The company is partnering with carbon capture company LanzaTech to develop a scaled solution for recycling end-of-life tires.

Bridgestone Americas, a tire manufacturer based in Nashville, Tennessee, announced an exclusive partnership with carbon capture and transformation (CCT) company, LanzaTech NZ Inc., Skokie, Illinois, to address end-of-life tire waste. The companies say they plan to co-develop the first dedicated end-of-life tire recycling process through LanzaTech's proprietary CCT technology. 

According to the Tire Industry Project, more than 1 billion tires globally reach the end of their useful service life each year. Bridgestone and LanzaTech will work to address this by turning end-of-life tires into new materials, including sustainable synthetic rubber that does not rely on petrochemicals.   

"We are excited to join forces with LanzaTech to co-create a more sustainable pathway for end-of-life tires," says Paolo Ferrari, president and CEO of Bridgestone Americas. "The steps we take today are determining the health of our planet for future generations. We are determined to meet the moment with sustainable innovation that transforms the way tires are made and promotes end-to-end material circularity."  

Bridgestone and LanzaTech say they plan to develop a new business model that will create a postconsumer waste management strategy for end-of-life tires, while also driving increased adoption of sustainably sourced chemicals for commercial applications. Applying LanzaTech's carbon capture and gas fermentation process to end-of-life tires yields sustainably produced chemicals such as ethanol that can be converted to materials such as polyethylene terephthalate for packaging, polyester yarn and surfactants used in consumer home goods like laundry detergent.   

In addition, Bridgestone and LanzaTech will explore opportunities to co-develop proprietary microbe technology to produce more efficient pathways to produce butadiene, a key ingredient in new tire production.  

"LanzaTech and Bridgestone are working together to find solutions to some of our world's greatest challenges," says Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech. "We have already proven that we can convert unrecyclable, unsorted municipal solid waste to ethanol and then make products we use in our daily lives. With our partnership with Bridgestone, we are developing a circular pathway to use tires to make tires. This partnership exemplifies what we call a post pollution future."  

Bridgestone says it aims to achieve carbon neutrality and make tires from 100 percent renewable materials by 2050. The company is researching various solutions to support the recycling of materials from end-of-life tires and promote the replacement of nonrenewable materials such as oil, silica and virgin carbon black in new tires.   

The county is making $1.8 million available to increase recycling and waste diversion.

The King County Solid Waste Division in Washington is offering grants to local companies or organizations for recycling, reuse and waste reduction projects in the Puget Sound region. The county says it will offer between $20,000 and $300,000 per project through the pilot program.  

“In local government, we have these big goals, but we don't have all [the] resources to ensure that we reach those goals,” says Emily Coleman, the circular organics program manager of the King County Solid Waste Division. “We feel that it's important to support organizations that are looking to support us and our goals in this space and really push it forward.”  

The application process launched a few weeks ago, and those interested have until May 6 to apply. Coleman says businesses, nonprofits and local organizations are eligible for the grants.   

The county is interested in projects that increase diversion and prevent materials from ending up in the landfill. Projects could range from improving education, collection processes or supporting end markets for recycled material. The projects also should have benefits that outweigh costs and that help mitigate the impacts of climate change while benefiting the economy.  

“We're hoping that the businesses and organizations that apply are thinking about things in a holistic view,” Coleman says. “We want businesses and organizations thinking through things like environmental impacts like greenhouse gas emissions, thinking through equity considerations, thinking about scalability and the growth opportunities within these projects.”  

According to information provided by the county, more than 70 percent of the items sent to the Cedar Hills Regional Landfill could have been repurposed. Coleman says the three sources of material the county hopes to increase diversion of are plastic film, paper and organics.   

The program is part of the county’s Re+ program. The program is King County's road map for a healthy environment and economy by reinventing its system of waste management. The county says its goal is to minimize waste by keeping valuable materials in use and out of the landfill. Coleman says the county has a zero-waste of materials goal by 2030.  

