The Montana Recycler

A Publication from Recycle Montana Winter 2016

In This Issue:

Price of Oil and It’s Effects on Plastic Recycling p 1

Letter from the President p 2

Big Sky E-Recycling Program p 3

The Problem with CRTs and TVs p 4

E-waste = Fun + Learning + Robots! p 6

Equipment for Sale p 7

This baler is for sale!

page 7

Price of Oil and It’s Effects on Plastic Recycling

The recent drop in oil prices has been welcomed by con-sumers fueling their vehicles at the gas pump, however declining crude oil costs can negatively impact plastics recycling. When the cost of oil is high, creating new prod-ucts from post-consumer plastic is less expensive than gen-erating new or virgin plastic. Conversely, when oil prices are very low, it can actually be more expensive to use recy-cled plastic due to the added cost to sorting, cleaning and processing the material. Year over year, commodity rates dropped by double digits with plastic #2 HDPE declining by 15% and #1 PET down as much as 50% making it a challenging climate for recycling companies, especially in Montana. However, there is a large and expanding industry which continues to support the future of plastic recycling.

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Since 2012, the Recycling Educa-tion program has reached over 16,000 students across Montana!

You’ll Be Missed!

Sherrel Rhys has been a long-time board member of Recycle Montana, providing lots of support, input and guidance for many years. We are excited for her as she enters retirement and spends more time skiing, but we are certainly going to miss her! Con-gratulations Sheryl!

Thanks Matt!

All of us at Recycle Montana wish to extend our deepest thanks to Matt Ellsaesser for all of his work as the former Executive Director for Recycle Montana! We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors! Thanks Matt!

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Spring is Coming — Time to Join!

Spring is just around the corner! It is a time of new life, new beginnings, and change. Recycle Montana is in the “springtime” phase as it evolves and grows. We had a few changes last year, and are coming out of win-ter with increased focus to build membership in this terrific organization and positively impact more commu-nities, schools, and kids with the Recycling Education program.

Last year our Recycling Educator presented programs to over 2,000 K-12 students teaching recycling, waste reduction and reuse. The Educator assisted schools to establish recycling operations, performed waste audits, and offered recycling information at community events. Since 2012, the Recycling Education program has reached over 16,000 students across Montana.

To continue our program, we need your financial support. Buy our license plates for your personal and com-pany vehicles; the money funds our program. And, become a member in this great organization!

  

Recycle Montana is the leading source for recycling education and resources in the state of Montana. Recycle Montanan works to increase recycling through education and building coalitions between communities, schools, and recyclers.

RM Board of Directors

Board President:

Candi Zion, Winifred

Board Vice President:

Kirk Treece, Missoula

Board Secretary:

Jessie Luther, Helena

Board Treasurer:

John Hilton, Helena

Board Members:

Mark Nelson, Ronan

Elaine Taylor, Helena

Janelle Grant, Miles City

Sandra Boggs, Helena

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Candi Zion, President

JOIN TODAY!

Oil and Plastic Recycling, continued from page 1

The 11th annual Plastics Recycling 2016 Conference in New Orleans, LA concluded on February 3rd and was anticipated to attract over 1500 attendees from 32 countries and feature roughly 200 exhibitors. The challenges of the current market were no doubt a topic of much discussion, as well as subjects such as more advanced sorting technologies, bioplastics, response to consumer demands and new innovating products and applications.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) released their 2014 report authored by Moore Recycling Associates, which announced that rigid plastics recycling increased by 276 million pounds (27%) in 2014. The report also indicates the volume of post-consumer rigid plastics being recycled now is four times greater than quantities reported in 2007. With the continued development of new products and uses, coupled with the evolution of technology and recycling techniques, the future of plastics recycling should recover from this recent downturn. As Steve Alexander, president of the Association of Plastic Recyclers stated, “The demand is greater than the supply. As long as the demand is there, recyclers will find a way to move their materials.”

