Page 77 - Plastics News May 2024

IN THE NEWS

all trend. wards mixed paper, Miller said, but the
Three projects by a company called Ce- mix primarily depends on orders from
ladon Development Corporation were customers. The mill has flexibility to
announced in 2019, 2021 and 2022, in modify that mixture.
Savannah, Georgia; Chesapeake, Vir- The input paper is processed by pulp-
ginia; and Tampa, Florida. Local media ing equipment supplied by Kadant
reports indicate the Georgia and Vir- Black Clawson, a major equipment
ginia facilities came online. Resource manufacturer for paper mills. This
Recycling was unable to reach com- process removes impurities and mixes
pany leaders to learn about the cur- the fiber into a consistent pulp. Then,
rent scope of operations or pulp export in a step that’s unusual for pulp mills,
volumes. the pulp is put into an industrial dryer.
Drying is necessary to prepare the
One highly-watched project is Total
Fiber Recovery, also located in Ches- pulp for the multi-week shipping voy-
apeake, Virginia. It’s a joint-venture age overseas, because wet pulp would
between equipment supplier Bulk degrade during that time frame.
Handling Systems and recovered com- After the pulp is dried, it is conveyed into
modities broker Cellmark. First an- a baler, which produces 1,100-pound cause of its strength, which is due to
nounced in 2020, the mill has been in dried pulp bales. It’s a solid bale, Miller U.S. fiber products typically including
the process of starting up since last said, but the company has been wrap- higher levels of virgin content. One ef-
October. ping the bales – using OCC-based lin- fect of China’s recovered paper import
In an April 30 interview, BHS CEO erboard material – because the bales ban was to take away a source of re-
covered paper with higher virgin con-
Steve Miller said the mill is currently have a tendency to slough off some of tent, and buying bales of recycled pulp
operating at about 50% of its projected their outer material otherwise. is one way for Chinese paper compa-
capacity. At full capacity, it expects to The buyer can feed the pulp into their nies to add in some of that structural
bring in about 800 short tons per day process alongside raw recovered fiber integrity.
of mixed paper and OCC, and to pro- or on its own as the standalone feed-
duce about 660 short tons of recycled stock. Miller noted U.S. recovered fiber Source – Resource Recycling
pulp per day. – and the resulting pulp – remains at-
tractive to overseas buyers in part be-
The mill’s input is heavily weighted to-

Analyst lays out cyclic pattern of recycled resin markets

long runup in recycled natural tics Recycling Conference in Grape- time, noting that recycled material
HDPE prices came to an end vine, Texas in March. She spoke along- historically was used as a cheaper al-
last summer, when prices side Andrea Bassetti, recycled plastics ternative to virgin or wide-spec resin.
plummeted to levels not seen senior analyst at ICIS, who presented “Wide-spec” refers to virgin material
since 2019. A market analyst with ICIS on chemical recycling markets. The that does not meet specifications for
recently explained how this has be- session was moderated by Dan Holt- prime plastic and is sold as a cheaper
come a trend in the plastics recycling meyer, managing editor of Resource feedstock.
market – and how the cycle is begin- Recycling, Inc. Friedman said post-industrial or
ning again. mixed-color recycled resin pricing
HDPE example shows recycled
Emily Friedman, recycled plastics still battles with wide-spec and virgin,
senior editor at ICIS, spoke about the premium ceiling but that the pricing dynamic for other
market trend during “Insight From the Friedman gave a rundown of how re- grades is changing, in part because of
Analysts,” a session at the 2024 Plas- cycled resin pricing has evolved over brand owner demand. These materials,

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