The city council of New Braunfels, Texas, has approved a comprehensive solid waste management plan (CSWMP), developed by SCS Engineers' Bedford, Texas, office. It addresses the city’s solid waste needs over a 20-year planning period.

The plan, developed by SCS in conjunction with city staff, addresses the capacities at existing waste management facilities, the city’s desire to increase waste diversion and waste reduction and the need to control costs using a long-term financial plan.

SCS worked closely with the city’s Solid Waste and Recycling Division (SWRD) to develop the plan.

According to SCS, CSWMPs are valuable because they identify short-, medium- and long-term goals as well as the policies, programs and facilities that will help a jurisdiction meet its goals. However, the plans require knowledge of solid waste management, reduction and reuse programs, recycling markets, collection and routing to be successful.

SCS says financial planning plays a significant role in maintaining sufficient funding to support the CSWMP. Communication, education and outreach strategies encourage coordination regarding solid waste issues among the public, agencies and private firms in New Braunfels and the region supporting residential and commercial solid waste management.

The city says it selected SCS because the firm has successfully designed and launched comprehensive solid waste planning for clients across the nation and because it is a local firm. In recent years, SCS has completed CSWMPs for other municipalities in Texas, including Killeen and Waco.

The plan meets SWRD’s criteria and takes into consideration the economic, social and environmental issues of various solid waste management policies and programs unique to New Braunfels, according to a news release from SCS.

By identifying specific interim goals, the city says it has the flexibility to change course if there are significant local and regional changes during the planning period. SCS says the plan supports the development of best practices to serve the current and future needs of New Braunfels in the most fiscally responsible and efficient manner possible.

An article published in the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung details the plan over the next five, 10 and 20 years. It states the city does not expect immediate changes.

More than 600 recycling and waste management professionals gathered June 27 in London at the Materials Recycling World (MRW) National Recycling Awards 2019.

United Kingdom’s first textile bank, Thompson Recycling and Landfill’s zero waste to landfill accomplishment and British Metals Recycling Association’s (BMRA) apprenticeship program are among the winners recognized for “best practice” and “innovation” in recycling and waste management.

“Every year through the awards we discover and celebrate truly groundbreaking initiatives, technology and services,” MRW Editor Corin Williams says. “The MRW National Recycling Award 2019 winners show our industry has the inspiration, expertise and enthusiasm to meet these challenges and lead from the front.”

BMRA was awarded the Excellence in Learning and Development award for its Metal Recycling General Operative (MRGO) level two apprenticeship.

Launched in November 2018 by Sir Gerry Berragan, CEO of the Institute for Apprenticeships, London, the MRGO is the industry’s first sector-specific apprenticeship that offers 13 different apprenticeships with Mellor Metals, Recycling Lives, Sackers, Sims Metal Management, S. Norton and other metal recycling companies in areas including material handling and end-of-life vehicles (ELVs).

“It is a really honor to win this award because as a group we have delivered a complex apprenticeship that truly offers sector-specific learnings,” Antonia Grey, BMRA public affairs and communications manager, says in a report by ATF Professional. “With a strong focus on learning and development, the MRGO apprenticeship is unique because it offers the option to specialize in a chosen area.”

She adds, “Through the apprenticeship, the partnership has engendered a greater sense of pride in the sector because it both recognizes and underscores the complexities of the industry and the role it has in protecting the environment.”

Axion Polymers, U.K., won the Team of the Year-Commercial award for its “circular approach” to recycling ELV plastics and meeting customer’s specifications for recycled polymers for a “wide range of new products.”

At Axion’s two processing sites, plastics recovered from auto shredder scrap are refined into high-quality polymers that match virgin quality, the recycler says in a news release announcing the achievement.

“Circular economy principles run throughout every aspect of the Axion Polymers team’s work and we’re delighted to have been recognized with a National Recycling Award,” Mark Keenan, business development manager, said at the ceremony.

Amy Stiven, sales and logistics manager, adds: “We build long-term relationships with customers to deliver successful, sustainable and locally-sourced raw material supply chains with all-round economic and environmental benefits.”

