The facility is expected to recycle 90,000 tons of plastic annually and open in 2023.

Freepoint Eco-Systems LLC, a supply chain management company headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, has announced plans to build an advanced recycling facility in Ohio. The facility will convert scrap plastic into feedstock for use in the production of prime-quality plastic.

According to a news release from Freepoint, the Ohio facility will recycle about 90,000 tons per year of end-of-life plastics that would otherwise go to landfills or incineration. Commercial operations are expected to begin in 2023.

“Freepoint is excited to announce its second commercial-scale advanced recycling facility in the United States,” says Jeff McMahon, managing director of Freepoint. “The Ohio facility will have a significant positive impact on the environment by reducing the consumption of crude oil-derived feedstocks for prime resins, which will result in carbon left in the ground, a more circular and sustainable economy and a healthier planet Earth. Our goal is to continue to expand our advanced recycling footprint not only in the U.S. but in Europe and Asia, as demand for recycled content in plastic continues to grow.”

Freepoint says it is committed to being part of the solution to the growing environmental problem of plastic waste disposal by building, owning and operating advanced recycling facilities around the globe. In October, Freepoint announced it would construct its first advanced recycling facility in Texas as part of a strategic partnership with Plastic Energy Ltd. and TotalEnergies. That facility is targeted to commence commercial operations in 2024.

Cespa S.A., formerly Ferrovial Environmental Service, recycles about 8 million metric tons of recyclables per year.

Germany-based PreZero International has completed the acquisition of Cespa S.A., formerly known as Ferrovial Environmental Service, in Spain and Portugal. Cespa S.A., a waste and recycling business, recycles about 8 million metric tons of recyclables per year for private and public customers. The company also provides biowaste, plastics and compost recycling services and operates a plant in Spain that produces biogas from organic waste.

The acquisition was first announced earlier this summer.

Along with the merger control procedure and following the approval by the European Union Commission, about 16,000 new employees at about 140 sites are included in the acquisition, PreZero reports in a news release on the transaction.

“As the environmental division of the Schwarz Group, we are steadily expanding our role as a major driver of the circular economy in Europe,” says Thomas Kyriakis, CEO of PreZero. “With the acquisition in Spain and Portugal, we are successfully following this path and want to contribute to closing further recycling loops in the future with innovative solutions.”

As a result of this acquisition, PreZero now has a presence on the Iberian Peninsula. “Cespa fits perfectly into our existing portfolio,” adds Gerald Weiss, managing director of PreZero International. “We are particularly looking forward to the valuable expertise and innovative spirit of the new employees, with whom we want to jointly advance the vision of a clean and livable environment.”

PreZero employs about 30,000 people at 430 sites in Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the U.S.

The company's liquid package is one of the first packages to receive the recognition for multiple countries across Europe that offer recycling for rigid PE packaging.

AeroFlexx, a company that provides flexible packaging based in West Chester, Ohio, has been awarded the “Made for Recycling” seal from sustainability service provider Interseroh of Cologne, Germany. The award is for the AeroFlexx liquid package, a flexible construct which contains an air frame that provides rigid qualities throughout the entire package lifecycle.

According to a news release from the company, AeroFlexx is one of the first packages to receive the “Made for Recycling” designation for the multiple countries across Europe that offer recycling for rigid polyethylene (PE) packaging, meaning consumers are able to recycle AeroFlexx packages just like other widely recycled PE bottles.

“AeroFlexx is honored to be recognized as ‘Made for Recycling,’” AeroFlexx CEO Andrew Meyer says. “Our commitment to a circular economy is to proactively engage the industry to create an ecosystem whereby no AeroFlexx package ends up in the environment. This designation recognizes the collective commitment and effort across the entire AeroFlexx team as we believe we have an unwavering obligation to our customers, society and future generations to do our part to reduce environmental impacts without compromise on performance or the consumer experience.”

