Despite record-high PET bale prices, one reprocessor says bale quality has not improved.

A bottle-to-bottle polyethylene terephthalate (PET) reprocessor based in the Midwest says scrap supply remains tight, with bale prices at record highs as of the start of May. The rise in demand and pricing is partly related to recycled-content mandates in the European Union, she says. 

“Currently, the European market is very tight, which is impacting any imports into the U.S. as product gets diverted to Europe, where pricing is higher than the U.S.,” the PET reclaimer says. 

Despite the record-high bale prices, she says her company has seen minimal improvements in bale yield. 

Demand for recycled PET has pushed its pricing higher than that of virgin PET, the recycler says, which also is at record highs. 

“PET has skyrocketed, while PE/PP (polyethylene/polypropylene) has held its own nicely,” a thermoplastic recycler based on the West Coast says. 

He adds that the availability of injection-grade high-density polyethylene (HDPE) has tightened, as well. 

“There is a concern that with such high inflation, at some point demand for products has to come down,” the source on the West Coast says. “Time will tell. I feel when end users start thinking they can secure cheaper material in the near future, they also buy less or only what they must have to keep going.” 

In the meantime, he says, domestic demand remains healthy, with regrind and recycled pellets moving well. 

The tight supply is in part because of low collection rates in the U.S. Most major categories of plastics recovered for recycling in 2020, the most recent year data are available for, decreased compared with 2019, according to the “2020 U.S. Post-consumer Plastic Recycling Data Report,” which was sponsored by the Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR), the Foundation for Plastic Recycling, The Recycling Partnership and the U.S. Plastics Pact. Stina Inc., Sonoma, California, compiled the report based on surveys conducted by the company and the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), Charlotte, North Carolina.

The PET bottle recycling rate declined 1.2 percentage points in 2020 from 2019, reaching 27.1 percent, while the HDPE bottle recycling rate fell 2.1 percentage points to 28.8 percent.

“We need more supply,” Steve Alexander, president and CEO of the Washington-based APR, says in the news release announcing the report’s availability. “Our industry faces significant challenges that require immediate solutions. We need to focus our efforts on technologies that are up and running today. Mechanical recyclers have the capacity to process more material but lack the supply to meet the current demand for postconsumer resin. Expanding and streamlining recycling collection programs, less confusion with labeling and reducing contamination through design for recyclability should be key priorities.”

Keefe Harrison, CEO of The Recycling Partnership, Falls Church, Virginia, says the report “shows that we need investment in the U.S. recycling system to boost the recycling rate for all materials, including plastics.”

In addition to supply, transportation remains difficult to secure and prices are high, the reprocessor in the Midwest says, in part because of record fuel charges. “We are booking loads further in advance and paying more, although we are getting record numbers of inquiries from new freight vendors.”

She says trucking into Canada is difficult to secure and is two-to-three times more expensive than it was six months ago.

“Bulk transportation is much tighter,” the PET reprocessor says.

The recycler based on the West Coast says transportation issues have eased somewhat. “Rates are not as low as we’d like,” he says, adding that availability has improved as the “frenetic pace of demand on [the] trucking end of things has cooled off some.”

The certification validates the company’s circular monomers produced from postconsumer and scrap plastic.

Encina Development Group, a producer of circular chemicals based in The Woodlands, Texas, has achieved the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification (ISCC) Plus designation for its circular monomers converted from postconsumer and scrap plastic.

ISCC Plus is an internationally recognized third-party sustainability certification system that evaluates all the sustainable raw materials, circular materials, biological materials and renewable energy by means of an audit to determine compliance with environmental sustainability requirements. According to a news release from Encina, the ISCC Plus designation credibly validates sustainability characteristics, such as the percentage of recycled content, that a company claims.

Encina says it uses a proprietary advanced recycling technology that works at the molecular level. Through the technology, polymer chains are split apart and converted back to their original chemical building blocks that can be reused to make new products. The company adds that it plans to construct several facilities in the United States as well as Asia and South America, with each facility expected to process about 450,000 tons of postconsumer and scrap plastic material each year.

“Achieving ISCC Plus certification is a critical milestone and validator of our work to catalyze the move from linear to circular manufacturing systems, with the long-term vision of getting to a world where nothing is wasted,” says Sheida Sahandy, chief sustainability officer at Encina. “It allows Encina to provide our global customers with certified products to meet their sustainability goals. Our customers are manufacturers who can drop these products seamlessly into their existing manufacturing processes to produce products with recycled content. This allows them to be responsive to growing consumer expectations of sustainability and transparency when it comes to their purchases.”

The investment will help the company build a network of lithium-ion battery recycling facilities in the U.S. and Europe.

