With the Glass Packaging Institute and GlassKing Recovery & Recycling, Smirnoff plans to work with local bars and restaurants to recover as much glass as possible in the Chicago area.

Following World Cleanup Day on Sept. 17, Smirnoff, a brand of New York City-based Diageo North America, has announced it will undertake a mission to develop more sustainable packaging and systems by 2030.

Smirnoff is heading to Chicago to partner on an initiative to collect used glass the company will recycle to create new bottles for its products. Through its partnership with the Don’t Trash Glass (DTG) campaign, a combined effort with the Glass Packaging Institute, Berkely Springs, West Virginia, and GlassKing Recovery & Recycling, Phoenix, Smirnoff will support the campaign’s effort to work with more than 300 Chicago bars, restaurants and local businesses to gather used and discarded glass bottles, increasing the total available recycled glass in the area.

“This partnership with Smirnoff helps support educational and relationship-building opportunities with local restaurants and bars so they can be at the forefront of glass recycling,” Glass Packaging Institute President Scott DeFife says. “Encouraging these businesses to be influencers within the glass recycling process will have long-lasting effects, not only on our environment but also on the glass manufacturing and supply chain process.”

In partnership with Smirnoff, DTG will scour the Chicago area to collect ready-to-recycle glass bottles that will be processed by Smirnoff’s glass partners and transported to the Smirnoff packaging plant in Plainfield, Illinois, where the company will fill and deliver them to communities nationwide.

“We take our commitment to a more sustainable future very seriously,” Diageo Chief Marketing & Innovation Officer Ed Pilkington says. “Smirnoff is packaged and bottled in Plainfield, so it was important we started this movement right here in our backyard. When it comes to the environment, the way we can all help the planet is by doing our part to better our communities, and Chicago is just the beginning for Smirnoff.” 

With DTG, Smirnoff will lead the charge to educate bartenders, staff, employees, custodians and others who deal directly with waste management to encourage them to adopt more sustainable practices.

“This initiative is a good indicator of the need for systems to be put in place, not just in Chicago, but around the country to create a more circular economy for glass,” GlassKing Recovery & Recycling Chief Operating Officer Rose King says. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Smirnoff on this initiative, a brand that clearly values sustainable practices and bettering our communities for future generations.”

Improving circularity and reducing waste are priorities for Smirnoff and Diageo. Beginning with work on reuse and refill projects, the efforts from the DTG initiative will contribute to the company’s commitment to reimagine packaging and become sustainable by design—a key pillar of Diageo’s approach to sustainability outlined in its 10-year action plan, Society 2030: Spirit of Progress.

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The joint program with ExxonMobil and Cyclyx International will begin by processing 50 aged turf fields, mostly from California.

Netherlands-based TenCate Grass, a manufacturer, distributor and installer of synthetic turf for sports and landscape applications, has announced it will launch a program in the U.S. to recycle end-of-life artificial grass. The company says this initiative leverages Cyclyx’s feedstock processing expertise and ExxonMobil’s ExxtendTM technology for advanced recycling.  

According to a news release from TenCate, the goal of this effort is to help solve how to efficiently and effectively recycle synthetic turf into a feedstock that can be used to create new turf and other valuable products.     

“At TenCate, we are committed to leading the industry and moving sustainability forward in a meaningful way,” says Joe Fields, president and CEO of TenCate Grass Americas. “We understand the issue of end-of-life synthetic turf, and we have taken it upon ourselves to find a true solution for the entire industry. Our goal is to keep turf out of landfills and put it back to use.”   

Called the TenCate Turf Recycling Solutions, the program will process 50 aged turf fields from high schools and college campuses across California. The end-of-life turf will be shipped to a Southern California facility where it will be shredded.   

The shredded turf will then be delivered from California to Texas, where Cyclyx International, headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, will further reprocess it before sending the turf to ExxonMobil’s Baytown, Texas, advanced recycling facility. With ExxonMobil’s proprietary Exxtend technology, the end-of-life turf will be broken down into raw materials that can be used to make new products that are no different in quality and performance than those made from virgin raw materials.  

“Our advanced recycling technology has already processed millions of pounds of otherwise difficult to recycle plastics, like food packaging and artificial turf that are generally not recycled today,” says Dave Andrew, vice president of new market development at ExxonMobil. “With our scalable technology and collaborations like this one alongside TenCate Grass and Cyclyx, we are helping to meet the growing demand for circular products.”   

ExxonMobil’s advanced recycling facility in Baytown has processed more than 11 million pounds of plastic waste, as of June. ExxonMobil is expanding to a large-scale advanced recycling facility at the site, which, upon startup later this year, the company says will be among North America’s largest advanced plastic recycling facilities with the capacity to recycle 66 million pounds of plastic waste annually. Beyond Baytown, plans are underway for up to 1 billion pounds of advanced recycling capacity annually by year-end 2026 across multiple sites globally.    

This program with ExxonMobil and Cyclyx builds on TenCate’s efforts to recycle synthetic turf. In the Netherlands, TenCate recycles its end-of-life turf into Ecocept, an elastic layer in sports fields, and third parties also use the agglomerated material to manufacture new products. TenCate now wants to expand its recycling efforts worldwide.   

After this initial phase is complete, TenCate plans to expand the initiative across the U.S. In North America alone, the total value of installed synthetic turf systems was estimated at $2.7 billion in 2020, according to the Synthetic Turf Council. This translates into roughly 265 million square feet of installed turf.   

