The act provides a framework for the sale and purchase of scrap metal to help reduce the theft of catalytic converters.

Bill 9, the Scrap Metal Act, and its corresponding Scrap Metal Regulation have gone into effect in Manitoba as part of the government’s plan to address the problem of scrap metal theft in the province.

Under the new framework, dealers must record details of their transactions related to scrap metal, defined as a used item made of aluminum, brass, bronze, copper, iron, lead, steel, stainless steel, tin or a prescribed metal or alloy. Dealers must keep the transaction records for two years and provide them to a peace officer when requested. In addition, cash transactions are not permitted for any transaction over $50.

“The Scrap Metal Act, along with the Scrap Metal Regulation, outlines a framework that applies to the sale and purchase of scrap metal in Manitoba,” says Manitoba Justice Minister Kelvin Goertzen. “The act and regulation will significantly reduce the theft of catalytic converters by disrupting the resale opportunities for illegally obtained scrap metal.”

Goertzen says the transactions involving metal containers normally recycled to avoid waste, such as paint cans, as well as coins, bullion and jewelry are exempt from the record-keeping requirement. According to a news release from the provincial government’s website, transactions involving restricted items—defined as being highly vulnerable to theft and resale, such as catalytic converters, or having significant intrinsic value, such as plaques, monuments and statues—have more stringent rules.

In addition to the record-keeping requirements for general scrap metal, any transactions involving restricted items must include a photograph that provides sufficient detail to identify the item. The government website states that the complete records must be submitted to the scrap metal dealer’s local law enforcement agency within seven days. Cash transactions are not permitted for restricted items.

Law enforcement, nonprofit partners and other government agencies are helping to combat catalytic converter theft in Manitoba, including the Winnipeg Police Service, Winnipeg Crime Stoppers, Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) and Criminal Property Forfeiture (CPF). CPF provided grants to both the Winnipeg Crime Stoppers and the Steinbach RCMP to implement projects to combat the theft of catalytic converters by marking and having catalytic converters engraved with vehicle identification numbers (VIN). With an engraved VIN, police can trace the owners of recovered catalytic converters, and individuals with illegally obtained catalytic converters can be charged for being in possession of stolen goods.

“Winnipeg Crime Stoppers appreciates the funding supplied by Criminal Property Forfeiture. Along with the help of our many partners in the community, this provided us the opportunity to develop the ‘Save Your Cat’ program,” says Paul Johnson, chairperson of Winnipeg Crime Stoppers. “We were able to provide one more idea to address the epidemic of catalytic converter thefts. Identification is a key to prosecuting the criminals responsible.”

“The thefts of catalytic converters are affecting many Manitobans, and in the Steinbach area, we have certainly seen an increase in this type of crime,” says Supt. Jim Mirza, acting Criminal Operations Officer, Manitoba RCMP. “I am proud of the initiative shown by our Steinbach detachment in applying for Criminal Property Forfeiture funds to purchase engravers to give to local mechanic shops. Our hope is that this will increase our ability to enforce against this crime and reduce the number of Manitobans who become victim to it.”

The Recycling Partnership’s Film and Flexibles Recycling Coalition grant will help EFS-plastics increase recycling capacity at its site in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.

The Recycling Partnership’s Film and Flexibles Recycling Coalition has awarded its first film packaging capture grant to EFS-plastics, an Ontario-based company that specializes in plastic film recycling.

According to a news release from The Recycling Partnership, Falls Church, Virginia, the $200,000 grant will pay for new shredding equipment for EFS-plastics’ facility in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, increasing the facility’s recycling capacity by an additional 560,000 pounds per month and laying the groundwork to scale residential film and flexibles plastics recycling. In addition, the grant helps to fund testing at EFS-plastics’ Listowel, Ontario, facility to reprocess material into pellets for new products and packaging.

“Recycling more film will have benefits for the recycling system as a whole,” says EFS-plastics Director of Business Development and Procurement Eadaoin Quinn. “Film is a contaminant for many recyclers, but if we can turn more of it into new products, we can reduce the burden on [material recovery facilities] caused by film while also putting more plastics back into new products rather than into a landfill or incinerator.”

The Recycling Partnership says its Film and Flexibles Recycling Coalition, part of its Pathway to Circularity Initiative, includes a broad group of industry stakeholders seeking to increase curbside collection of film recycling and support end markets for film and flexible products. The coalition’s primary focus is to prove efficient and effective collection through pilot projects as well as infrastructure and optimization grants, complementing The Recycling Partnership’s grant programs for material recovery facilities.

The Recycling Partnership tells Recycling Today its Film and Flexibles Recycling Coalition plans to award up to four additional grants this year, with more to come in 2023.

