Kansas City, Missouri-based Synetic Technologies Inc., a provider of secure information technology asset disposition (ITAD) and value recovery services, has been granted U.S. Patent No. 9,244,627 B2 for the Virtual Data Annihilator, a scalable enterprise data erasure system and method for the sorting, tracking and certified erasure of a plurality of data storage devices through the use of enterprise hardware and software designed for data storage.

Ron Helmer, CEO of Synetic, says, “When companies sell old hardware for value recovery, it is imperative that data be completely wiped from the system before it is reused. Many companies entrust this process to third party value recovery services, but without a transparent verification process, confidential client information and other sensitive data may still be at risk.”

Data sanitization remains the preferred method for organizations seeking to recover maximum value from their off-network IT assets. While organizations can perform their own data sanitization, it often comes with a greater financial cost and security risk, Synetic says.

“To this point, most ITAD firms have leveraged third-party software solutions to sanitize data, which include licensing fees per use,” Helmer says. “While the end result is the same with Virtual Data Annihilator, owning the platform allows us to deliver these same services cost effectively at scale, which delivers our clients greater value. Virtual Data Annihilator is infinitely scalable and deployable on-site, allowing us to tailor data destruction programs to meet the data security needs of any client.” 

Synetic says its patented Virtual Data Annihilator platform securely sanitizes data storage devices and produces searchable log files of the entire sanitization process to certify complete data erasure. The erasure system complies with both the Department of Defense (DoD) 5220.22-M and more recent National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) SP 800-88 Revision 1 standards, the company says. Synetic says it also designed a separate system, QCC, which automates the testing of sectors from drives wiped by the Virtual Data Annihilator and exceeds NIST 800-88 recommended standards for sectors checked. Additionally, Synetic provides notarized certificates of data destruction to its clients, which are available via the Synetic client portal. 

“One of Synetic’s well-known technology clients had a strict security requirement to shred all drives on-site, but through education, due diligence and verification, this client changed their information security stance on shredding, leveraging the Virtual Data Annihilator sanitization platform instead,” Helmer says. “We now wipe all drives for this client, which has significantly increased their value recovery from decommissioned assets.”

Synetic offers a full suite of ITAD services to Fortune-listed leaders in health care, finance, technology, education and retail. ITAD services include certified data destruction; secured transport, testing and refurbishing of IT assets; remarketing; R2 (Responsible Recycling) certified e-scrap recycling; and comprehensive reporting. Synetic offers virtual and physical data destruction under the Data Annihilator brand.

For a limited time, Synetic is offering free Google Cardboard Virtual Reality Viewers to celebrate the Virtual Data Annihilator patent. Details are available at www.sti3.com/vr.   

The French food company Danone and U.K.-based RECOUP, a member based nonprofit organisation working to promote plastics recycling, have been working together to inspire school children to recycle more plastic bottles through the Danone Nations Cup Football tournament.  

Danone sponsors the English Schools’ Football Association (ESFA) tournament to run the ESFA Danone Nations Cup, which is for children under the age of 11. Three thousand primary schools take part in the event, with the winning team in the inter-association tournament representing England at the Danone Nations Cup World Final (an international football tournament involving 2.5 million children from 32 countries).

The tournament aims to encourage kids to have a healthy and active lifestyle and to follow in the footsteps of great sportsmen, such as the tournament’s global ambassador, Zinedine Zidane. Danone is taking this one step further, educating the children that their plastic water bottles also are a resource to be reused. Through RECOUP Danone has been showing the children what recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles can be transformed into.

Using the voting bin concept, RECOUP was able to engage with the players at the regional event in Bath and the National Final at Leicester City FC’s King Power Stadium by asking a football related question to kick off the learning process. Graphic displays and top trump cards showing the recycling journey from water bottle to football shirt helped to drive the message home, RECOUP says.

Anne Hitch, RECOUP communications manager, says it “has been fascinating talking to so many young people and to tap into their passion for sport to inspire a passion for recycling.” She adds, “The idea that a plastic bottle can be recycled into a football shirt really fascinates.”

The plastic bottles collected from the tournament were sent for recycling.  The players at the National Finals also were supplied with Nike football kits made from recycled PET to wear at the event.

