Newsworthy

MUNICIPAL

Judge throws out lawsuit alleging violations of Indianapolis waste disposal statute

Marian County (Indiana) Judge Cynthia Ayers has thrown out a lawsuit filed Sept. 5, 2014, by Graphic Packaging International Inc., RockTenn Converting Co. and Cathy Weinmann against the city of Indianapolis and its Board of Public Works over alleged violations of the city’s waste disposal statute.

The lawsuit was in response to the city of Indianapolis awarding Covanta, Morristown, New Jersey, the contract to build what the company describes as a $45 million advanced materials recovery center (ARC) adjacent to its existing waste-to-energy facility.

Following the plaintiffs’ initial filing, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the suit, alleging the plaintiffs lacked standing to contest the government action, and a motion for summary judgment.

After both parties submitted evidence supporting their positions, the matter was briefed, with the parties presenting their arguments to the court March 10, 2015.

Critics of mixed waste processing say the approach would not boost the city’s recycling rate and would result in highly contaminated recyclables.

However, in her ruling, Ayers says the plaintiffs’ fears that paper recovered at Covanta’s ARC likely would be contaminated was not sufficient basis for a lawsuit.

“There is no evidence that these two plaintiffs are using the resource at issue, i.e., the recycled products from the ARC because the facility has not been constructed and is not producing any products in the stream of commerce,” Ayers’ ruling states. “Such speculative claims are insufficient to establish an actual or immediate injury.

“A mere unilateral expectation or an abstract environmental need is not an interest entitled to protection absent personal use of the resource at issue,” she adds.

The plaintiffs alleged the city violated the state’s Waste Disposal Statute by not conducting a public bid prior to awarding the contract. However, Ayers found this was not so because the deal amended an existing contract and lease of city property.

 

METALS

Congressional Caucus holds 2015 ‘State of Steel’ hearing

Congressman Tim Murphy, chairman of the Congressional Steel Caucus, and Rep. Pete Visclosky, vice chairman of the Steel Caucus, held the annual “State of Steel” hearing March 26, 2015, in Washington. In total, nearly two dozen Congressmen from steel-producing states attended the caucus.

The caucus heard from steel industry executives, including:

• Mario Longhi, United States Steel Corp. president and CEO;
• Carl Moulton, Specialty Steel Industry of North America chair;
• John Ferriola, Nucor Corp. chairman, CEO and president;
• Michael Rippey, ArcelorMittal USA and American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) chairman; • Leo Gerard, United Steelworkers international president;
• Tracy Porter, Commercial Metals, Americas Division president and
• Douglas Polk, Vallourec USA vice president of industry affairs.
   

Murphy said, “Despite having the world’s highest quality product and most talented workforce, the domestic steel sector is not faring well. Part of the problem is that some global trading partners seek to thwart the spirit and letter of international trade laws.

“As well,” he continued, “illegal dumping and currency manipulation yield tremendous harm to the American steel industry while giving foreign competitors an unfair leg up. For example, this year alone, China is on pace to produce as much steel as the rest of the world combined, despite steel usage in China only being up 1 percent in 2014.”

Rippey said, “Last year, finished steel imports increased 36 percent, while U.S. producers increased shipments by only 3 percent.”

He added, “Steel imports captured 28 percent of the U.S. market, a historic level.”

Rippey said he expects this trend to continue in 2015, adding, “The import surge is particularly troubling given that U.S. producers are currently using only 69 percent of production capacity.

“In 1998, when imports also reached a record high, prices and production dropped, resulting in a crisis that caused several bankruptcies of major steel companies in the early 2000s,” Rippey said.

Ferriola said that despite an improving U.S. economy, which should benefit domestic steel producers, the major beneficiaries have been less efficient foreign producers. “Domestic steel shipments were up only 2 to 3 percent last year. American steel mills are running at only 69 percent of their capacity. Imports are having a negative impact on U.S. steel industry employment and investment,” he said.

To remedy the problem, Ferriola called on the Commerce Department to more aggressively enforce fair trading policies.

Porter agreed, saying, “We need to get serious about enforcing trade laws and holding our trading partners accountable to the rules. Simply put, the United States cannot continue to be the market of last resort for the world’s steel overcapacity problem.”

Polk said a factor in growing pipe and tube imports has been the “chronic issue of governments subsidizing global overcapacity.”

 

MUNICIPAL

Curbside Value Partnership changes name

The Curbside Value Partnership (CVP), a national recycling nonprofit formed in 2003, has changed its name to The Recycling Partnership. The organization says the change reflects its expanding role and reduces confusion between the organization and its grant and technical assistance project, The Recycling Partnership.

Megan Daum, chairman of The Recycling Partnership board of directors and vice president of sustainability at the Can Manufacturer’s Institute, says, “CVP has worked hard for more than a decade to build trust with communities across the country. The board of directors is very proud of our organization’s longstanding commitment to measurably improving recycling rates. The addition of The Recycling Partnership to CVP last July was a natural fit to our evolving approach; this name change further echoes our organizational growth and systems-based approach developed over the past 12 months.”

