Canadian beverage maker says the straws are recyclable.
Sun-Rype Products, a division of Canada-based A. Lassonde Inc., has announced it has replaced plastic straws with paper straws in all SunRype 200 milliliter (ml) single-serve beverage boxes in Canada. The beverage producer calls the straws recyclable and bendable.
“We are on track to meet our sustainable development objectives by 2025,” says Claire Bara, president of A. Lassonde. “We plan on incorporating recyclable packaging for all of our products, and the launch of paper straws on our single-serve juice products is another step in the right direction. We know that our customers place a lot of importance on finding products that meet today’s environmental challenges, and these SunRype juice containers with new bendable paper straws are now available at Canadian grocery retailers - just in time for back-to-school lunch boxes.”
SunRype says with the new straws its Tetra Pak product containers are fully recyclable. “We are pleased to provide our customers with this environmentally responsible paper straw on all 200 ml beverage containers of our iconic brand, SunRype,” states Bara.
The launch of the paper straw follows Lassonde’s recent launch of new bottles containing 25 percent post-consumer recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) for all its juice brands available in 300 ml (roughly 10 ounce) packages in Canada.
By 2023, British Columbia-based SunRype has as its goals: using 25 percent post-consumer recycled content in its PET bottles; using 100 percent recyclable packaging for all its products; and working with governments, industry and associations to promote the collection of recyclable materials.
Heritage Foundation says record cost of aluminum means repealing U.S. tariff is overdue.
The Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank and policy analysis organization associated with conservative political views, has published a commentary titled “Tariffs Are Never a Good Idea. Those on Aluminum Are Especially Bad.”
The commentary’s co-authors, Patrick Tyrell and Anthony B. Kim, state that with aluminum prices having risen 59 percent from one year ago, it is “high time to stop taxing Americans for the simple act of having a cola or a beer.”
The duo notes the tariffs were originally put in place in 2018, “ostensibly to protect domestic aluminum producers” because aluminum producers in China and other nations were “dumping aluminum into the U.S. at low prices below cost to capture market share and supposedly drive American producers of aluminum out of business.”
Tyrell and Kim write, “In fact, the idea of dumping is one of the great unicorns of trade policy: oft-imagined but rarely seen in reality. Even state-supported Chinese firms cannot sustain such losses, bleeding money with each shipment of aluminum sent across the ocean.”
The Heritage Foundation researchers express disappointment that President Joe Biden not only failed to repeal the Trump administration tariffs but, “One of his first actions as president was to reinstate aluminum tariffs on aluminum exported from the United Arab Emirates that had been previously lifted.”
Looking at circumstances in 2021, The Heritage Foundation states, “Aluminum prices are now much higher than they were in 2018, when the 10 percent tariffs were originally inflicted on American users of the metal. As for China, it is now a net importer of aluminum, and things are getting worse for aluminum users around the world.”
SignalFire Group will dedicate resources to help manufacturers, retailers and governments enter and participate in new recycling systems.
Resource Recycling Systems Inc. (RRS), a sustainable materials and resource consulting firm headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has launched a new group to assist companies with policy development and implementation. Called the Signalfire Group, the subsidiary will provide research, planning and implementation support to governments and organizations using policy and regulation as a tool to guide sustainable materials management and circular economy strategies.
“RRS has been working with government, businesses, nonprofits, NGOs (nongovernment organizations) and universities for more than 35 years,” says Jim Frey, RRS co-founder and CEO. “We have seen the evolution of material recovery approaches that now engage all players in the manufacturing, use, collection, recovery and processing value chain. Signalfire will focus targeted support for the changing recovery model that will enable organizations to better participate in long-term sustainable circular economy initiatives.”
According to a news release from RRS, the company created the subsidiary to dedicate resources to help manufacturers, retailers and governments enter and participate in new recycling systems. Signalfire Group provides services focused on developing and implementing best-in-class policy and regulatory approaches. Services include:
Signalfire Group is led by three environmental industry veterans with decades of experience in sustainability, materials management, policy and product stewardship:
Resa Dimino has worked in recycling businesses, trade groups and served as the lead policy staff for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). While at DEC, she managed the development of the state’s Beyond Waste 10-year sustainable materials management strategy and helped to formulate the state’s e-scrap extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation. Dimino currently serves as a managing principal at RRS, overseeing the infrastructure and engineering team.
Garth Hickle led the product stewardship program for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, overseeing the implementation of EPR programs for rechargeable batteries, electronics and architectural paint. In his consulting practice, he has worked with a variety of public and private clients on EPR and circular economy policy development for waste electric and electronic equipment, packaging, carpet, mattresses and more. He is currently serving as the managing director of the International Electronics Management Network and has been a board member of the Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI) and Conservation Minnesota. Garth is also a senior lecturer at the University of Minnesota. He holds a Ph.D. from Erasmus University in the Netherlands.
