Recycling News – CRM 19#6

December 17, 2020

RECHARGED RECYCLING

“Li-Cycle has announced it has closed a Series C equity funding round with intentions to use the funds for developing its Rochester, New York, commercial hub, along with an international market expansion. New York-based firm, Moore Strategic Ventures LLC, led the financing round. Founded in 2016, Li-Cycle says it has“reinvented the recycling process,” with a patented technology that has enabled recoveries of at least 95 percent of materials found in lithium-ion batteries.

The innovative, zero-waste process is a step up from the industry norm of less than 50 percent recovery. The spoke and hub process that Li-Cycle uses sees batteries shipped to an initial “spoke” facility where the materials are mechanically processed and size-reduced. Next, the material is shipped to a “hub” location where the partially processed battery is put through a hydrometallurgical (or wet chemistry) process.”

CONTROLLED COLLISIONS

End-of-life-vehicles are providing Ajax’s first responders with life-saving training opportunities thanks to a partnership between the city’s fire and emergency services and their local auto recycler, Dave Langille of Durham Auto Parts. In late October, Ajax Fire and Emergency Services took part in a training session involving a decommissioned city bus that first responders had the opportunity to manipulate into various accident scenarios, providing what Ajax fire chief training officer Reno Levesque considers to be an invaluable training experience.

This sort of opportunity would likely have not been possible without the relationship Ajax Fire has with Durham Auto Parts. This ongoing relationship also allows first responders to stay up to date on changing vehicle materials and technologies that may affect their ability to respond to an emergency.

FUELLED BY FORD

Ford is not only the most popular automaker in Canada—the automaker’s models are also the most common brand retired through Canada’s Retire Your Ride vehicle recycling program in the last year. Out of all Ford models, the Escape and Focus are the two retired the most often through the Retire Your Ride program. The most popular vehicle recycled is the 2004 Honda Civic with 32 vehicles across Canada turned in, and in fact, five of the top 10 vehicles retired were Honda Civics.

However, when looking over the top 10, Ford is at the top of the heap. The number of Ford recycled this year and the number of new Ford sold may not be entirely coincidental. While brand loyalty isn’t quite the force in the automotive world that it once was, there are still plenty of people who have a preferred car brand and stick with it. It could very well be that Ford owners deciding to retire their ride this year, simply purchased another Ford.