“We generate about,1.8 million tons and about a million of that is recycled and composted,” Coleman says. “However, about seven to 800,000 is going to our landfill. We have a strong recycling rate, we have a strong composting system here in the region, and we're very fortunate to have that. But we think we can do better. We want to make sure that we're not just satisfied with what we've done, that we can strive toward that zero waste of materials goal.” 

The group was recognized for its Advance+ employment inclusion program now open to all certified electronics recyclers.

The Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF), Arlington, Virginia, has awarded e-Stewards, a Seattle-based organization that defines and promotes responsible electronics reuse and recycling best practices, for its Advance+ program in 2022. The foundation awarded the program a $75,000 grant to empower certified electronics recyclers to develop an inclusive workforce and provide employment to autistic and disabled workers. 

According to a news release from e-Stewards, with the grant it will provide a $5,000 scholarship to the first five recyclers to be accepted into the 2022 class as well as support to Blue Star Recyclers, Colorado Springs, Colorado; James Emmett & Co., Monticello, Indiana; and e-Stewards for joint administration of the program and production of a short promotional video. 

“As a funder, Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation defines success through collaboration,” says Kevin Webb, senior director of MEAF. “The e-Stewards' Advance+ involves a collaboration of three outstanding partners that achieve our funding goals by providing meaningful and competitive employment for young people with disabilities and a labor solution for employers.”  

E-Stewards say Advance+ is an inclusive workforce development program for certified electronics recyclers in the United States. It uses the Blue Star Recyclers employment model and is fulfilled by James Emmett & Co., a disability consulting services provider. Since its launch in 2020 with support from MEAF, seven electronics recyclers have been trained at 10 locations across the country, resulting in the permanent and competitive employment of 37 people with disabilities. 

“Our workforce of people with disabilities has great attendance and very low turnover,” says Bob Adams, vice president of Finance and Operations at Sipi Asset Recovery. “They are extremely engaged and devoted employees. Because of this, our company has committed to a new goal of increasing employment for people with disabilities from 20 percent to 50 percent of our total workforce by the end of 2023.” 

This year, e-Stewards has opened the program to all certified electronics recyclers, information technology asset disposition businesses and enterprise partners. Workforce inclusion is one of e-Stewards' primary social impact goals, the organization says. 

“While Advance+ is a way for e-Stewards to help increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities, its main purpose is to help employers access and leverage the talent available in that workforce,” says Bill Morris, social chair of e-Stewards and founder of Blue Star Recyclers. 

The association has released its ‘Short Range Outlook’ for 2022 and 2023.

The Brussels-based World Steel Association (Worldsteel) has released its “Short Range Outlook” for 2022 and 2023, which forecasts that steel demand will grow by 0.4 percent this year, reaching 1,840.2 million metric tons, while 2023 will see additional growth of 2.2 percent, reaching 1,881.4 million metric tons. However, Worldsteel notes that the war in Ukraine creates a high degree of uncertainty.

World steel demand grew by 2.7 percent in 2021 compared with 0.1 percent growth in 2020, when pandemic-related restrictions were most acutely felt.  

Máximo Vedoya, chairman of Worldsteel’s Economics Committee, says, “This ‘Short Range Outlook’ is issued in the shadow of the human and economic tragedy following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We all wish for as rapid and peaceful an end to this war as possible.”

He says recovery from the pandemic in 2021 was stronger than expected in many regions, “despite continuing supply chain issues and COVID waves.” Vedoya continues, “However, a sharper than anticipated deceleration in China led to lower global steel demand growth in 2021. For 2022 and 2023, the outlook is highly uncertain. The expectation of a continued and stable recovery from the pandemic has been shaken by the war in Ukraine and rising inflation.”

Worldsteel says the magnitude of the impact of the Ukraine war will be varied by region based on the amount of direct trade and financial exposure to Russia and Ukraine. The effects on Ukraine are immediate and devastating, the association says, while Russia also is seeing consequences in the form of sanctions. Because of Europe’s reliance on Russian energy and its geographic proximity to the conflict area, it is experiencing immediate issues related to the conflict, too. Worldsteel adds that the impact will be felt globally via higher energy and commodity prices, especially raw materials used in steel production, and continued supply chain disruptions, which troubled the global steel prior to the war. Furthermore, financial market volatility and heightened uncertainty will undermine investment.

