The company tested roofing made from postconsumer flexible plastic at two of its manufacturing plants in Wisconsin and Michigan.

Kraft Heinz Co., which is co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh, has completed a pilot project that demonstrates the use of roof board made from recycled flexible packaging. The pilot was made possible through the company’s participation in Materials Recovery for the Future (MRFF), which is a nonprofit research collaborative that is working to prove technical and economic feasibility to collect, sort, bale and recycle flexible plastic packaging.

According to a news release from Kraft Heinz, the project installed roofing made from postconsumer flexible plastic into two Kraft Heinz manufacturing plants in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and Holland, Michigan. The recycled roofing materials were installed late in 2020. Kraft Heinz says the materials included 4-foot-by-8-foot boards, and 94 percent of each board was made of postconsumer recycled plastic and fiber. Kraft Heinz says it’s using flexible plastic packaging in materials across its product portfolio.

The company says the pilot project will be monitored for performance versus standard building materials. If the recycled materials perform as well as or better than standard building materials, Kraft Heinz says it will “strongly consider standardizing the use of this recycled material in the future.” The company plans to report on its use of recycled content to the Association of Plastic Recyclers Demand Champion program, having joined late last year.

“It was a privilege being part of MRFF, which not only helped identify ways to curbside collect and recycle flexible packaging but also identified end markets that we could leverage within our facilities,” says Erik Groner, senior principal packaging engineer at Kraft Heinz. “Our test project highlights the company’s commitment to sustainable packaging and the priority it places on its environmental, social and governance commitments. Kraft Heinz continues to search for ways to make our packaging recyclable and to incorporate recycled content within our supply chain.”

Susan Graff, vice president of Michigan-based Resource Recycling Systems and a MRFF research director, adds, “This Kraft Heinz project is a powerful example of environmental stewardship, reducing use of virgin materials by choosing roofing material made of recycled flexible plastic packaging.” Working with recyclers, they’ve provided a model for addressing expectations for full life cycle management of plastic while using an efficient, low-cost package for consumer product protection.”

The packaging company says its strong financial performance was driven in part by healthy containerboard demand.

Cascades Inc., Kingsey Falls, Quebec, has reported strong financial results for its fourth quarter and 2020 fiscal year. According to the packaging producer, it achieved sales of $1,284 million in its fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 31, 2020, compared with $1,275 million in the third quarter of 2020 and $1,227 million in the fourth quarter of 2019.

In its fourth quarter, the company had an operating income of $109 million compared with $73 million in the third quarter of 2020 and an operating loss of $1 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. The company says operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBD) was $181 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared with $154 million in the third quarter of 2020 and $76 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. Cascades says its net earnings per share totaled 72 cents in the fourth quarter of 2020 compared with 51 cents in the third quarter of 2020 and a net loss per share of 27 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2019.

For its full fiscal year, Cascades reports it had sales of $5,157 million compared with $4,996 million in 2019. Operating income was at $366 million compared with $261 million in 2019, and operating income before depreciation and amortization was $665 million for the year compared with $550 million in 2019. The company had net earnings per share of $2.04 in 2020 compared with 77 cents in 2019.

The company says its net debt was at $1,679 million as of Dec. 31, 2020, compared with $1,982 million as of Sept. 30, 2020, which Cascades says reflects “solid cash flow from operations.” In 2020, total capital expenditures paid net of disposals were at $195 million compared with $231 million in 2019. Cascades says its forecasted 2021 capital expenditures will be between $450 million and $475 million, including $250 million for the Bear Island containerboard conversion project in Virginia.

Mario Plourde, president and CEO of Cascades, says the company’s consolidated adjusted OIBD of $166 million surpassed the company’s “cautious outlook for the period,” representing an increase of 2 percent sequentially and 9 percent year over year, driving profitability to a record level for a third consecutive year.  

He says, “These results demonstrate good operational execution within the context of a challenging environment, benefits being realized from our ongoing margin improvement initiatives and the resiliency and dedication of our employees throughout the challenges of COVID-19.”

Cascades reports that its fourth-quarter performance was driven by “a solid contribution” from its Containerboard segment, fueled by stronger-than-expected demand on both the manufacturing and converting side.