“We are thrilled to announce this grant to EFS-plastics, an important testing ground and milestone in the coalition’s mission to increase collection of film and flexible packaging,” says Sarah Dearman, vice president of circular ventures at The Recycling Partnership. “The partnership believes that a successful system of the future will address recyclability challenges for all materials, and with so much of this valuable material found in every U.S. household, investments to support scaling film and flexible plastic recycling are important and necessary.”

The mission-driven work of the Film and Flexibles Recycling Coalition is supported by contributions from organizations representing all segments of the material’s value chain, including steering committee members American Chemistry Council, Dow, Hill’s Pet Nutrition, The Kraft Heinz Co., Procter & Gamble, SC Johnson and the Walmart Foundation. Other Coalition members include Amcor, Amp Robotics, Berry Global, Campbell Soup Co., Flexible Packaging Association, Happy Family Organics, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., Kellogg Company, Keurig Dr Pepper, Mars Inc., Mondelez International, Nature Valley and Nestlé. The coalition is advised by industry leaders Association of Plastic Recyclers and Sustainable Packaging Coalition.

El Paso citizens will receive a cash incentive for their PET thermoforms through the pilot with Sam’s Club locations.

A six-month pilot project to recycle polyethylene terephthalate (PET) thermoformed packaging launched earlier this month in El Paso, Texas. The program is a collaboration among Sam's Club locations in El Paso, Texan by Nature (TxN) and Texans for Clean Water (TFCW) and is described as “a fundamental step in TxN and TFCW’s goal of reducing litter in waterways and roadways through community-driven recycling.”

In North America, 1.6 billion pounds of PET thermoformed containers are discarded annually, and only 10 percent are recovered, TxN says in a news release about the project.

El Paso residents will receive cash incentives for PET thermoforms dropped off at all four Sam’s Clubs locations in El Paso for recycling. PET thermoformed containers include clear fruit and produce containers, trays, tubs, cups, lids and plastic egg cartons, for example. Data and outcomes from the project will be shared with other retailers as a model for replication and an example of supply chain circularity, according to TxN.

During the pilot project, consumers will use the MeCycle App to drop off their PET thermoforms and will receive cash incentives that they can claim through Venmo or donate to an El Paso charity. Green Impact Plastics, Vernon, California, will recycle the thermoforms, and manufacturer D6 will use the rPET in new packaging. To help improve the circularity of its supply chain, Sam’s Club also will explore opportunities to use the recycled packaging for some of its products.

“Litter and illegal dumping cost the city of El Paso $6 million per year,” TxN CEO and President Joni Carswell says. “This pilot has a goal of recycling 110,000 pounds of PET plastics over six months, keeping it off roadways and out of waterways. This collaboration between the citizens of El Paso, Texans for Clean Water and Sam’s Club will build on prior models of providing financial incentives for material return that have been successful in reducing litter and waste.”

Fully funded by Texans for Clean Water, the project dovetails with other litter research initiatives and public policy outreach. TxN is managing the pilot and working closely with community partners on messaging, education and promotion of the pilot. 

“We’re excited to play a role in making recycling more accessible for the El Paso community,” says Christopher Poulin, vice president, regional general manager of operations, at Sam’s Club. “This pilot aligns with our goals to become a regenerative company, and we’ll be exploring ways to use the recycled materials collected to make packaging for some of the products we sell.”

"This pilot is focusing on PET thermoforms, but it could be translated to other materials,” adds Maia Corbitt, president of Texans for Clean Water. “Point being, people don't toss loose change out car windows and will still stop to pick up a dime off the sidewalk. Plus, getting this material back supports Texas' recycling industry, and we're proud to champion projects that are a win-win for the environment and economy."

Novelis will use Sortera's scrap metal sorting technologies to increase recycled content in its automotive sheet products.

Atlanta-based aluminum producer Novelis Inc. has announced a strategic partnership with Sortera Alloys Inc. of Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Sortera is a scrap metal sorting and recycling company that was spun out from the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) project in the U.S. Department of Energy, which seeks to advance high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private-sector investment. The company has developed and patented sorting technology that uses artificial intelligence- (AI-) based sensor sorters to upgrade shredded nonferrous scrap feedstock streams and remove unwanted contaminants.

Novelis says it will use Sortera's advanced sorting technologies, including data analytics and advanced sensors, to recycle and reuse more automotive postproduction and postconsumer scrap.

Using Sortera’s technology, Novelis says it will be able to effectively separate mixed automotive scrap into individual alloys and recycle them back into the same product, allowing the aluminum producer to meet original equipment makers' needs for performance, durability, safety and design.

