By mid-2023, the company says it expects to double its rPET resin capacity to 140 million pounds.

Phoenix Technologies International LLC, Bowling Green, Ohio, has announced that it will expand food-grade recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) capacity at its facility in Bowling Green with the addition of new extrusion equipment to produce pellets.

Phoenix’s purchase in 2019 by Far Eastern New Century Corp. (FENC), a Taipei City, Taiwan-based company that supplies recycled and virgin PET, has helped to make the investment possible.

Formerly Far East Textile Co. Ltd., FENC began as an underwear manufacturer, according to its website. It now manufactures PET bottles and preforms, PET shrink film, PET roll film and cut sheet and polyester fiber as well as operates a petrochemical and energy business. It has a 1.5-million-ton pure terephthalic acid (PTA) plant in Guanyin, Taiwan, and 3.1 million tons of PTA production capacity overall. FENC also produces monoethylene glycol, or MEG.

After Phoenix’s expansion is completed before mid-2023, the company says it anticipates doubling its rPET resin production capacity to 140 million pounds annually, the equivalent of processing 5 billion bottles per year. The expansion will consist of adding process technology that is known and tested throughout the industry and will allow Phoenix to support increasing customer demand immediately at startup, the company adds in a news release about the expansion.

Lori Carson, market development manager at Phoenix, says the company has been working with its supply partners to ensure it has the sourcing ready to go for the expansion. She adds, “Our parent company, Far Eastern New Century, has installations across the globe, and we will be using all of our capacity to its fullest.”

Carson says the equipment has been purchased, with installation scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2023. The company is adding 70,000 square feet to its existing campus to accommodate the expansion.

Phoenix began manufacturing rPET pellets from postconsumer flake in 1992. In 2015, the company announced that it was backward integrating into flake production to give it more control over economic and quality factors.

As North American brands increase their support of sustainable materials, Phoenix says the capacity expansion is a natural next step in its evolution.

The company says this expansion and others planned for the near term will allow it to take advantage of the synergies created under APG Polytech USA Holdings Inc., The Woodlands, Texas, FENC’s North American subsidiary, and provide the most comprehensive strategies to its customers in meeting their future sustainability targets.

APG is a partner in Corpus Christi Polymers LLC, along with Indorama Ventures Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand and Dak Americas, Charlotte, North Carolina, which purchased the partially constructed facility formerly owned by M&G Resins in Corpus Christi, Texas, to produce PTA and PET.

FENC says it has targeted carbon emissions reductions of 20 percent by 2025, 40 percent by 2030 and net zero by 2050 by enhancing energy efficiency, developing renewable energy and using its carbon capture utilization and storage technology.

The M&J next-generation preshredder draws on the proud traditions of the M&J PreShred 4000S, M&J Recycling's undisputed flagship in preshredding.

The evolution at M&J continues, and leading the charge is the new M&J P250.  It now encompasses a modular design and decreased energy consumption, resetting the industry benchmark and building on its robustness.

The brand-new M&J P250 preshredder points directly into the future. It is stronger than ever, it uses less energy and then it is modular, which has great advantages.

The M&J next-generation preshredder draws on the proud traditions of the M&J PreShred 4000S, M&J Recycling's undisputed flagship in preshredding. Since its introduction, the M&J PreShred 4000S has long established itself as the industry leader in versatility and build quality.  The P250 proudly touted as the Next Generation M&J preshredder, builds on the unique DNA of the 4000S, with enhancements that surely will reset industry benchmarks.

With the goal of continuously improving and innovating, engineering has created a modular design driven by the need to simplify maintenance and reduce operating costs.

All of the parts on the M&J P250 can be efficiently removed and replaced as needed.  The obvious benefit of this new modular design is the advantage that operators only replace parts that actually are worn, ensuring high uptime in production and large savings on the operating budget because fewer hours and spare parts are spent on maintenance and service. The modular design also makes service work on the machine safer and easier to handle.

The M&J P250 also comes with M&J Recycling's newly developed E-drive solution, which is an obvious choice for many waste types. It offers the same performance as the traditional hydraulicly driven 4000S while reducing power consumption by 50 percent.

“Our main focus has been on creating a preshredder that makes maintenance super efficient, so the customer saves money on the operating budget and minimizes the costly downtime,” M&J Recycling CEO Uffe Hansen says. “The next generation preshredder can be quickly disassembled and reassembled, and you can replace only the parts that are really worn. In addition, it performs superbly on every conceivable parameter, as you would expect from an M&J shredder."

M&J Recycling says it is among the leading global green-tech companies within the waste and recycling industry and its waste shredders help companies around the world contribute to a greener future by utilizing the full potential of the planet’s resources. 

As a global green-tech company, M&J Recycling is competitive and driven by results, and its global team is given the freedom, flexibility and support to reach their full potential.

For more information, click here.

M&J shredders guarantee at least 90 percent output below 50 millimeters and can match all capacity requirements up to 23 tons per hour.

The M&J F-Series fine shredder family includes three products that encompass nearly all industry needs. The new fine shredders have set a standard to produce alternative fuels, such as refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and solid recovered fuel (SRF).

These shredders guarantee at least 90 percent output below 50 millimeters and can match all capacity requirements up to 23 tons per hour. Additionally, the new F-Series promises advanced cutting technology that leaves virtually no fine particles. The shredders also boast minimal heat generation, which can protect facilities from time-wasting plastic melting.

In addition, M&J’s guarantee of consistently homogeneous, quality RDF/SRF output, M&J offers top-of-the-line service throughout the ownership of an F-Series or any one of our shredders. Maintenance is made quick, easy and reliable for all M&J products.

See what M&J shredders can be used to process.

M&J Recycling shredders are used in recycling and waste processing applications to reduce various waste materials that differ in dimensions, sort, weight and composition to uniform shape and size for more efficient processing, storing and transportation. M&J Recycling shredders are available in stationary and mobile versions.

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JSW mill in eastern Ohio reportedly experienced molten steel-related fire.

A scrap-fed electric arc furnace (EAF) mill in Mingo Junction, Ohio, near the West Virginia border, experienced a fire this week reportedly caused when “250 tons of molten steel burnt through a ladle.”

That description of the cause comes from a report by WTRF-TV, based in Wheeling, West Virginia.

The TV station says that by late in the day Wednesday, Aug. 31, the chief of the Mingo Junction Fire Department had told it the fire was under control, and crews were clearing the scene.

The chief nonetheless described it as “a large fire,” and indicated the molten steel that broke out from its ladle “caught the floor above it on fire.”

The same report also says “JSW hydrants on scene were not working,” so water tanker trucks had to be called in. Those hydrants were not city hydrants but may have belonged to the property owner, according to WTRF.

The Mingo Junction mill was built nearly two decades ago by the now defunct Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp. Current India-based owner JSW Steel says in the period from April to June 2022, JSW Steel USA Ohio Inc. produced more than 1.7 million metric tons of steel slabs in Mingo Junction, according to India-based publication The Hindu. JSW converted about 1 million metric tons of that into hot rolled coil (HRC) steel.

The Ohio-based subsidiary has been profitable for the India-based firm, The Hindu reports, recording earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $1.14 million in its most recent financial quarter.