According to its earnings report presentation, shipments within the Packaging Products and Containerboard segment decreased 3 percent sequentially, driven by a 6 percent decrease in manufacturing shipments that reflects 1 percent lower capacity utilization rate and higher integration rate in the current period. Shipments of converted products increased by 1 percent on a sequential basis. The company says its average selling price in this segment increased by 2 percent in Canadian dollars, reflecting early benefits being realized from its Nov. 1 price increase.

Cascades says its Tissue segment generated “good” results, with stable consumer retail tissue demand helping to offset lower demand levels for away-from-home products as a result of the pandemic. Plourde says the Tissue segment generated a solid fourth-quarter adjusted OIBD margin of 10.5 percent in spite of ongoing challenging market conditions.

In its earnings presentation, the company reports shipments in this segment increased 5 percent on a sequential basis in the fourth quarter of 2020, driven by a 7 percent increase in shipments of converted products in all market segments, which is a reflection of weaker shipment levels in the prior quarter related to COVID-19’s impact on demand levels, primarily for away-from-home converted products. The company says the average selling price in Canadian dollars was stable in the quarter.

Additionally, Cascades says its Specialty Products and European Boxboard segments generated slightly lower results in the quarter.

This year, Cascades has announced planned progressive and permanent closure of its tissue operations at its Laval plant in Quebec by June. The company adds that its tissue operations in Pennsylvania ceased in December 2020. Additionally, Reno De Medici S.p.A. had announced the signature of a put option for the sale of Cascades’ French subsidiary, which produces virgin fiber-based boxboard, in February 2021. The company says that transaction is expected to close at the end of the second quarter of 2021.

The company says it also will be progressing on its conversion of the White Birch Bear Island paper mill in Ashland, Virginia, which will produce lightweight, 100-percent-recycled linerboard and medium for the North American market.

Plourde says, “A large portion of our announced modernization investments in the Tissue segment have been completed, with the remaining two state-of-the-art converting lines expected to be installed in the coming quarters. In Containerboard, we announced details of our strategic Bear Island conversion project in mid-October and helped to de-risk the project with a concurrent $125 million equity issuance offering.

He continues, “The European Boxboard segment announced the acquisition of Papelera del Principado S.A. (Paprinsa) and three affiliated companies … will strengthen and consolidate Reno de Medici's competitive positioning within European recycled boxboard markets and is expected to close at the end of the first quarter of 2021.”

Plourde concludes that Cascades’ near-term outlook “is positive despite ongoing COVID-19-related uncertainty.” He says containerboard demand remains strong and, combined with recent industry price increases, will help to offset raw material price increases. With the Tissue segment, he says stronger-than-expected volumes in December, usual seasonal softness in the first quarter of the year and unfavorable demand impact on away-from-home products related to the pandemic will likely translate into weaker sequential performance in the segment. He adds that the company predicts stable sequential performance for its Specialty Products segment, with higher average selling prices and good demand trends for consumer food packaging offsetting the slightly higher raw material costs. He concludes that results in European Boxboard are expected to remain stable as well, with higher volumes and a favorable exchange rate mitigating higher forecasted raw material and energy costs.

Additionally, Plourde says he predicts higher average old corrugated container (OCC) costs in the near-term future, increasing in line with usual seasonal trends of the period. He adds that prices for white recycled fibers will likely remain stable, while virgin pulp prices are expected to increase “given recent moves in index pricing.” He says raw materials have been “readily available,” and “we do not foresee any changes in this regard.”

Plourde concludes that he expects 2021 to be a “busy year” for Cascades.

“The highlight will be our Bear Island containerboard project, which will account for the lion’s share of our capex program,” he says. “We will also be finalizing modernization investments in our tissue converting operations, with all of these projects encompassed within our $450 to $475 million capital program for 2021. We expect these investments to be fully funded by solid projected cash flows for the year, in part driven by our ongoing margin improvement initiatives that are targeting net revenue management, production efficiency, organizational effectiveness and supply chain optimization. These initiatives are expected to contribute 1 percent annually to consolidated OIBD margins in both 2021 and 2022, regardless of external factors."

He says, “As we continue to navigate the challenges and uncertainties inherent in the ongoing pandemic business environment, we remain focused on ensuring the health and safety of our employees and on proactively engaging with our customers to ensure that their needs and expectations are met consistently, promptly and professionally.”

Public-private partnerships helped to start a drop-off pilot program for glass recycling in Erie County, Pennsylvania, after the county stopped collecting glass in its single-stream recycling program in 2018.