TenCate says synthetic turf can:   

conserve water. Depending on the region, a typical grass sports field in the U.S. requires between 500,000 to a million gallons of water or more each year. In 2010, between 3 billion to 8 billion gallons of water were conserved through the use of synthetic turf. This is becoming even more critical with an increase in droughts and new regulations around water usage.     

save time and labor. Synthetic turf does not need to be watered, fertilized or mowed. Synthetic turf can also help reduce noxious emissions from mowing and other maintenance. The EPA estimates gas-powered lawnmowers account for 5 percent of the air pollution in the United States.   

decrease the use of pesticides and fertilizers. Synthetic turf eliminates the need for nearly a billion pounds of pesticides, fertilizers, fungicides and herbicides that are used to care for grass.  

Finding an effective way to recycle synthetic turf will make it an even better option. Although many companies talk about the recyclability of artificial grass, that usually means the old turf is repurposed for use in other applications, such as in batting cages or for groundcover. But ultimately, this turf ends up in landfills or discarded piles.   

Instead, TenCate’s program with ExxonMobil and Cyclyx will turn end-of-life turf into virgin-quality new products. Through advanced recycling, the shredded turf will be broken down into its molecular building blocks, mixed with other hydrocarbon feedstocks, then made back into the raw materials used to create new products. This allows plastic waste to be converted into new products that are no different in quality and performance than those made from virgin natural resources.  

To accelerate efforts, TenCate became the first synthetic turf supplier to join Cyclyx, a consortium-based company that works with partners throughout the supply chain to find innovative ways to collect and preprocess various plastics to meet the specifications of both mechanical and advanced recyclers. Its mission is to increase the recyclability of plastic from 10 percent to 90 percent.     

“This collaboration with TenCate and ExxonMobil is notable in many ways,” says Joe Vaillancourt, CEO of Cyclyx. “It allows the ability to aggregate new types of waste plastic materials that have historically been ignored; it not only allows recycling of that turf material but provides a fully circular recycling option, and it shows the power of the collaboration that can help drive our mission of increasing the recyclability of waste plastic from 10 percent to 90 percent.” 

More than 642 tons of waste will be diverted from landfills and converted into renewable energy as a result of the partnership.

When the New England Patriots take the field in Foxborough this month, they’ll have a new ally working behind the scenes to make the home game experience great. WIN Waste Innovations is bringing its curb-to-grid waste-handling model to professional sports in New England.   

In partnership with Gillette Stadium, the New England Patriots and the New England Revolution, the local soccer club, the company will collect, handle and process the trash and recyclables generated at the stadium and convert waste to renewable energy.  

The partnership with Gillette Stadium, the Patriots, and the Revolution is projected to divert 642 tons of stadium waste from landfills, offsetting the equivalent need for nearly 769 barrels of oil, 224 tons of coal or 53,715 cubic feet of natural gas.   

“We are excited to help Gillette Stadium advance its sustainability strategy while delivering industry-leading waste and recycling services to the stadium,” WIN Waste Innovations CEO Bob Boucher says. “By diverting waste from landfills and creating renewable power, we are preserving natural resources, helping to protect the planet and providing an essential service to a sustainability-minded organization.”  

WIN Waste says it recycles 234,000 tons of plastics, metals, and paper each year and converts more than 6.7 million tons of waste into renewable energy that powers communities and businesses throughout the region.  

“Being thoughtful about how we handle waste generated at Gillette Stadium is key to our goal of continuously reducing our environmental impact,” says Jim Nolan, chief operating officer of Kraft Sports and Entertainment. “We have an ongoing commitment to sustainability, and this partnership with WIN Waste Innovations is another big step toward that end. We are excited to team up with WIN Waste to put Gillette Stadium’s waste to work for the planet.” 

The council recognized its award winners during its 2022 Annual Conference.

The Nebraska Recycling Council (NRC), Lincoln, Nebraska, has presented several awards during its 2022 Annual Conference, which took place Sept. 15. The event focused on recognizing the accomplishments of member organizations and provided learning opportunities for resource management professionals.

NRC has posted brief videos for each of its 2022 award winners to its website. NRC’s 2022 award winners include:

Harley Hollan says Superior's acquisition will enable it to significantly expand its service offering in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, market.

Superior Waste Industries LLC, a Shawnee, Oklahoma-based environmental services holding company, completed its second acquisition by acquiring Harley Hollan Cos., a solid waste management company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The company offers commercial collection services, industrial and construction roll-off services, recycling and a transfer station in Tulsa.   

“Adding Harley Hollan Cos. to the Superior platform is a key piece of our strategy to be the leading independent waste company in Oklahoma by adding additional services and geographic coverage,” says Billy Dietrich, Superior CEO. “We are very impressed with what Harley [Hollan] and his family have accomplished and see them as ideal partners for us as we continue to grow.”  

According to a news release, Harley Hollan says Superior's acquisition will enable it to significantly expand its service offering in the Tulsa market while providing employees significant growth opportunities, as well. Harley Hollan made a significant investment in Superior as part of the transaction, and he will continue to manage the Harley Hollan operations.   

Superior says it intends to be the “partner of choice” for waste industry entrepreneurs seeking growth capital or to transition their businesses. Superior partnered with Red Dog Equity LLC, an Atlanta-based private equity firm, which, through its partnership with Monroe Capital and Tom Pritzker’s family business interests (advised by The Pritzker Organization), has additional equity capital available to fund Superior’s future acquisitions. Monroe Capital also provides debt financing to Superior.