French technology provider says its new device provides high functionality in a small configuration.

Pellenc ST is offering the Compact+ automated sorting machine “to support operators with their sorting line refurbishment projects and integrators with complex projects.”

The France-based company calls the Compact+ the latest generation in its Compact line. Those machines, Pellenc says, “are inherently compact and share the latest advanced sorting technology with the Mistral+ Connect, giving the same high levels of performance.”

The new Compact+ is available in two configurations (conveyor or gantry) and “is particularly suited to installations where space and access [are] limited,” Pellenc says, including facility retrofits.

“The machines have been designed to interface easily with all types of high-speed conveyors supplied by different integrators, whether for a refurbishment project or a new sorting center,” Pellenc adds.

As well as being easy to integrate, the Compact+ combines a new spectrometer with an extended near-infrared (NIR)/visible (VIS) spectrum designed to provide “focused illumination.” Pellenc adds, “This combination enables recovery of [materials] to high levels of purity.” In particular, the “FLOW Detection” system improves the separation of paper from cardboard; sorting different grades of PET plastic; or separating different grades of wood scrap.

The new program launched in several New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania communities.

TerraCycle, Trenton, New Jersey, has launched TerraCycle Home as a subscription-based pickup service for more than 20 waste streams local recycling services won’t accept curbside.

Through the new program, consumers can subscribe to monthly or twice-monthly pickup service. The company then delivers customers Zero Waste Bags and an outdoor TerraCycle Home receptacle for easy recycling. Once customers fill a Zero Waste Bag, customers can schedule a pickup by scanning a QR code or logging into their TerraCycle Home accounts. Customers can put the Zero Waste Bags in their TerraCycle Home receptacles on the scheduled day of service, and TerraCycle will pick it up from their doorsteps for processing.

Materials accepted through the pickup service include a range of items that can’t be recycled in curbside recycling programs, such as cosmetic packaging, eyewear, personal protective equipment, pet food packaging, toys, plastic bottle caps, cigarette butts and various types of plastic packaging. The company offers a full list of accepted items online.

According to a news release from TerraCycle, the pickup service first launched in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. The company has plans to expand the service across the country.

In New Jersey, TerraCycle Home services began in Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Morris, Somerset and Union counties. In Pennsylvania, the service is offered in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties.

The company says all materials collected through the program will be received by its material recovery partners, where materials will be sorted manually and then automatically into individual material components. Each material will be recycled into a raw format that can be used to make new products.

TerraCycle says a portion of the materials collected through the program will be recycled into benches and items that will be donated to local public parks in participating communities.

“At TerraCycle, we have always been committed to making recycling as easy and convenient as possible,” says Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle. “Through TerraCycle Home, we are happy to now offer doorstep recycling pickups for hard-to-recycle plastics and other items that do not belong in curbside recycling bins and help keep these items out of landfills and incinerators.”

The San Francisco-based company has partnered with Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary to recycle its buoys and downlines.

San Francisco-based Brightmark LLC has launched a plastic recycling partnership with the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS) in an effort to reduce materials from going to the landfill.

FKNMS has mooring and informational buoys to mark ecological reserves and provide an option for boats to tie up to as opposed to anchoring to help protect ocean reefs below. Prior to this partnership, FKNMS had to send these buoys to landfill when they reached end-of-life status since they were considered too difficult to recycle. Through the new partnership with Brightmark, FKNMS will send Brightmark these buoys and downlines to recycle them and convert them into circular plastics and lower carbon fuel and wax.

According to a news release from Brightmark, the partnership follows what it calls “a successful pilot phase,” the two groups will now recycle plastic buoys and downlines from the sanctuary’s upper and lower Keys locations to help decrease marine plastic pollution in the area. The two groups aim to expand this program nationally.

“Our partnership with the sanctuary is an essential and first-of-its-kind collaboration that will pull and divert plastic from our oceans,” says Bob Powell, Brightmark founder and chief executive officer. “This program is another proof point of how our innovative advanced recycling technology can play a critical role in ‘reimaging waste’ to solve the plastic waste crisis in our oceans with a truly circular solution.”

