Peer-reviewed life cycle analysis of the company’s pyrolysis technology reveals it yields significant environmental savings.
San Francisco-based Brightmark has announced that a life cycle analysis of its pyrolysis-based process for mixed plastic scrap shows that it produces 39 percent to 139 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than equivalent products made using virgin materials. The Georgia Institute of Technology collected the data, with Environmental Clarity Inc. performing the analysis.
The life cycle analysis shows that plastics renewal provides 82 percent energy use savings, 46 percent water use savings and a 39 percent to 139 percent reduction in carbon footprint. The technology’s carbon footprint benefit was further found to be directly correlated to the extent to which a given country relied on incineration as a waste disposal method: In Europe, where 50 percent of plastics are incinerated, plastics renewal’s carbon footprint improvement jumps to 139 percent compared with equivalent virgin products.
“We commissioned this life cycle analysis so that we had total clarity on the environmental benefits offered by plastics renewal,” says Bob Powell, CEO and founder of Brightmark. “These are massive savings, and we’ll seek to continue improving our environmental impact as our work advances.”
Brightmark says the life cycle analysis included three groups of activities: plastics renewal and supply chain; the resulting avoided waste management system because of recycling; and the cradle-to-gate production of equivalent chemical products that would have to be made if recycling of waste plastics did not occur.
“Simply put, our life cycle analysis shows that products created by plastics renewal require 17 percent the amount of fossil fuels as the same family of hydrocarbon plastics made from virgin petroleum,” says Matthew Realff, a Georgia Tech professor. “These improvements are significant when comparing technologies to make these products from virgin resources.”
“Brightmark’s plastic renewal technology reduces fossil fuel extraction, reduces landfill and incineration of waste and cuts down carbon emissions relative to current practice,” say Evan Griffing and Michael Overcash from Environmental Clarity. “We believe efforts to scale advanced plastic recycling technologies like Brightmark’s solution will provide substantial environmental and sustainability benefits to society.”
Brightmark’s plastics renewal life cycle analysis was peer-reviewed in March 2021 and found to be detailed, verifiable and compliant with ISO 14041 and 14044, the company says.
An executive summary of the findings is available here.
A spokesman for Brightmark says the company continues to ramp up operations at its first commercial-scale site in Ashley, Indiana, site. The company also has announced plans to construct a second facility in Macon, Georgia, and to explore developing sites in Europe with BP.
The suit alleges that Sims failed to demonstrate a minimum threshold reduction in uncontrolled emissions from its shredding facility.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced Oct. 22 that he has filed a lawsuit against Metal Management Midwest Inc., dba Sims Metal Management (Sims), for failing to demonstrate a minimum threshold reduction in uncontrolled emissions from its metal shredding and recycling facility. He also says the court entered an agreed interim order that requires Sims to develop and implement a control system designed to achieve an immediate overall reduction in uncontrolled emissions.
“Sims’ actions created a public health risk by exposing the community to uncontrolled emissions from its facility,” Raoul says in a news release announcing the suit and the interim order. “We have seen the damage these actions can cause in environmental justice communities, and I am committed to holding Sims accountable for endangering public health and will work to ensure they comply with emissions reductions requirements.”
The lawsuit is based on a referral from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA).
Illinois EPA Director John Kim says, “Based upon results from testing called for by the Illinois EPA, this matter was referred to the attorney general’s office to ensure that protections be put into place to address emissions concerns. The location of this facility in an environmental justice community reinforces the need for careful oversight of pollution sources such as this.”
The facility is in the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago. At the site, Sims receives, stores, recycles and ships ferrous and nonferrous recyclables, including end-of-life vehicles, major appliances and other postconsumer sheet metal and metal clips. The company’s hammermill shredder emits volatile organic material (VOM) into the environment, according to the EPA.
Sims submitted an application Jan. 22, 2019, for a Federally Enforceable State Operating Permit (FESOP) to the IEPA, as required by a previously entered administrative consent order with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As part of its review of the application, the IEPA requested a copy of emissions testing results also required by the previously entered federal order. Based on a review of those results, the IEPA requested Sims initiate additional testing, with a proof-of-concept emissions capture test on the shredder May 13 to 14 of this year.
