Sims Lifecycle Services (SLS), a West Chicago, Illinois-headquartered provider of information technology asset disposition (ITAD), data center IT circularity and electronics recycling services, has opened a facility in Guadalajara, Mexico. The new site expands the company’s global footprint, which includes facilities throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and India. 

According to a news release from SLS, the company also formed a local business entity, incorporated as Sims Lifecycle Services S.A. de C.V., to serve its growing client base and interests in Mexico.

“I am very pleased that we’ve chosen Mexico as the location for our newest owned and operated venture,” says Sean Magann, chief commercial officer for SLS. “We continue to see our data center and ITAD clients grow in Mexico, and this facility will help us better serve them. I have spent a fair amount of time in Guadalajara, and I have an appreciation for the culture and business environment.”

A new study from Raleigh, North Carolina-based Environmental Research & Education Foundation’s (EREF’s) Data & Policy Program seeks to answer questions related to the U.S. waste collection vehicle fleet, including how many trucks are operating in the U.S, what a vehicle’s average age is when it’s replaced and how often vehicle repairs are made.

Currently, this study is in the data collection phase to better understand the size and maintenance of waste collection vehicle (WCV) fleets throughout the industry. EREF asks that public and private fleet owners complete a 10-to-15-minute survey asking for general information on waste collection vehicles and fleet management.

Participants receive an advance copy of the report, which will include information such as total number of waste collection vehicles in the U.S. and their regional distribution. Those who qualify and complete the survey and select the checkbox to be entered into the giveaway could win an eighth-generation iPad.

The study seeks to benchmark current fleet practices against what industry peers are doing, as well as what is standard practice. It also seeks to understand the cost of owning a fleet and if there are differences between municipal and private fleets. Another objective is identifying growth potential including possible cities for expansion.

The deadline to complete the survey, which is available here, is Sept. 22.

EREF says it has identified 10,793 waste collection entities that own waste collection vehicles (WCV) in the United States. Nearly 100 percent of cities with a population greater than 200,000 said they have collection fleets, while only 13 percent of cities with populations less than 2,000 indicated owning their own collection fleets.

Data from the survey will be presented in compiled form and specific hauler size, addresses and contact information will not be shared, according to EREF. 

American Battery Metals Corp., Reno, Nevada, a lithium-ion battery recycling technology and battery metal extraction company that is changing its name to American Battery Technology Co (ABTC)., has appointed its current Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Ryan Melsert as its new CEO. Melsert's appointment is part of a leadership transition to prioritize the company's technology development and commercialization efforts and to position the company for long-term growth.

"Ryan and I have been working together closely over the past two years to set the direction of this company and to help evolve it to where it is today," says Doug Cole, outgoing ABTC CEO. "Over the past few months, Ryan has increasingly taken over day-to-day leadership responsibilities, including setting long-term company strategies, leading investor presentations, developing high-value strategic partnerships and leading the recruiting and hiring of company executives. It is in the best interests of the company to formalize this leadership transition and to appoint him as company CEO, and I look forward to supporting this succession in every way needed going forward."

Melsert says, "I am humbled to receive this appointment to company CEO with full support from the board of directors.” He adds, "It has been a privilege to work alongside Doug, our independent board members, employees and other key stakeholders over the past two years to build this strong foundation upon which we will further accelerate our growth. We have an unprecedented set of tailwinds behind us as our technologies simultaneously address the critical needs of mitigating global climate change and the environmental impact of conventional battery metals mining, of producing lower cost battery metals to increase the penetration of electric storage solutions throughout the market and of increasing domestic production of battery metals to improve security of supply and national security interests. As we now reprioritize our resources to focus on the commercialization of our in-house developed technologies within the lithium-ion battery recycling and primary battery metals fields, we are excited to accelerate our contributions to solving these immense challenges."

