The environment. Most readers will have serious concerns about one or more environmentally-related issues: climate change, pollution/recycling, species extinction, rainforest collapse, ozone depletion, etc.
Climate change, in particular, has now achieved a critical mass in terms of both citizen awareness and (finally) government commitment. But while governments have been dithering for years about what to do (and when to do it) regarding Global Warming, at least people are doing something to “Save the Planet” on the recycling front.
We now have organized programs in place to effectively separate, collect, and
recycle recyclable materials in our garbage. Right? Wrong.
Yes, the vast majority of North Americans have been motivated and conditioned to separate out recyclable materials when we dispose of our trash. Yes, these recyclable materials are being collected. However, increasingly,
these recyclable materials are not being recycled. The headlines are grim.
The details behind the headlines are no more encouraging. The third article admittedly covers the personal failures of Canadians: “contaminated” recyclables (i.e. ‘dirty’ containers that still have content residue) or simply garbage mixed in with recyclable materials – which is greatly reducing the value/efficiency of Canadian recycling.
However, the first two articles refer to
systemic failures in North American recycling, and these systemic issues are resulting in an even more dismal bottom line in North America’s recycling efforts. Why are we suddenly hearing about a crisis in North American recycling?
Part of the answer comes from across the Pacific – in China. Flash back two decades, and effectively China chose to position itself as the Great Recycler of U.S. trash. It may sound surreal to those who haven’t been following this story, but for many years the United States shipped its recyclables across the Pacific Ocean to China for actual recycling.
For several years, garbage was literally the “leading U.S. export” to China by volume. There were three primary reasons for this improbable trend:
- Relatively high commodity prices boosted the revenues that could be derived from this activity
- Relatively low wages in China meant that it was possible to cost-effectively ship these recyclables across an ocean
- The Mighty U.S. Economy was producing little else of value that China wanted
This U.S.-China “garbage trade” has come to an abrupt end. In
2017; China announced an official change in policy with respect to the importation of several kinds of recyclables, effective at the start of 2018. By January 2018, this was extended into a complete ban on the importation of recyclables from several nations – including the United States.
Again, there are several factors at work here. The dramatic drop in most commodity prices has severely eroded the revenue potential of this activity. Simultaneously, steadily rising (real) wages in China have further eaten into margins.
China was starting to see itself not as the Great Recycler, but simply as the United States’ trash collector – creating an additional environmental issue for itself by importing U.S. garbage. The near-constant antagonism toward China from U.S. President Donald Trump further undermined China’s desire to continue this recycling.
Globally,
of the 6.3 billion metric tonnes of “plastic waste” that humanity has collectively produced, only 9% has been recycled. The rest of this plastic waste is piling up in our overflowing landfills and accumulating in environmentally-devastating quantities in our oceans.
Because of China’s change in policy, many U.S. cities and municipalities are now shipping sorted and collected recyclables (including plastics) to their landfills. This is not only worsening landfill capacity issues but totally defeats the purpose of sorting/collecting recyclables, not to mention the time and energy being wasted in this non-recycling.
Even worse, many U.S. municipalities are simply incinerating these toxic recyclables, alleviating one problem while exacerbating several others: Global Warming, air pollution, and the valuable energy that is wasted in burning rather than recycling recyclable materials.
There is no solution on the immediate horizon with respect to this Plastic Peril. This puts even more pressure on various levels of government to alleviate pollution-related problems in areas where cost-effective technological solutions do already exist. And here is where investors have the opportunity to prosper from crisis.
One opportunity in recycling has nothing to do with the accumulation of toxic waste in the past. Rather, this is a forward-looking opportunity with respect to
a future waste disposal/recycling issue: lithium-ion batteries.
Few investors will not already be aware of the Power Revolution now underway in the 21st century: lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles, renewable energy sources, and greater (electrical) energy storage capacity. Lithium-ion batteries, in particular, have already been integrated into numerous electronics industries. But these batteries are composed of high percentages of environmentally toxic metals – creating a growing disposal/recycling problem.
How serious is this issue already seen to be, at the national level? Several nations, including China are drafting legislation that will require industrial end-users to have viable recycling programs in place as a condition for continuing to manufacture and retail these batteries.
The catch here is that existing technology in the marketplace for the disposal of these batteries is both very dirty and highly inefficient in actually recycling these metals – and thus it is also not cost-effective. However, unlike the Plastic Peril, here there is already proven, cost-effective technology that can be introduced to deal with this imminent/growing recycling issue.
The unlikely source for this game-changing technology? A
mining company,American Manganese Inc. (TSX: V.AMY, OTCQB: AMYZF, Forum).
American Manganese commenced research to come up with both a cleaner and more cost-effective method for processing the low-grade manganese that it was planning to mine from its Artillery Peak property. The Company succeeded. But American Manganese’s R&D team quickly realized that the same technology that could process manganese ore cleanly/efficiently could be adapted as a recycling process for (among other applications) lithium-ion batteries.
Here AMY was even more successful. As recycling technology,
the Company’s unique RecycLiCoTM Patented Process recycles the cathode metals from lithium-ion batteries with near-100% recovery. A pilot plant is currently
being commissioned. American Manganese already has a U.S. patent for this technology and has
patent applications filed in seven other nations – including China, India, Japan, and Canada.
One company that is looking to reduce global pollution issues from the waste management side of the equation is
Micron Waste Technologies Inc (CSE: MWM, OTCQB: MICWF, Forum). Micron’s innovative approach to wastewater treatment (in what is an increasingly dysfunctional system for dealing with sewage) involves local collection/treatment of wastewater.
This technology reduces the need for wastewater infrastructure, while simultaneously reducing the amounts of energy and water required for wastewater treatment. For an encore,
the Company’s technology can transform organic waste into clean water – suitable for reuse in several commercial/industrial contexts. For investors, it’s important to note that MWM’s technology can be customized as a cost-effective solution for the full spectrum of end-users: from affluent/hi-tech societies to poorer, developing economies.
A company taking an entirely different approach to wastewater treatment – and cost-effective technological solutions – is
SHARC Energy Systems (CSE: SHRC, OTCQB: INTWF, Forum). SHARC’s “green” solution to transform a problem into revenue generation involves harvesting the energy that is wasted in our wastewater.
The numbers here are mind-boggling. Globally, there is roughly 100 billion gallons of sewage flow daily – wastewater that contains, among other things heat (energy
). Each degree of this heat that was harvested/recycled using SHARC technology would translate into roughly $500 million of energy savings per day. SHARC’s technology is scalable, from residential systems to commercial/district-scale solutions and is already being commercialized.
The bursting of current myths regarding our recycling efforts will come as a shock (if not a slap in the face) to many readers. At the same time, to borrow a cliché of dubious origin, from crisis often comes opportunity.
We need to do a much better job with recycling and waste management, in general, both in North America and around the world. As is often the case, when technology is devised and deployed to address such needs investors can find opportunities for profit.
FULL DISCLOSURE: American Manganese Inc., Micron Waste Technologies Inc., and SHARC Energy Systems are paid clients of Stockhouse Publishing.