Tina Schramm

US lead producer and recycler Ecobat divested its British subsidiary Ecobat Solutions in Darlaston in early May. The transaction does not concern the group's lead recycling segment, from which Ecobat has gradually withdrawn in recent months. Instead, the sale involves lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling operations, the...

The EU and its member states are working on the architecture for a circular economy for textiles – but the envisaged underlying infrastructure is already collapsing in some cases, warned participants at a panel discussion at the IFAT tradeshow in early May. By the time the EU’s extended producer responsibility (EPR)...

US lithium battery recycler and cathode materials producer Ascend Elements has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it moves to restructure its balance sheet. In a post on LinkedIn, CEO Linh Austin said that the company had taken "meaningful steps to streamline operations, reduce costs, and pursue additional...

Swiss waste textiles company Texaid says its German subsidiaries have reached an important milestone in their self-managed insolvency proceedings: At a court hearing in mid-March, creditors unanimously approved the proposed insolvency plans for the German firms ReSales Textilhandels- und Recycling GmbH, Texaid...

US battery company Lyten is moving to purchase the Revolt Ett (Revolt One) battery recycling plant in Sweden, acquiring an asset that had been excluded from its recent takeover of bankrupt Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt. The site in Skellefteå has an installed capacity of 8,500 tonnes a year for the...

The EU is making little headway towards meeting the collection targets for portable batteries set out in the Batteries Regulation. According to the latest Eurostat data, the collection rate improved slightly in 2023 to 48.8 per cent, around 2.6 percentage points higher than in the previous year. Over the past several...

Toyota Motor Europe is expanding its approach to the reuse and recycling of end-of-life vehicle (ELV) components in Europe. Following the first "Circular Factory" announced in spring 2025 in Burnaston in the UK, the carmaker is now planning a second facility of this kind at its Polish production site in Wałbrzych....

Reju has announced plans for further large-scale chemical textile‑to‑textile recycling plants. The Technip Energies subsidiary is now set to build an industrial "regeneration hub" in Lacq, south‑west France. In late January, it also announced its intention to site a full-scale plant at the Eastman Business Park in...

At the meeting of the EU environment ministers held in Brussels in mid-December, 16 member states called for rapid EU-wide harmonised action on ultra-fast fashion. In a "joint non-paper", eight countries stated that the instruments already being pursued in the EU – including the Ecodesign rules and the targeted...

At Tuesday’s meeting of the EU Environment Council, Austria, backed by Germany and Lithuania, is placing the growing risk of battery fires in the waste management industry on the agenda. The three countries are urging the European Commission to expedite its planned assessment of an EU-wide deposit return scheme (DRS)...