Stroud District Council, U.K., was recognized with the Local Authority Success-Overall Service Change award for its waste and recycling collection system, which was implemented in 2016 with a goal to reduce waste going to landfill and increase recycling. Stroud is the highest performing district for waste diversion and recycling in England, improving its recycling rate from 15 percent to more than 60 percent, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Hubbub, U.K., also won the Food Waste Initiative award for its community fridge network of 100 fridges that “provide a place for local residents and businesses to donate a surplus of perishable food, which is then available for anyone in the community to take.”

In addition, Recycling Lives, a British recycling and waste management company, won the Partnership Excellence award for its partnership with Amey, a U.K.-based waste management company, and public services provider Serco. The partnership uses electronics recycling to rehabilitate prisoners across 11 prisons in the U.K.

In 2018, the workshop, run by Serco, processed 939 tons of electronic scrap and achieved a 99.8 percent recycle rate for metals, glass, plastics, panels and circuit boards. Participants also develop skills and secure work and housing upon release and less than 5 percent reoffend, the company says.

“Winning this award is the cherry on top of an excellent partnership that allows us to really make a difference,” says Recycling Lives CEO Anthony Sharkey. “Meaningful work is critical to improving an offender’s chance of rehabilitation, so we are grateful to Amey and Serco for buying into our model and working with us to make it happen.”

Emily Davies, head of social impact at Amey, adds, “I’m delighted the fantastic work we’ve been delivering with Recycling Lives has been recognized. I’m proud the work is having positive impacts on improving offender’s rehabilitation, as well as reducing the amount of household items ending up in landfill sites.”

For more about the 2019 award winners, click here.

Upstate Shredding – Weitsman Recycling, headquartered in Owego, New York, has closed its Watertown, New York, facility, which the company acquired in 2016 from Empire Recycling.

Adam Weitsman, the company’s owner, told The Post-Standard, Syracuse, New York, that the lease was up on the facility and that it would have been too expensive to renovate the location.

The facility at 511 Pearl St. served peddlers and industrial accounts. All processing took place inside the building, which measured 75,000 square feet and was built during World War II, according to previous reporting by Recycling Today.

Weitsman told the newspaper the facility was its “smallest” and lowest trafficked of the company’s scrap yards. Upstate now operates 13 scrap facilities in New York and Pennsylvania. He also said because all the processing was performed indoors, it “made it very, very difficult to operate.”

The Post-Standard reports that retail customers have been directed to Northstar Auto and Salvage at 28722 State Route 37 in Evans Mills, New York. Northstar, which the paper says is a customer of Weitsman’s, will ship the scrap to Upstate Shredding – Weitsman Recycling’s yard in Solvay, New York.

Adam Weitsman told The Post-Standard that the seven people employed in Watertown have been offered jobs at the company’s Solvay yard.

Stadler America LLC, Colfax, North Carolina, supplied its 50th ballistic separator to the U.S. market June 30. The 50 units are helping operations in 18 different states screen a variety of materials.

Stadler America, which describes itself as the “World’s largest supplier of integrated recycling plants," says that since its introduction into the U.S. market, the ballistic separator has changed the way the industry processes materials.

Since the ballistic separator was introduced more than 30 years ago, Stadler says it has developed six different frame designs and more than 80 deck configurations. These units have been tested to handle a wide range of materials, from municipal solid waste (MSW) to medical waste and everything in between.

Four unique shaft designs have allowed Stadler’s ballistic separators to exceed the typical life span of competitive units and have led to the development of an extremely robust C&D resilient machine, the company says.

This variety in shaft and frame designs and deck configurations combined with the option of medium-, heavy and extreme-duty versions allows Stadler to ensure the correct machine is selected for each application, according to the company.

 “The great thing about the ballistic separator is we can apply it to almost any process flow and achieve three fraction purity,” Nico Sherwood, aftersales program director for Stadler America LLC, says. “With various width, length, pitch and deck configurations, you can really make exceptionally clean cuts. No other piece of equipment on the market allows you to do this.”

Stadler America LLC has been operating its U.S. facility in Colfax, offering sales, parts and customer solutions, since 2016.