recycling Convention, which takes place at the Sofia Hotel in Barcelona May 27-30.

Among the recyclers who have been involved with the Latin America Committee for the past three years are Alejandro Jaramillo of Mexico-based Glorem SC and Enrique Acosta of Florida-based BMB Metals.

Glorem helps source scrap materials in Central and South America and helps provide Spanish language services for California-based recycling software provider 21^st Century Programming.  BMB Metals connects scrap buyers, sellers and industry suppliers globally, with an emphasis on the Latin America market.

Previous BIR Latin America Committee meetings have included guest speakers from scrap consuming companies in the region and discussions of trade issues affecting the region.

More information on the meeting can be obtained by contacting Enrique Acosta of BMB Metals at enrique@bmbmetals.com. More information on registering for the 2018 BIR World Recycling Convention in Barcelona can be found on this web page.

Genesis Attachments has announced Rick Woodrum as its Mid-Atlantic regional manager. The company is headquartered in Superior, Wisconsin, and manufactures shears, grapples, concrete processors and specialty attachments for the scrap processing, demolition, material handling and offshore decommissioning industries

Covering West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, Woodrum will provide attachment, parts and service sales and application support to the demolition, scrap and material handling industries.

Woodrum also will manage Genesis' dealer presence and activities in the region. He joins Genesis with 20 years of industrial sales experience.

Applied Materials Trading LLC (AMT), a plastics recycler and distributor, says it has nearly completed renovating the former Sunny Delight manufacturing plant in Mount Dora, Florida. Eight months ago, AMT purchased the 60,000-square-foot facility, which is situated on an 8-acre compound just outside of Orlando and sat vacant for nearly 10 years. The property will serve as AMT’s new headquarters beginning June 2018.

“It took a bit of creative vision to restore this property and bring it to its new condition, but we’re pleased to bring an environmentally conscious business—and numerous jobs—to this community,” says Casey Villamil, CEO of AMT. “As a business, having both a plastic and paper recycling plant allows us to service multiple scrap streams from our customers while giving them a one-stop recycling solution.”

The company, which is presently headquartered in Boynton Beach, Florida, says it invested $2 million to refurbish the old factory, which will house, shredding, grinding, pelletizing, dedusting and demetalizing equipment. AMT plans to add at least six new local jobs to its current plastic recycling team. 

Villamil formed AMT in 2012. It has since grown to become one of Florida’s premier plastic and paper recycling companies.  AMT says it anticipates the new facility will allow it to recycle 24 million pounds of plastic per year.

AMT also supports a pelletizing line in south Florida, where the company focuses on manufacturing low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) repro for domestic and international customers.  

The women-owned company specializes in sourcing, marketing and distribution of polymers and also deals in bottle-grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET), preforms and other manufactured resins and recycled plastics materials. AMT services postindustrial plastic scrap throughout the state of Florida and ships to customers throughout the world. For more visit www.appliedmaterialstrading.com.

AMT operates its own fleet of trucks and owns a paper recycling facility in Apopka, Florida.

Photo: Dreamstime

SERI, the Boulder, Colorado-based housing body for the Responsible Recycling Practices (R2) Standard for electronics recycling operations, says certified locations must transition to the new ISO 14001:2015 standard by Sept. 15, 2018.

In its April 2018 R2 Update e-newsletter, the organization writes: “R2 certified companies that are satisfying Provision 1 requirements with certification to ISO 14001 must upgrade to the new version prior to the transition deadline to keep their R2 certification active and in good standing.”

SERI advises that recyclers consult with their certifying bodies’ transition plans to ensure they are meeting the deadlines for scheduling.

“If you have not yet upgraded to ISO 14001:2015, be sure to schedule your audit soon to allow time to successfully complete your audit and resolve any nonconformances,” SERI advises in its e-newsletter. “R2 certified companies that do not successfully upgrade prior to the deadline will be out of conformance with Provision 1 and subject to suspension by their certifying body until they have obtained certification to the 14001:2015 Standard. Recyclers that do not get re-certified to the 14001:2015 standard within the suspension period face revocation of their R2 certificate.”

More information on ISO 14001:2015 is available at www.iso.org/iso-14001-revision.html.