“This initiative elevates our commitment to protect the environment,” says Sarah Fangman, superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. “I’m proud that buoy team member Benjamin D'Avanzo recognized the need for a sustainable alternative to our plastics waste and pursued this partnership with Brightmark.”

Brightmark says it has produced a short documentary on FKNMS’ buoy team to follow its daily operations and show how materials are sent to be recycled by Brightmark.

Sennebogen partnered with Cronimet to develop the new battery-powered material handler.

Cronimet Ferroleg GmbH, a metal recycling and trading company based in Karlsruhe, Germany, has deployed the new Sennebogen 825 Electro Battery scrap handler at its facility in Karlsruhe.

According to a news release from Straubing, Germany-based Sennebogen, the company partnered with Cronimet to develop the 825 Electro Battery machine. The new battery-powered handler combines the flexibility of traditional diesel-powered excavators with the benefits of a zero-emission electric excavator that also features lower maintenance and energy costs, say the firms.

The Sennebogen 825 Electro Battery model is based on the Sennebogen 825 E model with a 110-kilowatt electric motor. The new model features an operating weight of about 30 tons and range of 14 meters, the same as on the 825 E model. The 825 Electro’s power storage unit, a lithium-ion battery pack with 378 kilowatt hours of storage capacity installed at the rear of the machine in place of the counterweight, enables the machine to operate for up to eight hours without intermediate charging. When used stationary by cable, the scrap handler can work and charge at the same time.

According to a news release from Cronimet, the electric handler can be connected to conventional power sockets through an onboard charger and 63A CEE plug system, which ensures there is no need to invest in additional charging columns.

Sennebogen says the 825 Electro Battery model features a comfortable cab environment for operators, as it is quieter and has lower vibrations compared with a traditional diesel-powered unit.

The companies say the Electro Battery model “enables completely emission-free work” to help Cronimet reduce CO2 emissions at its operations.

Marijo Zeljko, managing director of Cronimet Ferroleg GmbH, says the project to develop the 825 Electro Battery was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection.

“With this innovation project, we are taking a decisive step on the road to CO2 neutrality,” Zeljko says. “Electrification of our machinery is a key component of our climate strategy.”

Cronimet Ferroleg GmbH operates nine material handlers at its facility in Karlsruhe. The facility processes about 140,000 metric tons of stainless steel scrap and other alloyed scrap per year. Cronimet plans to use the new battery-powered model to feed the site’s baler, preparing material for the baler and for sorting work in its inbound inventory department.

Sennebogen says the Sennebogen 825 Electro Battery will be on display at Bauma 2022 Oct. 24-31, which will take place in Munich.

Through this partnership, RubiconSmartCity technology will be available on the Samsara App Marketplace.

Rubicon Technologies Inc., a digital marketplace and provider of software-based products for the waste and recycling industry based in Lexington, Kentucky, has partnered with San Francisco-based Samsara Inc. to help its municipal customers.

Samsara offers Connected Operations Cloud, which is built to access, analyze and act on operations data. Data sharing on Samsara’s application programming interface provides customers with a single source to improve efficiency, reduce costs and maintain operations. Rubicon offers its RubiconSmartCity cloud-based technology suite to help municipal governments manage heavy-duty waste and recycling fleet operations.

According to a news release from Rubicon, RubiconSmartCity is now available on the Samsara App Marketplace to improve efficiency and sustainability in government fleets. Shared municipal customers will have access to fault codes, speeding, fuel level and GPS data, as well as visibility into vehicle diagnostics information to improve safety and transparency.

“With billions of data points flowing through Samsara each day, we’re able to act as a command center for customers to run every part of their municipal operations,” says Sean McGee, vice president of Platform and Infrastructure at Samsara. “Through this integration, we look forward to coupling the scale of Samsara’s Connected Operations Cloud with Rubicon’s smart city technology to give customers the visibility they need to provide smarter and safer citizen services.”

Conor Riffle, senior vice president of Smart Cities at Rubicon, says Rubicon’s mission is to end waste, and he says this partnership helps to achieve that goal. He says, “Our mission refers to waste in the physical sense but also to wasted time and, in the case of Rubicon’s smart city technology products, wasted government resources. This technology partnership with Samsara allows both companies to deliver a superior solution for city solid waste departments and fleets as a whole, while continuing to save taxpayer dollars.”