Basel Action Network sees lead pipe replacement program in U.S. as potential source of unwelcome emissions overseas.
The Seattle-based Basel Action Network (BAN) has expressed concern that the removal of remaining lead pipes in service in the United States, an activity that can be funded via last year’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, could “result in poisoning abroad.”
BAN, which also monitors and objects to U.S. exports of electronic and plastic scrap, adds, “Old lead pipes pose export hazard to countries with weaker pollution controls.” BAN says exported lead pipe scrap “may end up causing lead poisoning in Mexico, India and other countries if steps are not taken to recycle these materials in the U.S.”
Statistics gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau and collated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) show that in the first 10 months of 2021, some 818,000 metric tons of lead were made via scrap-fed secondary production processes in the U.S.
That compares with some 30,300 metric tons of nonbattery lead scrap exported in that same time frame, or 3.7 percent of the volume recycled within U.S. borders.
Lead also can be found, however, in some copper alloyed pipes, and spent lead-acid batteries are commonly traded across borders. In the first 10 months of 2021, some 28.9 million spent lead-acid batteries were exported from the U.S., according to the USGS.
While the USGS does not break out where lead battery and scrap exports are headed, BAN (likely citing Census Bureau data) says in 2021 “50 percent of lead scrap exports went to India and Mexico for recycling. The other half went to more than 40 other countries, including China, Ecuador, Guatemala, Bangladesh and Indonesia.”
The transboundary trading, as it has with other secondary commodities and products, has drawn the attention of BAN. “As most of the lead scrap from the U.S. is exported to countries with weaker environmental standards for recycling, the removal of old lead pipes can contribute to significant emissions from smelters in other countries,” states the organization.
The federal Infrastructure law provides $15 billion during the next five years to replace lead water pipes, with that funding potentially joined by state and local appropriations, says BAN.
“Although the Biden administration has rightly focused on environmental justice at home, dumping toxic waste on developing countries is not seen as a being a concern,” remarks Jim Puckett of BAN.
“We are calling on federal, state and local government programs to require that all lead pipes that are removed be recycled in smelters in the U.S.” comments Perry Gottesfeld, executive director of San Francisco-based Occupational Knowledge International, another nongovernmental organization (NGO) joining BAN in raising concerns.
South Carolina-based company cites demand for recycled-content polymers.
Charleston, South Carolina-based Blackrock Plastics LLC says it has undertaken a recent office expansion to accommodate increased business demand. The company, which describes itself as an established buyer and seller of postindustrial recycled plastics, says it specializes in purchasing postindustrial plastic scrap and selling recycled plastics.
Blackrock says its locations in different parts of the United States combined with the recent office expansion will allow it to better serve existing clients efficiently and handle an influx of new business.
“With the market being so tight due to the lack of supply of virgin material, we’re still growing, with increased demand for our plastic scrap,” says Jim Kevany, a director at Blackrock Plastics. “We’ve learned to adapt to different market conditions, responding to our increase in demand with our recent office expansion. We look forward to continuing to provide top-quality, streamlined services for both our buyers and sellers.”
Among the grades of post-industrial plastic scrap Blackrock buys are low-density polyethylene (LDPE), Nylon, high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP), bulk shipping sacks, thermoplastic olefin (TPO), thermoplastic elastomer (TPE), purgings and plastic regrind.
“The strain on global supply chains has caused demand for post-industrial plastic scrap to steadily increase,” states the company. In response to the uptick, Blackrock says it is equipping its staff “with the necessary resources to keep up with demand.”
Blackrock says its “hassle-free process allows sellers to create a steady revenue stream from plastic recycling while simultaneously providing buyers with a reliable source for material needs.”
RMDAS figures for April show a decline in heavy melting steel pricing; market may be poised for May reversal.
Steel mill scrap buyers in the United States paid more than $600 per ton on average for shredded scrap from March 20 to April 19, according to the Raw Materials Data Aggregation Services (RMDAS) of Pittsburgh-based MSA Inc.
