Month: November 2021

If the Royal Mint’s plans are successful, it could soon turn Apples and Androids and Dells into sovereigns and Britannias and even circulating coinage.  The Royal Mint on Oct. 20 announced that it signed a partnership with Excir, a Canadian-based technology startup, to recycle precious metals (and eventually base metals) from electronic waste.  The pioneering technology allows the Royal Mint to recover gold and other precious metals from discarded electronic devices such as mobile phones and laptops.  The Royal Mint said the partnership would allow it to bring a “world first” technology to the United Kingdom.

It was the first time executives of the top oil majors – ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, BP America and Chevron – and the heads of the American Petroleum Institute (API) and Chamber of Commerce answered questions about climate change in Congress under oath. Democratic Representative Ro Khanna said at the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing that oil companies have started to improve their talking points around climate change.

Leaders of the Group of 20 rich countries will recognise this weekend that urgent steps must be taken to keep in reach the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters.  “We commit to tackle the existential challenge of climate change,” said the draft of the communique to be issued at the Rome summit, seen as a key stepping stone ahead of a broader United Nations climate summit next week in Scotland.  The leaders will say they recognise that the impacts of climate change if warming can be held at 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels are “much lower” than at 2 degrees and that “immediate action must be taken to keep 1.5 within reach.”

As HPE closes out the 2021 fiscal year, it expects supply chain challenges to remain an issue for at least another six months, the company said Thursday.  “We continue to navigate the industry-wide supply chain challenges that have been worsening lately,” CFO Tarek Robbiati said during the company’s Securities Analyst Meeting. “With materials in short supply and logistic costs rising, we expect the supply chain issues will likely take well into the second half of the next calendar year to begin abating.”  At the same time, the company expects to end the fiscal year with even higher backlogs than it did at the beginning of Q4.

The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Inc. (CASIS), manager of the ISS National Lab, today announced a sustainability challenge in partnership with leading global prestige beauty brand Estée Lauder. The ISS National Lab Sustainability Challenge: Beyond Plastics aims to utilize the orbiting laboratory to advance sustainability research that addresses the plastics dilemma. The Sustainability Challenge is an open solicitation for U.S. entities to propose flight projects that leverage the space station to tackle plastics waste and enable scientific or technological advancements that improve Earth’s environment. Building on the brand’s long-term sustainability goals, Estée Lauder intends to provide funding to support one or more flight projects awarded through this Sustainability Challenge.

Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. has once again been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its efforts to reduce emissions and operate sustainably. The agency named Old Dominion a recipient of its 2021 SmartWay® Excellence Award, marking the seventh consecutive year the less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier has earned the honor. Old Dominion accepted the award during a virtual ceremony on October 27.

Cracked phone screens could become a thing of the past thanks to breakthrough research conducted at The University of Queensland. The global team of researchers, led by UQ’s Dr Jingwei Hou, Professor Lianzhou Wang and Professor Vicki Chen, have unlocked the technology to produce next-generation composite glass for lighting LEDs and smartphone, television and computer screens (Science, “Liquid-phase sintering of lead halide perovskites and metal-organic framework glasses”).

Sustainable Development has three interconnected pillars: environmental, economic, and social. The environmental pillar is related to ecosystem protection, conservation of natural resources, and minimizing environmental damage. The economic pillar is related to the development of profitable solutions and enabling growth. The social pillar is related to human rights, equity, and equal opportunity for people of all genders, races, ethnicities, religions, and nations of origin.  Each pillar is fundamental in creating a more sustainable future, however, in recycling, most of the discussion around program improvement remains in the environmental and economic sectors, not the social. 

In an internal email to employees, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that development of the Raptor rocket engine that will power the Super Heavy/Starship launch system is in “crisis,” adding the company risks bankruptcy if the company can’t turn the situation around, according to media reports.
The problems pose a risk not only to SpaceX and its multi-billion dollar Starlink satellite broadband program, but to Musk’s plans to colonize Mars and NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon. The U.S. space agency has awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to develop a lunar lander based on the Starship vehicle.

Now in its fifth year, the Re|focus Sustainability & Recycling Summit has become an essential, not-to-be-missed event for thought leaders in the plastics industry. Produced by the Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS), Re|focus is a solutions-driven event that equips attendees with the resources and connections they need to meaningfully advance sustainability throughout their organization.
Our industry is turning a corner, moving from one that aspires to sustainability to one that puts our commitment to recycling and reusing into action. Re|focus will continue to challenge brand owners, processors, engineers, product developers, and the entire supply chain to refocus on product design, technology, and manufacturing with an eye toward recycled and sustainable content, designed for recycling and sustainability.