Paper, Etc.

DeAnne Toto

The Recycling Today Media Group has been busy these last few months preparing for our 2012 Paper Recycling Conference & Trade Show, scheduled for Oct. 14 to 16 in downtown Chicago. While the conference focuses on the state of the paper recycling and manufacturing industries, the programming also encompasses other materials, as traditional paper stock plants and material recovery facilities (MRFs) increasingly find themselves handling a more diverse material stream in which paper plays a less prominent role than it has in the past.

We will look beyond paper in the sessions “Safe & Secure, where panelists examine the security issues related to handling sensitive information in printed and digital form as well as off-spec or obsolete products, and “Marketing Plastics 3–7,” where speakers discuss supply concerns, buy/sell issues and uses for mixed rigid containers and plastics 3 through 7. These sessions are scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 14, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Additionally, from 4 to 5 p.m. Sunday, speakers at the session “A Thirst for Aluminum” look at opportunities in handling aluminum UBCs (used beverage containers).

Plastics are on the agenda again Monday, Oct. 15, in the session “The Future is Plastics,” beginning at 4:30 p.m. Panelists look at markets for some of the most common grades of plastics, including PET (polyethylene terephthalate), HDPE (high-density polyethylene) and LDPE (low-density polyethylene).

We hope you’ll join us at the 2012 Paper Recycling Conference to network with representatives from many processing and consuming companies. Please visit www.PaperRecyclingConference.com for more information on programming and registration.
 

Correction
Thermo Scientific Portable Analytical Instruments Market Development Manager Jonathan Margalit contacted Recycling Today to point out “misleading and erroneous information” in the article “Getting Sorted” (G. Gaustada, et al, Recycling Today May 2012) regarding the inability of handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers to determine specific aluminum alloys.

Margalit writes, “Thanks to advancements in excitation and detector technology, XRF is now very capable of separating dozens of aluminum alloys within all the major families. Such technological advancements include the introduction of the silicon drift detector (SDD), powerful X-ray tubes and the optimization of sample-to-detector geometry.”

He adds, “I should also note that this level of performance is achieved under ambient conditions, i.e., without the need for vacuum (as stated in the article).”

Recycling Today apologizes for the error.