The two developed Greatview Planet, which uses fully bio-based products.

Greatview, an integrated aseptic packaging manufacturer based in Beijing, has partnered with Ineos and UPM Biofuel to launch Greatview Planet. The product is made primarily from FSCTM-certified paperboard and uses natural feedstock from sustainably managed forests and other controlled sources.

“At Greatview we see sustainability as an integral part of our business model and our commitment to developing long-term value for our customers, retailers and consumers,” says Victor Lee, international director of Greatview. “Greatview Planet saves fossil resources and helps to decarbonize the value chain. Greatview Planet is produced in Germany and is [the company’s] first product with its own sustainability position, dedicated to serving international market needs.”

Greatview says the product increases the share of renewable content linked to the forest by using bio-attributed, mass-balanced polymers made from tall oil-based bio-naphtha. The material is fully certified to the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials' (RSB) Standard 1. Tall oil is a sustainable residue of wood pulp processing.

"The new Ineos product that Greatview uses is made from UPM’s bio-naphtha, converted into a 100 percent bio-attributed polymer using 100 percent renewable wind power,” says Rob Ingram, CEO of Ineos Olefins & Polymers Europe. “This new polymer gives Greatview a competitive edge based on a certified sustainable product range."

At the Greatview factory in Halle, Germany, the bio-attributed polymer is used for laminating the paper board and producing the aseptic carton pack. The whole value chain for the bio-attributed polymer and Greatview’s production facility in Halle are certified to the RSB sustainability standard (RSB Global) 2. The Halle factory runs with 100 percent green electricity, is equipped with resource-efficient production lines and is certified according to ISO 14001 and ISO 50001, to ensure low environmental impact manufacturing.

The bio-attributed polymer used in the product has the same material property as conventional polymer and guarantees the same high quality and food safety as the Greatview Planet carton packs. The packaging is ready to run on the customer’s filling line without any downtime or additional waste in case of a switch from standard packaging material to Greatview Planet. The product maintains high line efficiency and causes zero extra waste while also ensuring low filling costs and total cost of ownership of the carton filling system.

With Greatview Planet, Greatview doubles its product portfolio. All formats produced in Germany are available in both Planet and standard versions. Greatview says the product is an important step to complement its product portfolio with a sustainable solution.

Steel producer buys Pennsylvania-based Summit Utility Structures.

Steelmaker Nucor Corp. says it has entered into an agreement to acquire West Hazleton, Pennsylvania-based Summit Utility Structures LLC and its related company, Sovereign Steel Manufacturing LLC, producers of metal poles and other steel structures for utility infrastructure and highway signage.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based owner of scrap-fed steel mills and dozens of scrap yards says the two companies will become part of a new business unit, Nucor Towers & Structures, serving the utility, transportation and telecommunication sectors.

Summit and Sovereign currently focus on markets in the northeastern United States, but Nucor says its plan is to establish a nationwide footprint able to service customers throughout North America.

“These acquisitions continue to position Nucor as the leader in steel and downstream steel products as part of our strategy to “Grow the Core, Expand Beyond and Live Our Culture,’’ says Leon Topalian, president and CEO of Nucor.

“These businesses fit well into the Expand Beyond part of our strategy to acquire companies who have a direct connection to our industry, offer significant growth opportunities and enhance Nucor's position as the leading manufacturing company in the metals industry,” Topalian adds. “We intend to grow these businesses to become the preferred solutions provider for utility transmission towers, substations, telecommunication towers and highway signage structures.”

Nucor says the market for utility infrastructure has been historically stable and is expected to enter a phase of accelerated growth because of the replacement of aging infrastructure, growth and migration of population, a focus on increasing electric grid reliability, and an increased penetration of renewable energy and energy storage.

Additionally, says the firm, the transition to 5G and the increased consumption of wireless data supports a market trends for telecommunication tower expansion. The highway signage market is also continuing to see strength and is expected to benefit as departments of transportation begin to implement the recently signed federal infrastructure bill, adds Nucor.

“The markets for transmission and telecommunication towers are forecast to experience strong growth for decades,” says Chad Utermark, an executive vice president with Nucor. “The creation of Nucor Towers & Structures strongly complements our plate capabilities while also adding a new dimension to our arsenal of value-added downstream products such as joists and deck, hollow structural section tubes, metal buildings, insulated metal panels, racking systems, piling and foundation solutions, and shortly, overhead doors.”

The company's North American business will be adding recycling labels to products.

The Hain Celestial Group, Inc., an organic and natural products company based in New York, has announced Hain Celestial’s North American business has joined the How2Recycle label program. How2Recycle is a U.S.- and Canadian-based standardized labeling system that enables companies to clearly communicate how to recycle a package, improving the reliability, completeness and transparency of recyclability claims.

