LC Athletes Roepke and Retzlaff Pioneer Recycling Business

The Pioneer Log (OR) (11/23/14) Lee, Maddie

Intrepid Resource Management recently received an Incubator+Launch Seed Fund Grant from Lewis and Clark College’s Center for Entrepreneurship. The grant makes IRM eligible for up to $20,000 this year to fund its venture. IRM serves as a middleman for selling obsolete irrigation pipes. The five-member company goes to farms across Oregon to purchase their discarded irrigation pipes and sell them for a profit. The idea was conceived by IRM’s Erich Roepke, who had started a scrap metal recycling business while in high school and found the aluminum irrigation pipes could be sold for much more than steel and were easier to transport. He also noted many farms were migrating to circular irrigation systems from rectangular ones. The company uses Google Earth to identify scrap irrigation pipes. Along with funding, the recipients will receive mentoring, consultation, and resources from the the center. IRM is working with Michael Kaplan, managing director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, and Brian Detweiler-Bedell, academic director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, to improve the efficiency and endurance of its business model.

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How Clover Hit It Big by Recycling Used Electronics

Crain’s Chicago Business (11/22/14) McKeough, Kevin

Clover Holdings has launched a phone buyback program targeted to businesses that want to upgrade to Apple iPhone 6 smartphones. Such programs have helped Clover CEO Jim Cerkleski expand a $1.7 million printer cartridge recycling business into a worldwide remanufacturer and reseller of cartridges, mobile phones, and cell-tower equipment that will likely reach $1.1 billion in revenue this year. Cerkleski believes that in 2013 alone, his company kept 70 million cartridges and at least 4 million phones out of landfills. His company grew through various acquisitions that have been financed with the help of Golden Gate Capital, which purchased 48 percent of Clover Holdings in 2010 for an undisclosed amount. Jake Mizrahi, a managing director at Golden Gate, and Cerkleski note Clover’s business model can be applied to any kind of costly electronics equipment, from airplane parts to medical equipment. Mizrahi praises the creativity of Clover’s recycling initiatives as a program that gives schools credits toward computer purchases in exchange for obsolete phones and cartridges that parents bring in for recycling.

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Recycling Unwanted Electronic Items Is ‘Big Business’

Ottawa Daily Times (IL) (11/21/14) Stout, Steve

At a recycling event in Oglesby, Ill., area residents dropped off more than 183,000 pounds of electronic items that are prohibited from being discarded in landfills. Event organizer Tom Porter, the city’s public health and safety commissioner, says the items included obsolete TVs, monitors, printers, stereo equipment, fax machines, VCRs, speakers, video-game consoles, and computers. The final bill from collection company New Life Recycling was about $7,320, which amounts to about four cents a pound. The La Salle County Environmental Guide states that electronic devices can no longer be legally disposed of in landfills because they contain certain toxic components, according to the La Salle County Environmental Services and Land Use Department. The guide notes many components in these electronics can be recycled, and «finding those places that will recycle or properly dispose of the unwanted electronics has become big business.» New Life president Matt Gatz says the company’s main facility weighs and audits all of the electronics it receives, and the items are separated by materials, such as plastic, glass, or metal. Gatz says he is proud of his recycling company and its 13 employees. «It feels good to know that we’re making a difference in the environment,» he says.

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Local Business Wins Innovative Plastics Recycling Award

Pike County News Watchman (OH) (11/19/14)

The American Chemistry Council has selected Geo-Tech Polymers of Waverly, Ohio, to receive its 2014 Innovation in Plastics Recycling Award. «This year’s award recipients are helping overcome some of the hurdles needed to take plastics recycling to new levels,» says ACC’s Steve Russell. «Their innovations will help expand the ongoing growth in plastics recycling and make more recycled plastics available to manufacturers.» Russell notes innovative companies such as Geo-Tech are finding ways to divert discarded plastics from the waste stream while also creating sustainable new products. Geo-Tech, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wastren Advantage, has developed a patented process for removing coatings such as ink, chrome, paint, films, and labels from discarded plastics prior to reprocessing. The coatings can impact the value or utility of recycled plastics if not removed. The process decreases the amount of plastics that are disposed of in landfills and expands the number of applications available for recycled plastics, says Geo-Tech president Ron Whaley.

