Southern Recycling LLC—along with representatives from Warren County, Kentucky; the city of Bowling Green, Kentucky; the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce; and Houchens Industries, Southern Recycling’s parent company—gathered to officially open Southern Recycling’s new processing facility in Bowling Green. The new facility includes scrap processing equipment installed to increase the company’s processing capacity.

“We are thrilled to have this new state-of-the-art recycling facility here in Bowling Green,” states Spencer Coates, president of Houchens. “We at Houchens Industries and Southern Recycling would like to thank everyone involved in the design and completion of this facility, including the Chamber of Commerce, city and county governments and their representatives, and Stewart Richey Construction. Of course, we are most thankful to the management and employees of Southern Recycling for their hard work and dedication.”

Southern Recycling LLC now operates five processing facilities in Kentucky and Tennessee. The company, founded in 1985 and serving industrial, commercial and residential recycling customers, says it specializes in processing ferrous and nonferrous scrap. Southern Recycling is processing and shipping more than 25,000 tons per month of scrap metal and recyclables from its facilities.

“We are very excited to now position Southern Recycling as the region’s premier recycling facility and to be able to support the growth of Warren County and the surrounding area,” says John Fellonneau, Southern Recycling’s president.

Ron Bunch, president and CEO of the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, says, “We are proud to support Southern Recycling and Houchens Industries in celebration of their new facility in Bowling Green. Our community has experienced unprecedented growth, which is made possible because of the valuable business and consumer services provided by companies like Southern Recycling and Houchens Industries.”

India-based SteelMint has announced Bangkok as the location of its 4th Steel Scrap, Billet and DRI Trade Summit – Emerging Markets event. The conference has been scheduled for August 27-29 at the Hotel Avani Riverside in Bangkok.

According to SteelMint, the event will focus on the “changing dynamics of the seaborne scrap trade,” factoring in the Vale dam tragedy in Brazil, the United States-China trade dispute, falling exports from Iran, and projected Chinese billet exports in 2020.

The event also is being designed to create a greater understanding the emerging markets for imported ferrous scrap in Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Vietnam, says SteelMint.

The organizers say they “anticipate a gathering of 600 delegates from across the globe, involved in a range of materials, including steel scrap, graphite electrode, billets, pig iron and direct reduced iron (DRI).”

More information on the event can be found at this website. 

The Stanley Infrastructure division of Stanley Black & Decker Inc. has announced the finalization of its acquisition of Paladin Attachments and Pengo Attachments. The acquisition does not include the Genesis line of attachments, with that brand remaining part of Oak Brook, Illinois-based International Equipment Solutions LLC (IES).

According to an August 2018 news release from IES, the original deal included the acquisition of Genesis and was valued at $690 million. The final transaction, as announced by Stanley Black & Decker Inc. in March, does not include the Genesis line, and no acquisition cost is mentioned.

“We are excited to join the Stanley Black & Decker organization, which shares our values of delivering industry-leading quality, innovation and customer service for our customers,” says Matt Roney, who will now serve as chief operating officer of Stanley Infrastructure. “As part of Stanley Black & Decker, Paladin and Pengo Attachments will remain committed to their core strategic imperatives related to their people and customers,” adds Roney.  

Comments Doug Redpath, the president of Stanley Infrastructure, “I’m thrilled we are bringing together these great industrial businesses that believe in manufacturing high-quality products and delivering world-class customer service. Together we will reduce complexity for our existing customers and foster channel expansion and broader assortments for new customers and end users. A commitment to delivering innovation that solves end-user frustrations will be the foundation of our strategy as we look to provide meaningful growth.”

The Stanley Infrastructure division now includes the Paladin and Pengo brands, along with the Stanley, LaBounty and Dubuis brands in that business unit. Other brands within the Paladin family include FFC, Jewell and Sweepster.

Vienna-based Mondi Group says it has committed as a signatory to four packaging sustainability goals proposed by the London-based Ellen MacArthur Foundation in its New Plastics Economy Global Commitment report, which was issued on March 13.

Mondi says it first started collaborating with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2017 and joined the New Plastics Economy initiative in 2018 “to work toward eliminating plastic pollution and creating 100 percent reusable, recyclable or compostable plastic packaging by 2025.”

The company’s CEO says he sees many roles for paper and paperboard to replace single-use plastics. “We believe all packaging must be ‘fit for purpose’: paper where possible, plastic when useful,” says Peter Oswald, Mondi’s Group CEO.

“Paper is the packaging material of choice, as it is naturally compostable and a renewable resource, not just recyclable,” adds Oswald. “Mondi, as the world’s leading producer of kraft paper and paper bags, has many innovative solutions to reduce plastic waste. Where the functionality of plastic is needed, we have flexible plastic solutions, which typically reduce the amount of plastic required by 70 percent.”

Continues Oswald, “Our paper and flexible plastic packaging solutions regularly win awards, but commercial demand for some of our most innovative sustainable packaging was limited before last year. The public focus on the impact of plastic waste is changing that. This momentum gives us an important opportunity to lead our industry with innovative paper and plastic packaging ‘EcoSolutions’ that are sustainable by design.”

As a signatory to the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment report, Mondi says it has committed to:

• take action to eliminate plastic packaging considered problematic or unnecessary by 2025;
• take action to move from single-use towards reuse models where relevant by 2025;
• produce 100 percent of its plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025; and
• produce 25 percent of its plastic packaging to be made from from recycled content by 2025 (where it does not compromise functionality or food health requirements).

States Graeme Smith, the sustainability manager for Mondi Consumer Packaging, “Media reports on sustainability often send mixed and incomplete messages to consumers who are trying to educate themselves on the topic. This poses a challenge – but also serves as a powerful catalyst – in developing a stream of actionable innovation projects that meet shifting expectations and priorities.”