"Our partnership with Sortera will allow Novelis to continue to increase the amount of recycled content in our automotive alloys and subsequently reduce our carbon footprint," says Derek Prichett, senior vice president, Corporate Development, at Novelis, in a news release about the partnership. "It also aligns with our goal of becoming a fully circular business, as we will be able to keep more automotive aluminum in our supply chain and redirect it back into the same products."

The partnership supports Novelis' sustainability goals to reduce its carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2026 and to be carbon neutral by 2050 or sooner. Using recycled aluminum as input material requires approximately 5 percent of the energy used to make primary aluminum, thus avoiding approximately 95 percent of the carbon emissions associated with production, the company says.

Earlier this year, Novelis announced that it would invest $365 million in a highly advanced recycling center in Guthrie, Kentucky, that will be able to cast 240,000 tons of sheet ingot for its automotive customers per year. The company says the facility is expected to reduce its carbon emissions by more than 1 million tons annually and to add approximately 140 jobs.

Beatriz Landa, vice president of metal procurement and recycling for Novelis North America, told Recycling Today earlier this year that the investment to produce its own recycled-content automotive aluminum ingots will allow Novelis to become “more sustainable and more independent in the market.”

"We are thrilled to work with Novelis, the global leader in sustainable aluminum solutions," says Michael Siemer, CEO, Sortera Alloys. "Together with existing investors like Chrysalix and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and now Novelis, we are poised to disrupt the global aluminum recycling space while cutting global emissions and driving a more sustainable industry."

Sortera recently received $10 million in funding led by Assembly Ventures, with additional funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures and aluminum producer Novelis. In that announcement, Sortera referred to “a significant partnership with Novelis that will see Sortera deliver high-quality, recycled alloy derived from automotive scrap to Novelis.” However, Sortera declined to comment further on the partnership at that time, indicating that a separate announcement would be made.

Recycling Today has reached out to Novelis and Sortera for more information on the partnership.  

The company has partnered with Unity Aluminum on a flat-rolled aluminum mill in the southeast U.S.

Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) says its board of directors has authorized construction and operation of a 650,000-metric-ton recycled aluminum flat-roll mill and two supporting satellite recycled aluminum slab centers. The company will invest an estimated $2.2 billion in the three facilities, with commercial production planned to begin in the first quarter of 2025. The project will be funded with available cash and cash flow from operations, SDI notes in a news release about the investment.

Founded in 1993, Fort Wayne, Indiana-based SDI is among the largest and most diversified U.S. steel producers and metals recyclers. SDI produces steel with fewer carbon emissions using electric arc furnace technology (EAF) with recycled ferrous scrap as the primary input. The company says it plans to bring the steel minimill culture and related operating efficiency to the flat-rolled aluminum industry.

This is not SDI’s first venture into nonferrous metal production. In 2012, the company partnered with Spanish company La Farga Group to establish SDI La Farga LLC, which produces copper wire rod from recycled copper at its plant in New Haven, Indiana. With the company's purchase of OmniSource Corp., its scrap recycling division, in 2007, it also acquired Superior Aluminum Alloys, New Haven, which OmniSource established in 1997. 

SDI says its steel customers are significant consumers and processors of aluminum flat-rolled products and seek the company’s high-quality, sustainable, customer-centric approach within the flat-rolled aluminum market.

“We are incredibly excited to announce this meaningful growth opportunity, which is aligned with our existing business and operational expertise,” says Mark D. Millett, chairman, president and chief executive officer at SDI. “We have intentionally grown with our customers’ needs, providing efficient sustainable supply chain solutions for the highest quality products. Thus far, this has primarily been achieved within the carbon steel industry—however, a significant number of our carbon flat-rolled steel customers are also consumers and processors of aluminum flat-rolled products. Today, we are announcing our plans to broaden our ability to serve our existing and new customers by adding high-quality, low-carbon flat-rolled aluminum to our product portfolio. We are also excited to further diversify our end markets with plans to supply the sustainable beverage can industry.”

Millett adds, “We believe our unique performance-based operating culture, coupled with our considerable experience in successfully constructing and operating cost-effective, highly profitable carbon flat-rolled steel mills, positions us exceptionally well to execute this strategic opportunity in an adjacent metal space and to deliver strong long-term value creation.”

Its planned aluminum flat-rolled mill will use what SDI describes as “a significant amount” of aluminum scrap, making it a complementary extension of SDI’s metals recycling platform, which primarily operates under the name OmniSource and ranked as the largest nonferrous metal recycler with auto shredding operations in North America on Recycling Today’s 2021 list. SDI says its metals recycling platform is expected to supply 100 percent of the aluminum scrap needed for rolling mill and aluminum slab operations.