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B.C. Company Greasing the Wheels With Biodiesel Push

Cleantech Canada (11/18/14) Nesseth, David

In the past five years, British Columbia-based Greasecycle has collected discarded cooking grease, transforming it into biodiesel that it sells at farmers markets. With five biodiesel-fueled trucks, Greasecycle collects thousands of liters of oil from schools, malls, and restaurants. Most recently, the University of British Columbia will join 30 Burger King locations as well as hotels and pubs across the province as Greasecycle customers that have their cooking grease collected free of charge. The collected oil is cleaned, recycled, and sold through the Cowichan Bio-diesel Co-op. The company has grown by 20 percent each year since 2010. “It’s a great opportunity for businesses to promote themselves as low-carbon,” says Greasecycle’s Hassan Rahim. “We want to reach out to as many customers as possible.” The company’s latest client, UBC, also is interested in using the biofuel for student research projects and for some of its plant operations fleet. Greasecycle has similar arrangements with Camosun College and Vancouver Island and currently is working on an agreement with the University of Victoria.

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Robots Put to Work on E-Waste

University of New South Wales (11/18/14)

Researchers at Australia’s University of New South Wales believe they have automated the process of disassembling liquid crystal display screens for recycling. The team has programmed industrial robots to learn and memorize how screens are designed, remove the display and printed circuitboard without damaging them, and apply this knowledge to unfamiliar models so they continue to work quickly and limit mistakes. «We’ve successfully proven that you can teach a robot to disassemble LCD screens,» says NSW professor Sami Kara. «They break one or two but then they learn, and they don’t make the same mistake again.» He says the robots would be especially helpful for limiting human exposure to potentially toxic materials used in electronics, and he thinks the technique could be adapted for recycling other products such as lithium batteries. Kara says the technology is ready for industry trials now that it has been proven in the lab. He notes additional robots could be incorporated into the setup to handle e-scrap as it is loaded or unloaded from a robot performing disassembly. «You could isolate them in a cubicle, dump the screens in, and have them work 24/7 non-stop,» Kara says.

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Turlock Recycling Company Receives $1 Million Grant

Turlock Journal (CA) (11/18/14) Arakelian, Elizabeth

Turlock, Calif.-based Peninsula Plastics Recycling won a $1 million grant from the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), enabling the company to purchase new equipment and create nine new positions. The equipment purchase will enable Peninsula Plastics to recover about 45 percent of its recycling byproducts and use it to create landscaping material. Peninsula Plastics was one of eight projects out of more than 50 applicants to win grants through CalRecycle’s greenhouse gas reduction initiative. “These projects will directly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by keeping material out of landfills through composting, recycling, and waste prevention,” says CalRecycle’s Caroll Mortensen. The grants, totaling $19.5 million, are funded by the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Other grantees included CR&R Incorporated, Colony Energy Partners, Mid Valley Disposal, Recology East Bay Organics, Burrtec Waste Industries, Command Packaging, and Sonoco Products Co.

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UpWise Recycles Used Electronics, Gives Discounts on New Ones

PSFK (11/17/14) Kunz, Marnie

New York-based UpWise is reducing the amount of potentially toxic e-scrap through an innovative trade-in program. Users can trade their cell phones or other obsolete electronic devices for discounted cell phone cases, chargers, tablets, tablet cases, cameras, and fitness devices such as GPS watches. Items ordered on the UpWise website come with a prepaid shipping envelope for sending users’ discarded gadgets back to UpWise for recycling and purging of all personal data. Instructions for purging personal data are included, so confidentiality is protected while the item is en route. UpWise takes electronic devices in any condition and, by providing a recycling discount incentive, it is helping to recapture valuable resources, reduce carbon emissions, and reduce environmental toxins.

