E.L. Harvey is the largest family-owned and -operated solid waste company in Massachusetts.

Waste Connections Inc., Ontario, announced Sept. 1 that it has acquired E.L. Harvey & Sons Inc. With a 110-year history dating back four generations, E.L. Harvey is the largest family-owned and -operated solid waste services company in Massachusetts, with total annualized revenue of approximately $110 million.  

E.L. Harvey, based in Westborough, Massachusetts, provides solid waste collection, recycling and transfer services to commercial, industrial, municipal and residential customers primarily in central and eastern Massachusetts, as well as southern New Hampshire. The company operates a single-stream material recovery facility that processed 7,000 to 8,000 tons per month and offers confidential document destruction, food waste and product destruction and electronics recycling services. It operates a fleet of 120 collection vehicles.

"The Harvey family has established one of the most respected companies in our industry, and we are honored to welcome Harvey to the Waste Connections family.  Together with their continuing leadership team, we look forward to carrying on the Harvey name and further expanding its market position, as well as enhancing its strong culture of support for its employees, customers and communities," Worthing F. Jackman, president and CEO of Waste Connections, says.

Waste Connections also announced the closing of one of its two previously announced signed acquisitions, with approximately $50 million of annualized revenue from franchise operations in Northern California and Nevada. 

The company says it expects the other signed acquisition, a solid waste services provider with approximately $25 million of annualized revenue from franchise operations in Oregon, to close during the fourth quarter.

Dale Adrian now serves as sales manager of CM’s Industrial Shredder Division.

Sarasota, Florida-based CM Shredders has announced the appointment of Dale Adrian as sales manager for CM’s Industrial Shredder Division. In that role, he will be responsible for sales and business development of CM’s industrial line of shredders and auxiliary equipment.

Adrian also will work with CM Shredders to develop complete turnkey systems and sales strategies to expand CM’s footprint into new markets and verticals. He brings nearly 25 years of recycling equipment and material handling experience to his new position, with experience in secure document data destruction and e-scrap markets, according to CM.

Most recently, Adrian helped establish Schutte Motion, a sub-brand of Schutte Hammermill and part of the CM family of companies that provides material handling and conveyance equipment.

“We’re fortunate to have someone of Dale’s caliber and experience join our team here at CM Shredders,” says Mario Vazquez, sales and marketing director at CM Shredders. “The market-specific, real-world expertise he will bring to our industrial shredder division will be invaluable in our ongoing efforts to engineer and build the best shredders and complete turnkey systems in the industry.”

CM Shredders describes itself as a manufacturer of advanced industrial shredders and recycling systems for more than 35 years. CM tire shredding systems process more than 500 million tires each year worldwide, says the company.

The three new automotive resins contain up to 29 percent recycled content and offer similar performance to virgin resins, SABIC says.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has introduced automotive resins containing mechanically recycled content under its Trucircle portfolio of circular solutions and services. The new resins include SABIC T2E-3320EH PP compound, which is a high-flow, low-emission, talc-filled polypropylene (PP); Xenoy T2NX2500UV resin, which is an unfilled, UV-stabilized blend of polycarbonate (PC) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET); and Xenoy T2NX5230 resin, which is a mineral-filled PC/PET blend.

According to a news release from SABIC, all three materials contain up to 29 percent recycled content and offer similar performance to that of virgin resins. The company says the new resins give automotive customers “new options that can help them address their sustainability goals.”

“The new Trucircle materials support the automotive industry’s sustainability initiatives by providing an opportunity to extend the life of plastic waste and helping to increase value from postconsumer products,” says Abdullah Al-Otaibi, general manager of ETP and Market Solutions for SABIC. “These new products are the first of many SABIC resins to be introduced with mechanically recycled content for potential use in interior and exterior automotive applications. They also may complement other types of sustainable materials, such as certified renewable products from bio-based content, which we are also developing. It’s all part of SABIC’s strategy to accelerate towards a circular economy.”

According to SABIC, its new T2E-3320EH PP compound features stiffness, low emissions and high heat resistance for nonvisible heat, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) components within the instrument panel and interior and under-the-hood parts. An internal life cycle assessment (LCA) showed that SABIC’s T2E-3320EH PP compound offers a reduced product carbon footprint of up to 24 percent compared with the corresponding virgin PP compound because it incorporates 25 percent recycled PP.

SABIC says its new Xenoy T2NX2500UV resin contains 21 percent recycled PET. The company says it provides good heat and impact performance, dimensional stability and low shrinkage for painted exterior body panels, spoilers, fuel filler doors and trim. It is also UV stabilized for potential use in unpainted applications.

The company’s new Xenoy T2NX5230 resin contains 16 percent mineral reinforcement and 29 percent recycled PET. Similar to the Xenoy T2NX2500UV resin, this new resin delivers properties that make it a potential solution for painted body panels, trim and other automotive components. SABIC reports that the resin’s reinforcement delivers higher stiffness and a lower coefficient of linear thermal expansion compared with Xenoy T2NX2500UV resin, making this resin a good candidate for roof spoilers and exterior trim. Both Xenoy grades offer high flow for improved throughput.