As a manufacturer of health and wellness brands with a shared mission “to inspire healthier living for all,” Hain says one of its core principles is understanding how its products and operations impact people and the planet, and how to minimize those impacts. In its 2021 global environmental, social and governance (ESG) report, Hain publicly committed to improve packaging sustainability and announced two goals: adding standardized recycling labels to 100 percent of Hain products by the end of 2025 in order to provide reliable transparent recycling information for consumers and publishing a sustainable packaging strategy by 2023.

“In addition to providing transparent recycling labeling for our North American and U.K. consumers, we want to do our part to prevent recycling contamination by keeping non-recyclable packaging out of recycling bins,” says Executive Vice President Kristy Meringolo, general counsel, corporate secretary, chief compliance officer and executive sponsor of ESG at Hain Celestial. “As we continue to optimize our packaging portfolio, with a focus on more sustainable packaging, we look forward to partnering with How2Recycle to drive awareness, allowing consumers to make more informed purchasing decisions.”

Hain says the partnership with How2Recycle is an important step in achieving one of its ESG objectives, as well as an opportunity for Hain to further support the objectives of its North American retail partners, many of which encourage the use of How2Recycle labels on packaging. Hain has begun the process of adding How2Recycle labels to Alba Botanica sun care products, and will be expanding the label to additional products over the next three years. Hain Daniels, Hain’s U.K. business, is already using the On-Pack recycling label, a similar standardized label to transparently communicate the recyclability of its packaging and meet the labelling standards for its UK retail partners.

Hain says it has launched other projects over the past three years to transition to more sustainable packaging formats by removing unnecessary packaging, increasing the percentage of recycled content for plastic and paper packaging, while reducing the amount of virgin plastic in its portfolio. Hain is simultaneously working to develop its first sustainable packaging strategy by collecting packaging data from its suppliers to develop a comprehensive baseline and consolidate that data in order to develop meaningful targets.

“The packaging inventory is a crucial first step for developing a portfolio wide packaging strategy that will enable our teams to make more sustainable packaging decisions,” Senior Vice President of Research and Development Jeff George says. “Our goal over time is to develop more sustainable packaging, without compromising quality and functionality for our consumers.”

The city canceled its curbside recycling program in 2020 due to cost and contamination issues.

The city of Cleveland plans to resume its curbside recycling program June 13. The city had canceled its recycling operations in April 2020 when its previous recycling contract expired.

According to a statement from Orensel Brumfield, recycling coordinator for the city of Cleveland, the city halted recycling operations in 2020 because the city and its collection vendor at the time did not reach an agreement on the contract.

Brumfield adds, “I know contamination and costs were definitely factors.”

For about two years, Cleveland’s residential recyclables were sent to the landfill. In the last year, Brumfield says the city hired a consultant to rethink the city’s residential recycling program. In March, the city also approved a $1.5 million contract with Cincinnati-based Rumpke Waste & Recycling to haul recyclables from the city’s transfer station to its processing facilities. The City of Cleveland’s Division of Waste will handle curbside collection for the program.

Residential recycling is available to Cleveland residents who live in single-family homes and multifamily buildings that have up to four units. Brumfield adds that more than 30,000 households have signed up to participate in the new program.

Output in the U.S. fell week-on-week and year-on-year, according to AISI.

Steelmakers in the United States produced 0.9 percent less steel in the week ending June 4 compared with the prior week, according to the Washington-based American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).

In addition to the week-to-week decline, the weekly output of 1.78 million tons represented a 3.2 percent drop from the 1.84 million tons produced a year ago in the week ending June 4, 2021.

Year-to-date figures compiled by AISI show production through June 4 stands at 38,874,000 tons. That is down 1.6 percent from the 39,517,000 tons made during the same period last year.

Thus far in 2022, mills have been operating at an average capability utilization (capacity) rate of 80.6 percent. Despite the lower output figure, that is up from the 78.8 percent capacity rate averaged in the first five months and four days of 2021.

AISI has not published steel import figures for this May, but it has reported a trend of increased steel imports so far this year and over the course of the previous 12 months.

In the first four months of this year, total and finished steel imports are up 21 percent and 45 percent, respectively, compared with the first four months of 2021, says the association.

In the 12-month period from May 2021 to April 2022, total and finished steel imports are up 51.3 percent and 55.3 percent, respectively, versus the prior 12-month period, says AISI. Finished steel import market share was an estimated 27 percent this April and is estimated at 25 percent during the first four months of 2022.