Helena Industries Expands Mission, Increases Job Opportunities with Big Sky E Recycling Program

By Matthew Elsaesser, Director Big Sky E Recycling Program, Helena Industries

Russ Cargo, CEO of Helena Industries, is committed to new ideas and initiatives to continue the organization’s mission and ongoing success of the organization. Russ brings a new vision to Helena Industries, which has provided job opportunities for persons with disabilities for nearly 50 years in Helena. Over the decades, Helena Industries has made wooden boxes, pallets, survey stakes, and other products for military, government, and private contracts through their wood shop; provided mailing services; and produced dozens of products through their sewing business known as Bench-mark. Russ took over as CEO in February of 2015 and recognized a need for Helena Industries to adapt to changing business climates as they continue to serve the community.

Last summer, Russ learned of CyclePointTM, a new initiative from SourceAmerica® to provide ad-ditional jobs, work place training, and services for persons with disabilities and veterans by recy-cling and refurbishing outdated and unwanted electronics. This fall Helena Industries hired Mat-thew Elsaesser, a local recycling expert to establish the program now know as Helena Industries Big Sky E Recycling Program.

-continued on page 4- 3 

Big Sky E-Recycling, continued

As part of the CyclePoint Network, Helena Industries follows Responsible Recycling (R2TM) and Recycling Industry Operating Standards (RIOSTM) for collection, processing and taking apart of electronic items for either recycling or refurbishment and sale. Items collected range from computers and all related items to other small household electronic items such as toasters and microwaves. Personal data is handled securely and destroyed, with receipts available for those needing confirmation of data destruction.

Since becoming licensed with the State of Montana this winter, Helena Industries now provides daily collection for electronic recycling through their Thrift Store at 2109 N Last Chance Gulch, provides collection events for large employers such as the quarterly recycling drive by the State of Montana, and recycling pickup for residents and businesses most weekdays. While

most items are taken for free, a charge of $1 to diagonal inch for older style cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions, as well as a suggested donation of $5 for microwaves and $2 for computers with hard drives to cover the cost of data destruction. Costs vary for larger pickups and data destruction projects. Since starting collection in December 2015, Helena Industries has pro-cessed over 15,000 pounds of material!

Helena Industries will formally celebrate the start of Big Sky E Recycling February 25th at their vocational and manufacturing campus at 1325 Helena Ave. They plan to begin refurbishing items for resale online and at their Thrift Store by Earth Day 2016. The program currently pro-vides work opportunities and job training for two veterans in addition to one and a half program staff members. More details at HelenaIndustries.org

Helena Industries will formally celebrate the start of Big Sky E Recycling on February 25th

THE PROBLEM WITH CRTS AND TVS

By Sandra Boggs, Department of Environmental Quality

On January 12, 2016, the State Electronics Challenge sponsored a free webinar titled “CRT Glass – What’s Going On?” which featured industry leaders describing current recycling conditions for CRT glass.

Eric Harris with the Institute of Scrap Recycling Indus-tries stated “There simply is a negative cost to do [CRT] recycling right”, but the capacity still exists,

-continued on page 5- 4 

“There is simply a negative cost to do [CRT] recycling right.”

even with India’s Videocon facility refusal to accept more material. Videocon at one time was the largest international consumer of CRTs generated in the U.S.

Jim Levine, President of Regency Technolo-gies, described his company’s close working relationship with Dlubak Glass located here in the U.S. He stated that markets and recy-cling capacity exist, but un-anticipated im-pacts of laws mandating e-scrap recycling in 25 states have contributed to the stockpiling and abandonment of CRTs in the U.S.

The laws vary from state-to-state but inevita-bly include or promote a pricing structure that does not adequately cover the costs of pro-cessing CRTs responsibly. Recyclers unable to absorb the cost of recycling thousands of collected CRTs have stuck them in ware-houses or open fields hoping for cheaper re-cycling options in the future.

private companies operating here in the state. The Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) keeps a list of recycling locations on their website at: deq.mt.gov/recycle/cpulist.

DEQ staff are familiar with many recyclers and their operations; often providing infor-mation on responsible CRT recycling to members of the public, private business, state agencies and others.