AeroFlexx is taking steps to ensure its packages are compatible with the recycling systems in both Europe and the Americas, and achieving recyclability recognition through Interseroh is one of the first steps, the company says.

The Interseroh “Made for Recycling” assessment procedure celebrated its three-year anniversary earlier this year, when it announced it had completed 1,600 analyses. It was awarded international accreditation—ISO/IEC 17025:2017—in March 2020, making it the only research facility in the European Union to specialize on the development and analysis of recycled plastics.

Interseroh notes the term “recyclability” is understood to mean the extent to which materials used to manufacture the product can be returned to the material loop at the end of the product’s useful life, therefore closing the material loop. It uses a three-stage points system which involves:

Packaging that passes Interseroh’s assessment is able to carry the “Made for Recycling” seal if it scores at least 18 out of 20 points. The certificate is valid for two years, subsequent to which recertification is required.

The company recently formed a wholly owned subsidiary in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Torxx Kinetic Pulverizer Ltd., headquartered in Vaughan, Ontario, has announced that it is increasing its commitment to the U.S. market through Torxx Kinetic Inc., its recently formed and wholly owned subsidiary based in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

“Pandemic-related travel restrictions hindered growth, with our North American headquarters in Canada and most of our customers and new opportunities in the states,” says Torxx Vice President of Sales and Business Development Terri Ward. “We’re maintaining a presence in Toronto, with engineering and service resources. However, key personnel and new hires are now in the U.S., making it much easier to collaborate and respond to customer needs."

She adds, “We were attracted to the ‘Scenic City’ because of its favorable manufacturing and transportation resources, proximity to our customers, and its appeal to our valued employees.”

The Torxx Kinetic Pulverizer is a patented size-reduction technology that relies on aerodynamics and matter-on-matter collisions to achieve fine sizing of materials. Feedstock is agitated in the machine by the formation of vortices, which create enough force for material to shatter against itself. Brittle material is reduced to finer particles, while ductile material remains larger. This size differential facilitates the liberation and mechanical separation of contaminants, allowing landfill diversion and recovery.

According to a news release from Torxx Kinetic Pulverizer Ltd., the unit maximizes value by transforming off-spec compost, material recovery facility fines, municipal solid waste fines, C&D fines, mixed glass, asphalt shingles, gypsum wallboard and other complex materials into usable end products.

Subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate reportedly nearly ready to scale up to shred 7,000 tons of lithium-ion batteries per year.

Japan-based Sumitomo Metal Mining (SMM) is reportedly making progress in its effort to scale up what it considers to be a cost-effective process to harvest metals from end-of-life lithium-ion electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

On its website, SMM says the focus of its research is “to establish a stable and efficient system to supply materials using this high-purity nickel [recovered from end-of-life batteries] to customers.” The company also acknowledges the development of cost-effective recycling processes for lithium-ion batteries has proven “difficult.”

In 2019, SMM announced it had started recovering and recycling copper and nickel from lithium-ion batteries at its Non-Ferrous Metals Division’s Toyo Smelter & Refinery in Saijo City, Japan, beginning in July 2017.

On its website, SMM says its process “selectively recovers nickel, cobalt and copper as an alloy by using a pyrometallurgical refining process independent of the existing process to separate most of the impurities from the lithium-ion batteries.”

In late November, media reports from Nikkei Asia and Interesting Engineering indicate SMM wants to open a dedicated lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Japan by 2023 that “will be able to process 7,000 tons of crushed batteries each year,” according to Interesting Engineering.

The online articles mention “an increasing need to employ more recycled material” in EV batteries, pointing in part to proposed EU legislation that would require EV batteries to contain a minimum of 12 percent recycled-content cobalt and 4 percent recycled-content lithium and nickel by the end of this decade.

Sumitomo is among an increasing number of companies investing in methods designed to capture a perceived growing market for the metals to be harvested from what will soon be a growing volume of EV car batteries.