The company says the acquisition expands customer offerings for complete recycling solutions.

Hillenbrand Inc., Batesville, Indiana, announced it completed the acquisition of Herbold Meckesheim GmbH for about 79 million euros ($78.5 million).  

"The successful completion of the Herbold Meckesheim acquisition is another meaningful step that delivers on our commitment to grow as a world-class industrial company, execute our strategy to deliver long-term shareholder value, and accelerate our efforts to support a more sustainable future," says Kim Ryan, president and CEO of Hillenbrand. "By leveraging Herbold's key technologies, we have an opportunity to strengthen our leadership position in the recycling industry and expand our offerings across the entire recycling value chain."  

Based in Meckesheim, Germany, Herbold is a provider of recycling systems, specializing in key process steps like washing, separating, drying, shredding and pulverizing. With annual revenue of more than €50 million ($49,690,000), Hillenbrand says Herbold is highly complementary to the equipment and solutions offered under the Coperion brand.  

Herbold joins the Coperion and Rotex brands as part of Hillenbrand's Advanced Process Solutions segment. The APS segment is focused on highly engineered industrial processing solutions and aftermarket parts and services for various end markets and applications. 

Aluminum Association preliminary estimates show 6.6 percent demand growth through the first half of 2022, driven in part by the packaging sector.

The Aluminum Association, Arlington, Virginia, says preliminary estimates show demand grew 6.6 percent for the aluminum industry in the U.S. and Canada through the first half of 2022 following estimated growth of nearly 8 percent year-over-year in 2021 and growing demand levels estimated during the first quarter.

Since 2021, the Aluminum Association says its member companies, including Hydro, Novelis and Rio Tinto, have announced more than $3.7 billion in investments in domestic manufacturing operations, including new, U.S.-based greenfield facilities for the first time in decades. Other companies, such as Mana Capital Partners and Ball and Steel Dynamics Inc., have announced additional aluminum investments in the U.S. in recent months totaling more than $4 billion.

Related: Alcoa warns of aluminum overcapacity

“We are seeing strong demand and truly unprecedented levels of investment in the U.S. aluminum industry today,” says Charles Johnson, president and CEO of the Aluminum Association. “America is one of the best places in the world to make aluminum, and our industry is putting its money where its mouth is to ensure a strong, vibrant domestic industry for years to come.”

The Aluminum Association points to a number of key takeaways from its monthly “Aluminum Situation” report:

According to the association’s quarterly "Sheet & Plate End Use Report,” growth in the containers and packaging segment has helped drive some of the increase in overall aluminum demand. Domestic producer shipments in this segment grew 13.1 percent year to date through June 2022.

Related: CMI publishes beverage can recycling primer, road map

Award winners will be recognized during the U.K.-based organization’s conference in late September.

RECOUP (Recycling of Used Plastics Ltd.), a plastics recycling charity based in Peterborough, U.K., has launched an awards program to recognize companies in the plastics recycling industry that are pushing boundaries in terms of opportunities for recycled content as well as new ways to improve recyclability and resource efficiency.

“Ensuring recyclability of packaging and products, and manufacturing new products with recycled plastics, are two key elements of a successful plastic recycling system,” says Stuart Foster, CEO of RECOUP. “With the intention to significantly increase plastic recycling as part of a circular economy model, there is an ongoing need to showcase and promote innovations to increase recyclability and practical applications of recycled plastics into both closed and open-loop products.”

RECOUP also has announced finalists for its awards. The organization says winners will be announced at the RECOUP Conference Sept. 29 in Peterborough.

Finalists for RECOUP’s Best Development or Innovation to Enhance Recyclability or Re-use award include:

Finalists for the organization's Recycled Product of the Year category include:

Legislature passes S.B. 1215 and A.B. 2440, creating a collection and recycling program for products that contain batteries and consumer batteries, respecitively.

California lawmakers passed a pair of bills, Senate Bill 1215 and Assembly Bill 2440, to create a statewide collection and recycling program for products that contain batteries and consumer batteries, respectively.

California classifies batteries as hazardous waste and bans them from landfills because of the hazardous metals and corrosive materials they contain. S.B. 1215, which is authored by California Sen. Josh Newman, expands the state’s existing Electronic Waste Recycling Act to include products containing batteries that cannot be easily removed without household tools. A.B. 2440 establishes a large extended producer responsibility (EPR) battery program, also helping to eliminate the threat of fires at waste and recycling facilities.

“From talking greeting cards to electronic toothbrushes to smartwatches, even though battery-embedded products are now so thoroughly integrated into our modern lives, there was still no standardized system for the safe and efficient collection and disposal of this class of potentially hazardous waste,” Newman says.

