Coombs most recently served from 2017 through 2020 as executive vice president of global manufacturing, projects and refining for LyondellBasell Industries.

PureCycle Technologies Inc., Orlando, Florida, has appointed Daniel M. Coombs to its board of directors. Coombs qualifies as an "independent" director under NASDAQ independence standards.   

According to a news release, Coombs previously worked for LyondellBasell Industries, a multinational plastics, chemicals and refining company, and brings more than 40 years of petrochemicals, plastics and refining experience to PureCycle's board.   

"Dan's deep industry and business experience are exceptional,” Mike Otworth, chairperson of the board of directors and CEO PureCycle. “We are honored to add Dan to our growing bench of experts on our board of directors. His experience will serve PureCycle well as we work toward our goal of completing our first commercial facility in Ironton, Ohio by the end of this year."   

PureCycle says Coombs most recently served from 2017 through 2020 as executive vice president of global manufacturing, projects and refining for LyondellBasell Industries. Coombs previously served as executive vice president for LyondellBasell's global business lines: olefins and polyolefins from 2016 to 2017, intermediates and derivatives from 2015 to 2016 and technology from 2015 to 2019.  

Coombs previously spent 37 years at Chevron Phillips Chemical Company and Phillips Petroleum, serving as senior vice president of global manufacturing from 2013 to 2015, specialties, aromatics and styrenics from 2012 to 2013, and deputy general manager, Qatar Chemical Company.   

Coombs earned his Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from The Ohio State University, a Master of Science from the University of Tulsa and a Master of Business Administration from Texas A&M University. Coombs is an American Institute of Chemical Engineers Foundation trustee and chairperson for the corporate council. Additionally, Coombs is a registered professional engineer.  

"I am thrilled to join PureCycle's Board of Directors and look forward to working collaboratively during this transformative time,” Coombs says. “I'm eager to be a part of this innovative team that has the opportunity to disrupt the recycled plastic industry and change the game when it comes to plastic waste." 

It’s up to recyclers and traders to help positively portray the industry, BIR president says.

The president of the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR), in a general assembly address at the BIR’s World Recycling Convention in late May in Barcelona, asked fellow members to “challenge misconceptions about what we do” to help clarify the resource and emissions savings achieved by recycling.

“Over the years, we have allowed stereotypical views of the industry to prevail and have sold ourselves short in terms of our importance,” BIR President Tom Bird said at the event. “We as an industry, now more than ever, need to convey to the world the essential role we play in protecting the planet from climate change and the environmental damage caused by the extraction of primary raw materials.”

Bird added, “We must not sleepwalk into ever more restrictive legislation. Global free trade in recycled raw materials is essential for a truly global circular economy.”

Earlier, Bird had pointed to the potentially “disastrous” consequences of proposals for a significantly stricter EU Waste Shipment Regulation, which he said would directly affect not only Europe’s exporters but also importing businesses around the world. “This is not just a European problem, it’s happening in other parts of the world,” he said.

Bird continued, “I would urge you all to become involved in this debate, to promote the truth about our industry’s exceptional skills and to challenge misconceptions about what we do. Our unity of purpose and of voice remain crucial if we are to win through.”

Reviewing market developments, Bird said that 2021 had brought “strong trading conditions throughout the year as the world tried to return to some kind of normality”. Unfortunately, he added, that measure of normality had proved to be “short-lived,” primarily because of the negative economic and political effects caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to BIR Treasurer Andy Wahl of Atlanta-based TAV Holdings Inc., global uncertainties had played their part in persuading the world recycling organization to adopt a “prudent and conservative” budget for 2022, with a projected deficit slightly greater than that recorded for 2021.

The continued support of members and the diligence of the BIR secretariat had ensured that expenditure was kept under control and that membership numbers were maintained, said Wahl. On a related note, the General Assembly in Barcelona saw the formal ratification of 88 new member companies or national associations to have joined the BIR since June of last year. Bird described that figure as “absolutely fantastic.”

General Assembly approval also was received for the BIR’s financial statement for 2021 and for its budget proposal for 2022, as well as for an increase in membership dues for fiscal year 2023. It will be the first dues increase to be implemented since 2015.

Wahl said he anticipated a more positive outlook by the end of the current year, fueled in part by what he called excellent attendance figures for the Barcelona Convention: exactly 1,300 participants drawn from more than 600 companies and more than 60 countries.