Prism Recycling, Erie, Pennsylvania, has developed a drop-off pilot program for glass recycling in Erie County, Pennsylvania, through a public-private partnership among the Erie County Recycling program, the Erie Area Council of Governments, CAP Glass Recycling and the Glass Recycling Foundation.

The Glass Recycling Foundation, Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a nonprofit that was established to help support pilot projects to overcome barriers to glass recycling. “We are pleased to provide our first grant award to support this collaborative effort in Erie County,” says Scott DeFife, president of the Glass Recycling Foundation. “There are strong end-markets for good quality glass in Pennsylvania and programs like this are needed to get that material back into the circular economy and glass supply chain.”

Through the partnership, Prism provides overall project management and coordination as well as the majority of capital investment to develop the system and business model. Prism manages the glass recycler drop-off boxes that were custom fabricated by Switch-N-Go in Hadley, Pennsylvania. The Erie County government and the Glass Recycling Foundation also provided $10,000 each toward the purchase of these drop-off boxes to offset the total cost of $77,000.

The Erie County Recycling Program and the Erie Area Council of Governments—an 18-municipality membership association—provides ongoing promotional help for the pilot.

According to the Glass Recycling Foundation, residents in the county have been visiting these drop-off sites to deliver clean and empty glass bottles and jars.

“The way we were collecting glass in single-stream recycling made it nearly impossible to recycle due to breakage and contamination,” says Lynn Armel, Erie County sustainability coordinator. “Glass is an endlessly recyclable material, but it must be collected separately. We are really lucky to have a local business making that possible. Erie County Recycling is so pleased to be part of this innovative effort in glass recycling.”

Prism monitors the drop-off box levels via Compology cameras, and when full, the materials are hauled to the SB3 Industrial Park in Erie by a locally contracted hauler and aggregates materials into a large concrete bunker until there is enough volume to trigger a pickup by CAP Glass Recycling in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. CAP is a regional glass processor that supplies furnace-ready cullet to the O-I and Ardagh Group glass container manufacturing plants in Brockway and Port Allegany, Pennsylvania, respectively. ‘

Nicholas Bruno, business development manager at Prism, says the containers have been filling up quickly so far.

“We had one filled within three weeks,” he says. “It’s still early, and it’s winter. We anticipate quicker fill times in nicer weather.”

CAP is providing technical assistance, physical infrastructure and trucking services as part of the pilot project, as well.

In late 2018, Erie County officials had announced that contracted haulers in the area were removing glass from single-stream recycling. Laura Guncheon, vice president of the project management office at Erie Management Group, says many county residents were unhappy about that decision.

Glass collected by Prism will be sent to CAP Glass Recycling in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. CAP provides furnace-ready cullet to glass manufacturers.

Prism Glass aims to provide a solution for glass collection in the circular economy for glass.

Glass collected in one of Prism's containers in Erie County.

“People were calling the city and county; they knew there was value in glass,” she says.

At that time, Bruno decided to start a small glass collection business called Bayfront Glass to collect glass from residents in the Erie area. Guncheon says Bayfront raised awareness about glass recycling at local pop-up collection events in 2019.

Around that time, Guncheon says Erie Management Group, a local investment firm, saw what Bayfront Glass was doing and answered Bayfront’s call for collaboration. Although a partnership with Bayfront Glass didn’t work out, she says Bruno left Bayfront Glass to his business partner to eventually join Erie Management Group as a business development manager.

Prism Glass first began in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, but Guncheon says that it wasn’t too challenging to start last year.

“People were home more than they ever were before,” she says. “Because they were home, it was in their face the amount of waste in their house. There was more trash and recycling. People were stockpiling glass in their garages. So, folks wanted some sort of an option to recycle glass.”

Prism Glass currently offers 15 glass recycling drop-off locations in northwest Pennsylvania that all feature Compology cameras monitoring them. 

In 2021, Bruno says plans are to expand and add more drop-off locations. He says he’s also been busy promoting the new service to hundreds of local business owners and gauging interest levels in a collection service and what business owners would pay for that service.

“I think a big goal for Prism is for every resident in northwest Pennsylvania that has a glass container should know it can go to a recycling stream,” Guncheon adds. “It’s a lofty goal, but it’s reprogramming folks to know glass is valuable. If you’re not going to reuse it at home, that glass has another life.”

