Robert Thompson has more than 30 years of metal recycling and steel industry experience.

Rye, New York-based Sims Metal, a division of Sydney-based Sims Ltd., has appointed Robert Thompson as its global chief commercial officer. Thompson previously held the position of vice president, sales and marketing at Gerdau Long Steel North America, and he brings more than 30 years of commercial and operational metal recycling and steel experience to Sims Metal. He begins his new role July 11.

“Rob’s substantial experience at a global, well-respected organization in both the production and sale of steel and recycled metal makes him uniquely qualified to lead the commercial arm of our metal business division,” says Alistair Field, managing director and chief executive officer at Sims Ltd.

Thompson joined Gerdau North America as vice president and general manager of the Ameristeel Recycling business as part of an acquisition in 2004. He has since held several roles with increasing responsibilities in commercial, operations and logistics in Gerdau’s Metallics and Raw Materials divisions until his most recent position leading sales and marketing for Gerdau’s North American Long Steel business. Thompson and his family also spent several years in Brazil where he had responsibilities spanning Europe, Latin America and North America.

Prior to his tenure at Gerdau, Thompson spent 15 years at metal recycling companies, initially starting as a scale operator, then spending several years as a commercial trade buyer and ferrous products trader.

Sims Metal began its search for a new chief commercial officer after Michael Movsas announced his retirement in January of this year.

“I’ve had the pleasure of doing business with Sims Metal in the past, and I admired their commitment to being a leader and innovator in the metal industry,” says Thompson. “As I have learned more about the business and its strategy in recent weeks, I am more excited to be a part of this organization, which is made up of great people who are aligned and collaborate in their efforts to achieve the company goals, and ultimately the Sims purpose.”

At Sims Metal, Thompson will have global responsibility for shipping and chartering, as well as ferrous and nonferrous material buying and processed material sales. In addition to holding this principal commercial role, he will be an integral member of Sims Ltd.’s executive leadership team and his extensive management experience and perspective will allow him to immediately contribute toward achieving the company’s strategic goals.

Thompson received his Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Toronto.

Ohio-based plastic scrap liquefication technology will be distributed in Europe by Finland-based Neste Oyj.

Neste Oyj, Finland says it has purchased the European rights to plastic scrap liquefaction technology developed by Ohio-based Alterra Energy. Neste says the move will “further solidify” its “efforts to advance chemical recycling.”

The Finnish petrochemical firm with a growing presence in sustainable energy describes Alterra as having developed a proprietary thermochemical solution for liquefaction of hard-to-recycle plastic. “In Akron, Ohio, the company is already running an industrial-scale facility that transforms end-of-life plastics into an intermediate product, which can be further refined into raw material for new plastics and other petrochemical products,” Neste says.

In 2020, Neste acquired a minority stake in Alterra Energy, and the Finnish firm says subsequently it has further processed liquefied plastic scrap sourced from, among others, Alterra Energy in a series of trial runs at its refinery in Finland.

Together with Belgium-based Ravago, Neste says it also plans to set up a joint venture to deploy the Alterra Energy technology in Vlissingen, the Netherlands. Neste says it is conducting a feasibility study to examine investing in proprietary pretreatment and upgrading capabilities to scale up processing capacities for liquefied plastic scrap at its Porvoo refinery in Finland.

“Acquiring the rights to Alterra Energy’s technology in Europe enables us to offer a holistic solution to our partners,” says Heikki Färkkilä, a vice president with Neste Renewable Polymers and Chemicals. “Neste will be able to provide the full chemical recycling package: from waste plastic to product, offering high-quality drop-in feeds for the production of new polymers and chemicals.”

Neste has set a target to process more than 1 million tons of plastic annually from 2030 onward. “The ongoing joint technology development between Neste and Alterra Energy and the continued processing of mixed plastic feeds in the Akron facility have given Neste confidence that the Alterra Energy technology is among the winning solutions for the liquefaction of waste plastic material,” the firm says.

Frederic Schmuck, CEO of Alterra Energy, says, “We are pleased that Neste, a global leader in sustainability, has chosen Alterra Energy’s advanced recycling technology to further accelerate its efforts toward circularity of plastics throughout Europe. Throughout the rest of the world, we will continue to support petrochemical industry players in meeting their sustainability commitments to brand owners and consumers.”

While Neste has acquired the European rights to the technology, Alterra says it will continue to operate independently in the rest of the world with the aim of commercializing its technology through licensing.

Plastics recycling technology firm invests in Austrian startup Plasticpreneur.

Erema Group GmbH, Austria, has acquired a 19.8 percent stake in Plasticpreneur GmbH, which Erema describes as an Austrian startup company founded two years ago that makes reprocessing systems for plastic scrap that are mobile and can be operated with minimal training.

In the two years since it was founded, Plasticpreneur has sold 330 machines to customers in more than 70 countries, according to Erema. Plasticpreneur also makes application-specific, custom-built molds designed to comply with individual customer specifications.

“The young founders and their dedicated team exude pioneering spirit, want to shape the future with their work and put their heart and soul into the circular economy and plastics recycling, just like we do in the Erema Group!,” says Erema CEO Manfred Hackl regarding Plasticpreneur.

Plasticpreneur systems may help bring plastic reprocessing technology to more remote and poorer regions of the world, according to Erema. This leads to the discarded material being incinerated or disposed of in landfills, rivers and the surrounding environment. “Our mission, ‘Another life for plastic, because we care,’ is also aimed at supporting these regions with solutions for plastic recycling, and with Plasticpreneur we have found the ideal partner for this,” Hackl says.

The start-up company’s machines can process high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polylactic acid (PLA), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) separately, according to Erema. Plasticpreneur’s product range includes a shredder, an injection molding unit, an extruder unit to make end products, air filters and custom-built molds.