In the lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, Raoul alleges that the results of the May emissions capture test revealed the shredder was achieving less than 50 percent estimated capture efficiency, which was below mandated emissions control requirements of at least 81 percent. He argues in the suit that by failing to demonstrate an overall reduction in VOM emissions, Sims violated the Illinois Environmental Protection Act and Illinois Pollution Control Board Air Pollution Regulations, jeopardizing public health and the environment.
Sims’ facility is in an area the IEPA has designated an area of environmental justice concern because it is a community with a percentage of low-income and/or minority residents that is greater than twice the statewide average.
The agreed interim order, entered Oct. 22, requires Sims to develop and implement a control system designed to achieve an overall reduction in uncontrolled VOM emissions of at least 81 percent from the shredder at the facility. Sims also will be required to construct a control system to achieve emissions reduction compliance, as approved by the IEPA, and continue to conduct emissions testing following construction to ensure uncontrolled emissions are reduced by at least 81 percent.
Sims provided the following statement to Recycling Today concerning the matter:
“Sims Metal was notified by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency that we would need to retest the emissions from the shredder at our Paulina facility in Chicago, IL. Although the emissions reading was fully compliant with the levels outlined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s federal guidelines, we agreed to work with IEPA to favourably address this issue, modify our permit and install the advanced controls for both particulates and volatile organic compounds, rather than spend time on additional testing.
“For more than 100 years, Sims Metal has been at the center of the circular economy by recovering and recycling material to generate maximum value and minimize waste. Each year, we recycle 7.4 million tons of material globally that would otherwise go to landfill. We continue to invest in upgrades and improvements to the shredder at our Paulina facility, as well as lead by example to demonstrate best practices for other businesses in the area and serve the local community and economy.
“One of the foundations of a sustainable company is operating responsibly, and we are committed to operational excellence and upholding responsible and ethical business practices, which includes maintaining compliance with all relevant laws and regulations in the municipalities where we operate. It is worth noting that the shredder at our Paulina site is quite small in comparison to other shredders in the area, and it is the first of its size to have these controls installed.
“Our purpose, create a world without waste to preserve our planet, drives everything we do; and as a good corporate citizen, we are constantly reviewing our sustainability goals (partner for change, operate responsibly and close the loop) to ensure that we are living our purpose. These actions afford us with the opportunity to mitigate our own risks and amplify our impact. We will continue working with all of our community stakeholders and regulatory bodies to ensure that we are adhering to all relevant laws, maintaining safety standards and mitigating any harm to our local community.”
Environmental justice generally refers to a governmental response to the disparate environmental and public health impacts of pollution on minority and economically disadvantaged communities. Federal and state policies or regulations have been enacted to protect minorities and low-income citizens from disproportionately high exposure to pollution and heavy industrial activity historically located in or near such communities.
This is not the first action that has been taken against auto shredder operators in the city of Chicago.
In late 2017, the EPA requested air emissions testing at the former General Iron Industries site on the north side of Chicago. The air tests, supervised by the EPA in May and June 2018, resulted in a notice of violation regarding VOC emissions but found no emissions of metals or filterable particulate matter (PM) that violated permitted levels or applicable requirements.
General Iron, which formed a strategic partnership with Reserve Management Group (RMG) of Stow, Ohio, in mid-2018, installed a $2 million regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) at that site, which it said allowed the company to comply with and outperform a state requirement to reduce uncontrolled VOC emissions. Since the installation was completed in July of 2019, General Iron and the EPA agreed to an administrative consent order resolving the alleged violations the EPA issued the previous year.
The RTO was moved to Southside Recycling, the new auto shredding facility established by RMG on Chicago’s southside. However, environmental justice concerns have kept this facility from opening as scheduled.
*Kwame Raoul was misidentified originally as the Chicago attorney general.
The new shared action plan represents cross-value chain collaboration.
More than 70 businesses, organizations and governments have come together to release an action plan, “Roadmap to 2025: A shared action plan to build a circular economy for plastics packaging,” designed to eliminate plastic waste through the Canada Plastics Pact(CPP). The plan represents cross-value chain collaboration toward a circular economy for plastics packaging in Canada to drive tangible change by 2025.
Industry, nongovernment organizations and public sector organizations, including brands, retailers, recyclers, resin producers, nonprofits, associations, governments and others that account for more than one-third of the plastics packaging on the market in Canada, developed the “Roadmap.”
