Missouri and New Hampshire governors sign laws that enable the states to regulate advanced recycling technologies as manufacturing operations.

Missouri and New Hampshire both passed advanced recycling legislation within the last month. Missouri’s H.B. 2485 and New Hampshire’s S.B. 367 enable the states to regulate advanced recycling technologies as manufacturing operations rather than as solid waste disposal operations.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed H.B. 2485 into law July 1. Parson says this legislation “will help reduce plastic waste and allow more used plastic to become valuable new products, all while creating jobs and encouraging investment” in Missouri.

“Companies all over the country are investing billions in these [types] of recycling facilities,” he says. “With this new law on the books, they will know Missouri is open for business, and our citizens will know we are serious about a clean, sustainable Missouri.”

Environmentalists have expressed opposition to H.B. 2485, while those in the plastics industry have supported it. Critics are concerned the policy will leave citizens more vulnerable to being exposed to dangerous chemicals. 

New Hampshire is the first state in New England to pass advanced recycling legislation. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu signed S.B. 367 into law June 17.

“Fewer plastic in landfills is a good thing, and I commend the legislature for supporting this commonsense environmental initiative,” Sununu says.

According to a news release from the Washington-based American Chemistry Council (ACC), 20 states have passed advanced recycling legislation to date, including Missouri and New Hampshire.

“Over the past five years, 40 percent of states in this country have signed advanced recycling legislation into law, demonstrating that recognition of these innovative technologies and their immense potential is rapidly growing,” says Chris Jahn, president and CEO of the ACC. “Advanced recycling diverts plastics from landfills, decreases greenhouse gas emissions, and helps create new jobs and revenue streams.”

Additional testing is underway with the aim of expanding cup recycling to all Sonoco mills that use residential mixed paper.

Sonoco has announced it is accepting paper cups in bales of mixed paper to be used as furnish for its Hartsville, South Carolina, paperboard mill.

Previously, 10 other Sonoco paper mills in the U.S. validated their acceptance of rigid paper cans in bales of mixed paper coming from residential material recovery facilities (MRFs). This new announcement extends acceptance to paper cups at the Hartsville mill. Additional testing is underway with the aim of expanding cup recycling to all Sonoco mills that use residential mixed paper, the company says.

“Sonoco is uniquely positioned as a leading recycler, paper mill operator and paper packaging converter to help push the industry to look towards future innovations and grow end-of-life solutions across the entire paper value chain,” says Elizabeth Rhue, vice president of global environmental, sustainability, and centralized technology. “After validating that our mills could recycle EnviroCan paper containers in residential mixed paper, we decided to further demonstrate the ability to recycle other similar polycoated fiber-based containers through the postconsumer mixed paper stream.”

“This is one of many steps Sonoco is taking to further our commitment to responsible material sourcing at our manufacturing operations while building material circularity into the broader industry,” Rhue says. “If a consumer recycles a paper cup or an EnviroCan paper container, and it is sorted into the mixed paper stream, the products can now be sent to our Hartsville mill to be turned into a number of new fiber products, including new EnviroCan containers.”

“Paper cups are made with materials that are highly desirable to paper mills because of its ability to improve new products with recycled fiber,” says Natha Dempsey, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI), Falls Church, Virginia. “Those paper mills, including Sonoco, who are a part of the Paper Cup Alliance have committed to supporting the industry in building the infrastructure and developing the practices that make paper?the?best choice for anyone who cares about the future of our planet.”

In late 2021, a number of paper mills signed a declaration of acceptance stating they would commit to increase recycling of paper cups, denouncing previous notions that the polymer coating found on the cups makes them unsuitable for recycling. Organizations Essity, Stockholm, Sweden; GP Pro, Atlanta; Graphic Packaging International, Atlanta; Great Lakes Tissue Co., Cheboygan, Michigan; ND Paper, Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois; Pratt Industries, Conyers, Georgia; Sustana Fiber, De Pere, Wisconsin; and WestRock, Atlanta. The group represents approximately 75 percent of mixed paper demand in the U.S. and Canada, according to the FPI.

The system will be installed at the new Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center in Columbus, Ohio.

Machinex will supply Rumpke Waste & Recycling, headquartered in Cincinnati, with a 56-ton-per-hour (TPH) residential single-stream system for the new material recovery facility (MRF) the company is building in Columbus, Ohio. Rumpke previously announced that Machinex was among the companies it selected to work with on the project.

In addition to featuring what Machinex describes as “best-in-class technology,” the Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center also will host a research center for college students and an educational area to raise environmental awareness. The equipment supplier says the project “nicely aligns with the Machinex mission to ‘design solutions for a sustainable tomorrow.’”

The system will sort recyclables that include papers, cardboard, high-density polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene and mixed plastics from local residential and commercial curbside collections. Effectively sorting these materials while maximizing purity rates, interconnectivity and high-technology equipment were the requirements for the design of this system for Rumpke. Machinex says its 50-plus-year history of designing and manufacturing high-performance equipment combined with its own artificial intelligence were why Rumpke selected the company as sits supplier.  

