Big River Steel, Osceola, Arkansas, has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corp. in which Big River Steel will receive $700 million in cash in return for a minority ownership interest in its scrap recycling and steel production company. Under terms of the transaction, which assumes a $2.325 billion enterprise value, the companies will form a joint venture under which U.S. Steel will hold a 49.9 percent ownership interest, Big River Steel reports in a news release. 

As part of its investment, U.S. Steel will hold an option to acquire the remaining 50.1 percent. Big River Steel’s original owners will also hold certain options related to the future ownership make up of Big River Steel, should U.S. Steel choose not to exercise its option.   

Big River’s Osceola-based Flex Mill is a LEED-certified steel mill and is the newest and one of the most technologically advanced flat-rolled mills in North America, according to a Big River Steel news release. Since production began in early 2017, Big River has positioned itself as a premier steel producer in terms of profitability, product quality, employee productivity and environmental sustainability.  

Big River’s early success and entrepreneurial culture has led to commencement of construction on a project that will double Big River Steel’s production capacity from 1.65 million tons to 3.3 million tons of flat-rolled steel. This investment will facilitate the company’s ability to produce even higher grades of electrical steel, demand for which is expected to increase with continued focus on energy efficiency and the increase in hybrid and electric vehicle sales, the company reports in a news release.

“Five years ago we started Big River Steel with five employees with big ideas and today we are partnering with a company started by Andrew Carnegie 118 years ago,” says David Stickler, chief executive officer of Big River Steel. “As partners with U.S. Steel, we intend to prove to the world that the best way to make steel is by combining the best of traditional integrated steelmaking with the best of electric arc furnace mini mill steel making.”

The city of Newark, New Jersey, was recently awarded a $140,000 recycling grant from The Coca-Cola Foundation, Atlanta, to pilot a new recycling education campaign this fall with the help of The Recycling Parntership, Falls Church, Virginia. 

The recycling education campaign is being rolled out with education on bus shelter signs, digital advertising, in-home  postcards that show what can and can’t be recycled, and an update of recycling information to the City’s Recycling website, The Recycling Partnership reports in a news release. The pilot will run through the fall season and is modeled after The Recycling Partnership’s proven education approach used in cities across the country, will help give Newark residents a better understanding of when to recycle what products and will support the City’s goal of residents recycling more, better.

“Our city’s residents want to learn how we can do better together as a community at recycling,” says Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka. “With the help of The Recycling Partnership and The Coca-Cola Foundation, we will be able to better inform Newark’s residents about what they can recycle on what day and how they can make a difference for our community and the planet.”

Newark is one of seven cities receiving a recycling grant through The Coca-Cola Foundation as part of The Foundation’s interests in improving capture of recyclables and helping make communities more sustainable, The Recycling Partnership reports. The recycling grants support innovative pilots that will help address some of the barriers to consumer recycling in the United States, including not knowing how, what and when it can be recycled.

“The Coca-Cola Foundation places a priority on helping communities become more sustainable by supporting innovative recycling solutions at a local level,” says Helen Smith Price, president of The Coca-Cola Foundation. “By sharing information with our Newark neighbors and friends on when, what and where to recycle, we hope to drive increased recycling participation and reduce contamination.”

As part of The Coca-Cola Foundation grant, Newark is teaming-up with The Recycling Partnership to get residents to participate in recycling by educating them about what can and cannot be placed out for recycling and on what day, according to a news release from The Recycling Partnership. Postcards with this information will be mailed to residents in Department of Public Works Zone A, which represents about 50,000 Newark households.

“The Recycling Partnership is working closely with the City of Newark to have a long-term impact by showing residents that recycling is as easy as throwing things away,” says Chris Coady, director of community programs at The Recycling Partnership. “When we waste less and recycle more, we save money and live and work in healthier communities.”

Expanding recycling education aligns with Mayor Baraka’s Newark sustainability goals, which aim to advance a multipronged agenda aimed at making Newark a healthier and greener city. 

