Equipment company says customers are pursuing growing recycling, diversion markets.

Oregon-based equipment provider West Salem Machinery (WSM) and its president Mark Lyman say the company’s approach of “providing innovative solutions to convert waste and residuals into the desired finished product in an efficient and cost-effective manner” is keeping it on the front lines at many recycling operations.

“We optimize machines through real world testing; our test lab can simulate various production settings and volumes,” says Lyman. “Our machines start with the same field-proven designs we’ve been building for years and are working hard around the world – right now. Every machine we build is built to the requirements of the customer. Machines are optimized based on what the machine must process.” 

Lyman says listening carefully and asking thoughtful, detailed questions helps the WSM team zero in on the machine or system requirements of its customers. “Every application has its own idiosyncrasies, and getting the details right makes all the difference,” states the company.

WSM says its vibrating screens are deployed in applications involving biomass, laminated veneer lumber/plywood trim, particleboard furnish, sawdust/shavings and urban scrap wood recycling.

Its newly redesigned Oscillating Super Screener moves material four times faster than traditional “chip” screens and has less mass for a longer operating life, adds the company. Typical materials processed with these screens include animal bedding, bark, board furnish, mulch, sawdust/shavings, trim ends and wood chips.

WSM’s disc scalping screens including its Waterfall Disc Screen, typically have a smaller, low-cost footprint and smooth, low speed operation,” states the company. Its Titan Trommel Screens, meanwhile, can undertake separation tasks on compost, food waste, landscape products, hog fuel and soil amendments.

The company’s grinder product portfolio includes horizontal and vertical feed units, and low-RPM and high-speed models. WSM describes itself as a leading manufacturer of screening and size reduction machinery.

European organization finds online shopping continues to boost paperboard demand.

The Brussels-based Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI) says paper and board consumption rebounded on the continent in 2021 compared with the previous year. The association also notes that how Europeans use paper continues to change.

“While consumption of paper products had decreased by 6.6 percent in 2020, the sector is now showing signs of a strong recovery, with consumption increasing by 5 percent [in 2021] in countries represented by CEPI,” the organization states.

Trends that preceded COVID-19 and related restrictions were then “exacerbated by the pandemic,” CEPI says. Now,  the group says, they are “looking like more profound changes in our consumption patterns. This has caused the industry to adjust its production, discontinuing lines and investing to adapt to the change.”

Citing its “in-house statistics team, CEPI says increased European and overseas demand helped paper and board production grow by 5.8 percent in the CEPI region in 2021. “Exports outside of CEPI countries, which had gone down by 8.4 percent in 2020, are back to their 2019 level, driven by strong increases in sales in North and South American markets,” the group states.

As it has in North America, CEPI says “a dramatic surge in online shopping [has] been a boon for producers of paper and board packaging.”

CEPI estimates the production of paper and board used for that purpose increased by 7.1 percent in 2021 compared with 2020 and was up by 2.1 percent compared with the prepandemic year of 2019.

The sustainability and “high recyclability” of containerboard has been a contributor to the success, CEPI says, adding those factors “have contributed to the materials’ popularity amongst consumer-oriented shippers and transporters.”

Recovered fiber has grown as a raw material in Europe, CEPI finds, writing, “The utilization of paper for recycling by paper companies in the CEPI area increased by 5.3 percent [in 2021] compared to 2020, reaching its highest level ever at 50.5 million metric tons. Moreover, 96 percent of European paper for recycling utilization is supplied domestically.”

Demand for tissue paper in Europe slightly decreased in 2021, but CEPI says “it is still slightly above pre-pandemic consumption levels.”

The overall production of “graphic grades,” or paper used for printing, drawing and writing, registered a small increase in 2021 in Europe, CEPI says, though demand for newsprint “is still waning as a result of our ever-increasing reliance on screens for news consumption, with some producers still adjusting to this new reality.”

The demand for board versus graphic paper has resulted in a parade of mill and paper machine conversion projects in nations including France, Austria and the United Kingdom.

Containerboard is not the only form of paper packaging gaining favor in Europe. The production of wrapping or kraft grades—used for paper bag production—increased by an impressive 11.7 percent year on year in 2021. These grades benefitted from “the EU-backed phase-out of plastic packaging,” CEPI says.

Sustainability also has spurred “production of paper for innovative uses, mainly for industrial purposes,” adds the group, with this small but growing sector having witnessed a 9.6 percent rise in output last year.