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Recycling Avenue Provides Jobs for the Disabled

ABC7Chicago.com (11/16/14)

P.J. Flaherty and Greg Campone, two young men with physical disabilities, started an electronic recycling company, Recycling Avenue, in 2007 with the help of nonprofit group Avenues to Independence, which provides support services and job placement for people with disabilities in the north and northwest suburbs of Wheeling, Ill. «We were looking for work, and we wanted to be able to help out the community as well,» Flaherty says. «So we decided to do electronics recycling. Along with that we decided to do eBay as well, which is part of recycling as we like to say.» The company provides collection bins for obsolete electronics placed throughout the area and accepts drop-offs at a Wheeling warehouse. The company’s six employees recycle and resell items that still have value to vendors all over the country and through eBay. Although the company was started during the beginning of the Great Recession, they already have succeeded financially. Both Avenues to Independence and the recycling center receive some state funding and public donations. «I’d like to see it be able to expand to offer more opportunities for people like myself and also opportunities to help with the environment and keep all the electronics and stuff out of the landfills,» Flaherty says.

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In This State: Robin Ingenthron Has a Passion for Recycling

VT Digger (11/16/2014) Van Susteren, Dirk

Robin Ingenthron is the owner of Middlebury, Vt.-based Good Point Recycling, a company that collects 5 million pounds of obsolete electronics a year from deposit sites across the state and processes it along with another 3 million pounds delivered from nearby states. Ingenthron and his employees repair the electronics or strip them of their marketable components and materials, bundling and shipping items it cannot handle to other recyclers in New England for reprocessing. Ingenthron was the recycling director at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection before moving to Vermont, where he started Good Point in 2003. He believes in encouraging the growth of international markets for the reuse of discarded electronics, arguing that banning the exportation of e-scrap unduly limits the chances for creating legitimate repair businesses in developing countries. He says developing countries have their own e-scrap to deal with and will need to develop reliable business infrastructures to handle it. Good Point sends electronic components “all over the world to scrap markets,” Ingenthron notes. He already has one franchise in Fronteras, Mexico, and says his goal is to be “the Kentucky Fried Chicken of recycling.”

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Recycling Program Diverts 240,000 Gallons of Paint

Environmental Leader (11/14/14)

Launched in July 2013, Connecticut’s PaintCare program recycled more than 240,000 gallons of leftover paint in one year. The American Coatings Association established the nonprofit PaintCare program and runs similar programs in California, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Programs in Maine and Colorado will begin in summer 2015. The state-mandated and paint industry-supported program makes paint recycling easier and more convenient for painting contractors, businesses, and residents. There are more than 130 drop-off sites at paint retailers and 25 sites at town transfer stations. Program costs for paint collection, transportation, recycling, retailer training, and promotion are funded by nominal fees on new paint sales. In an effort to double the state’s recycling rate, Connecticut also has state-mandated and industry-supported recycling programs for obsolete electronics and soon will have a program for discarded mattresses, according to Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection commissioner Rob Klee.

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Private Company’s Paper Recycling Drop-Off Bins to Remain Available in Lake County

News Herald (OH) (11/13/14) Hutchison, John Arthur

Cleveland’s Royal Oak Recycling has taken over handling the 40 green and yellow paper recycling bins previously managed by the now-defunct Abitibi Consolidated. Until last month, when it went out of business, the Quebec-based Abitibi Consolidated made paper recycling bins available in parking lots for churches, community centers, and libraries, where a lot of newspapers and magazines have been collected. The bins have become an important resource for residents, according to Lake County Utilities Department public service coordinator Matt Armand. The company collected paper that would have otherwise been disposed of in landfills, while reducing county costs. “We would encourage people if you have newspaper, junk mail, and phone books that’s the place to bring them because it’s much more environmentally safe and much more cost-effective for the county,” says commissioner Daniel P. Troy. “It’s year-round recycling. It’s a special collection observed 365 days a year.”

