Republic Services Inc., Phoenix, has announced it is continuing to expand its natural gas-powered fleet as it makes progress toward its greenhouse gas reduction goals. The company says it will operate an additional 156 solid waste collection trucks powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) throughout the country by the end of 2019, bringing the total number of vehicles running on alternative fuels to more than 3,100.
With one of the largest vocational fleets in the country, Republic's CNG fleet saves roughly 26 million gallons of diesel fuel annually, the company says in a news release. The new CNG-powered trucks replace older, diesel-powered vehicles and help decrease air emissions and reduce unwanted noise. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), each new CNG truck deployed is equivalent to planting 600 mature trees each year, Republic says.
"The Republic Services team cares deeply about protecting the environment today and for generations to come," says Pete Keller, Republic’s vice president of recycling and sustainability. "With an expanding fleet comprised of vehicles that produce significantly less greenhouse gas emissions, we're making a difference throughout the communities we serve."
In July, Republic unveiled long-term sustainability goals, which include a climate change target designed to reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent by 2030. This emissions reduction target is approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
Visit www.republicservices.com for more information about Republic Services' sustainability platform and to view the latest reports.
Stadler, Altshausen, Germany, opened its new global headquarters Oct. 18.
At an inauguration event, Stadler Group CEO Willi Stadler opened the doors to a modern five-story building, which the company says has the space to accommodate the company’s growth.
The new building keeps the company in the town of Altshausen, where it has been located for 228 years. The building was constructed in three phases, starting in November 2013, at a total cost of $33.4 million. With a footprint of 7,320 square feet, the premises contain 36,597 square feet of offices with working spaces for 100 people, six meeting rooms and an auditorium. According to the company, the space was designed with the possibility of future expansions in mind.
The company says the new building reflects its emphasis on environmental friendliness. For heating, cooling and lighting, the building has an energy-efficient solar photovoltaic system and heat recovery from the company’s powder-coating room. Natural daylight and heat flows into the building through the generous use of glass and a central atrium, and comfortable room temperatures are maintained year-round with energy-efficient heating and cooling ceiling systems, Stadler says.
“We are very proud of our new state-of-the-art headquarters. Our considerable investment in this building will help our growing business to operate even more efficiently and will help to ensure that Stadler is a pleasant place to work,” Willi Stadler says. “This is an important day in our history—a day to reflect how far we have come as a business and how far we can still go, as our planet’s need for recycling and a circular economy becomes ever more urgent.”
The formal inauguration ceremony was followed by a Family Day at the new headquarters Oct. 19 with entertainment for more than 600 guests.
Stadler has assembled more than 350 sorting plants and installed more than 3,000 sorting machines worldwide, the company says.
New Way Trucks to open new Mississippi facility
New Way Trucks Inc., a Scranton, Iowa-based refuse truck manufacturer, has announced it will be expanding operations to a 152,000-square-foot facility located at 1 Wolverine Drive in Booneville, Mississippi.
New Way Trucks says it worked closely with the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) to secure this “strategic site.” The project, dubbed “Project Wolverine” by New Way Trucks, will initially create 100 jobs.
“We are thrilled to be working with the team from Booneville, Prentiss County and the state of Mississippi, who have already made us feel at home,” says New Way CEO Mike McLaughlin in a news release.
New Way says it plans to start operations within the next three months. Once operational, the company will begin manufacturing its Cobra and Viper rear loaders, with other products to follow. New fabrication equipment is being scheduled for delivery and installation at the new site.
“Our products are in high demand, and a new Mississippi facility provides a strategic advantage that will benefit our customers and extensive dealer network,” says New Way Trucks Executive Vice President Johnathon McLaughlin. “A fourth manufacturing facility will allow New Way to establish a new industry standard in efficient, time-critical solid waste equipment deliveries meeting the demand of our dealers and end users.”
The site was selected for its ability to meet several needs of the company. The Booneville facility is nearly move-in ready and met capability requirements with overhead cranes, lighting and sufficient power. Located on 40 acres of land, there is room for on-site expansion if needed.