According to a news release from Newman’s website, S.B. 1215 helps to curb the number of battery-embedded products that are improperly disposed of so that they no longer pose a danger to the companies and employees charged with managing them.

The news release also states that these two pieces of legislation replace the state’s current process for battery disposal with what the lawmaker says he hopes is a more “safe, convenient and accessible system for consumers to dispose of depleted batteries and battery-embedded products.”

California Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin, author of A.B. 2440, says too many used batteries end up in curbside waste and recycling containers, which damages recycling facilities and causes ratepayers to pay higher utility bills. She says this bill will require producers to pay for the collection of batteries instead.

“With so many of our everyday household items being powered by batteries, we have a responsibility to alleviate the potential danger and recover the valuable minerals used in their production,” Irwin adds.

Several recycling industry representatives and organizations have expressed support for these bills.

Atlanta-based Call2Recycle, a battery collection program, says A.B. 2440 could help to improve the safety of battery recycling in the state.

“As batteries power the U.S. toward a carbon-neutral economy, it’s imperative that states and municipalities implement industry best practices that promote safe, sustainable battery collection and recycling,” says Leo Raudys, CEO of Call2Recycle. “We look forward to working with the state of California to continue building on our 26 years of operating a battery stewardship program in the state.”

Joe LaMariana, executive director of San Carlos, California-based RethinkWaste and a co-sponsor of the bills, adds that these regulations will help reduce the chance of fires in recycling facilities in the state.

“This year alone, RethinkWaste has already suffered six fires due to a lithium-ion or suspected lithium-ion battery,” he says. “I fear every day an improperly disposed of product with an embedded battery or loose battery could result in another catastrophic fire like the one we faced in 2016. S.B. 1215 and A.B. 2440 together will protect our workers and infrastructure from the growing number of batteries entering the waste stream on a daily basis. We are grateful for Sen. Newman and Assemblymember Irwin’s leadership on this critical issue.”

Additionally, California Product Stewardship Council Executive Director Doug Kobold says these bills provide a “consumer-convenient solution to collect and properly manage both loose batteries and battery-embedded products.”

S.B. 1215 and A.B. 2440 are awaiting approval from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

By mid-2023, the company says it expects to double its rPET resin capacity to 140 million pounds.

Phoenix Technologies International LLC, Bowling Green, Ohio, has announced that it will expand food-grade recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) capacity at its facility in Bowling Green with the addition of new extrusion equipment to produce pellets.

Phoenix’s purchase in 2019 by Far Eastern New Century Corp. (FENC), a Taipei City, Taiwan-based company that supplies recycled and virgin PET, has helped to make the investment possible.

Formerly Far East Textile Co. Ltd., FENC began as an underwear manufacturer, according to its website. It now manufactures PET bottles and preforms, PET shrink film, PET roll film and cut sheet and polyester fiber as well as operates a petrochemical and energy business. It has a 1.5-million-ton pure terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Guanyin, Taiwan, and 3.1 million tons of PTA production capacity overall. FENC also produces monoethylene glycol, or MEG.

After Phoenix’s expansion is completed before mid-2023, the company says it anticipates doubling its rPET resin production capacity to 140 million pounds annually, the equivalent of processing 5 billion bottles per year. The expansion will consist of adding process technology that is known and tested throughout the industry and will allow Phoenix to support increasing customer demand immediately at startup, the company adds in a news release about the expansion.

Lori Carson, market development manager at Phoenix, says the company has been working with its supply partners to ensure it has the sourcing ready to go for the expansion. She adds, “Our parent company, Far Eastern New Century, has installations across the globe, and we will be using all of our capacity to its fullest.”

Carson says the equipment has been purchased, with installation scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2023. The company is adding 70,000 square feet to its existing campus to accommodate the expansion.

Phoenix began manufacturing rPET pellets from postconsumer flake in 1992. In 2015, the company announced that it was backward integrating into flake production to give it more control over economic and quality factors.

As North American brands increase their support of sustainable materials, Phoenix says the capacity expansion is a natural next step in its evolution.

The company says this expansion and others planned for the near term will allow it to take advantage of the synergies created under APG Polytech USA Holdings Inc., The Woodlands, Texas, FENC’s North American subsidiary, and provide the most comprehensive strategies to its customers in meeting their future sustainability targets.

APG is a partner in Corpus Christi Polymers LLC, along with Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand and Dak Americas, Charlotte, North Carolina, which purchased the partially constructed facility formerly owned by M&G Resins in Corpus Christi, Texas, to produce PTA and PET.

FENC says it has targeted carbon emissions reductions of 20 percent by 2025, 40 percent by 2030 and net zero by 2050 by enhancing energy efficiency, developing renewable energy and using its carbon capture utilization and storage technology.