FCC Environmental Services, the U.S.-based subsidiary of Spanish company FCC, says its new Houston-based single-stream material recovery facility (MRF), which opened in March, will accept residential material from throughout Houston for a minimum of 15 years.

FCC has made the city the new home of its U.S. corporate headquarters, settling into the East Houston community. The district has embraced the recycling facility as a “welcome investment” in an underdeveloped part of town, according to a news release. In addition, FCC employs many local citizens at the site, including some from a second-chance labor provider.

FCC won the bid in 2018 for the city of Houston after besting several proposals from competing companies. FCC’s contract “ensures the city will never have to pay FCC processing costs in excess of the cost per ton of landfill disposal, even if market value of recyclables dips.” FCC will also split profits with the city fifty-fifty.

The deal expands the types of materials accepted by reinstating glass into the program after a three-year suspension under the city’s previous contract. Residents can throw glass into their collection bins once again, and with a state-of-the-art glass cleanup system, FCC says it is able to make recycled glass clean and sellable to two local glass end markets.

FCC purchased its 35 ton-per-hour system, including the glass cleanup system, from supplier Van Dyk Recycling Solutions (VDRS), Norwalk, Connecticut. The system uses a combination of nonwrapping screens and five optical sorters to separate residential mixed paper and fiber, old corrugated containers (OCC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP), aluminum cans and mixed rigid plastics. All materials are baled in a Bollegraaf HBC-120S baler. The system has the capacity to process 145,000 tons per year, which is more than double the city’s current needs.

FCC had previously worked with Van Dyk on a 2016 single-stream system for Dallas. That system won the National Waste & Recycling Association’s (NWRA) Recycling Facility of the Year award in 2017.

Houston’s system is a similar concept, with some added technology, including an extra optical sorter for removing containers, waste and film from the fiber stream and an automatic film recovery system with a suction hood integrated with the Tomra, Asker, Norway, material separation housing. Houston also added an elliptical ballistic separator to properly clean up and prepare the container stream for the optical sorters.

Alberta, Canada’s recycling sector generated $700 million in economic value and supported more than 7,500 direct jobs in 2018, according to a new report. The report also found the potential economic benefit of recycling in the region could be $1.4 billion and 13,000 jobs if action was taken to increase Alberta’s recycling programs.

The report, commissioned by the Recycling Council of Alberta (RCA) and funded by Alberta Economic Development and Trade, Alberta Recycling Management Authority, Beverage Container Management Board and Cleanfarms, documents the type and scale of recycling in Alberta. Undertaken by Eunomia Research & Consulting, United Kingdom, it measures the economic and employment benefits the sector brings to the province, including job creation, wages, provincial tax benefit, capital investment and overall contribution to Alberta's gross domestic product (GDP).

The study found that 75 percent of households in Alberta have access to curbside recycling services and 44 percent have access to organics diversion programs for recycling organics. The research estimates that 1.15 million tons of material were diverted for recycling in 2018, an average of 260 kilograms per household.

Despite the overall success of the sector, researchers found “significantly more could be done to increase the amount of recycling taking place.” Material being diverted for recycling could nearly double if action was taken to “increase and diversify Alberta’s recycling programs,” according to the analysis.

"This report confirms Alberta's recycling industry already provides significant value to our economy, and validates the additional value that would be created if Alberta expanded and enhanced its recycling systems to simply meet what is already achieved in other provinces,” RCA President Jodi London says. “The bottom line is Alberta has an opportunity to capitalize on its waste generation and diversify its economy by moving swiftly to adopt progressive approaches that will see materials like packaging and paper effectively managed to become part of a circular economy."

Sarah Edwards, the lead author of the report, adds, "While it's fantastic to see the economic benefits that the current recycling system provides to Alberta, it's important to note that there are huge benefits to expanding current activities. Alberta leads the way in the diversity of services it offers and maximizing the potential of these will only increase the economic, employment and environmental benefits to the province."

The results will be presented at RCA's conference Sea Change.