“Our take-make-waste approach to plastics is no longer viable,” says George Roter, managing director of the CPP. “Plastic packaging is a vital part of daily life, it is high-performing, lightweight and low cost; but currently, over 85 percent of what we produce in Canada each year gets used once and ends up in landfills or the environment. Canadians, our governments and our businesses have had enough of plastic waste. The ‘Roadmap’ is designed to comprehensively address this problem quickly and together, and sets forth both coordinated individual business actions and the system changes that are needed into a single agenda, with ambitious targets for 2025."
The “Roadmap” establishes three strategic priorities for 2025:
According to the CPP, innovation in technology and business models that will be generated through achieving a circular economy for plastics packaging will capture economic value, deliver jobs and position Canadian businesses competitively.
“Creating a future that is free of plastic waste demands collaboration, and the multistakeholder effort that went into developing the CPP ‘Roadmap’ gives me confidence that we can now make the essential steps to catalyze and create a circular economy for plastics,” says David Hughes, president and CEO of The Natural Step Canada. “We are excited to be working alongside other CPP partners and leading organizations across Canada’s plastics value chain to turn our ambitious targets into action and achieve together more than any one organization can do by acting alone. These are systemwide problems that require systemwide solutions.”
The CPP is following the precedents set in the roadmaps of other pacts across the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact Network to bring globally aligned direction and responses to plastic waste and pollution. The “Roadmap” is intended to accelerate progress toward the CPP’s four 2025 targets for plastics packaging and waste, which partners of the CPP are required to report on annually:
To continue operating its glass recycling facility, Owens-Brockway will need to submit a permit application to install pollution controls by June 30, 2022.
Owens-Brockway, a glass recycling facility in Portland, Oregon, that is a subsidiary of Ohio-based Owens-Illinois, has reached an agreement with the state of Oregon to either shut down or install pollution control technology at the facility, according to an agreement announced by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Owens-Brockway produces glass bottles and jars from postconsumer glass and raw materials and has been operating in Portland since 1956.
The Oregon DEQ issued the facility a $1,032,354 penalty in June, citing the company for multiple, ongoing air quality violations. In that citation, the DEQ required Owens-Brockway to develop a plan to reduce emissions immediately and to submit an application to modify its permit to include pollution controls. According to that citation, the facility’s violations included exceeding its permitted amount of particulate matter emissions as well as the permitted opacity, which is the degree to which visibility is reduced by pollution.
The latest agreement from the Oregon DEQ states that Owens-Brockway must either shut down or submit a permit application to install pollution controls to the department by June 30, 2022. If the company chooses to continue operating past that date, it must install the pollution controls within 18 months of the department’s approval of its application, and during those 18 months, Owens-Brockway must demonstrate progress toward the design, procurement and installation of controls.
“If the facility decides to install pollution controls, this agreement requires they demonstrate that the controls achieve a 95 percent reduction in particulate matter emissions,” says Nina DeConcini, the Oregon DEQ’s Northwest Region Administrator.
Additionally, until controls are installed or the facility is shut down, the Oregon DEQ says Owens-Brockway will be subject to an interim opacity limit in addition to existing permit limits. Violations of this limit will result in a penalty of $18,000 per violation.
Oregon DEQ says the facility also must spend $529,404 of its penalty amount on a project that will provide air quality benefits to the surrounding Portland community.
The total settled civil penalty is $661,756 from the original $1 million. According to the Oregon DEQ, the penalty reduction is primarily due to Owens-Brockway’s commitment to install controls. The Oregon DEQ says it is in the process of reopening the facility’s permit.
North Carolina company increases its ability to reprocess engineering resins.
Lenoir, North Carolina-based Recycling Associates LLC says it has signed a lease that will allow it to add a 25,000-square-foot engineering grade plastics grinding facility adjacent to its current 200,000-square-foot plant.
According to Recycling Associates Managing Partner Joe Miceli, the company will use the additional space to grind and process engineering grade resins including acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate/ABS, polyamide 6 (PA6), PA 66 filled and “other higher end resins.”
The company describes itself as a “full-service plastic and metal recycler with grinding, shredding and metal separation capabilities.”
Recycling Associates currently handles polypropylene, high-density polyethylene and high-impact polystyrene and concentrates on recycling “postindustrial materials from some of North Carolina’s largest generators of scrap,” Miceli says.