These factors plus low growth in China have reduced growth expectations for global steel demand in 2022, Worldsteel says. Additional downside risks take the form of continued surge in virus infections in some parts of the world, especially China, and rising interest rates. The expected tightening of U.S. monetary policy will negatively affect financially vulnerable emerging economies.

The outlook for 2023 is highly uncertain, according to Worldsteel, which assumes in its forecast that the Ukraine conflict will end in 2022 but that the sanctions on Russia largely will remain.

Additionally, the geopolitical situation surrounding Ukraine poses significant long-term implications for the global steel industry, Worldsteel says, including possible readjustment in global trade flows, shifts in energy trade and its impact on energy transitions and continued reconfiguration of global supply chains.

Chinese steel demand saw a major slowdown in 2021 arising from government measures on real estate developers, Worldsteel says. Steel demand in 2022 will remain flat as the government tries to boost infrastructure investment and stabilize the real estate market. The stimuli introduced in 2022 likely will support small positive growth in steel demand in 2023, while upside potential from more substantial stimulus measures is possible if the economy faces more challenges from the external environment.

In the advanced economies, despite the sporadic waves of COVID-19 infections and supply chain constraints affecting manufacturing, steel demand recovered strongly in 2021, especially in the EU and the U.S., Worldsteel says. However, the outlook for 2022 has weakened in light of inflationary pressure, which is further reinforced by the events surrounding Ukraine. The impact of the war will be particularly pronounced in the EU because of its dependence on Russian energy and the arrival of refugees fleeing the conflict. Steel demand in the developed world is forecast to increase by 1.1 percent and 2.4 percent in 2022 and 2023, respectively, after recovering by 16.5 percent in 2021.

In many of the developing economies, excluding China, surging inflation prompted a monetary tightening cycle. After falling by 7.7 percent in 2020, steel demand in the developing world excluding China grew by 10.7 percent last year, slightly less than Worldsteel predicted in its earlier forecast. In 2022 and 2023, the emerging economies excluding China will continue to face challenges from the worsening external environment, the Russia-Ukraine war and U.S. monetary tightening, leading to low growth of 0.5 percent in 2022 and 4.5 percent in 2023, the association forecasts.

Global construction activity continued to recover from the lockdowns to record growth of 3.4 percent, despite the contraction in China in 2021. The recovery was driven by an infrastructure push as part of recovery programs in many countries. These and investments related to the energy transition likely will drive the construction sector’s growth for years to come, according to Worldsteel. However, the construction sector faces some headwinds from rising costs and interest rates.

The recovery of the global auto industry in 2021 was disappointing as the supply chain bottlenecks arrested the recovery momentum in the second half of the year. The war in Ukraine is likely to delay any return to normal of the supply chain issues, especially in Europe, Worldsteel says. Despite the slump in global auto production, the electric vehicle (EV) segment grew exponentially during the pandemic, with global sales reaching 6.6 million units in 2021, almost double those of 2020. The share of EVs in total car sales increased from 2.49 percent in 2019 to 8.57 percent in 2021.

The CGF's Coalition of Action on Plastic Waste has published an independent scientific study that it says demonstates that chemical recycling could reduce the climate impact of plastic compared with waste-to-energy incineration.

The Consumer Goods Forum's (CGF) Plastic Waste Coalition of Action has published "Chemical Recycling in a Circular Economy for Plastics," a paper that encourages the development of new plastics recycling technologies that meet six key principles for credible, safe and environmentally sound development. In support of this position paper, the coalition also has published an independent life cycle assessment (LCA) study that shows the chemical recycling of hard-to-recycle plastic could reduce the climate impact of plastic when compared with waste-to-energy incineration.

Guided by the global commitment led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and in line with the newly announced UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution, the coalition says it is committed to the growth of the circular economy, having launched its full set of Golden Design Rules for plastic packaging and developing a framework for extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs. The coalition says it also is working to encourage recycling innovation, including chemical recycling to complement the growing mechanical recycling capacity.