Bruno says any other municipalities or companies considering offering a glass recycling collection service should first research the infrastructure to recycle glass in the surrounding area. He says the Glass Recycling Coalition has a good map that provides details on glass processors in the U.S. Then, he says, reach out to the community, businesses and municipalities alike to promote the idea of a public-private partnership as a way to address problems to have a broader and more sustainable impact.

Bruno says he’s hopeful that Prism Glass can help provide a solution for glass collection in the circular economy for glass. “A circular economy exists for glass in many areas where there are glass container processing facilities and glass furnaces,” he says. “The bottleneck is having glass-only collection systems. The collection part is the part of the circular economy we’re trying to improve.”

The company is investing to prepare its Winsford, U.K., site.

A multimillion-pound investment by Synetiq, which bills itself as Britain’s largest integrated salvage and recycling company, will ready its Winsford, U.K., site with dedicated electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid vehicle dismantling capabilities. The investment will provide EV-specific equipment, such as depollution ramps and quarantine areas for the handling of compromised battery packs, at the facility, which is already manned by EV-trained specialists, the company says.

“We have seen a steady year-on-year rise in the number of electric and hybrid vehicles brought in for end-of-life processing; as the race for reduced emissions intensifies and these vehicles become both older and more commonplace, demand for their associated green parts will continue to increase,” Synetiq CEO Tom Rumboll says.

“Technologies and manufacturing techniques will continue to evolve, but the need to reuse and recycle vehicles will remain,” he adds. “Now is the perfect time to invest in our ability to efficiently process EVs and prepare for increased future demand.”

According to data from GoCompare, the Toyota Prius is the U.K.’s most accident-prone car, being involved in 111 incidents for every 10,000 examples on the road. This correlates directly with Synetiq’s data; since 2015 the Mk2 Prius has been the company’s most frequently processed hybrid and most popular green parts donor vehicle.

The company says battery packs are the most popular and highest value component reused from EVs and hybrids. “The emergence of advanced powertrain technologies, operating high-voltage systems and posing EV-specific risks, such as thermal runaway, has altered best practice for the way they are treated, handled and stored,” Rumboll says.

“Vehicle end-of-life consideration has the potential to provide significant emissions savings that complement gains in reducing exhaust gases; adapting our Winsford site is the first step in ensuring an efficient dismantling process that helps reduce the cost of keeping EVs on the road for longer,” he adds.

The collaboration between Everledger, HP, Fairphone and Call2Recycle will use funding from the prize to advance its recycling initiative.

In late 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the winners of Phase II of its Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize. Among the seven winners was Seattle-based Team Portables, a collaboration led by Everledger, an independent technology company that uses blockchain, artificial intelligence, intelligent labeling and internet of things to help companies uncover and unify asset information. The London-based company says its technology brings increased transparency to supply chains, benefiting stakeholders who adopt sustainable practices while bringing visibility to their end consumers.

The other companies participating in Team Portables are Palo Alto, California-based electronics manufacturer HP, the Atlanta-based battery stewardship organization Call2Recycle and Amsterdam-based cellphone manufacturer Fairphone will use the $357,000 cash prize to develop a prototype app called Reward to Recycle, where consumers can learn how to earn a reward from contributing partners for recycling their portable lithium-based batteries (LIBs), as well as keep a register of their rewards. LIBs are commonly found in smartphones, laptops, tablets or cordless power tools.

The group’s solution, “Closing the loop on portable lithium-ion batteries,” aims to help the DOE achieve its goal of capturing 90 percent of all discarded or spent LIBs in the United States for eventual recovery of key materials for a sustainable reintroduction into the supply chain by focusing on portable personal electronic devices, such as cellphones, laptops and tablets, and incentivizing consumers to properly recycle them.

With the help of its cash prize, Team Portables is developing and testing its app, which establishes a Battery Passport to track portable LIBs and support final recycling. The Battery Passport can be accessed by IOT identifiers as part of the labeling for each LIB. Using their smartphones, registered users will be able to find out more about recycling and actively earn rewards for doing so.

Lauren Roman, Everledger’s business development director for Metals & Minerals Ecosystems, says that while Team Portables partner Call2Recycle has an app that tells consumers where and how to safely recycle their LIBs, consumer awareness remains low. Everledger’s solution involves adding a QR code to the devices and batteries that directs consumers to the Call2Recycle database of recycling locations, she says. Scanning the code also registers the battery. Once the consumer arrives at the collection site, he or she scans the QR code at the site, validating that they have recycled the battery. At that point, the consumer is given a reward in the form of a coupon or points that can be applied toward a future coupon, Roman says.