During the General Assembly, a few moments’ silence was observed to mark the recent deaths of former BIR President Heinz de Fries and Ferrous Division board member Frank Heukeshoven. Both would be greatly missed, Bird said.

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

LME executive says rebuilding trust is exchange’s nickel market priority for the near future.

Buying and selling stainless steel scrap has required extra patience in the first half of this year, according to members of Stainless Steel & Special Alloys Committee of the Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR). That committee met in late May in Barcelona at the BIR World Recycling Convention.

This year’s extraordinary nickel pricing developments on the London Metal Exchange (LME) added to an already imposing list of challenges facing the stainless steel sector, committee members said.

Those challenges have included the Ukraine conflict and associated sanctions on Russian nickel exports, higher energy prices and their impact on production costs, rising inflation, lowered economic growth projections, major supply chain disruption and labor shortages. This confluence of events could be described as “a perfect storm," said Rosie Hill of United Kingdom-based Ireland Alloys in her market report to the committee.

Hill said the suspension of LME nickel trading between March 8 and March 16 “caused a loss of confidence in the LME’s ability to provide transparency and liquidity—this at a time of rising geopolitical risks.” Traders had been left “understandably upset” by the inability to price metal during this period, she added.

Robin Martin, LME head of market development, said the suspension followed a price spike in Asia that was regarded by the LME as “disorderly market trading” and “disconnected from any observed fundamentals.” He said the “controversial” decision had provoked “huge frustration,” adding that the LME was “under no illusion [but] that we have a lot of work to do to rebuild trust in the market”.

LME nickel volumes were down 15 percent to 20 percent on the corresponding period last year, thus indicating that users were “nervous of recommitting to the market,” Martin said. As part of the process of rebuilding confidence, reviews into these events were being conducted internally as well as by regulators and independent reviewers, he added.

Measures already introduced included the indefinite implementation of limits on price movements, initially pegged at 15 percent. Martin also called on delegates to work with the LME to make the market “more transparent and more resilient”.

During a discussion also involving BIR Stainless Steel & Special Alloys Committee Chair Joost Van Kleef of Netherlands-based Oryx Stainless and Omar Al Sharif of Sharif Metals in the United Arab Emirates, Uwe Dierkes of Siegfried Jacob Metallwerke GmbH & Co. KG of Germany underlined the impact of the suspension in trading, noting that many companies had been forced to pay a “huge” amount in margin calls.

Also, as part of her stainless steel market summary, Hill said safeguards and anti-dumping measures had failed to prevent duty-free Asian product imports from filling the European market at lower prices, prompting mills to seek a reduction in what they paid for their scrap. “The seasonal slowdown will put stainless pricing under further pressure,” she said.

In Asia itself, scrap demand in China had been slow, partly as a result of COVID-19-related lockdowns, while many mills in India were suffering from weak order books, said committee members.

On a more positive note, demand for superalloys had been improving in the aerospace sector while the industrial gas turbine market remained healthy, according to traders.

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

Sorting technology firm says its systems can help meet ambitious landfill diversion targets.

Altshausen, Germany-based sorting equipment provider Stadler Anlagenbau GmbH says boosting the recycling rate for construction and demolition (C&D) provides an opportunity for the company to work with customers and for wider society to meet circular economy goals.

Stadler calls the construction industry “by far the biggest generator of waste in the European Union – about 870 million tons in 2017 – which accounts for 30 percent to 40 percent of the total waste generation in industrialized countries.”

Although recycling rates in EU nations may vary, Stadler states, “In all cases most of the recovered materials are downcycled – mainly used for backfilling in road construction, building foundations or embankments – or sent to landfill.”

Commenting on upgrading the materials, Juan Carlos Hernández Parrodi, a senior project manager at Stadler, says, “This represents a huge untapped potential. Typically, [C&D material] is made up of concrete, wood, metals, glass, masonry rubble, stones, soil, sand, gypsum, plasterboard, asphalt, plastics, insulation, paper, cardboard and salvaged building components. There is very little that can’t be recycled – the recycling potential of this [material] can be higher than 90 percent.”

He continues, “Some previous studies have pointed out that, if appropriately processed to remove moisture and impurities, recovered aggregates can even have advantages over raw materials in some cases, such as higher compressive strength and a wider range of applications in the construction industry.”

