Johan van Baarle will be responsible for the division’s paper sales across the two countries, managing 5 million tons of paper annually.

DS Smith, London, has announced the appointment of Johan van Baarle as sales director of its Paper Division, reporting to Niels Flierman, managing director for Paper. 

Van Baarle joins DS Smith from Cargill, the global food, agricultural, finance and industrial products provider, where he has worked since 2003. During his time at Cargill, Van Baarle held a series of senior customer-focused and sales manager roles. Most recently, he was sales director of global accounts in Cargill’s Cocoa & Chocolate division based in the Netherlands.

Van Baarle will be tasked with further growing DS Smith’s paper sales across Europe and the U.S. and managing the service portfolio to customers.

“I am excited to contribute to DS Smith’s purpose to redefine packaging for a changing world. I look forward to sharing my experience with the global teams to focus on continued growth by understanding and meeting the demands of our customers. These demands are shifting towards lighter but stronger paper that is both innovative and sustainable in production and product,” Van Baarle says.

“I welcome Johan to the team and look forward to him bringing some of his extensive experience to the role," Flierman says. "He joins at an exciting time as DS Smith, along with the whole paper packaging sector, has an opportunity to play a huge role in replacing hard-to-recycle and single-use plastics. Making sure we can provide the right packaging papers to our customers is a key part of ensuring we realize that opportunity."

List includes nearly 200,000 metric tons of scrap paper but very little metal.

The Brussels-based Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) has published the list of the 11th batch of 2020 scrap import quotas issued by the Solid Waste & Chemicals Management Centre of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) of the People’s Republic of China.

The list, published Aug. 18, does not include any ferrous scrap and only 2,610 metric tons of aluminum scrap. Red metal scrap earned a little more leeway, with quotas for 14,530 metric tons permitted, while recovered fiber was the volume leader with nearly 200,000 tons of inbound scrap paper permitted.

The second half of 2020 started out promising in terms of increased import volumes. In the MEE’s ninth batch of quotas, issued in early July, more than 200,000 metric tons of aluminum scrap and some 175,000 metric tons of coppers scrap were allowed in, along with more than 1.1 million metric tons of scrap paper and board.

However, the 10th batch, issued in late July, showed a retreat to just 1,110 metric tons of aluminum scrap, about 10,000 metric tons of copper scrap, less than 4,000 metric tons of ferrous scrap and 56,650 metric tons of paper scrap permitted to enter China.

The inclusion of copper as the highest volume material in the 11th  batch could be a nod toward the need for that metal in China. Statistics indicate the lack of red metal scrap imports there has led to widespread substitution of imported copper cathode and red metal ingots.

The quota system is on track to be phased out in 2021, with China’s government either prohibiting many types of scrap imports or reclassifying some as “resources,” lifting them out of their current status as a “waste.”

Nonferrous scrap exporters have received some information on the reclassification process in that sector, though procedures are lagging the original timetable. Ferrous scrap exporters, meanwhile, are seeking to gain the reclassification of some grades in that sector.

Paper and board manufacturers in China, who invested in high-volume mills based on the ability to convert imported scrap paper into new products, have acknowledged that the nation’s shift away from scrap imports will likely present challenges.

The newest list of import quotes is available on the BIR website on this web page.

AISI reports 61.5 percent mill operating rate for week ending Aug. 15.

The Washington-based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) says mills in the United States produced nearly 1.38 million tons of steel in the week ending Aug. 15. The output represents a 1.7 percent increase from the previous week, when less than 1.36 million tons of steel were produced.

The mill capability utilization rate, or capacity rate, calculated by AISI was 61.5 percent in the most recent week, representing more steady improvement compared with the 2020 weekly low of just 51.1 percent recorded the week ending May 2.

This year’s steel production figures in the U.S. continue to show the negative effects of the COVID-19 virus and subsequent restrictions. The 1.38 million tons of weekly output the week ending Aug. 15 was down 25.2 percent from the comparable mid-August week of 2019, when some 1.84 million tons of steel were produced.

Year-to-date production through Aug. 15 stands at 48.8 million tons, says AISI, with an average capability utilization rate of 65.9 percent. The output figure is down 20.3 percent from the 61.2 million tons produced in the same time frame in 2019, when the average mill capacity rate was 80.7 percent.

A regional 2020 breakdown provided by AISI shows the week ending Aug. 15 mills in the association’s Southern region produced 548,000 tons of steel, followed by 466,000 tons of output in the Great Lakes region. Mills in the AISI North East region produced 133,000 tons of steel while those in the Western region made 71,000 tons.

An AISI statistical summary of steel shipped in the first half of 2020 reports shipments of 41.2 million tons, representing a 14.5 percent decrease from the 48.2 million tons shipped in the first half of 2019.