Over the past year, the nonprofit says it has more than doubled its member organizations and budget while refining its approach to identify industrywide barriers to recycling success and designing educational and technical resources.

The Recycling Partnership, headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia, also has announced its next round of partner communities, including Cleveland; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Blacksburg, Virginia.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to see our model successfully growing to reach six current community partners with more announcements coming later this year,” says Recycling Partnership Executive Director Keefe Harrison. “More than ever, our industry needs support developing not just more supply but more high-quality supply. Our excellent community partners are to be commended for their efforts.”

Efforts in the coming months will revolve around community outreach materials and best management practice assistance, The Recycling Partnership says.

“Recycling education and operations are critical sides of the same coin,” says Recycling Partnership Technical Assistance Lead Cody Marshall. “The Recycling Partnership recognizes that by building on operational lessons learned and best practices, designing educational resources around trends [and] then adopting them for individual communities, we can work effectively across the U.S., both within our grant program and outside of it, to drive increased quality material recovery.”

 

METALS

Schnitzer reports second quarter numbers

Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc., Portland, Oregon, says it saw the steepest decline in ferrous scrap prices since 2008 in the second quarter of its fiscal 2015. The company reports a loss of $196 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2015 compared with a profit of $1.79 million for the same time last year.

Schnitzer says it saw ferrous scrap prices decline by as much as $100 per ton, a 30 percent drop from the previous quarter. The company attributes the decline to softer global steel markets arising from overproduction, a strong U.S. dollar, lower iron ore prices and weaker demand by end markets.

Schnitzer also says harsh winter weather in the Northeast and Midwest affected its Auto Parts Business’ retail sales and supply flows in its Metals Recycling Business. The labor slowdown at the West Coast ports also had a negative effect.

Predicting a challenging outlook for 2015, Schnitzer announced a cost-reduction, capacity-reduction and productivity-improvement initiative that the company says will improve financial performance by $60 million annually by the end of 2016. It also will integrate its Auto Parts and Metals Recycling businesses into a single division by the end of fiscal 2015, which is intended to further advance the efficiencies in the company’s operating platform and more effectively leverage its shared services platform, according to the company.

“In the face of steep declines in commodity prices, we are taking deliberate and substantial steps to continue to lower our operating costs and generate positive cash flow,” says Tamara Lundgren, president and CEO of Schnitzer. “The strategic cost-reduction actions currently underway are expected to deliver additional annual benefits of approximately $60 million. This comes in addition to approximately $65 million in cost savings and productivity benefits we have delivered since fiscal 2013.”

She adds, “The new strategic actions form part of a longer-term plan that we expect will lead to improved financial performance and will position us to emerge from this trough in the cycle with greater operating leverage.”

The company says it expects half of the $60 million in targeted savings to come from Schnitzer’s metals recycling business through a combination of equipment idling, including reduced depreciation and SG&A (selling, general and administrative) reductions. The company says it expects another 40 percent in savings to come from Schnitzer’s auto parts business through the closing of stores.

Schnitzer reports ferrous scrap sales volumes of 750,000 tons for the second quarter, a 27 percent decline from same time last year and a 20 percent drop from the prior quarter. The company attributes much of the drop to weaker export demand, the impact of the lower price environment on scrap supply and the timing of shipments.

Average ferrous selling prices declined nearly $70 per ton, or 19 percent, compared with the prior year’s second quarter and $33 per ton, or 10 percent, from first quarter levels in light of a combination of weaker export demand and excess steel production globally, while nonferrous prices declined more moderately during the same time.

Nonferrous sales volumes of 108 million pounds declined 20 percent from the prior year’s second quarter.

Adjusted operating loss of $2 per ton in the second quarter resulted from a combination of sharply reduced average selling prices and lower shipped volumes. Average inventory costs did not decline as quickly as selling prices, which led to an estimated $17 per ton adverse impact of average inventory accounting and an adverse net realizable value adjustment to inventory of $2 million, Schnitzer says.

The company says the strategic actions it started during the second quarter are expected to benefit operating performance in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015 and into fiscal 2016.

TIRES

Liberty Tire Recycling completes restructuring

Pittsburgh-based Liberty Tire Recycling LLC, along with its subsidiaries, has completed a financial restructuring that the company says will allow it to grow its business. Liberty says the restructuring has deleveraged its balance sheet and facilitated the infusion of new capital into the company.

The restructuring was completed March 5, 2015, and has resulted in the company reducing its outstanding debt by $50 million while also reducing its annual cash interest expense.

Liberty Tire now has access to additional capital through loans provided by funds and accounts managed by Third Avenue Management LLC, Redwood Capital Management LLC and Knighthead Capital Management LLC, among others.

Liberty says with its new capital structure in place it will have the flexibility and liquidity needed to continue to make capital investments to strengthen its business.