Workforce availability was another determining factor in the final decision. New Way says it will begin the hiring process soon, with job listings being posted on the company’s website.
Volvo Penta appoints new president
Martin Bjuve
Volvo, Chesapeake, Virginia, has appointed Martin Bjuve, currently chief financial officer and senior vice president, business office, at Volvo Penta, to the role of president of Volvo Penta of the Americas. According to a news release from Volvo, Ron Huibers, current president of Volvo Penta of the Americas, has decided to transition to a new role within Volvo Penta. Huibers has been with Volvo for 26 years and has served as president of Volvo Penta for about seven years.
“The team, customers and industries we serve here have been exciting and rewarding. This role has been the best of my long career,” Huibers says. “I am thankful to have worked with great leaders and teams and established stronger partnerships. However, as we have planned, I want to spend more time with my family. That has been difficult to balance given the travel demands of being president. The time is right to hand over the baton as [Volvo Pentas of the] Americas continues into the next stage of its journey.”
“With 26 years of distinguished leadership across Volvo Group at Volvo Penta, Volvo and Mack Trucks, Volvo Finance and Volvo Construction Equipment, Ron’s skills and experience developing business, teams and partnerships have paid dividends to the company and stakeholders,” adds Bjorn Ingemanson, president and CEO of Volvo Penta. “On behalf of Volvo Penta, I would like to thank Ron for his valuable contribution. His experience will still be available to the company, as Ron will help represent the company and support me as senior advisor.”
The roles will transition on Jan. 1, according to Volvo.
Bjuve has been with Volvo Penta for 17 years. As senior vice president and chief financial officer, his responsibilities have included the overall strategy development, as well as process and IT.
Volvo says it has started recruitment for a new CFO and senior vice president, business office, and will announce results at a later stage.
Product Spotlight
Departments - Product Spotlight
New and updated products and technology for the waste industry.
Hino Trucks, Novi, Michigan, has announced its new M Series Class 4/5 cab-over engine (COE) trucks and new L Series Class 6/7 conventional trucks, which, combined with Hino’s recently launched XL Series Class 7/8 vehicles, create a cohesive family of commercial trucks. Features of the L Series trucks include:
a “bolder” front fascia with optional LED headlights.
a re-engineered cab with an automotive grade finish, steering wheel controls, a large 7-inch LCD multi-information display, more storage and more legroom.
multiple safety systems, including electronic stability control, collision mitigation and more.
new wheelbase options and extended and crew cab configurations.
Sennebogen eGreen electric drive for material handlers.
Sennebogen LLC, Stanley, North Carolina, has released developments with its electrically powered material handlers, which it demonstrated with its 830 E Series material handler during the Germany-based bauma 2019 event. Features of the eGreen electric drive on the 830 E material handler includes:
a 225-horsepower electric motor with power supplier through a
large cable connection behind the machine.
an integrated power pack that allows the machine to generate its own power.
more mobility.
ability to quickly switch from electric power to diesel.
Continental Biomass Industries (CBI) premiered the 6400CT horizontal grinder and chipper at the 2019 Factory Forum at its headquarters in Newton, New Hampshire. Features of the grinder include:
a new cassette-style clamshell design for end-users to quickly swap out rotors.
ability to switch from grinding to chipping in a fraction of the time.
four interchangeable rotors for versatility.
ability to grind contaminated demolition debris, railroad ties, whole trees, pallets, storm debris, shingles, logs, mulch, slash and stumps.
Elkins Earthworks LLC, a provider of landfill gas monitoring solutions based in Wadsworth, Ohio, has announced a new partnership with Switzerland-based Inficon to add its software to the detector. Features of the detector with Elkins’ software include:
elimination of the need for a hydrogen-fueled flame ionization detector instrument by providing accurate infrared methane detection.
Method 21 calibration verification.
instantaneous and integrated scanning functionality.
33rd Southeast Recycling Conference & Trade Show, Miramar Beach, Florida, Southern Waste Information eXchange Inc., www.southeastrecycling.com
March 22-25
35th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management, Annapolis, Maryland, The Journal of Solid Waste Technology and Management, www.solid-waste.org
The Alliance to End Plastic Waste, a group of more than 40 companies along the supply chain, was formed in an attempt to help eradicate plastic waste in the environment.
