Gateway will supply 10 million tires annually to Wastefront’s Sunderland, England, facility.

Wastefront AS, a waste tire recycling company based in Oslo, Norway, has announced an agreement with Dubai-based tire company Gateway Resources guaranteeing the complete supply of end-of-life tires (ELTs) for Wastefront’s Port of Sunderland plant in England.

“Our agreement with Gateway Resources is a key part of our mission, tackling the scourge of ELTs at scale and pace, whilst creating a truly circular economy in tandem,” says Vianney Valès, CEO of Wastefront. “We cannot continue with our dependency on new and scarce materials whilst continuing to burn existing materials with devastating and immediate environmental consequences. To solve the problem, Wastefront is proposing a solution that is both circular and at scale.”

Backed by energy giant Vitol, Wastefront secured planning permission in January to build the $1.26 million tire recycling plant in Sunderland, which is set to be commercially operational by 2024. Once at full capacity, the plant will manage 20 percent of the United Kingdom's total ELTs through processing 80,000 metric tons annually. Gateway Resources will supply Wastefront with about 10 million tires every year.

Additionally, this figure corresponds to a substantial volume of the total tires currently exported from the U.K. abroad yearly. Today’s announcement will play a crucial role in eliminating the U.K.’s waste tires export altogether, by creating a local solution to a global problem. Gateway Resources will work in conjunction with suppliers to supply ELTs to Wastefront.

Wastefront says the announcement also paves the way for overdue domestic progress on cement kiln burning. Though the burning of ELTs in cement kilns was a step forward for the U.K., creating crucial supply chains for ELTs, it remains one of the most polluting forms of manufacturing. This is because burning tires in cement kilns pollute the air with dangerous chemical particles, aromatics and CO2.

Wastefront says it will use commercial operating technologies to convert the ELTs received from Gateway into commodities, including biofuels and recovered carbon black. These are then reintroduced into the supply chain and utilized in processes such as alternative fuel or raw materials to produce new tires or other products. Wastefront’s recovered carbon black will result in an 80 percent reduction in total emissions by replacing virgin carbon black in tire production. The company says tire manufacturers have shown interest in purchasing this recycled material.

Following the supply agreement for the Port of Sunderland plant, Wastefront and Gateway have also signed a memorandum of understanding to work together toward implementing an additional ELT supply agreement for a potential Wastefront plant in continental Europe, which is under review.

“We have long been engaged with regulators to find a local, more sustainable solution, to replace our existing shipping routes for ELTs across the world,” says Soham Khemka, Gateway Resources director. “Wastefront is the first player to tackle the ELT problem at scale across Europe, with the significance of their plans having a massive impact on the industry. Wastefront is going head-on with the necessary evils of exporting waste, finally rendering it unnecessary and truly building a circular economy both at home and abroad.”

The contractor will provide engineering, procurement and construction services.

S&B Engineers and Constructors has signed a multiyear master service agreement to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for New Hope Energy’s plastics pyrolysis unit. This partnership will initially focus on New Hope Energy’s expansion in Tyler, Texas, which S&B says will add 420 metric tons per day of capacity to convert plastic waste to chemical feedstocks in the exiting facility.

With this expansion, S&B says the Tyler plant will be able to divert more than 300 million pounds of plastic waste from landfills annually. According to S&B, the project represents a long-term alliance between the two companies.

“We look forward to the long-term program and collaborative partnership with S&B and its highly developed supply chain as we grow our advanced chemical recycling systems to create a circular economy that moves the U.S. toward a sustainable future,” says Ron Nussle, chief operating officer and president of New Hope Energy.

Full EPC services will be provided by S&B using the Lummus New Hope plastic pyrolysis technology to process plastic waste into renewable chemical feedstocks.

“We’re excited to partner with New Hope to boost its advanced recycling capacity to create solutions for plastic waste,” says Ray Sherman, president of S&B’s energy transition, power and industrial business unit.

Can maker and Manna Capital will build aluminum melt shop and rolling mill in New Mexico.

Ball Corp. and Louisville, Kentucky-based Manna Capital Partners have announced an alliance in which Manna will construct and operate a recycled-content aluminum can sheet rolling mill and melt shop in Los Lunas, New Mexico.

Ball, based in Westminster, Colorado, will enter into a long-term supply agreement and also intends to take a minority equity position in the mill, says the maker of aluminum beverage cans and bottles. Manna, which describes itself as a minority-owned business enterprise and investment firm, says the announcement demonstrates both companies’ “commitment to creating a more robust and sustainable domestic supply chain for the growing beverage packaging market.”

Global aluminum can demand is expected to increase significantly by 2030, Ball Corp. says, with North America estimated to account for a sizeable part of the growth. Since 2016, industry demand for beverage cans in North America has grown 24 percent from 107 billion units to approximately 133 billion units in 2021, adds the firm.

While the industry in North America sometimes imports aluminum can sheet coils to meet demand, “alliances like this one will allow Ball and its key customers to access more domestically produced aluminum can sheet,” the firm says.