While shredded scrap’s value eased upward by $5 per ton and prompt grades gained an incredible $73 per ton in additional value, mill buyers paid less, on average, for the No. 1 heavy melting steel (HMS) grade.
A scrap trader contacted by Recycling Today this week predicts the nearly $20 drop in value for No. 1 HMS in the RMDAS April buying period may be a sign of things to come in May. “We feel the market will be down $40 to $50 per ton next month on obsoletes and [will be] level on primes,” he says of his own company’s informal market research.
A level market on prime grades would still have it being worth some $776 per ton on the spot market, per the most recent RMDAS U.S. average. The grade remains in tight supply, and demand is high in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Three different processors or traders tell Recycling Today in April that obsolete scrap flows have been steady to rising thanks to higher scale prices and (in most places) better spring weather.
“After a winter lull, flows have rebounded nicely in our area in March and into April,” a processor in the Mid-Atlantic region comments.
A Midwestern processor characterizes flows as “very good” as of mid-April, and a scrap buyer in the Southeast remarks, “April saw good supply, weaker demand–especially for cut grades—and a lesser export market.”
With the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) reporting stable mill output and capacity rates in the U.S., the export situation remains a wild card in the obsolete scrap market.
Overseas mills in Turkey, the Indian subcontinent and even Mexico (a large buyer of Russian steel slabs) are scrambling to understand and work around the impacts of steel output interruptions in Ukraine and U.S. sanctions on Russia following that nation’s invasion of its neighbor.
Both the processor in the Midwest and the Southeast point to the ripple effects of the inability of Russian pig iron to make it to many of its former destinations. “The majority of open market pig iron comes from Ukraine and Russia,” the southeastern processor says. “Many rolling mills also counted on those two countries to provide billet and finished steel. This has shifted demand onto Turkey and other Mediterranean steel producers,” which leads to more scrap demand.
The processor also points out, however, that the overall disruption “has created an energy shortage that is having an impact on those same steel producers.”
In the third week of April, Davis Index is describing Turkish mill overseas scrap buying as “restrained.” The metals information service says in an April 20 news item, “Most mills [are] refraining from buying imported material or even bidding for material in anticipation of achieving lower prices [for] May and June shipments.”
As of April 20, the most recent HMS 1&2 bulk cargo booked FOB (freight on board) from the port of New York traded at $574.75 per ton, down 2.3 percent from the previous booking, according to Davis Index.
In the domestic economy, trade groups representing the nation’s largest users of steel have been remarking on the metal’s rising price throughout the pandemic recovery months of the past year and a half. They are among those who see a definite tie-in to larger concerns about inflation.
In an early April blog post, John G. Murphy of the Washington-based U.S. Chamber of Commerce says that group’s 2018 prediction that steel tariffs imposed then would “directly harm American manufacturers” were on target. “All of that came to pass,” writes Murphy.
Advocating further rollbacks on Section 232 tariffs, Murphy states, “In addition to these soaring prices, analysts say widespread steel shortages loom. Steel-consuming industries represent about half of all U.S. manufacturers.”
A 2021 comment from Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves could serve as a rejoinder from the steel industry. He said it was about time that “a ton of steel is worth more than a ton of bananas.”
Corey H. Grauer will be responsible for executive management and oversight of LRS legal, human resources, risk management, compliance and ESG initiatives.
LRS, a Rosemont, Illinois-based independent waste diversion, recycling and portable services provider, has announced the appointment of Corey H. Grauer to executive vice president and general counsel, effective immediately.
Grauer brings an experienced and diverse portfolio of career legal accomplishments to LRS spanning more than three decades and will be responsible for executive management and oversight of LRS legal, human resources, risk management, compliance, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives.