In the area of chemical recycling, the coalition says it has established a set of principles for the safe scaling of pyrolysis-based chemical recycling. According to the paper it has released, chemical recycling could increase packaging recycling rates, enabling recyclability targets to be met, specifically for hard-to-recycle plastics, such as postconsumer flexible film. To ensure that chemical recycling is developed and operated under “credible, safe and environmentally sound conditions,” the paper outlines what the coalition says are six key principles related to the technology’s complementarity with mechanical recycling, material traceability, process yields and environmental impact, health and safety and claims.

CGF members say they welcome feedback and engagement on this study and its broader work within the Plastic Waste Coalition of Action.

Barry Parkin, chief sustainability officer of Mars Inc. says, "Chemical recycling is a critical complement to mechanical recycling as it will allow large quantities of flexible packaging to be recycled into food-grade packaging. This study demonstrates that chemical recycling has a significantly lower carbon footprint than the current end of life of flexible packaging."

"As we continue to reduce the use of virgin plastic, new technologies such as chemical recycling can help drive up recycling rates and increase the availability of food-grade recycled materials,” Colin Kerr, packaging director, Unilever, adds. “The principles and life cycle assessment work from The Consumer Goods Forum is key to ensuring this can happen in a safe and environmentally sound way."

Llorenç Milà i Canals, head of the Life Cycle Initiative Secretariat, United Nations Environmental Programme, says, "It is crucial to consider all potential environmental impacts across the life cycle of production and consumption systems when assessing technologies such as chemical recycling of plastics. A specific challenge with relatively new technologies is including the chemical composition of discharges, emissions and wastes from facilities, along with the need for additional pollution control equipment and management; these should form part of the assessment. Life cycle assessment is the standardized tool to do just that, assuring the necessary scrutiny by experts and interested parties; the Consumer Goods Forum has initiated a very useful process to shed light on many of these aspects in this report.”

"Recognizing that reduction and reuse of packaging should be prioritized, and recognizing the limitations of the technology, the paper puts forward the industries' position on what role pyrolysis CR could play in the transition to a circular economy for plastics and what key principles and boundary conditions it should adhere to,” Sander Defruyt, lead, New Plastics Economy, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, adds.

The coalition commissioned Chicago-based Sphera to do an independent study looking at the topic of climate change impact. The study was peer-reviewed throughout the process by a panel of experts from U.N. Environmental Programme, Northwestern University and Eunomia. The study provides a life cycle impact assessment and compares conventional plastics produced from fossil fuels and incinerated at end of life with chemically recycled plastic in a circular system.

The study's findings demonstrate that chemical recycling of hard-to-recycle mixed plastic waste could reduce the climate impact of plastic when compared with waste-to-energy incineration. Specifically, the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of flexible consumer packaging made from postuse plastic through pyrolysis-based chemical recycling and recycled at end of life is 43 percent lower than plastic films manufactured from fossil fuels and disposed of through incineration at end of life.

Additional details on the findings of the LCA can be found in the Technical Report and the Non-Technical Summary.

However, some nongovernmental organizations have expressed skepticism about chemical recycling, including GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives), Berkeley, California, particularly when the technology is used to produce fuels. The organization says these technologies are “falsely marketed as circular, climate-friendly and sustainable” and present “environmental and health drawbacks” that “outweigh any supposed benefits” because they in part produce poor-quality fuels, exacerbate climate change, produce toxic air emissions and byproducts and perpetuate overproduction of plastic.

GAIA refers to chemical recycling as “an industry greenwash term used to refer to various plastic-to-fuel and plastic-to-plastic technologies,” adding, “Although these processes aim to turn plastic into liquids or gases which could be used to make new plastic, the end products are usually burned in practice. Technological variants of this process include pyrolysis, solvolysis and depolymerization. However, regardless of the label, the technology is plastic-to-fuel, aka plastic incineration, if the end products are burned.”