FROM THE EDITOR

More Than Upcycling Is Needed To Combat Textile Waste

Fashion trends are changing faster than ever, leading to an unprecedented increase in textile waste. The environmental impact of this waste is staggering with landfills bursting at the seams and chemicals leaching into our soil and waterways.

Textile recycling as a way to reduce this waste is not a new concept. For decades, we’ve been encouraged to donate our old clothes to thrift stores and charities or to repurpose and upcycle garments to give them a second life. But textile recycling needs to go beyond simply extending the lifespan of clothing in order to make any kind of meaningful change.

Despite its potential, textile recycling faces numerous challenges that hinder its widespread adoption. Clothing is often made up of different fibre blends, making it challenging to separate and process. Different fibres also require different recycling methods, and the presence of things such as zippers, buttons, and trims that need to be removed before recycling further complicates the process.

Infrastructure for textile recycling is still relatively limited compared to other recycling sectors, too. The collection, sorting, and processing capabilities required to handle large volumes of textiles are not readily available in many places which leads to logistical challenges and increased transportation costs. While progress has been made in textile recycling technologies, many of them are still in the early stages of development or are not viable on a large scale.

Textile recycling is not limited to clothing alone, and the recycling industry has expanded its focus to include other textile waste, such as mattresses and upholstery. According to a new project funded by the Mattress Recycling Council, recycled mattress textiles could be used to make electrodes for lithium batteries. In a three-year study at the National Institute for Materials Advancement at Pittsburg State University, researchers developed a process that transformed mattress textiles into conductive carbon materials used to make the anodes and cathodes in lithium–sulphur rechargeable batteries.

In Europe, the European Commission recently proposed mandatory EPR programs for textiles, making producers responsible for covering the costs associated with the management of textile waste. It will also incentivize companies to increase the circularity of their products during the design phase rather than waiting until the product reaches end-of-life.

Through the establishment of recycling facilities, upcycling initiatives, and the rise of sustainable fashion, there has been a positive shift in the way we deal with textile waste. However, it requires a collective effort to bring lasting change. We need to invest in research and development to create advanced recycling technologies that can efficiently break down textiles and extract valuable materials. We need designers and manufacturers to collaborate in developing products that are designed with recyclability in mind using materials that can be easily disassembled and repurposed.

Textile recycling is challenging, but with the right research and technologies this waste could provide an inexpensive and widely abundant feedstock that could satisfy both current and emerging needs.

SLONE FOX Editor

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CLOSED LOOP PARTNERS RECEIVES $10 MILLION INVESTMENT

Closed Loop Partners has received a $10 million investment in its Closed Loop Circular Plastics Fund from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), a Japanese multinational banking and financial services institution. Closed Loop Partners says that this investment will help advance the recovery and recycling of rigid and flexible polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) plastics in the United States and Canada.

The Closed Loop Circular Plastics Fund focuses on PE, PP, and flexible plastics. The fund provides catalytic debt and equity financing to spur additional mainstream investments into recovery, recycling, and infrastructure that can help address recycling system bottlenecks. Fund performance is benchmarked according to a combination of financial and impact outcomes, including tons of PE and PP impacted and tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions avoided or reduced.

Since its launch in 2021, the Closed Loop Circular Plastics Fund has made several catalytic debts and equity investments to both private companies and public organizations, financing post-pilot scale projects that advance collection infrastructure, sortation capabilities, enabling technologies, and re-manufacturing of PE and PP plastics, including equity investment in Greyparrot, an AI waste analytics platform; a loan to Myplas USA, a recycling company building a 170,000-square-foot plastic film recycling plant in Minnesota; equity investment in Circular Services, a recycling and reuse company in North America; and a follow-on load to the Waste Commission of Scott County, a solid waste district in Iowa, to finance the purchase of new optical sorters.

Closed Loop Partners says that plastic waste is expected to triple by 2060 and the need for investments has grown even more urgent. Plastic recovery and recycling present an economic opportunity, and increasing plastics recovery can help meet an addressable market for plastics with what Closed Loop Partners says has potential revenue opportunities of $120 billion in the U.S. and Canada alone.

ANAERGIA TO BUILD MODERN FOOD WASTE AND WASTEWATER CO-DIGESTION FACILITY

Monterey One Water – the wastewater utility of northern Monterey County, California – will utilize Anaergia’s technology to make renewable energy from food waste as well as wastewater.

The project will significantly expand the anaerobic digestion capacity at Monterey One Water’s regional treatment plant (RTP) and will provide organic waste receiving and pre-processing equipment. This will allow the utility to receive and co-digest food waste in existing digesters currently used to process wastewater biosolids. When anaerobically digested, the waste produces renewable biogas, which is then used to generate electricity and heat at the Monterey One plant.

The project will return a mothballed anaerobic digester to service and provide Anaergia digestion tank mixing technology to process food waste with biosolids without impacting critical wastewater operations. The new technology will simultaneously improve performance and save energy. Along with the ability to co-digest food waste with biosolids, Monterey One will benefit from a significant expansion of digester capacity to provide operational flexibility.

The project will increase biogas production from the plant’s four digesters by more than 150 percent. This increase will be used to make up to 1.6 MW of renewable electricity via on-site combined heat and power (CHP) engines. The increased energy production will provide more than 100 percent of the plant’s power needs.

The upgraded anaerobic digestion facility and new waste-receiving equipment will assist the region’s solid waste industry by enabling the diversion of food waste from regional landfills to advance compliance with California’s SB1383 legislation.

CalRecycle, California’s Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, will provide $4,218,900 in grant funds, minimizing the impact on the utility’s ratepayers by offsetting most of the project’s cost. Work on the project is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2023 and be completed by the third quarter of 2024.