Prior to his role at LRS, Grauer served as general counsel, corporate secretary and compliance officer for Marmon Holdings Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary. In this position, he oversaw legal and compliance-related matters for five of Marmon’s business groups.
Grauer earned his Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Illinois in Urbana—Champaign.
"I couldn't be more excited and honored to join LRS and look forward to providing sound legal counsel based on a career of truly rewarding experiences," says Grauer in a release. "LRS has reached a notable size and scale in the waste, recycling and portables industry that requires effective legal, compliance and risk management oversight, and I look forward to making a difference."
Commenting on the appointment, LRS President and CEO Alan T. Handley says Grauer brings proven experience and expertise colored by a career of high-profile successes.
"We welcome Corey to the LRS executive management team and look forward to his many contributions as we continue to grow our waste diversion, recycling and portables markets across our nation's Midwest and South-Central states," Handley says. "We expect Corey's judgment and counsel will serve us well as we continue to scale LRS throughout the greater Midwest."
Handley adds that LRS recently announced the promotions of 14 executives for numerous contributions that helped the company accelerate its growth trajectory as a sustainability industry leader:
*This article was updated April 21, as LRS' headquarters was misidentified as being in Morton Grove, Illinois.
Glacier says its robot costs up to 60 percent less than other robotics.
San Fransico-based Glacier, a manufacturer of AI-powered robotic waste technology, announced it has raised $4.5M in seed funding. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with participation by leaders in industry, sustainability and technology, including former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, climate investor and former climate policymaker Sierra Peterson and former Uber Chief Procurement Officer Manik Gupta.
Glacier says its recycling robot, a combination of AI and robotics that sorts more than 30 different item types. The goal is to help the $116B US recycling industry address surging demand for recycled feedstock, as well as overcome major feedstock supply shortages caused by aging infrastructure and a dwindling labor pool.
"When people think about fighting climate change, recycling is usually not the first thing that comes to mind,” says Glacier co-founder Areeb Malik. “But recycling is actually one of the only climate solutions that can deliver significant impact immediately, because all the necessary infrastructure either already exists or is emerging now, like our technology,"
Recycling dramatically reduces carbon emissions by decreasing energy use in manufacturing, which is still primarily powered by fossil fuels. For example, recycling aluminum saves 95 percent of the energy needed for manufacturing, recycling steel saves 70 percent of energy needed and so on.
Glacier says half of recyclables in the US end up in landfill. This is in part because recycling facilities rely heavily on human sorting, and hiring difficulties have caused persistent, large-scale labor shortages. Many facilities are in full-blown crisis mode, under-staffed by as much as 50 percent with no end in sight.
Glacier says it is offering the first-ever affordable, high-performing sortation robot. Thanks to proprietary innovations, its robot costs up to 60 percent less than other robots, while matching or exceeding their performance. Glacier's robot is also less than half the size of its peers, requiring minimal facility retrofits to install. Many recycling robots have a payback period of up to 10 years across hardware and retrofit costs. In contrast, Glacier's robot can payback in as little as one year.
"Almost every facility is interested in robotic sorters, but they've assumed robots are out of reach because of high cost and inconsistent ROI,” says co-founder Rebecca Hu. "We've been overwhelmed by all the customer enthusiasm for our product."
In early April, the company installed its first commercial robot at a large recycling facility in California. The robot is sorting eight target materials across two conveyor belts simultaneously. More installations are under contract, and the company is planning to scale rapidly to meet soaring demand.
Beyond robotics, the company says it is leveraging its computer vision to power real-time waste intelligence, providing facilities and municipalities with in-depth insights into their waste stream composition and identifying new opportunities for improved staffing and technology across the industry.
"Solving the recycling industry's acute labor shortages with intelligent robotics and AI is a massive commercial opportunity but also an important step toward significantly reducing emissions and waste," says Ann Bordetsky, partner at NEA. "We're proud to back Glacier's experienced and passionate team as they introduce automation and data intelligence to an essential industry that we all rely on every day."