“These figures, relating to both traditional and more innovative products from biorefineries, point towards what is known in the industry as the ‘substitution effect,’” CEPI says. “Paper and other forest-based products are set to progressively replace, to some extent, various less sustainable materials and chemicals.  Although these products still represent a marginal share of the overall production, the association's statistics show these changes are taking place rapidly and are even accelerating.”

The entire CEPI 2021 statistical report can be downloaded from this web page.

Carla Fantoni will oversee public affairs and communications, while Larine Urbina will work to increase recognition of carton recycling in America. 

The Carton Council, Denton, Texas, has announced two new appointments to strengthen awareness of cartons as sustainable, recyclable packaging. The appointments include Carla Fantoni and Larine Urbina.   

Fantoni has served as vice president of communications since 2009 and will become the Carton Council’s vice president of engagement strategy. In this role, she will oversee public affairs and communications to develop a comprehensive engagement strategy to address policy stakeholders, sustainability influencers and other recycling stakeholders.   

Urbina has been named vice president of communications for the Carton Council. She joins from member company Tetra Pak, where she serves as vice president of communications for the U.S. and Canada. Urbina has a background in consumer and business-to-business communications, which she will apply to help increase recognition of carton recycling and its benefits.   

“These appointments demonstrate how the Carton Council is progressing as we recognize new opportunities to deepen our engagement with our stakeholders and drive tangible change,” says Ed Klein, president of the Carton Council of North America. “Carla brings a global perspective and best practice approach that will help us excel as a valued leader and ally in recycling. I also look forward to having Larine’s fresh perspective on our communications efforts within the industry as well as among consumers.”   

Sparta built the facility’s galvanized conveying system and installed the composting processing system.

Sparta Manufacturing, an equipment manufacturer based in New Brunswick, Canada, has announced its involvement in the construction of a compost processing facility for the Halifax Regional Municipality. The facility is expected to handle 60,000 tons per year and will be operated by Aim Environmental Group, Stone Creek, Ontario, an affiliate company of Maple Reinders and Harbors City Renewables. 

Sparta says the new organic processing facility will incorporate the latest processes for the advanced aerobic treatment of organic waste on the front end and the efficient screening and production of high-end finished Class A compost on the back end. 

The consortium, based in Canada and made up of Aim Environmental, Maple Reinders, City Renewables and Waste Treatment Technologies, designed, built and operates composting facilities in Calgary, Hamilton and Guelph. The organization commissioned Sparta to manufacture its galvanized conveying system and its systemwide steel package and to install its compost processing system. 

Sparta says the compost production plant integrates shredding, a range of screening equipment, air separation and vacuum technologies from a combination of industry leaders. 

The company told New York officials it would cease doing business with companies that sent the firefighting foam to Niagara Falls.

A Covanta plant in Niagara Falls has admitted to burning almost 13 tons of firefighting foam over a three-year period. The foam contains high amounts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—better known as PFAS.

When first questioned by New York state officials, the Investigative Post reports that Covanta Niagara first denied the accusations. However, the company eventually admitted to burning a “small amount” of the material.

“That is not a small amount,” David Bond, a Bennington College professor who fought to stop a waste incinerator that was doing the same thing in Cohoes, New York, just north of Albany, told the Investigative Post. “That is enough of these toxic chemicals to bring the entire drinking water of Buffalo and Niagara Falls above New York state’s guidance levels for drinking water.”

The material was reportedly burned between January 2017 and December 2019.

A spokesperson for Covanta told the Investigative Post that “no regulation” prevented Covanta from receiving aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF, at its 56th Street plant, which burns waste to generate electricity.

Community groups and environmental groups have compared the controversy at Covanta Niagara with the Norlite Corp. Plant in Cohoes, where high levels of PFAS found in soil and surface water near the site resulted in the U.S. Department of Defense canceling contracts with Norlite to incinerate materials containing the substance.

Until the prohibition is extended statewide, though, it is not yet illegal for companies to incinerate PFAS as a means of waste disposal.

According to the Investigative Post, the AFFF burned at the Covanta Niagara plant came from stockpiles in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The foam was shipped to a company in Ohio, which blended it with other wastes, then sent to Niagara Falls, where it was incinerated.

DEC officials were tipped off that the foam might have ended up at Covanta by a Bloomberg Law article about companies looking for ways to rid themselves of AFFF. Covanta incinerators in Niagara Falls and Indianapolis were mentioned as likely disposal destinations.

In response to questioning by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation, Covanta told officials it would cease doing business with companies that sent the foam to Niagara Falls, adding that “Covanta does not accept PFAS waste, such as AFF.”