Alliance of companies and trade associations will invest $120 million to expand recycling plant.

A consortium of Sweden-based trade groups and companies is investing to build what they call the largest and most modern plastic recycling plant in the world.

Known as Site Zero and operated by Swedish Plastic Recycling (Svensk Plaståtervinning), the facility is being built to recycle up to 200,000 metric tons of plastic per year, according to its backers.

Swedish Plastic Recycling is owned by “a large part of the Swedish business community,” according to a press release issued by the consortium. The investors say Site Zero, in Motala, Sweden, will be able to recycle “all plastic packaging from Swedish households and makes plastics circular – completely without any CO2 emissions.”

The investors are not new to plastic recycling, as Motala already hosts a recycling facility they call “the most efficient in Europe, that is now being developed with next-generation technology.”

“We are doubling our capacity and will be able to handle 200,000 metric tons of plastic packaging per year,” says Mattias Philipsson, CEO of Swedish Plastic Recycling. “This creates the conditions needed for receiving and eventually recycle all plastic packaging from Swedish households.”

After the expansion, Site Zero will be 60,000 square meters (645,000 square feet) and employ up to 200 people. The automated equipment array will include 60 near-infrared (NIR) sensors and approximately five kilometers (3.1 miles) of conveyor length.

Swedish Plastic Recycling credits “cutting-edge technology” for its future ability to sort and prepare polypropylene (PP), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) trays and bottles, PP film, expanded polystyrene (EPS), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), two grades of polyolefin mixes, plus metal and other nonplastic scrap.

“Any small parts of plastic that remain after the sorting process are separated to be sent to chemical recycling, or to become new composite products,” states Swedish Plastic Recycling, adding, “At Site Zero, zero packaging goes to incineration.”

The investors say the plant will be powered by renewable energy, including plans to produce renewable energy by “covering the building’s large flat roof with solar panels.”

The firm says it is investing $120 million in the facility upgrade, which is scheduled to be completed in 2023.  “We also are preparing for washing and granulation of the plastic in phase two, which is planned for 2025,” adds Philipsson. “Then our entire plastic flow in Sweden can become circular.”

He continues, “This investment creates the prerequisites needed for making Sweden a world leader in plastic recycling. Being able to do it together with our producer customers and owners, who consist of large parts of the Swedish business community, is very inspiring.”

Investors in Swedish Plastic Recycling include Plastbranschens Informationsråd, Dagligleverantörernas Förbund, Svensk Handel and Svensk Dagligvaruhandel. Co-investors include Svenska Metallkretsen, Pressretur, Returkartong and Svensk Glasåtervinning.

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency also is contributing $20.8 million in financing through a climate investment aid program.

The electric-powered waste collection trucks are available in Southern California at Velocity Truck Centers.

Los Angeles-based Battle Motors says it is now selling its electric-powered refuse truck, the Battle LNT EV, in Southern California through Velocity Truck Centers.

Battle Motors, which acquired Ohio-based refuse market truck maker Crane Carrier Company (CCC) earlier this year, also will present its Battle LNT EV (electric vehicle) at the Advanced Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo in Long Beach, California.

The Battle Motors LNT EV features an 82-inch cab, a customizable wheel base, multimode regenerative braking, a direct drive transmission, peak power of 500 horsepower, continuous power of 310 horsepower, and a peak output torque of 1,700-plus pounds per foot, according to the company.

Battle says it acquired CCC to add an EV offering to CCC’s existing diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) product lines. “CCC’s refuse trucks have been through 75 years of continuous improvement, making them the best refuse truck on the market,” states the company.

“Velocity is excited to work with Battle Motors CCC in the development, sales and service of the new Battle LNT EV LCOE refuse truck,” says Eric Evans, national refuse manager for Velocity. “Velocity is a leader in the refuse segment, and our customers are eager to deploy zero emissions vehicle products as soon as possible.”

Comments Paul Marsolan, chief software officer of Battle Motors, “We wanted to create a fun, cool dynamic user interface in our trucks. We provide all the information on the truck in an easy-to-use interface that drivers are familiar with. If you’ve used a smartphone, you will really enjoy our Revolution operating system.”

He continues, “Drivers will get performance data on the instrument cluster. Service centers and fleet managers are not left out either—parts, down to the specific vehicle identification number, and service history is right at their fingertips. To make it as easy as possible we have included a QR code to easily share the parts data with a phone or desktop.”

Marsolan says the operating system gives the trucks “an onboard computer system to pass actionable performance, parts, and service data to fleet managers, service dealers, and drivers via [the] onboard digital instrument cluster and hosted server environment.”

Battle Motors says it is committed to accelerating the world's transition to sustainable energy through manufacturing the most durable and performance-driven class 7 and 8 electric trucks.