“For our machines to be used in regions with little infrastructure, they must be easy to operate without prior knowledge,” says Sören Lex, CEO and co-founder of Plasticpreneur. “The fact that we also develop end-product solutions needed locally makes our range of services particularly attractive here. As soon as recycling also becomes a source of income for the operators, they become entrepreneurs.”

Lex continues, “That explains the name of the start-up, a word created from ‘plastic’ and ‘entrepreneur.’ Plasticpreneur customers in these countries include social enterprises and operators of refugee camps, where everyday consumer goods—from clothes pegs and school supplies to toys and fence posts—are produced and sold using plastic [scrap]. This means that the added value stays local.”

Erema says the demand for Plasticpreneur machines also is increasing in industrialized countries. That demand is coming from educational institutions and organizations who use them to raise awareness of the need for a circular economy in workshops and to give pupils as well as adults a better understanding of plastic recycling.

Erema says other buyers also include customers who are developing new end products made from plastic scrap. Small companies, product designers and developers are a steadily growing customer segment, according to the two companies.

The testing revealed that the company’s monomaterial polypropylene pouches and rollstock can be sorted into appropriate recycling streams.

Mondi, a global packaging and paper producer with headquarters in Austria and the United Kingdom, has completed a series of tests to prove its monomaterial polypropylene (PP) pouches and rollstock material can be sorted into their appropriate recycling streams. Implemented in collaboration with the National Test Centre Circular Plastics (NTCP) in the Netherlands, these tests, simulating realistic packaging waste management conditions, were designed to determine the sortability of Mondi’s recyclable PP packaging.

According to a news release from Mondi, the company tested premade retort and standard pouches, spouted pouches and top-web and thermoformed semirigid tray material. These are made from PP and used for demanding applications that require a high barrier protection, such as wet pet food or processed meat.

Replicating real-life scenarios, the tests revealed that Mondi’s top web and thermoformed semirigid trays are successfully sorted into the correct recycling stream. Mondi’s premade pouches also were detected accurately, setting the standard for sorting streams, which still need to be developed throughout Europe, supporting high-quality input for plastic recycling processes.

“We conduct independent tests and experiments that contribute to closing the plastics cycle,” says Marcel van Eijk, research and development manager at NTCP. “By replicating real-life situations for Mondi, we were able to thoroughly assess the sortability of its packaging products. We could prove that top-web and tray combinations can be recognized in different sorting streams and Mondi’s standup pouches support sorting strategies that need to be developed and implemented at larger scale.”

Thomas Kahl, channel manager of fast-moving consumer goods & industrial at Mondi Flexible Packaging, says to achieve the plastics recycling targets defined in the European Commission’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, sortation and recycling of plastic scrap must be “significantly improved.”

“As a market leader, we are strongly committed to contribute to this target by testing the sorting performance for our packaging,” Kahl says. “The outcome of the tests show that our monomaterial polypropylene packaging is recognized and categorized into the correct sorting stream in advanced waste management facilities. We are particularly proud that we also succeeded for demanding applications, such as retort wet pet food pouches.”

The tests are part of the company’s Mondi Action Plan 2030 sustainability commitments to deliver circular-driven solutions with innovative packaging and paper solutions, keeping materials in circulation and preventing waste. Mondi has pledged to make all its packaging and paper solutions reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025, working closely with cross-value chain collaborations, such as the Circular Economy for Flexible Packaging and 4evergreen, to eliminate unsustainable packaging and develop harmonized designs for recycling or circularity guidelines.

The new system at Recyclus’ Wolverhampton, West Midlands, site will enable the battery recycler to test and grade batteries to determine whether to recycle or repurpose them.

Technology Minerals Plc, the first listed United Kingdom company focused on creating a sustainable circular economy for battery metals, has announced that its 49-percent-owned battery recycling business, Recyclus Group Ltd., has received three lithium battery (LIB) testbed systems designed to measure a range of different battery chemistries of different sizes at its Wolverhampton. West Midlands, site. 

The LIB testbeds give Recyclus the ability to test the effective capacity of battery packs from a range of electric vehicle (EV) and industrial usages as well as test for degradation or damage at the cell level. By charging and discharging batteries to measure capacity and capture stored energy, the testbeds also can measure a variety of other critical performance test criteria. The ability to discharge stored energy unlocks future opportunities to feed energy back into the national grid and for use on-site. 

“This testing capability is another key development for Recyclus designed to create an additional potential new revenue stream by unlocking more of the value-chain in the battery circular economy,” Chairman of Technology Metals Robin Brundle says. “We are constantly exploring new avenues to expand under our circular economy strategy, and this represents a significant milestone for us in developing our capability for recycling and reuse of batteries, and our ability to harness otherwise wasted energy. Implementing these systems into our process will help to maximize the lifespan of batteries and minimize energy waste.” 

This testing capability enables Recyclus to grade batteries and access the reuse market for batteries alongside recycling. The tested battery packs will be sorted into one of three categories: the first is suitable for reuse as they are, the second group is defective and needs to be recycled and the third group is a split, with some cells being retrievable and others not. It creates an opportunity for Recyclus to send suitable batteries back into alternative, repurposed applications, depending on their condition and test results.  

With U.K. government estimating that nearly 28 million EVs could be on U.K. roads by 2035, a substantial number of battery cells are likely to reach end-of-life that is suitable for reuse in different applications representing a significant market opportunity beyond recycling.  

“Developing this function will allow us to work with manufacturers to increase the amount of carbon offset from the batteries’ production by extending their working life through repurposing into alternative applications, supporting the transition to net-zero, and supporting future and current legislative targets,” Recyclus Senior Battery Engineer Jonathan Regan says.