The company estimates the project will generate between $650 million and $700 million of annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) on a through-cycle basis.

SDI says the North American flat-rolled aluminum industry has a supply deficit estimated at more than 2 million metric tons in large part because of growing demand from the automotive and beverage can industries. This deficit is being addressed through imports of higher-cost aluminum flat-rolled products, which exceeded 25 percent of North American consumption in 2021, the company adds.

SDI says it plans to locate the $1.9 billion aluminum flat-rolled mill in the southeastern U.S. and that the equipment contract has been awarded to SMS Group. The mill’s product offering will be supported by various value-added finishing lines, including CASH (continuous annealing solutions heat treating) lines, continuous coating and various slitting and packaging operations. The rolling mill is expected to begin operations in the first quarter 2025.

The company says it plans to use a significant amount of pre- and postconsumer aluminum scrap in its production process. SDI, which is partnering with Unity Aluminum Inc. in a joint venture, will own more than 94 percent of the rolling mill facility. Ashland, Kentucky-based Unity’s employees provide significant aluminum industry operating expertise to the project, SDI says, complementing its own proven extensive construction and operating talent.

SDI Investor Relations Manager Tricia Meyers tells Recycling Today, "Steel Dynamics chose to structure this rolling mill as a joint venture, with Unity Aluminum having a 5.6 percent equity stake as their employees provide significant aluminum industry operating expertise to the project, complementing Steel Dynamics’ own proven extensive construction and operating talent." 

Barry Schneider, SDI’s senior vice president of the Flat Roll Group, sits on Unity’s board.  

Unity Aluminum, formerly Braidy Industries, announced plans in 2017 to construct a 370,000-ton-per-year aluminum mill near Ashland.

Meyers says "this is not 'that' plant," referencing the planned investment on the part of Unity. "The aluminum flat rolled mill that we announced today is being designed, built and operated by Steel Dynamics."

She continues, "We have not yet selected a site. Steel Dynamics expects to benefit from compelling incentives from the state and local governments keen to bring the project to their communities and based on customer locations and access to aluminum scrap and other raw materials, we plan to locate the rolling mill in the southeastern United States." 

At full capacity, SDI’s aluminum rolling mill will require approximately 900,000 metric tons of annual aluminum slab supply, according to the company. The rolling mill likely will supply approximately 50 percent of its recycled aluminum slab requirements on-site, with the remaining amount to be provided by the construction and operation of two additional satellite recycled aluminum slab centers: one to be located in the southwestern U.S. and the other in northcentral Mexico. The two facilities are expected to cost approximately $350 million in aggregate, with the Mexico facility expected to begin operations in 2024 and the U.S. facility by the end of 2025, SDI says. The company will own 100 percent of the satellite facilities.

The aluminum scrap for the Mexican slab mill likely will be supplied by companies SDI recently acquired in Mexico to help secure prime scrap for its Sinton, Texas, EAF steel mill. Earlier this year, SDI bought Roca Acero S.A. de C.V., which operates four scrap processing facilities, including at least one with an auto shredder. SDI calls the facilities “strategically positioned near high-volume industrial scrap sources located throughout central and northern Mexico.”

In 2020, the company purchased Zimmer S.A. de C.V. of Monterrey, Mexico, which operates a ferrous and nonferrous scrap metals recycling business. The company’s primary operations include six scrap processing facilities strategically positioned near high-volume industrial scrap sources throughout central and northern Mexico. The company also operates several third-party scrap processing locations.

Meyers says OmniSource will continue to serve its customers by supplying aluminum scrap and has a strategic plan to increase its aluminum volumes. She says that plan includes levering the scrap supply in the Southwest U.S. and northcentral Mexico, adding that Mexico has excess aluminum scrap supply. It also will involve "further expanding our industrial scrap management program, targeting large aluminum industrial companies that would benefit from having a scrap management program, and upgrading secondary aluminum scrap that is currently available through new sorting technologies, some of this aluminum scrap is currently being exported to other countries to be sorted," Meyers says.

SDI says the investment in aluminum production diversifies its end-market exposure by serving the growing North American beverage can industry with its counter-cyclical characteristics. Consistent with its vision for its Sinton mill, SDI says it plans to invite customers to locate facilities on-site with the rolling mill to further enhance customer cost efficiencies, providing a “closed loop” aluminum coil-to-scrap sourcing opportunity.

*This article was updated July 20, 2022, to include comments from SDI's Tricia Meyers and Aug. 4 to add the mention of Superior Aluminum Alloys.