The state's Department of Environmental Quality is distributing approximately $500,000 in grants to reduce the state's reliance on landfill disposal.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) announced that its recycling program has provided $492,937 in recycling business development grants to 16 North Carolina recycling companies.

According to the department’s press release, these grants are expected to create 108 new jobs and generate more than $1.3 million in new private enterprise investment, while reducing the state’s reliance on landfill disposal.

"Recycling companies provide North Carolina people with high-quality jobs and play a unique role in improving the state's environment and carbon footprint while promoting the state's economic development," North Carolina Department of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service Director Jamie Ragan said. Environmental Quality. "These grant-funded projects will create jobs and bring recyclable materials back to the state’s economy, thereby helping manufacturers create new products, reducing North Carolina’s dependence on foreign markets, and ultimately diverting from the waste stream. Material."

DEQ stated that it is prioritizing projects to improve North Carolina's domestic capacity to process and use mixed paper and non-bottle plastics for the fourth consecutive year. According to DEQ in North Carolina, strengthening the local market will lead to more flexible recycling programs and higher value of these materials when transferred from landfills. 

Recipients of the recycling business come from 13 counties, representing large and small companies. The North Carolina DEQ stated that the types of grants granted include expanding plastic processing capacity, upgrading material recycling facilities, and improving the recycling market for other materials. The following companies have received grants:

According to the funding situation, grants are provided every year to reduce the flow of solid waste into landfills and continue to develop the state's circular economy. Recipients must provide at least 50% of the grant; however, the level of private investment in 2021 is expected to be more than twice the total grant. The combination of grants and private funds will invest nearly $1.8 million in the state's recycling infrastructure.

India's Khanna Paper is a growing consumer of recycled paper.

Khanna Paper started in 1985 as a family paper mill in India. The company was founded by BM Khanna and his sons Rahul and Saurabh joined the company in the 1990s. Rahul and Saurabh currently lead the business today.

The company focuses on the use of recycled fibers in its product portfolio. Joe Passalacqua, Commodity Manager of Khanna Paper, said the company is one of India's largest waste paper importers.

Khanna Paper's factory is located in Amritsar, Punjab. According to the company's website, the factory occupies an area of ​​80 acres and is India's largest single-site consuming recycled paper factory. The company's website reports that its annual production capacity is 500,000 tons. The plant includes four paper machines, a deinking plant and an in-house captive power plant.

Passalacqua describes Khanna Paper as a growing company. He said that the company currently imports about 30,000 tons of recycled paper every month from all over the world, including the United States, for the manufacture of copy paper, packaging cardboard and newsprint. Khanna Paper mainly sells these products in India, but Passalacqua added that the company is already looking at expanding into other markets.

Passalacqua said that among the grades of recycled paper it consumes, Khanna Paper mainly focuses on mixed paper and classified office paper (SOP), as well as some coated books and classified residential news.

"We attach great importance to SOP," he said. "We are one of the largest SOP consumers in the country. "SOP and high grade are required by all steel mills," he said, adding that since the pandemic began, the Indian economy seems to be opening up more. "We will Make more copy paper because [India] schools may return. "

He added that the company also uses some virgin pulp.

“We also need about 1,500 tons of virgin pulp every month, which we use for brightness-copy paper requires different types of brightness,” he explained.

Passalacqua stated at the beginning of this year that Khanna Paper has a great appetite for SOP consumption, partly because India's economy is reopening since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"SOP and high grade are required by all factories," he told Recycling Today in mid-January. "We will make more copy paper because [India] schools may return."

However, one challenge that Khanna Paper has been trying to solve with many other recycled fiber exporters and importers is the sea backlog. Passalacqua said that he noticed that the terminal was “crowded with people” this year, and neither bookings nor ships entered the port.  

As of mid-January, he also stated that India's economy was "stronger" than most of 2020. He added that the country is generally more industrialized and the economy has "growth" in recent years.

Although India’s recent rising COVID-19 cases may have an adverse impact on the country’s economy this year, the Economic Times reported in mid-March that the Indian economy is expected to grow by 12% this year after shrinking by 7.1% in 2020. 

As the business reopens from COVID-19-related shutdowns, Passalacqua said that he expects the demand for Khanna Paper products, such as copy paper and cardboard, to rise.

Editor's note: Today's recycling program runs a longer version of this article in the May 2021 version.

The Scrap and Car Dismantling Company purchased a closed car salvage facility in Windsor, Colorado.

Andersen's Sales & Salvage Inc., headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, purchased the land used by a closed car salvage company to conduct business to open a new location in Windsor, Colorado.

The Greeley Tribune’s online news report on April 8 stated that Andersen had purchased the site of the former Martin Supply Inc. salvage. The newspaper quoted Sarah Willcutts of Andersen Salvage as saying that the company will clear the 17 acres of land before opening this summer.