Many of the recyclers operating in Montana do charge appropriate fees for recycling CRTs or may just refuse to accept them alto-gether – because of market conditions. Not all recyclers operating in Montana charge fees – but the ones recycling CRTs responsi-bly often do. Fees may range from $1.00 - $2.50 per inch of screen, or may be a flat rate based on the size of the CRT-containing device.

An alternative to recycling is disposal.

The Problem with CRTS and TVs, continued

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No such cheaper options are anticipated or foreseen, and so far up to 15 recyclers have walked away and abandoned stockpiles in the last few years.

Jason Linnell, Executive Director of the Na-tional Center for Electronics Recycling, agreed that markets for CRT glass exist, but the num-ber of markets has decreased. He stated “We do need to keep an eye out for and prepare for further abandonment cases that may come up as well as the costs are not going down for CRT management.”

Thankfully Montana does have responsible re-cycling available for CRTs through several

Residents are legally allowed to dispose of CRT-containing devices as household trash.

Businesses have more restrictions and should check with DEQ or local authorities for proper handling instructions. For more information contact DEQ at 406-444-5300.

Tid-bits

Best Buy recently imposed a $25 fee for each TV and CRT brought in for recycling. It had previously been free.

Some parts of the U.S. allow CRT glass to be used as alternative daily cover.

E-WASTE = FUN + LEARNING + ROBOTS!

Missoula International School’s FIRST Lego League (FLL) Team had great suc-cess with a practice tournament held on Saturday, January 23rd, earning all “accomplished” and “exemplary” marks for their presentation, the highest marks award-ed.

The team named ‘MT Recycles’, is compet-ing against other state teams in February and the practice tournament gave the team their first experience presenting before a panel of judges and testing their robot.

FIRST Lego League (FLL) is a nationwide competition which inspires students to en-gage in science, technology and engineer-ing innovations and hopefully go on to lead successful careers in these areas.

FIRST is an acronym: For Inspiration & Recognition of Science and Technology, and is the name of the not-for-profit organi-zation founded in 1989. There are actually several levels of competition, starting with students as young as six and continuing through high school age.

The challenge picks different themes for each year and this year’s challenge is called Trash Tech. Trash Tech challenges stu-dents to come up with innovative solutions to managing waste in today’s global econo-my.

Missoula International School’s MT Recy-cles team chose electronic waste as their focus and has been researching how e-waste is managed in Montana and else-where. The team discovered that 25 states in the U.S. have some type of e-waste legis-

lation and 20 states have e-waste landfill disposal bans.

Their home state of Montana does not have any such legislation. They also learned that all U.S. government agencies are banned from disposing of e-waste in landfills na-tionwide. The team proposes to address e-waste in Montana through a ban on disposal of e-waste in landfills and increasing e-waste recycling and reuse statewide.

The robot competition portion requires the team to design and program an autonomous robot capable of completing ‘missions’ built out of Lego™ bricks. Dari Quirk, an adult that works with the student team, ex-plained that there are three robot game rounds which test the design and program-ming completed by the students.

She is proud that the team received the highest marks available while overcoming design issues and improving their robot’s performance. Overall, the team learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and met some of the teams with whom they’ll compete in Bo-zeman. It was a very successful practice tournament!

The Montana State FLL Championship is in Bozeman on Saturday, February 6, 2016.

Missoula International School www.mismt.org

FIRST Lego League www.firstlegoleague.org

US FIRST www.firstinspires.org/robotics/fll

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EQUIPMENT FOR SALE

Brian Heuer of Sage Recycling has some equipment for sale:

On the front page is a 2000 Balemaster horizontal baler for sale for $15,500. It is located in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

A 48” Baler for $3,000 (picture above)

Two 72” Balers for $6,500 each (picture above)

300 65-gallon Toters, brown and tan, very good shape, some never

used for $25 each, plus freight (no pictures)

LOOKING FOR A PAPER SHREDDER

Brian Heuer of Sage

Recycling let us know

that he is looking for a

used paper shredder or

possibly an older shred

truck. If you know where

he can find one, call him

at 406-546-4581.

48” Baler, one available $3,000

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72” Baler, two available

$6,500 each

We Value Our Top Tier Members!