“At Manna, we are always looking for new ways to invest in companies that are doing good for the planet and people, while improving opportunities that support minority owned-business enterprises,” says Ulysses L. “Junior” Bridgeman, managing partner of Manna Capital Partners. “We look forward to partnering with Ball, a leader in the beverage packaging industry, to improve supply chain efficiencies through domestic production of more sustainable aluminum."

Ball Corp. President and CEO Dan Fisher says, “Further increasing recycled content in our products is key to boosting our sustainability and securing domestic supply of our key raw material. This alliance complements the significant manufacturing investments Ball has made across the Southwest United States since 2020 to meet growing demand for sustainable beverage packaging, and we look forward to teaming up with Manna and its management team to help create a truly circular economy for aluminum can sheet, bring skilled jobs to the region, and help our customers meet their sustainability commitments.”

Technology Minerals Plc announced its battery recycling business unit has achieved a key step toward commencement of operations for its Wolverhampton plant.

Technology Minerals Plc, United Kingdom, announced its 49-percent-owned battery recycling business, Recyclus Group Ltd., has been awarded an environmental permit by the Environment Agency (EA) for its recycling plant in Wolverhampton, West Midlands.

The company says the permit is a key step toward commencement of operations, as it provides the critical legal foundation from which Recyclus can receive the variation of license required to enable to Wolverhampton site to be fully operational. According to Technology Minerals, the variation of license is required because of the novelty of recycling lithium-ion batteries within the U.K.

The EA also has prioritized the determination of Recyclus’ application to transfer its permits across its lithium-ion Wolverhampton plant and lead-acid Tipton plant. Technology Minerals says this priority status has been given to Recyclus as the EA is satisfied that the development of the company will help maintain national resilience, national infrastructure and/or is critical for environmental protection.

“Receiving the EA permit for our Wolverhampton plant is a critical step for the recycling facility to become fully operational which, for the first time, will bring industrial-scale recycling capability for lithium-ion batteries in the U.K.,” Technology Minerals Chairman Robin Brundle says. “To be awarded priority status and be categorized as an organization critical for environmental protection is fantastic.”

Brundle continues, “This high-level of recognition from the EA is reflective of the importance of Recyclus’ ambition to recycle batteries and establish a circular economy for battery metals in the U.K. With the increasing demand for critical battery metals, we are pleased to be seen as integral to ensuring a domestic supply chain through recycling.”

This is the second EA permit awarded to Recyclus in two weeks following the environmental permit obtained for its Tipton recycling facility earlier this month.

Once the Wolverhampton site is fully operational, it will be the first in the U.K. with the capacity to recycle lithium-ion batteries on an industrial scale and, the company says, will be a key foundation of Recyclus’ ambition to increase its lithium-ion battery recycling capacity from an estimated 8,300 metric tons in the first full year of operations to approximately 41,500 metric tons by 2027.

Steel mills are making adjustments to use more scrap, but traders worry about their ability to export the surplus.

Although ferrous scrap crossed borders in abundance in 2021, trade policy concerns emanating from Europe have recyclers and traders worried about the near-term future of the sector. The issue loomed over discussions at the Ferrous Division meeting at the 2022 Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) World Recycling Convention in late May in Barcelona. BIR attendees also heard, however, that steel mills in Europe are reconfiguring to consume more scrap on the continent.

Steelmakers in Europe will be using more scrap as they attempt to reduce the carbon footprint of their operations, said Eric Niedziela, chair of ArcelorMittal France in his guest speech at the BIR Ferrous Division meeting.

Niedziela outlined the global company’s strategy for achieving a 25 percent reduction in its CO2 emissions intensity by 2030, including a goal of 35 percent for Europe. Those plans include setting up what ArcelorMittal calls the world’s first full-scale zero-emissions steel plant by 2025 at Sestao in Spain.

Among measures designed to achieve its targets, the group envisages “a huge increase in our scrap demand” and is looking to secure its raw material supply via “acquisitions, long-term contracts, joint ventures or whatever we can discuss together,” the executive said.

Fellow guest speaker Cinzia Vezzosi, immediate past president of the European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC), said preventing ferrous scrap from leaving Europe through a proposed revision of the EU’s Waste Shipment Regulation would leave almost 20 million metric tons of ferrous scrap looking for a new home. This would “break the circular economy chain” in Europe and lead to lower collection rates, she commented. “Shutting down this flow will create a massive earthquake in the market,” Vezzosi said.

The EuRIC officer also said there is potential for greater use of ferrous scrap in Europe since its current usage rate of 57.6 percent in 2021 was below, for example, the 69.2 percent rate achieved in the United States. She added, however, that business conducted between Europe’s scrap suppliers and consumers needed to be “absolutely fair” and “linked to international prices.”

BIR President Tom Bird insisted the steel industry should not look to achieve its goals “at the expense of free trade in scrap.” If scrap exports were seriously compromised, he said, “recycling rates go down” and “no investment takes place within our industry,” thus negatively impacting the steel sector too.

While Niedziela questioned the validity of exporting scrap to countries that might then compete on the European steel market with more carbon-intense products, he also said, “I’m not saying we should stop the market. We have to manage this properly in Europe.”

The 2022 BIR World Recycling Convention was May 22-25 in Barcelona.