Polish paper recycling firm has relied on a series of extrusion balers made by HSM to prepare its materials.

Extrusion (channel) balers supplied by Frickingen, Germany-based HSM GmbH + Co. KG have received an endorsement from Polish recycling company P.U.H. Kondzłomex, where they have been on the job for more than two decades.

The family company P.U.H. Kondzłomex, owned by Szymon Woźny, has been collecting and recycling scrap paper and other materials for more than 20 years and has been using HSM balers “right from the start,” according to the equipment maker.

An HSM extrusion baler installed in Szydłowo, Poland, in 2013 was no longer able to cope with the increasing throughput at P.U.H. Kondzłomex, so after conducting research the firm purchased an HSM VK 6015 model.

The Polish recycling company first came into contact with HSM when it began operating in 1995 when it purchased a second-hand HSM vertical baler. As the company grew, it needed to supplement the vertical baler with a machine with higher throughput.

P.U.H. Kondzłomex turned to HSM Polska, the Polish subsidiary of HSM, and purchased a pre-owned automated extrusion baler, which it put into operation in 2009. That machine was replaced by a new HSM VK 4212 model in 2013. 

That machine ran smoothly, as did the previous HSM models, but its throughput capacity was no longer enough to cope with the increasing amount of material flowing into the P.U.H. Kondzłomex plant, according to HSM.

The Polish paper recycling firm opted to seek a new baler with accompanying conveyors that could be “directly fitted with a front loader,” says HSM. This configuration reduces time spent feeding material and freed up employees to pre-sort some material manually. “If the bales are not properly sorted, no one will buy them from you,” remarks Woźny.

As well as buying back the existing baler, HSM said it would dismantle the old machine and install the new one. HSM also supplied a horizontal bale strapping system, “which is much more suitable for shredded paper than the vertical strapping used by most manufacturers,” says the firm.

The HSM VK 6015 model delivered has a compression force of 720 kilonewtons and throughput capacity of up to 9 tons per hour, says HSM. The new baler was able to fit into P.U.H. Kondzłomex’s existing space, with only the bale chute ending up in front of the plant. The baler’s high degree of compression was critical for the Polish firm because its highest volume material– shredded paper–requires significant force to be converted into bales of up to 470 kilograms (1,035 pounds).

Production scrap from a nearby printing plant, as well as small quantities of old corrugated containers (OCC) and foil, are now processed in the HSM baler in a single-shift operation, five days a week.

“The collaboration and commitment of the sales staff at HSM and its individual approach to problems is truly outstanding,” says Woźny. “HSM tries to work with customers to find an individual solution, and this has given us renewed and sustained confidence in its overall approach.”

In addition to the new HSM VK 6015 extrusion baler, P.U.H. Kondzłomex also uses two vertical balers from HSM, so smaller quantities of other materials can be processed at the same time if the extrusion baler is being used for a different material.

Zachary Taylor will serve as the alliance’s new director, with goals to promote sustainability and recycling initiatives.

The American Recyclable Plastic Bag Alliance (ARPBA), Washington, has appointed Zachary Taylor as its new director. Taylor is a seasoned public affairs professional with experience navigating business and politics.

In the new position, Taylor will be responsible for promoting industry sustainability and recycling initiatives while defending against economically and environmentally unsound plastic bag bans and taxes. According to a news release from ARPBA, he will work closely with association and industry leaders to protect the interests of small businesses and American-made plastic manufacturers. 

“ARPBA is thrilled to have Zack in this role, where his experience developing strategic and effective public affairs campaigns will take the group to the next level at a critical time for our members and our nation,” says ARPBA Chairman Gary Alstott. “With his background in public policy and skill establishing strong partnerships with key stakeholders, he is well suited to deliver on key sustainability and policy goals for ARPBA members and raise the profile of our industry.”

Taylor, who began his new role Aug. 3, replaces Matt Seaholm, who was recently announced as vice president of government affairs at the Plastics Industry Association (Plastics), Washington.

Prior to joining ARPBA, Taylor worked at RunSwitch PR, a large public relations firm in Kentucky, where he served as a senior advisor to a variety of clients and led public affairs campaigns at the local, state and national levels. Prior to that, he held roles at both the Global Business Alliance (formerly the Organization for International Investment) and the Retail Industry Leaders Association.

“I am thrilled to join the ARPBA team and look forward to driving key sustainability initiatives while promoting plastic bags as the most environmentally friendly option at the checkout counter,” Taylor says. “As we all navigate the fallout of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it is paramount that all sides come together on solutions that we can all agree on, such as improving recycling infrastructure and protecting American-made products.”