In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer marking the one-year anniversary of the removal of Section 232 aluminum tariffs on aluminum produced in North America, Aluminum Association President and CEO Tom Dobbins mentions the continued importance of the exemptions to U.S. aluminum companies and workers.

Dobbins writes, “The U.S. aluminum industry depends on a reliable source of Canadian primary aluminum, which has been a key part of the domestic supply chain and national security apparatus for decades, to meet demand for these aluminum products. Even if every U.S. aluminum smelter was operating at full capacity, aluminum manufacturers would still require a mix of domestic and imported primary aluminum as well as secondary production to meet the demands of U.S. manufacturers and consumers for aluminum products.”

Dobbins adds that 97 percent of U.S. aluminum industry jobs are in mid- and downstream production and processing. He says these jobs “depend on reliable aluminum supplies from our USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada) trading partner.” Jobs at U.S. aerospace, automotive and other advanced manufacturing firms also rely on these imports, Dobbins says.

Levels of imported primary aluminum from Canada into the U.S. are generally consistent with volumes dating back prior to the imposition of the Section 232 tariffs and are down from peaks in 2017. While “the precise mix of the types of primary aluminum shipped may vary according to market conditions, total imports of primary material over time have stayed relatively constant,” Dobbins writes.

Dobbins also highlights continued issues in the implementation of the Section 232 program, particularly the aluminum product exclusion process. Since the beginning of the program, the Commerce Department has granted tariff exclusions on aluminum products covering more than 22 billion pounds of aluminum, including more than 4 billion pounds from China, the most granted for any single country.

“Even as successful anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases led to a sharp decline in unfairly traded imports of flat-rolled aluminum products from China, overall imports of semifabricated aluminum products into the United States increased by nearly 4 percent in 2019. Much of this aluminum was excluded by the Commerce Department from the Section 232 tariffs,” Dobbins notes. “Meanwhile, domestic production of semifabricated aluminum products declined more than 3 percent in 2019.”

Dobbins calls for increased import monitoring in North America to combat unfair global trade practices, especially subsidized aluminum overcapacity originating in China. He also says he supports efforts by the U.S. and Canadian governments to develop and expand import monitoring systems to include aluminum and aluminum products. Dobbins added that Mexico has not implemented any similar programs.

“I urge you to work with your counterparts in Mexico to ensure its government is adequately monitoring imports of aluminum products—particularly from nonmarket economies like China,” Dobbins states. “We stand ready to support the establishment of a North American Aluminum Trade Committee to discuss—and address—trade flow shifts and patterns.”

A team of scientists at the Universities of Birmingham and Bath says it has developed a faster, more efficient way to recycle plant-based bioplastics.

The chemical recycling method is said to speed up the process, the output of which can be converted into a new product, a biodegradable solvent, that can be sold for use in a wide variety of industries, including cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

Bioplastics, made from polylactic acid, or PLA, are used in disposable cups, packaging materials and even children’s toys. Typically, once they reach the end of their useful lives, they are disposed of in landfills or composted commercially, biodegrading over periods of up to several months, according to the universities.

In a new study, researchers have shown that a chemical process, using a zinc-based catalyst developed at the University of Bath and methanol, can be used to break down the plastics and produce the solvent methyl lactate. Their results have been published in the journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research (Román-Ramírez et al. [2020], “Chemical Degradation of end-of-life Poly(lactic acid) into Methyl Lactate by a Zn(II) Complex”)

The team tested the method on three separate PLA products–-a disposable cup, some 3D printer scrap and a children’s toy, finding the cup was most easily converted to methyl lactate at lower temperatures. But even the bulkier plastic in the children’s toy could be converted using higher temperatures.

“We were excited to see that it was possible to obtain high quantities of the green solvent regardless of samples’ characteristics due to colorants, additives, sizes and even molecular weight,” says lead author Luis Román-Ramírez of the University of Birmingham’s School of Chemical Engineering.

Lead researcher, professor Joe Wood at the University of Birmingham, says, “The process we’ve designed has real potential to contribute to ongoing efforts to reduce the amount of plastic going into landfill or being incinerated creating new valuable products from waste.

“Our technique breaks down the plastics into their chemical building blocks before ‘rebuilding’ them into a new product, so we can guarantee that the new product is of sufficiently high quality for use in other products and processes.”

The chemical process has been tried up to 300 milliliters, so next steps would include scaling up the reactor further before it can be used in an industrial setting.

The research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

A mid-May Cleveland City Council hearing witnessed several council members express dismay that the city’s government had let its recycling processing contact lapse starting April 1. Since that time, recyclables placed curbside have been collected in a separate truck only to go directly to a landfill.

A May 18 online article by Cleveland Scene says the city’s chief operating officer and its “sustainability chief” faced tough questions and accusations from council. Lack of communication was one fault cited, with one council member saying she felt “blindsided” by not finding out about the expired contract until nearly one month after it had lapsed.

The two officials said the city attempted to rebid the contract, only to receive one offer that would have had the city paying $192 per ton for curbside collected materials to be sorted.

According to earlier media reports, quality issues have played a major role in the lack of attractive bids, with the city itself indicating as much as 68 percent of the material placed into bins was not considered recyclable by previous material recovery facility (MRF) operator Kimble Cos.

In addition to a list of questionable fiscal decisions and practices—including the city continuing to send out recycling collection trucks even after the contract expired—some council members pointed to environmental shortcomings.

“When I recycle my pop can, I’m not doing it for the financial benefit of the city of Cleveland; I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do,” Cleveland Scene quotes one council member as commenting.

The Toter brand of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wastequip says the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) has certified Toter for its 64- and 96-gallon Bear Tough Carts) as being able to withstand grizzly bear efforts to enter the sealed waste and recycling collection bins.

Approval of the IGBC (which consists of representatives from five federal agencies and several state wildlife agencies) verifies the products have met minimum standards related to the amount of effort grizzly bears must expend to access the containers’ contents, says Toter.

During testing, Toter’s bear-resistant carts were filled with food, and food was also rubbed on the carts’ exterior to make their smell desirable to bears, thus enticing them to attempt access. Toter’s Bear Tough Carts successfully withstood grizzly bear intrusion attempts for one hour without the containers allowing access, says the firm.

“Obtaining this certification puts our products into a new category—so we are not just saying this is bear-resistant through the branding, it’s been proven by testing,” states Jeniffer Coates, vice president of product management at Toter. “Our Bear Resistant Carts provide reliability for customers and offer cost-effective solutions for communities seeking to bear-proof their waste management programs.”

Toter says the 64- and 96-gallon bins are constructed with its Advanced Rotational Molding technique, creating “a rugged rim to prevent chewing. Along with a double-walled lid, a beefier handle and hinge, and thoughtfully designed pry points, the carts can withstand the claws and jaws of bears, says the company.

Features of the carts, according to Toter, include:

• improved routing and collection efficiencies because of compatibility with both fully-automated and semiautomated applications;
• a safe and robust design that makes the carts easy to maneuver, yet extremely difficult for bears to compromise;
• a ready-to-roll design with the lids, locks, stop bars and bodies all fully assembled upon delivery;
• updated can lid and edge designed to eliminate pry points and provide a tall protective surface that’s too large for a normal bear’s jaws to grab; and
• tri-segment hinges designed to improve durability and maintain functionality.