The national consciousness over plastic waste in the environment has grown substantially in recent years. Whether it’s a media outlet showcasing images of sea life wrapped in plastic six-pack rings, consumers trading in plastic straws for more sustainable alternatives or lawmakers initiating single-use plastic bans across the country, the push for more conscientious practices is easy to see.
In turn, businesses have received the message. At the beginning of 2019, a new organization emerged in an attempt to offer solutions to this ever-growing problem.
Major companies along the plastics supply chain formed the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) in January. The group is currently composed of more than 40 major global and regional manufacturers, users, sellers, processors and collectors that are aiming to work together to develop and bring to scale solutions to minimize and manage plastic waste in the environment.
“Plastic waste leaking into the environment is a serious global environmental challenge. Research from around the world shows that the vast majority of ocean plastic comes from regions without adequate waste management and recycling,” says Jim Meszaros, a spokesperson for AEPW. “These companies recognized a need for a globally coordinated and transformative effort focused on minimizing waste and recovering, reusing and recycling plastics after they are used, especially in areas of the world where the challenge is greatest.”
Global goals
AEPW says more than half of land-based plastic waste leakage comes from just five countries: China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. What’s more, just 10 rivers in the entire world carry more than 90 percent of ocean-bound plastics, eight of which are in Asia and two in Africa. Scientists at Germany’s Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, who carried out the study, found the rivers all have two common traits: they are surrounded by a densely populated area, and the area has a lack of adequate waste management systems and infrastructure.
With that research in mind, the group says it is targeting those areas over the next five years with a goal to invest $1.5 billion to create scalable solutions. AEPW says much of that funding will be aimed at forming partnerships with existing organizations in those areas that have similar missions of expunging plastic waste.
“We recognize that $1.5 billion is not nearly enough of an investment to eliminate plastic waste leaking into the environment,” says Meszaros. “For this reason, our investments will be designed to leverage additional investment and resources from governments, multinational institutions, development banks and other sources. We’re also focused on projects that can be scaled up in other regions and markets.”
A master plan
In addition to funding like-minded initiatives, AEPW plans to contribute to partnerships by providing the expertise of its members. To focus its efforts, AEPW has devised a master plan to follow over the next several years, which consists of several tenets:
Develop infrastructure to collect and manage waste and increase recycling, especially in developing countries.
Advance and scale new technologies that minimize waste, make recycling and recovering plastics easier and create value from post-use plastics.
Educate and engage all levels of governments, businesses and communities to mobilize action.
Clean up concentrated areas of plastic waste in the environment, particularly major rivers that carry vast amount of land-based plastic waste into oceans.
“By bringing together the entire plastics value chain, the alliance will apply the technical and engineering expertise of each sector, the collective resources and reach of companies from around the world, and insights from those that operate in the regions where the challenge is greatest,” Meszaros says. “However, we don’t have all the answers. That is why listening to others and collaborating with governments, especially those in the affected regions, and with innovators, investors, local communities and environmental and conservation groups already working on this challenge, will be a critical part of the alliance’s approach.”
As part of the plan, participating companies have goals of their own to move the needle toward these final objectives.
“Veolia wants to deliver solutions on a global scale, supporting both manufacturers and local communities. On [the Veolia] Group level, our ambition is to create an industrial plastic recycling and recovery sector. Our goal is to increase our plastic recycling revenue fivefold by 2025, from approximately $220 million to $110 billion,” says Bob Cappadona, president and COO of Veolia North America’s environmental solutions and services business. The business’s parent company, Veolia Environnement of Paris, was a founding member of AEWP. “By 2025, Veolia will recycle twice as much plastic as it does today (roughly 551,000 tons versus 275,000 tons), combining organic growth with targeted acquisitions.”