C&D recycling awareness among governments, environmental organizations, educational institutions and the general public is growing, according to Stadler. “This evolution is accelerating,” Hernández Parrodi says. “Legislation regulating the amounts of [C&D material] that can be disposed of in landfill is increasingly restrictive and aims to promote the recovery of secondary materials and recycling. At the same time, new regulations are setting high standards for recycled construction materials, encouraging a shift from downcycling to recycling and upcycling. All these factors are driving a fast growth in the demand for technology innovation.”

Stadler says it is able to bring its experience in the design of advanced municipal solid waste (MSW) sorting plants to the construction sector, developing tailored solutions to match the individual situations: “The consideration of all the specific factors, together with our know-how, enables us to provide effective, efficient and high-quality sorting facilities,” says Hernández Parrodi.

The company says its systems are conceived to process large amounts of mixtures of diverse materials in very challenging conditions, such as the presence of fines and humidity, as well as heavy and bulky objects. Stadler says it has successfully applied its sorting know-how in a number of C&D projects – the most recent ones for Sogetri in Switzerland and Remeo Oy in Finland.

The latter facility combines a mixed C&D sorting plant capable of processing 30 tons per hour and a commercial and industrial materials plant with 15 tons per hour capacity. It also features artificial intelligence (AI) technology from Finland-based ZenRobotics. Mauri Lielahti of Remeo says he was impressed with Stadler’s tailored approach to the project, commenting, “We appreciated Stadler’s capability to be innovative, their willingness to seek new solutions and that they were ready to listen to the customer’s needs.”

Stadler sorting plants can produce a range of end products, including sand, gravel, metal, wood and others. Recovered concrete can be used to produce recycled concrete. “This means that with recovery not only is it possible to close the loop in material life cycles and move towards a circular economy, but it also enables upcycling, consequently expanding the applications and increasing the added value of recovered materials,” concludes Hernández Parrodi.

Speakers at the Bureau of International Recycling Tyres & Rubber Committee discuss technology advances and recycled-content demand.

Industry experts at the most recent Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) Tyres & Rubber Committee meeting in late May suggested tires and rubber have rapidly developed into "one of the most dynamic segments of the recycling industry after having been previously viewed as the "poor relation," and Max Craipeau of Hong Kong-based Greencore Resources Ltd. said the sector is gaining "unprecedented traction" as the result of what he calls numerous emerging possibilities for breathing new life into tires and other rubber products.

According to Craipeau, current estimated demand in Europe for recycled rubber of 200,000 metric tons annually is expected to increase fivefold over the next 25 years. Sonia Megert, chief operating officer of Swiss sustainable technology developer Tyre Recycling Solutions SA, added projections of a compound annual growth rate of more than 10 percent for the global recycled rubber market from 2020 to 2028. 

Megert, participating in the meeting as a guest speaker, said recycled content in tires still is "very limited," but noted that new technologies have the potential to significantly increase proportions and added that 10 percent to 15 percent recycled content is achievable in tire treads, compared with the current 5-percent maximum.

According to Megert, Tyre Recycling Solutions SA had formed a "successful partnership" with Germany synthetic rubber manufacturer Synthos based around its water pulse jet system for pulverizing tire tread into a fine powder of what she called "very stable composition" for use in tires and other vehicle applications. Synthos Global Key Account Manager Christian Lemke said the major attractions of this solution are product consistency, level of certification and global scalability, with the possibility of establishing capacity where the demand exists.

Many investors and high-profile investors are now "stepping into the game" of tire and rubber recycling because of perceived technological readiness of high-volume solutions for providing sustainably produced raw materials, according to Robert Weibold, managing director of German tire recycling and pyrolysis consultant firm Robert Weibold GmbH. He also said the economics of recycling processes had been altered because customers now are prepared to pay significantly more for sustainably produced tire.

Martin von Wolfersdorff, a rubber recycling and recovered carbon black (RCB) expert with Germany-based Wolfersdorff Consulting, who co-moderated the session with Craipeau, described this process as a "change from a push to a pull," explaining that companies previously had struggled to push recycled products into a competitive marketplace, whereas now demand favors such products because end customers want to boost sustainability credentials.

When asked how manufacturers can evaluate the options for incorporating recycled content, such as RCB, devulcanized rubber and micronized rubber powder, von Wolfersdorff said tire producers are looking for what he calls the "smart combination" of all the materials based on considerations of quality consistency, supply-chain length, availability and price.

The BIR convention was held May 22-25 in Barcelona.