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Chipping In... Corporate commitment to comprehensive recycling and sustainability strategies gain momentum. By ava caridad Editor Tto Recycling in the United States: An Industry Analysis for According to the company, Crown is the only metal packagingexempting the company from U.S. Dept. of Transportation(DOT) regulations on the transportation of pressurized products.he recycling industry in the U.S. continues to emerge as asector of innovation and vast market potential. According the Missouri Market Development Program, a 2011 report from supplier to have received this exemption, which is based on The Environmental Improvement & Energy Resources Authority technology advances in lightweighting and double seaming. It (EIERA), the current impetus for recycling is driven almost as helps the company’s customers enhance their own sustainability much by its economic benefits as it is desire for the protection of platforms thanks to overall resource reduction and weight the world’s natural environment. savings, translating to decreased fuel costs during transportation. Throughout the 1990s, recycling was largely considered a The DOT standard, established in the 1960s and part of Title disjointed process— one that would feed a system that often 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, specifies that metal yielded an end product of lesser quality and higher price. To used in aerosol cans needs to be a certain thickness for safe encourage industry stability, state recycling offices and market transportation. Since the regulation was established, several development programs now act as conduits of information and advances had been made in the manufacturing of aerosols, assistance for the private sector. These programs, often enacted including increased welding quality, double seaming technology through state legislation, vary in their approach and ability and down-gauging, which significantly decreased container to strike the appropriate balance of incentives, outreach and weight without sacrificing performance. Crown has also secured collaboration. One barrier to improved market development a similar exemption from Transport Canada, eliminating the is the flow of information between state agencies and private need to sort cans based on destination prior to shipping to sector entities such as Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) and customers. processors. Ball Corp.’s new metal technology enables the use of recycled “Understandably, private sector data is often proprietary, aluminum in the manufacture of extruded aluminum packaging and therefore not readily available to entities outside the for aerosols, as opposed to virgin aluminum “slugs.” The organization,” said EIERA. resulting new metal alloy exhibits increased strength and allows The economic benefits of recycling versus landfill disposal “lightweighting” of the container without affecting package seem negligible at the front end of the supply chain, but as integrity. The technology will allow the company to lightweight materials flow further downstream, the value of the commodity its extruded aluminum aerosol packaging by as much as 10%, increases, as do the wages and skilled labor required to render with further lightweighting expected in the future. Ball will use the commodity into an end product. The emergence of the Zero aluminum recycled from its global beverage can operations to Waste concept (that all waste retains an inherent, marketable produce the company’s new slugs. Ball will begin producing value that can be used as an input for something else) is evidence cans made with ReAl slugs initially in Europe, and has applied that recycling has the potential to be a wholly sustainable loop, for patents on its ReAl packaging (see p. 33). according to EIERA. In 2008, DuPont building innovations sent 81 million pounds of manufacturing by-products to a landfill. The goal was to have Supplier contribution zero landfill globally by 2012. By not just reducing landfill, but As corporations begin seeing the marketing benefits and eliminating it, the business’s work to reduce its environmental economic value in waste reduction and recycling, public-private footprint creates a new industry standard for environmental partnerships are becoming more commonplace. stewardship. The goal was not only to reduce DuPont’s For example, CROWN Aerosol Packaging North America, a environmental footprint, but to generate cash and avoid costs, business unit of Crown Holdings, Inc. was issued a special permit liberate space. 18 Spray December 2012


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