She adds that the DOE’s goal is to go from what it says is the current 5 percent recycling rate for LIBs to a 90 percent recycling rate. “That’s quite a stretch,” Roman says, particular because many products containing LIBs are not marked. “Just giving a consumer an app is not enough, you need to incentivize them.”

That incentive will come from tech manufacturers, such as Team Portables member HP. Roman says the manufacturer had a similar project with Best Buy that was paused because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For every device that consumers brought into Best Buy for recycling, they would get a coupon that could be applied toward a new HP product.

The full end-to-end solution will involve the program sponsorship by the DOE, with participation from HP, Fairphone and other manufacturers of LIB-powered products, Call2Recycle and other collectors and sorters in the recycling chain and the incentivization of end consumers.

Through the app, consumers will be motivated to get their batteries to a qualified collection center. They also can learn more about sustainability, find their closest recycling centers and even track their batteries from collection to recycling, as well as view their own sustainability footprint, according to a news release about the project issued by Everledger.

Roman says, “The basis of the solution is blockchain.”

Blockchain, as defined by IBM, “is a shared, immutable ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in a business network.”

The solution seeks to optimize the circularity of LIB raw materials, prevent disposal of hazardous materials and reward consumers and support the industry to foster corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability initiatives.

Patrick Gibbs, Environmental Programs manager (NA) for HP, says, “HP Inc. is committed to practices that enable positive outcomes for the planet, people and communities where we do business. This approach allows us to take the concept into the community and really start the behavior change that’s needed to stop the unsustainable disposal of lithium-ion batteries.”

“Aside from the environmental and cost benefits of recycling, safe collection of LIBs will reduce the growing occurrence of fires and environmental damage caused by disposal through household and business garbage,” says Eva Gouwens, CEO of Fairphone, a smartphone manufacturer that is piloting batteries with a QR code smart label in this project. “Our goal is to help people understand how their purchasing preferences and behavior impact the supply chains for electronics and batteries. This knowledge will further grow the demand for sustainable products and materials.”

Leo Raudys, CEO and president of Call2Recycle, says, “We all have surplus batteries that lie forgotten in the back of drawers, closets, toolboxes and garages. Yet, we never think about recycling them. That needs to change. With this new app, consumers will be contributing to the circular economy—allowing materials from batteries to be recovered and reused in the manufacturing of new products—while also minimizing their environmental impact. This prize provides the various methods and new incentives to recycle their batteries.”

“The strength of this solution is the deep partnership between all links in the recycling chain, from government to end consumer,” says Everledger founder and CEO Leanne Kemp. “That’s the key to driving more sustainability in the electronics value chain, moving it from natural mining to what I call ‘urban mining’—making sure all our existing appliances will be reutilized and power the next generation of gadgets, sustainably and economically.”

Roman says portable battery recycling is going to become more important, particularly as electric vehicle battery production increases. “These batteries use all the same metals and minerals. Global resources are very limited for the main chemistries we are using now,” she says. “Manufacturers don’t have a choice but to care about recycling the minerals and metals from their batteries.”

Roman adds that the app and the incentives it offers will help the industry learn what level of battery recycling can be achieved without extended producer responsibility legislation.

Regarding whether the capacity exists to handle the potential increase in LIBs collected for recycling, Roman says, “A number of plants under construction. Most of these new plants are hydrometallurgical rather than pyrometallurgical,” meaning they use chemical processes rather than heat to extract the metals and minerals. “It is capacity that is going to have to continue to ramp up.”

Economics currently hinder LIBs recycling, Roman adds. “Lead-acid battery recycling produces positive revenue,” she explains. “Now, LIBs cost money to recycle. I predict it will flip in the future because of the pressure on the metals and minerals that go into them.”

Additionally, she says, “[There] are all kinds of risk around LIBs,” including brand and safety risks. “We want to turn those into opportunities.”

She says Team Portables solution will gather and track data, providing more transparency into LIBs recycling, including measuring metals recovery and greenhouse gas savings.

The blockchain behind the Team Portables solution could be applied to electric vehicle batteries, Roman says, noting that when these batteries get down to 70 to 80 percent of their full charge, they are no longer suitable for use in vehicles but can be reused in energy storage applications. “With repurposing, you really need to understand the history of that battery. This is where blockchain adds value.”