Andresen's Salvage describes itself on its website as a family business that has been in operation since 1959. In addition to the 38-acre Greeley plant and the new Windsor plant, the company also lists locations in Atwood, Colorado and Cheyenne, Wyoming.

In addition to self-service car recycling, the company's waste disposal business has also included a shredder plant since 1995. The company stated that the paper shredder it installed in 2008 "brings Andersen into the premier automotive shredder industry, with a complete production line for ferrous and non-ferrous metals."

In 2014, the company cooperated with San Antonio-based Riverside Engineering to add a paper shredder downstream system to Greeley and install separation equipment from suppliers such as Eriez, MSS Inc. and Steinert US.

The Tribune reported that Willcutts was quoted as saying that some permits in the Windsor area are still being finalized, and the new location will operate under the name Iron Ridge Auto & Metal LLC.

The California-based supplier of commercial waste equipment has increased its presence in the Pacific Northwest through acquisitions.

American Waste Management Corporation (ATM), headquartered in Emeryville, California, is a provider of waste and recycling equipment, chute installation, and repair and maintenance services. Through the acquisition of RamCoNW in Portland, Oregon, it has expanded its business to Pacific Northwest.

ATM said that existing RamCoNW customers will continue to receive chute and compaction services, but they can now also use ATM's "full set of waste management services."

"Adding RamCoNW to the ATM series is an exciting step for us," said Steven Seltzer, ATM COO. "Customers are full of praise for the service and quality the company provides to customers in Oregon. We are very happy to continue this tradition while providing more products and services."

"This is the right next step for our company," said Lisa Menken, president of RamCoNW. "Our customers are our lifeline. Not only can we continue to provide first-class chute and compactor services, but we can also provide next-generation waste solutions. This is a dream for us."

ATM said that in 2021 and beyond, it is seeking to cooperate with other "high-quality, complete and respected regional waste system service operators."

On its website, RamCoNW retains its brand name and also refers to itself as "an American waste management company."

ATM was established in 1990 and stated that it provides advanced and cost-saving waste management products and services to private and public sector customers in North America, including waste and recycling equipment, garbage chutes, and supporting installation, repair and maintenance services, and through its SmartTrash Subsidiary-continuous waste management services.

The company has also increased its executive team.

Levitated Metals has begun operations at its heavy media plant in New Carney, Texas, near Houston. With the addition of David Burlison and Glenn Gunter, the company has also expanded its executive team.

Burlison has joined the company as the marketing director. He is responsible for purchasing zorba from domestic car shredder operators.

Before joining Levitated's new position, Burlison was a senior metal trader at Real Alloy. He also worked at Custom Alloys in California and has worked in the scrap steel industry for more than 25 years. 

“In the first few months of our operations, Levitated has become an important partner for nearby suppliers,” Burlison said. "As we expand beyond Texas, I look forward to providing equally competitive prices and convenient logistics services."

Gunter is the Director of Operations, leading the Levitated team to produce high-quality low-magnesium Twitch for the secondary aluminum industry. Since installing the first device, he has been providing operational leadership at Levitated. 

"Each equipment design decision and operating choice is driven by our main goal: to provide our customers with excellent aluminum twitches that only a dual-stage dense medium flotation plant can produce," Gunter said.

Before joining Levitated, Gunter served as the operations manager of Upstate Shredding based in New York, and the general manager of SA Recycling's Mobile plant in Alabama, overseeing the operation of automatic shredders.

According to the company, the new Caney facility was constructed during the COVID-19 pandemic and caused many unexpected challenges.

"Our supply partners work tirelessly to ensure safe and healthy startups," said Ronak Shah, the company's president. "We have solved the problem of the interruption of the equipment supply chain and the international travel of overseas technical experts."

Levitated Metals held a groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, January 15, 2020, to commemorate its start of construction of a heavy medium flotation plant in the East Montgomery County Industrial Park, about 35 miles northeast of Houston.

Shah recently worked at Alter Trading Corp. in St. Louis as the company's vice president of strategy and technology, a position he held for approximately 6 years. Prior to this, he was the company's senior director of operational strategy. Shah also served as Director of Continuous Improvement at Schnitzer Steel Industries in Portland, Oregon.

The plant is expected to produce 10 million pounds per month when operating at full capacity.

In announcing the construction of the facility, Shah said that the Houston area is close to suppliers and consumers, and provides a busy container port and a strong labor force. Interstate 10, I-45 and I-69 are also the main routes for aluminum shipments to the southeastern United States. "We are at the center of many large car shredders," he told Recycling Today, "and on the main channel that supplies aluminum from Monterrey, Mexico to the southeast automotive industry."