This 160,000-ton-per-year MRF will include several types of sorting equipment focusing on high automation to maximize recovery. The system will be equipped with 18 Mach Hyspec optical sorters for fiber, nonfiber and plastics sorting, along with three SamurAI sorting robots on the container lines for quality control. The automation will increase material recovery and purity without extra manpower, according to Machinex, which adds that its engineers developed a multistep solution involving material sizing with trommels to drive the appropriate material to its corresponding sorting equipment. 

Rumpke has partnered with Machinex on multiple projects.

Chris Hawn, CEO of Machinex Technologies, the company’s North Carolina-based U.S. subsidiary, says, “Working with Rumpke and their team has always been a pleasure. Going into large projects such as this, it is important that any buyer complete due diligence to understand market changes and the equipment necessary to tackle past, present and future challenges. We were fortunate enough to remain Rumpke’s selected vendor and, with the level of automation provided, they are prepared to handle what the future might bring."

Jeffrey Snyder, director of Recycling at Rumpke Waste & Recycling, says that by working with Machinex on the Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center “we remain confident that we can continue delivering the best recycling solutions to our customers for years to come.” He adds, “The future of recycling is now, and we are excited to partner with Machinex to deliver best-in-class recycling to our customers and communities.”

Recyclops aims to make it easier for homeowners to access recycling services and recycle hard-to-recycle products, such as plastic bags, batteries and light bulbs.

The Larry H. Miller Co. (LHM Co.), headquartered in Sandy, Utah, has invested in Recyclops Inc., a technology startup that creates sustainability solutions, starting with recycling.

Launched in 2014 by CEO Ryan Smith, Recyclops, Orem, Utah, applies technology to environmental logistics, collecting hard-to-recycle materials and providing scaling strategies to expand recycling in rural areas.

LHM will partner with Recyclops to use its service in its residential community developments to improve sustainability efforts in recycling and reuse. Recyclops is in 30 different states and in 2021 enabled families to recycle and reuse more than 1.4 million pounds of waste, diverting it from landfills.

"The LHM Co. is excited to invest in Recyclops and the team Ryan has built. We believe in their service offering and its potential to not only grow as a business but to offer an innovative approach and encourage stewardship," LHM Co. Chief Strategy Officer Dave Smith says. "Recyclops is delivering easy-to-use solutions to homeowners and businesses, ensuring we reduce the amount of waste in our landfills and oceans and expand recycling to materials that weren't available under conventional methods."

Nearly 40 percent of American households do not have access to convenient recycling. Additionally, existing programs are only able to recycle 10 percent to 45 percent of household waste.

Ryan Smith of Recyclops says he’s committed to his mission to make sustainability a convenient reality in an accessible manner.

"The Larry H. Miller Co.’s mission to enrich lives is something that resonates deeply with Recyclops and what we've set out to do as a company," he says. "I am thrilled to have the LHM Co. as an investor in our seed round. Their growth capital will help us expand our service. We look forward to working with such a pillar in the community."

LHM’s investment supports Recyclops' introduction of a new, beyond-the-bin recycling service, Recyclops+, for hard-to-recycle materials, such as thermoformed plastic fruit and salad containers, plastic film and bags, lightbulbs, batteries, polystyrene foam, textiles and clothing. Recyclops+ will collect, transport, reuse and recycle these materials from homes along the Wasatch Front, specifically in Salt Lake and Utah counties.

German shredder producer says it now employs about 190 people to serve the global recycling market.

Leimbach, Germany-based shredder manufacturer Arjes GmbH says in just 15 years it has grown to become a leading supplier of industrial shredders for the recycling industry, “meeting growing global challenges of the numerous mountains of waste of a wide variety of materials.” In the United States, Arjes shredders are distributed by Michigan-based Bandit Industries.

The company was founded in 2007 by Norbert Hammel, whom Arjes describes as a pioneer of twin-shaft crushing and shredding. He bought the site of an old concrete factory in Leimbach and converted it into a shredder production facility that started with 19 employees.

Today, Arjes describes the headquarters site as “a buzzing operation with just about 190 employees.” The company, which started with a shredder for scrap wood, continues to develop, optimize and expand its machinery to be able to shred a wider variety of materials today, including metal, mixed materials and concrete.

“The thing that makes our machines so unique is their mobility, their wide range of applications and the fact that they are very easy to handle,” says Martin Priewe from the Arjes marketing department. “We are a relatively young company, but we have been able to grow very quickly over the last 15 years due to our commitment and willingness to innovate. Every machine we develop is a progression of the previous one. Hence our motto ‘Innovation is what keeps us thriving.’”

In 2016, Arjes launched the Impaktor 250, its first machine designed to crush stone and concrete. It also was also the first machine to be equipped with an Arjes quick-change system for shafts.

“With the development of the Impaktor 250, we wanted to clearly stand out from our competitors," says Christian Hennig, operations manager at Arjes. “We researched the market and questioned the needs of our customers. Many stated that it was difficult to change the shredding shafts and that this affected the daily work output.”

Arjes says healthy demand for its mobile shredding plants means it will continue to develop its product line “in order to be able to maintain the successful course in the future.”