Charlotte Broos, Danone corporate social responsibility manager, says, “We wanted to take the opportunity of the players’ passion for football to educate them in a fun way about healthy eating, healthy hydration and taking care of the environment. We want to encourage them to recycle their plastic bottles correctly by demonstrating recycled plastic can be used as a resource to produce new items, for example football shirts. RECOUP, with their vast expertise on plastics recycling, were the perfect partner to deliver this and we’re looking forward to seeing how we can take the collaboration further next season.”

Essar Steel Minnesota LLC (ESML), Hibbing, Minnesota, has reportedly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after Minnesota’s state government cancelled the pertinent mining leases.

The Chapter 11 filing was made by ESML’s India-based parent company Essar Steel, according to a write-up prepared by the Wall Street Journal.

The filing was prompted by a decision by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton to cancel ESML’s leases to mine iron after it missed a July 1, 2016, deadline to complete the construction of its taconite pellet production facility. Ground for the project was broken in 2008.

The governor’s office says it has repeatedly prompted Essar to complete construction and to pay contractors and subcontractors who have complained of a lack of timely payments.

“The company has been told for the past nine months that the State would not extend those leases beyond July 1, 2016, unless it paid the full amounts it owed to Minnesota contractors and showed that it had the ability to carry its current construction project through to completion,” writes Dayton on a statement posted to the website of the governor’s office. “The company has not done so, and has provided no reliable assurances that it will be able to do so in the foreseeable future.”

The governor also writes that a suitor may be waiting in the wings to continue the project. “I have met with Mr. Lourenco Goncalves, the CEO of [Cleveland-based] Cliffs Natural Resources, who has expressed his strong desire to take the existing project to completion and add to it a DRI [direct-reduced iron] facility if his company is assigned those state leases.”

Dayton adds, “The state of Minnesota will continue those negotiations with Cliffs and obtain a firm commitment to execute those plans, before the leases are re-assigned. Mr. Goncalves and I will travel to the [Minnesota Iron] Range on Tuesday to discuss his plans in greater detail. I remain dedicated to assuring that these state leases are utilized by a responsible entity to mine and process their resources, and to create more jobs and further economic growth on the Iron Range.”

Goncalves has released a statement on the Cliffs Natural Resources website confirming the joint research into reviving the project.

A summary of the ESML project’s history in an online article from the Duluth, Minnesota-based regional business publication Business North says it was hampered by negative global steel industry conditions but also its own unique circumstances.

Before ESML produced a single iron ore pellet, ArcelorMittal cancelled a contract to be the biggest single buyer (because the project was behind), and an Essar-owned steel mill in nearby Sault Ste. Marie, Canada—another potential buyer—shuttered its operations.

Regarding management of the project over the course of its eight years, “The lack of financing and cash flow has drawn scorn from area contractors and state officials,” writes Business North.
 

The workers, managers, suppliers and customers who rely on British steel mills operated by India’s Tata Steel in the United Kingdom continue to remain uncertain about the future of those facilities.

Throughout much of early 2016 it looked like the mills in Wales and England in the U.K. were headed for permanent closure.

Then in May 2016, a bidding process for the mills prompted some optimism, including competing bids by two U.K.-based investment groups for the complex in Port Talbot, Wales.

On July 8, 2016, however, a press release issued from Tata Steel Ltd. world headquarters in Mumbai states that although those bids have “been carefully considered,” the organization also has “entered into discussions with strategic players in the steel industry, including [Essen, Germany-based] ThyssenKrupp AG.”

Those talks appear to be centered on the integrated steelmaking and strip steel production facility in Port Talbot. “A potential strategic combination of strip products businesses offers the best prospects to create a premium, world-class strip steel business,” says Koushik Chatterjee, Tata’s executive director for Europe.

Chatterjee also says, “We will now also begin separate processes for the potential sale of the South Yorkshire-based Specialty Steels business and the Hartlepool pipe mills (other than the 20-inch tube mill) in the U.K. Tata Steel has already received interest from several bidders for Specialty Steels and the pipe mills in each case, and a formal process will be commencing shortly.”