“With our restructuring completed, we now have the foundation in place for Liberty to achieve strong and steady growth,” says Bill Fry, Liberty president and CEO. “We appreciate the service of our previous board of directors and look forward to great things with our new equity holders and new board of directors.”

Thomas Womble, Liberty Tire chief operating officer, says, “Our completed restructuring provides us greater financial flexibility and stronger growth opportunities. We are excited to forge ahead and are thankful for the ongoing support of our valued partners, suppliers and customers.”

The company provides tire recycling services throughout North America. Liberty estimates that it recycles more than 141 million tires per year, reclaiming about 1.59 billion pounds of rubber.

PAPER

Cascades Recovery and Cellmark Recycling form joint venture

Cascades Recovery Inc. (CRI), Toronto, and Cellmark Recycling Inc., a large trading group with North American headquarters in San Rafael, California, have announced a joint venture agreement between CRI and CellMark BC Holdings Inc., Cellmark’s Canadian division.

The joint venture, called CasCell Trading Group Inc., will take over Cascades’ Material Management Group (MMG) in the western provinces of Canada. MMG was responsible for marketing recyclables collected and processed at Cascades’ nine recycling facilities in western Canada. Cascades will retain the MMG division that serves the eastern part of Canada and the United States.

Provinces covered by the new joint venture include Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

CasCell Trading Group Inc. will be based in Surrey, British Columbia. The new company will absorb Cascades’ staff who previously worked in its MMG for western Canada.

Chuck Peeling, who has more than 25 years of experience in the paper and paper recycling industry, will manage CasCell.

Peeling says that in addition to marketing all recyclables collected and processed at Cascades’ nine facilities in western Canada, CasCell will market recyclables processed at the three recycling facilities Cellmark operates. The plants themselves will remain under the ownership of the existing companies.

 

PLASTICS

NAPCOR releases postconsumer PET bale specifications

The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), Sonoma, California, has developed a new set of quality specifications for baled postconsumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) that are designed to provide incentives to suppliers to improve recycled PET quality.

To accompany the grading system, NAPCOR also has developed a PET material test audit.

The proposed test audit and specs have been passed on to the Association of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers (APR), Washington, where they are expected to undergo final review prior to integration into the model bale specification for PET, NAPCOR says.

“Members of NAPCOR’s Bale Quality Committee developed the grades and bale audit test to send a message to the marketplace that the PET reclaiming industry needs better PET bales,” says Byron Geiger, president of Custom Polymers, Athens, Alabama, and a member of both NAPCOR and the APR. “We are willing to reward quality, and we’ve developed a way to measure it.”

He continues, “PET reclaimers have struggled with poor bale quality and declining yields in recent years. These new specifications give us a way to provide specific feedback to the material recovery facilities (MRFs) we buy from and encourage them to improve quality.”

PET reclaimers using NAPCOR bale composition data and the results of material audits performed at facilities in the United States and Canada developed the specifications and audit test method.

The specifications include A, B, C and F grades, with PET fractions ranging from 94 percent and greater earning an “A” grade to 72 percent and below receiving an “F” grade.

“The push to add quality gradings to the model PET bale specifications came from our PET reclaimer members working collaboratively on a way to provide clear market incentives and metrics to help improve material quality,” says Tom Busard, NAPCOR chairman and chief procurement officer for Plastipak Packaging Inc. and president of Clean Tech, Plastipak’s recycling affiliate. “The gradings are intended to help differentiate the marketplace and provide consistent feedback to MRFs in order to support investment in best practices,” he adds.

MUNICIPAL

NWRA and SWANA develop best practices for residential recycling contracting

The National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA), Washington, and the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), Silver Spring, Maryland, have released new guidelines designed to improve protocols and standards for municipal recycling program contracting. The guidelines address challenges facing public agencies and private industry as they seek to improve local residential recycling programs’ effectiveness, the associations say.

NWRA and SWANA’s “Joint Advisory on Designing Contracts for Processing of Municipal Recyclables” is the culmination of a nearly year-long process that brought together subject matter experts from private industry and local government agencies to address the need for consistent standards in contracting for recycling services. Their challenge was to develop joint standards that can help municipalities and private industry cooperatively address the evolving nature of the residential recycling stream and dramatic price fluctuations in global commodities markets.

The guidelines can be accessed at http://wasterecycling.org/images/documents/resourcesSWANA-NWRA-Recycling-Doc.pdf.

 

METALS

Upstate Shredding drops bid for Roth Steel

Upstate Shredding, Owego, New York, says it will not pursue its acquisition of Roth Steel, an idled metal recycling yard in Syracuse, New York. Upstate decided to halt the purchase after reviewing records from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that reportedly show the site is significantly contaminated.

Upstate initially acquired Roth Steel at an auction for $625,000. The company had closed in early 2014 because of economic difficulties.

An article on www.Syracuse.com says Plumley Engineering, Baldwinsville, New York, said it would cost at least $8 million to clean the site and that the total financial liability could be greater if the pollution has traveled to nearby properties and Onondaga Lake.