Under the Wire

IMCO, VAW JOINT VENTURE PLANNED

Imco Recycling Inc., Irving, Texas, and VAW Aluminum AG, Bonn, Germany, have announced their intent to form a new joint venture company to be named VAW-IMCO GuB und Recycling GmbH. Each of the partners will have a 50 percent interest in the new firm, which will own and operate two existing aluminum recycling and foundry alloy facilities located at Grevenbroich and Töging, Germany. Most of the metal produced at these plants is sold to the European automotive industry.

“This is an important step in IMCO’s developing strategy of diversification and globalization,” says Frank Romanelli, president and CEO of IMCO. “IMCO is the largest United States supplier of recycled metal for aluminum can sheet production, and we plan to become an important participant in the domestic transportation sector through our announced intention to acquire Metal Mark Inc. Much of the output from that company’s four plants is used in production of auto components, and this agreement with VAW means we should soon begin serving the same market in Europe.”

Operations at the new joint venture are expected to begin at the beginning of next year. This venture, along with expansions and acquisitions that IMCO has already put in place, are expected to increase IMCO’s annual capacity to 1.27 billion pounds of aluminum products.

WELLMAN GETS FDA APPROVAL FOR RPET

Wellman Extrusion, Ripon, Wis., has received a letter of non-objection by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration to market plastic containers made from recycled polyethylene terephthalate for use on direct food contact in poultry trays, salad trays, fresh fruit and vegetable trays, containers for instant and regular coffees and teas, packaging for cereals with no surface fat content and airline catering trays. A previous letter of non-objection for the use of the RPET in packaging washable fruits and vegetables was issued to Wellman by the FDA in 1994.

“This is an exciting development because it significantly broadens the spectrum of end uses for RPET,” says Jon Beard, general manager of Wellman Extrusion. The A-B-A coextruded sheet to be used has a layer of 100 percent post-consumer RPET between outer layers of virgin PET.

AMBACO RECYCLING OPENS U.S. OFFICE

Ambaco Recycling, a division of Ambaco Canada, recently opened a new sales office in Woburn, Mass., near Boston. This is the company’s first office in the United States. The office will handle the four-state territory of Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

“Entering the U.S. market represents an exciting growth opportunity for us,” says Leslie Marks, president of Ambaco Canada. Marks added that long-range plans for Ambaco Recycling will include expansion into other U.S. markets. Ambaco is an American Baler distributor.

WEYERHAEUSER IS FIRST TO BUY FROM CBOT RECYCLABLES EXCHANGE

Weyerhaeuser, Federal Way, Wash., was the first company to use the Chicago Board of Trade’s Recyclables Exchange when it purchased 100 tons of recovered newsprint from Oswego County, N.Y. The transaction officially launched the first-ever electronic trading bulletin board for the buying and selling of recyclable materials. Initial materials that will be traded include various grades of glass, paper and plastic. Other recyclables are traded through the system’s “miscellaneous” screen.

“The CBOT Recyclables Exchange makes  economic and environmental sense,” says Carol Browner, head of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington. “It is a market-driven, non-regulatory initiative.”