David Stitzhal has served as a delegate to national product stewardship dialogues and served on teams advising on product stewardship and EPR matters to Seattle; King County, Washington; the Washington Department of Ecology and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. David also helped develop early local, state and national policy for the take-back of unwanted medications. He was the founding coordinator of the Northwest Product Stewardship Council and served as an original stakeholder of the National Electronics Product Stewardship Initiative. He currently serves as board president of the National Stewardship Action Council and president of Full Circle Environmental Inc.
“As more organizations are working to develop a circular economy, there is an increasing interest in shared financial and operational responsibility for materials management,” says Dimino. “Signalfire Group provides a dedicated, focused effort to help governments and businesses navigate the challenges of this new model and apply proven, practiced solutions.”
This is the company’s fifth acquisition since being acquired by Stellex Capital Management LP.
Fenix Parent LLC, a recycler of original equipment manufacturer automotive parts in Hurst, Texas, operating as Fenix Parts LLC, announced it has acquired the assets of Charlie’s Truck & Auto Parts in Tomball, Texas. This is the fifth acquisition completed by Fenix Parts since the company was acquired by affiliates of Stellex Capital Management LP in 2018.
According to a news release from Fenix, Charlie’s is a full-service automotive recycling facility servicing the Houston market. This acquisition represents Fenix Parts’ second location in Texas and a key addition to its Southwest supply chain and distribution network.
“Fenix Parts is a Texas-headquartered company, and we have been working on expanding our Texas footprint beyond the Dallas-Fort Worth market,” says Bill Stevens, CEO of Fenix Parts. “The acquisition of Charlie’s is our first step in executing this plan as we develop significant production capacity at this location and expand our total addressable market into Houston. We are excited about our expansion plans into other Texas markets.”
Current auto recycling owners interested in learning more about Fenix’s acquisition process should email info@fenixparts.com.
The aluminum recycler is spending $10 million to add a new warehouse in addition to newly installed pollution-control equipment.
Spectro Alloys, a Rosemount, Minnesota-based aluminum recycler, says it will invest nearly $10 million in plant upgrades that include a new warehouse and new pollution0control equipment. The upgrades should be completed in early 2022, according to a news release from the company.
Founded in 1973, Spectro purchases a range of aluminum scrap, such as aluminum cast, sheet, extrusions, turnings, mixed low-copper clips (MLCC), rims and zorba. Spectro also purchases radiators, painted aluminum siding, twitch and tweak.
In 2015, Spectro installed a scrap sorting plant at its facility. The company also operates two reverberatory (reverb) furnaces and employs continuous casting, which allows it to constantly add scrap to the furnace while tapping out specification metal, a delacquering kiln to remove coatings from the aluminum scrap it processes, a shredding system and a rotary furnace it has been operating since November 2018.
Spectro Alloys says it will break ground this week on a new 70,000-square-foot building on its property near Highway 55 in Rosemount. The warehouse will reduce truck traffic in and out of the facility while streamlining the production, shipping and receiving processes for safety and efficiency, the company says. The building, which will be completed in the spring of 2022, will be optimized for solar power and will use process heat to reduce the company’s energy consumption. The project will include trees and native prairie landscaping.
Spectro says it already has invested more than $3 million in equipment and baghouse upgrades that were completed in August to enhance its process automation and controls and expand the company’s environmental benefits. Baghouses are traditionally attached to furnaces within plant environments to capture and clean emissions. While these air filtration systems are standard for the recycling process, Spectro’s new equipment improves emissions control beyond industry standards, according to the company.
The baghouse upgrades are a result of a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and an administrative consent order related to alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. The order required Spectro to install a new baghouse to control emissions from the furnace, including the hearth; upgrade the dryer baghouse; install new capture hoods; and make additional improvements to the dryer closed vent system. The company also must increase emissions monitoring and make improvements to the facility’s operations, maintenance and monitoring plan. The consent agreement and final order also require Spectro Alloys Corporation to pay a $110,000 penalty to the federal government.
“At our core, Spectro Alloys’ work is about delivering a positive impact for the planet and our customers by extending the life cycle of aluminum through recycling,” Luke Palen, president of Spectro Alloys, says. “We describe what we do as ‘Recycling for Life’, which is why our aluminum recycling process meets the highest environmental and air quality standards. These investments demonstrate our commitment to continuous innovation for the environment and our community.”
Spectro Alloys provides recycled aluminum alloys to regional die casters and foundries, where it is made into new products for the automotive, power sports, home, turf and snow maintenance and other industries.
*This article was updated Sept. 24, 2021, to add information about the administrative consent order related to alleged Clean Air Act violations.