Ara Partners, a Houston-based private equity firm that specializes in industrial decarbonization investments, has made an $80 million equity commitment to support the buildout of lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling facilities in the U.S and Europe with Blue Whale Materials LLC (BWM), Washington.

BWM and Ara will build five lithium-ion recycling plants in the U.S. and Europe in the next two to four years, a spokesman for BWM says, and plans to have its first U.S. plant operational in 2023. He adds that locations in the U.S. and Europe are being finalized and that BWM will announce those locations soon.

As electric vehicles, smart devices and electric storage technologies continue to be adopted, manufacturers will require a growing supply of materials such as cobalt, nickel and lithium to make the batteries for these devices. BWM’s proprietary technology, which the company says it has validated at a commercial scale plant in Asia, recycles spent lithium-ion batteries and produces recycled product used in manufacturing new battery components.

According to the spokesperson, the company’s technology produces a “blacksand material” that contains cobalt, nickel and lithium at high concentrations. “The process is designed to remove impurities to optimize the product for hydrometallurgical refining and separation of the metals into sulfate form for precursor manufacturing.”

He adds that BWM's product is dry and lighter in weight than products produced using a wet process. “BWM is also end-refinery agnostic and can direct material to any upstream provider's refinery of choice to promote true closed loop recycling.”  

“There is an urgent need for an ethical, circular solution to the growing demand for critical battery materials and the mounting supply of hazardous LIBs,” says Robert Kang, BWM CEO. “We are proud to partner with Ara, which shares our passion and has the experience in scaling manufacturing operations and building sustainable businesses.”

“The BWM team has the operational experience, strategic relationships and motivation to build a leading LIB recycling platform domestically,” says Tuan Tran, a partner at Ara Partners. “The market opportunity is tremendous, and we are thrilled to partner with the BWM team.”  

European company’s customer day in Virginia shows off its production, service capacity in North America.

Liebherr USA Co., based in Newport News, Virginia, hosted visitors from around the world at its first Customer Day May 12. The company says it highlighted and demonstrated a diverse range of products across 10 industry segments including earthmoving, material handling technology, mobile and crawler cranes and components.

Among new products displayed by Liebherr USA were its LTM 1110-5.2 all-terrain crane, LTM 1300-6.3 all-terrain crane, LR 1700 crawler crane, LR 1400 SX crawler crane, LR 1250.1 unplugged crawler crane and its PR 776 dozer.

The company says it also was able to show off the expanded campus it began to occupy last April, revealing “the $60 million enhancement to the facilities” that include a 60,000-square-foot administrative building, an 82,000-square-foot workshop and training facility, a 92,000-square-foot parts distribution warehouse, a wash bay building and a guardhouse.

“The investment in our new Liebherr USA headquarters and facilities represents our strong commitment to the United States market,” Liebherr Managing Director Kai Friedrich says. “The new state-of-the-art repair and training facilities as well as the new central warehouse are, in terms of size and technical standards, advanced and comply with current and future requirements of our customers, covering all 10 product segments.”

The Customer Day preceded Liebherr’s Recruiter and Counselor Open House Friday, May 13, and Family Day Saturday, May 14. “After two years of anticipation, we are honored to present our newly expanded facilities and products on such a momentous day,” Liebherr Managing Director Tim Gerhardt says. “This opportunity allows us to showcase Liebherr’s growth and dedication to our U.S. partners and customers.”

Plastic recycling firm issues ESG report saying its polypropylene production also produces low carbon emissions.

PureCycle Technologies Inc., Orlando, Florida, has released an environment, social and governance (ESG) report that includes life cycle assessment (LCA) data it says shows the company's purification process for recycling polypropylene (No. 5 plastic) scrap “uses less energy and has lower carbon emissions than new plastic production.”

PureCycle says its 2021 ESG report “spotlights PureCycle’s effort to scale and optimize its unique No. 5 plastic recycling [process], harness the latest manufacturing technology systems and leverage top-tier talent to fulfill the company’s mission of transforming plastic [scrap] into a continuously renewable resource.”

The company says highlights of its report include that, based on the design of PureCycle’s Ironton, Ohio, facility, carbon emissions from creating recycled-content polypropylene (PP) are expected to be 35 percent lower compared with producing new PP.

As well, the company says, the PureCycle process is expected to use 79 percent less energy than new PP production. PureCycle also says it “is positioning itself to connect brands with high-quality, sustainable plastic to deliver on their promises to reduce new plastic production and to answer consumer demands for real sustainability.”

Mike Otworth, chair and CEO of PureCycle, says, “As a plastic recycling technology company aiming to reduce plastic waste, partnering with leading brands to help them create sustainable consumer products, and transforming the industry, it’s essential we also do our part to minimize our environmental impact and conserve resources. As we continue to refine our approach, we will look for impactful, innovative ways to reduce carbon emissions and utilize less energy. This is just the beginning.”