"I have had the opportunities to work at some of the largest technology corporations in the world, as well as at some of the smallest technology startups, and there are a few paradigms that I've found to be true regardless of company size or stage of maturity," says ABTC Chief Operating Officer Andrés Meza. "One of them is that people follow leaders, not titles, and during my time at ABTC I have seen employees and stakeholders at all levels rally behind Ryan with a level of passion and commitment that I have rarely experienced. While his title is changing, we have all been following his vision and leadership from the beginning."

 Melsert has more than 20 years of multidisciplinary technology development and business expertise, according to ABTC. In his CTO role over the past two years, Melsert instituted design practices to the technology development of novel systems for the extraction, purification and conversion of battery metals from lithium-ion batteries and primary metal resources, the company says. As CTO, he won the Greentown Labs/BASF Circularity Challenge award for the company's lithium-ion battery recycling process. He has assembled a team of experts in chemical engineering, battery materials manufacturing, chemical plant design and construction and plant operations.

Melsert previously worked at Tesla for nearly four years and was one of the founding design engineers for the battery manufacturing Gigafactory near Reno. He also worked as R&D manager of the Advanced Energy & Transportation Technologies group at the Southern Research Institute, where he was awarded multiple Department of Energy grants and investments from corporations for the development and commercialization of technologies for the design and synthesis of engineered sorbents for the selective extraction of lithium from low-quality brines, the manufacturing of diesel and jet fuel substitutes from biomass resources, the use of solid-state devices for the production of electricity from low-temperature geothermal resources and for grid-scale reversible gas-solid thermochemical energy storage systems.

He has a variety of publications and patents and holds graduate degrees in mechanical engineering with a co-advisement in chemical engineering and an MBA from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

To further support its commercialization and growth strategy, the company’s board of directors has agreed to select a date for an annual shareholders meeting after the filing of its annual report at the end of September. The board intends to convene a search committee to qualify and nominate director candidates to be presented for shareholder vote during the annual meeting. Current founder-stage board members Cole, Douglas MacLellan and William Hunter have informed the company that they do not intend to seek reelection at the annual meeting.

European thermoforming packaging specialist Waddington Europe, a division of Novolex, which is based in Hartsville, South Carolina, has partnered with Shabra, a recycler and processor of postconsumer scrap in Ireland, to purchase food-grade recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) sourced from bottles, pots, tubs and trays to manufacture new rPET food packaging products at Waddington’s Arklow production site in Ireland.

According to a news release from Novolex, this partnership will enable Waddington Europe to expand its line of Eco Blend products made with postconsumer recycled content sourced domestically in Ireland back into the Irish market. 

“Collectively, we hope these new agreements will advance our stake in localized plastics circularity in the Irish market,” says Eduardo Gomes, managing director of Waddington Europe. “We need to start moving to a more holistic and long-term view when it comes to the life cycle and environmental impact of food-grade packaging. It’s just as important to consider the carbon footprint at its start of life as the environmental impact at the end of its life.”  

Novolex reports that Shabra has recently invested heavily in new sorting lines and a reprocessing facility, which provides washed rPET flake for use directly into the thermoforming and packaging sector.  

“We are very much committed to sustainability and a circular economy and all the benefits that go with them,” says Rita Shah, CEO of Shabra. “By keeping Irish plastic packaging waste in an Irish recycling system, we are confident that we can offer forward-thinking customers like Waddington Europe long-term savings, less reliance on foreign external suppliers, a positive public perception and increased customer loyalty. On a macro level, the localized economic model can increase jobs and innovation, the security of raw material supply and consumer savings, as well as reduce damaging pressures on the environment. To top all this, we have big expansion plans for 2022 that will allow us to double our output.” 

Gomes adds that Waddington Europe’s Irish customers also will benefit from purchasing food-grade rPET packaging products. “Our customers are beginning to realize that if they develop these circular supply chains, they can reduce manufacturing costs and provide consumers with more sustainable products,” he says. “Additionally, governments are noticing how local recycling and closed-loop economies generate revenue and drive local job creation.”