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Novelis to Convert All of its Beverage Can Sheet to High-Recycled Content Evercan Aluminium by 2017

Resource Efficient Business (11/13/14) Sanderson, Paul

Global aluminum rolling and recycling company Novelis plans to bring all of its aluminum can sheet under its high-recycled content brand by 2017, the company recently announced. The can body sheet produced by Novelis is certified 90-percent recycled content, compared with a 50-percent global industry average. Novelis CEO Phil Martens says the decision is part of a plan to increase the recycled content of the company’s products to 80 percent within the decade. Novelis will share its knowledge of the process to certify high-recycled-content beverage sheet with other aluminum manufacturers, using the methodology of SCS Global Services. Novelis recently was certified by SCS for its high-recycled-content can end sheet production in North America in addition to the body sheet. “Through an open-sourced platform, we are committed to working with beverage brands, can makers, and other aluminum manufacturers to build the closed-loop, low-carbon economy of the future,» Martens says. «Accomplishing this change is going to require all of these stakeholders to work together to make the use of recycled materials the standard for the beverage can industry and to increase recycling rates among consumers.”

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Carpet Recycling Project Begins in Maine

Construction & Demolition Recycling (11/12/14)

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection and Triumvirate Environmental are preparing to remove and ship 27,000 tons of carpet-like fiber to a recycling facility in Pennsylvania. Triumvirate Environmental plans to turn the material into a composite lumber for commercial buildings. The fiber originally was intended for the construction of shot-and-sound containment berms at a former rifle range in Warren, Maine, but was never used and is considered a fire hazard. The Maine DEP last year issued requests for proposals for the removal of the material. Triumvirate began removing the material this fall, but a more aggressive removal schedule will begin in April. «This project shows that environmental stewardship and job creation can be done together,» said Maine Gov. Paul LePage. «By viewing the fiber as a resource, Triumvirate Environmental has created a value-added product to what was once considered waste.»

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RMA: Tire Recycling Has Come a Long Way

Tire Business (11/10/14)

The Rubber Manufacturers Association issued a report in recognition of National Recycling Week, which took place Nov. 10-16, detailing the progress of tire recycling efforts in the United States as of 2013. The report notes more than 90 percent of scrap tire piles have been cleaned up and 96 percent of the more than 230 million tires discarded last year were reused in several markets. The stockpile of tires was reduced from 1 billion in 1990 to 75 million in 2013. Most of the stockpiles remaining are in Colorado and Texas, but Colorado recently passed a law to clean them up. More than 96 percent of discarded tires were diverted from landfills in 2013, up from 10 percent in 1990. Almost 90 percent of scrap tires went to three markets: tire-derived fuel used 56 percent, ground rubber used 25 percent, and civil engineering used 5 percent. TDF has a high Btu content. Ground rubber is used for athletic fields, playground cover, asphalt road surface, and new tire construction. Shredded tires can be used as a substitute for “fill” materials, such as sand or gravel, in road and landfill construction and septic fields. “Tire manufacturers have worked across the nation to help establish effective state scrap tire management programs, often funded by user fees on tire sales, to enforce regulations, clean up tire piles, and promote environmentally sound, cost-effective markets for scrap tire,» says RMA’s Dan Zielinski.

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ISRI News

ISRI Launches Video Campaign Promoting Value of Recycled Commodities

ISRI has introduced a new video series aimed at providing the public with more information on the value and impact of the recycling industry. The first three videos, released the week of Nov. 17, include one highlighting the overall impact of the recycling industry on society and one each on paper recycling and ferrous metals recycling. Videos detailing the benefits of other recycled commodities will be released in early 2015.

“These videos showcase many of the great accomplishments of the recycling industry,” said Robin Wiener, president of ISRI. “This series will draw attention to and help educate the public on the many environmental, economic, and energy-saving benefits recycling offers. We are proud to continue offering new tools and resources on behalf of the industry and the members and communities we serve, as well as innovative ways to serve as the Voice of the Recycling Industry.”

The first video details the overall impact of the entire industry. It is a visual presentation of the ISRI Scrap Yearbook, ISRI’s jobs and economic impact study, and other ISRI resources that are designed to educate people on the role that the recycling industry plays in their daily lives and beyond. The second and third videos on paper and ferrous metal scrap bring to life each commodity’s environmental and economic impact citing numerous statistics and industry facts. Videos on non-ferrous metals, plastics, electronics, and rubber are in the works. ISRI and its members will use these videos as tools to educate national and community stakeholders, from legislators to school children.

The videos are available on ISRI’s website and YouTube Channel.

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