“Suez will support the alliance’s mission through direct investment,” says Jean-Marc Boursier, the COO and senior executive vice president of the group in charge of Northern Europe and industrial waste specialties in Europe for Paris-based Suez. “As an example, Suez is currently building in Thailand a recycling plant that turns plastic waste into circular polymers. In the Bang Phli district, near Bangkok, this plant will contribute to Thailand’s ambitious 2030 target to achieve 100 percent plastic recycling by converting 30,000 tons per year of locally collected polyethylene film waste into high-quality post-consumer recycled plastic. By mid-2020, it will thus produce quality secondary materials for the plastic industry.”
AEPW says it has three fundamental principles at the heart of its strategy: that plastic waste is a valuable economic resource and shouldn’t be discarded, but rather, put to better use; that ending plastic waste in the environment can enable economic opportunity; and that collaboration is essential to success.
Keeping plastic alive
Though some more extreme members of the public are calling for an outright halt to plastic production, keeping plastic in the supply chain is a hallmark of AEPW’s goals. This is, of course, due in part to the fact that many of its members either manufacture plastic or rely on it for various reasons.
But members of AEPW also say plastic is a valuable resource that shouldn’t be blasphemed. The group defends plastic’s many benefits, including sanitation, safety, health preservation and convenience.
“These companies recognize that there is a widespread misperception that post-use plastic has little or no value, when in fact, plastic waste is a valuable resource,” Meszaros says. “It is critical that we improve the way we manage plastic in order to preserve the benefits it brings and protect the environment around us.”
According to AEPW’s website, replacing plastics in packaging and consumer products with alternative materials could raise environmental costs nearly fourfold. Indeed, studies have shown in the case of plastic shopping bags that alternatives such as paper bags and cotton totes may be worse for the environment overall depending on how many times they’re used.
“Plastics often enable packaging and products to do their job more efficiently than alternatives such as glass, metal or paper, helping to reduce our environmental footprint in virtually every aspect of modern life,” Meszaros says. “In fact, a 2016 study by the firm Trucost found the environmental cost of using plastics in consumer goods and packaging is nearly four times less than if plastics were replaced with alternative materials.”
While the more widespread consequences of using plastic are still largely unknown—including health effects when they’re broken down and ingested—AEPW’s efforts, if successful, could curb some major plastic concerns, including microplastics in the environment. A recent Evidence Review Report published by Science Advice for Policy by European Academies (SAPEA) found microplastics in air, soil and sediment, freshwaters, seas and oceans, plants and animals across the world. Though the study did not find any conclusive effects of microplastic ingestion, “if microplastic emissions to the environment will remain the same, the ecological risks of microplastics may be widespread within a century,” the report says.
Taking action
Instead of aiming to eliminate plastic waste by means of halting production, the alliance is aiming to do so by bolstering plastic’s value, as seen with its first major initiative—a partnership with Renew Oceans, a nonprofit organization based in India. Together, the two groups are working to clean up the Ganges River in India, the world’s second-most polluted river.
“Once you give plastic value, then you won’t see it in the environment,” says Priyanka Bakaya, Renew Oceans founder and director, in a video on the alliance’s website.
In addition to physically cleaning up the existing waste, Bakaya says the initiative is searching for low-cost scalable solutions relative to Renew Oceans’ focal “three C’s”—collection, conversion and community. AEPW is contributing by providing funding, materials, logistics capabilities and technical expertise.
“The alliance has provided financial support, logistical capabilities and technical expertise to Renew Oceans to help divert 100,000 pounds of plastic waste in 2019, with a goal of 1 million pounds in 2020. This project relies on community engagement, manual clean-up efforts and technological solutions that turn plastic waste into valuable, marketable materials,” Meszaros says.
New initiatives are on the horizon for the alliance heading into 2020. One recently formed partnership will support the launch of a waste management recycling system in Bali, while another will create a pipeline of recycling projects and opportunities in South and Southeast Asia.
In one of its most recent partnerships, AEPW is collaborating with Plug and Play, an early stage investor and accelerator headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, to identify startups with innovations to address plastic waste in the environment. “Ultimately, we want to end plastic waste in the environment,” Meszaros says. “That is our overarching goal, and the programs we support will be measured against this goal.”
The author is the assistant editor for Waste Today magazine and can be reached at tcottom@gie.net.
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