New Labelling Platform Clarifies Local Recycling Information

The Recycling Partnership is launching Recycle Check, a package-specific labelling platform that provides upto-date recycling information to U.S. consumers. The platform offers the ability to enter a zip code or allow location permissions and receive a clear yes or no answer about whether to recycle a specific item where you are. It also enables consumer brands to navigate the complex recycling landscape, reduce label changes, and leverage existing labelling systems.

Recycle Check is powered by The Recycling Partnership’s National Recycling Database, a resource that centralizes recycling access data from over 9,000 U.S. community programs and covers 97 percent of the U.S. population. Recycle Check connects local information with brand and package-specific details that evolve with the changing recycling landscape.

The Recycling Partnership says that Recycle Check was designed to complement existing labelling systems. The Recycling Partnership and GreenBlue are collaborating with early adopters of the program to pilot the use of the How2Recycle label and the Recycle Check QR code together on product packaging. The Recycling Partnership says that it is also working closely with the Consumer Brands Association to offer Recycle Check through its SmartLabel program.

General Mills and Horizon Organic are some early adopters of Recycle Check. In the later part of 2023, General Mills will feature Recycle Check with the How2Recycle label on select packaging, allowing consumers to check local recycling availability for all package components.

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Novelis To Supply Aluminum Beverage Can Sheet To Cocacola Brands

Novelis has signed a new long-term contract to supply Coca-Cola’s authorized North American bottlers with aluminum can sheet for Coca-Cola’s brands. This includes supply from Novelis’ plant in Bay Minette, Alabama, which is currently under construction and expected to begin commissioning in 2025. Under the agreement, Coca-Cola’s bottlers have committed to purchasing a confidential volume of aluminum can sheet over a multi-year period.

The contract includes an agreement for closed-loop recycling. Through closed-loop recycling programs, Novelis directly takes back the manufacturing scrap generated during the can making process, recycles it, and converts it into new can sheet which is then made into new beverage cans. In addition to this continuous loop, Novelis says that it recycles more than 80 billion used beverage cans per year into aluminum for beverage packaging.

Novelis expects aluminum beverage can sheet demand to increase at a three percent compounded annual growth rate from 2022 to 2031. The demand growth is driven by consumer preference for more sustainable products, size variety, and more beverage types being packed in cans.

With this agreement, the majority of the Novelis’ Bay Minette plant capacity for beverage cans is already contracted.

Republic Services Completes Acquisition Of Select Gfl Operations

Republic Services has completed its acquisition of GFL Environmental’s Colorado and New Mexico operations. The operations include recycling, collection, and disposal assets in four Colorado markets – Denver, Colorado Springs, Durango, and Cañon City – as well as the Bloomfield, New Mexico, market.

MACK TRUCKS COMPLETES $3.2 MILLION REMODEL OF ITS MACK EXPERIENCE CENTER

Mack Trucks has remodelled its Mack Experience Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The $3.2 million renovation features a reconfigured floor plan, facility enhancements, and additional road obstacles to the on-site test track.

The remodelled 160,000-square-foot facility is on 60 acres of property and offers a new welcome area, brand room, briefing room, and a new second boardroom. The test track, where peo- ple can drive Mack trucks on various terrain, was also renovated to include a mud and rock pit area to demonstrate vocational capabilities.

The new brand room is a space where both digital and physical assets can be shared with users, and the second boardroom offers another meeting space, which will be helpful when multiple customers are hosted at the facility. This boardroom also gives the user the first view of their trucks. The truck can be pulled up to the room, and the translucent glass partition becomes transparent for better viewing.

The briefing room is where users learn about products, services, and support. The enclosed space is large enough that a Mack Class 8 vehicle can be in the room during discussions. The product showroom now features a hydraulic lift so users can view the underside of the chassis.

Additionally, the Mack Historical Museum also was recently upgraded with a new gallery floor, graphics, and heritage displays. The museum opened to the public on June 12.

Arcelormittal To Supply Recycled Steel To Gm

ArcelorMittal North America will supply General Motors (GM) with XCarb recycled and renewably produced (RRP) steel. ArcelorMittal says that XCarb offers significantly reduced carbon dioxide emissions compared to much of the carbon steel available in North America.

ArcelorMittal’s XCarb steel is made via the electric arc furnace (EAF) route and contains a minimum of 70 percent scrap – with up to 90 percent scrap – and does not use carbon offsets to achieve the reduced carbon intensity. ArcelorMittal says that XCarb’s lower carbon dioxide intensity has been independently verified with an accompanying life cycle analysis (LCA) that includes Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.

XCarp RRP steel will be supplied from ArcelorMittal Dofasco in Hamilton, Ontario, and shipments are expected to begin during the second quarter of 2023.

Call2recycle Reaches Over 40 Million Kilograms Of Batteries Recycled

Call2Recycle Canada has celebrated passing over 40 million kilograms of used batteries diverted from landfills and recycled since the creation of the program in 1997. This milestone is the result of a number of long-term collaborations across many Canadian sectors to build a sustainable battery recycling economy and reduce solid waste and carbon emissions. As reliance on battery-powered devices – from laptops to household appliances, e-bikes, and electric vehicles – continues to grow, this is likely to cause a sharp increase in the need for batteries to be responsibly managed at end-of-life over the coming decades. Call2Recycle has been working to reduce these waste-related emissions by partnering with battery manufacturers, retailers, provincial governments, and municipalities to build an efficient collection program and support battery initiatives everywhere across the country as Canada gears up for net-zero emission strategies toward 2050.