SUNSHINE RecycleFlash Weekly: July 7-11, 2025

July 11, 2025

Asia Gold: Demand Sluggish in Asia as Volatile Prices Weigh on Sentiment

Demand for physical gold remained sluggish this week across major Asian markets as price volatility weighed on sentiment, with premiums in China holding firm and discounts in India narrowing. Dealers in top consumer China charged premiums of $10-$25 an ounce over the global benchmark spot price, compared with premiums of $4.2-$33 last week. Spot gold fell to its lowest level in over a week on Wednesday, dipping below the $3,300 mark, before recovering to trade at $3,335 as of 0520 GMT on Friday. (Source: Reuters)

Silver Prices Hit All-Time High in India, Smashes Rs 1.10 Lakh/kg Barrier

Silver prices hit an all-time high in India on July 11, surpassing Rs 1.10 lakh per kilogram on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX). In the spot market, silver traded at Rs 109.90 per gram, equivalent to Rs 1,09,900 per kilogram, according to data from Goodreturns. The surge in silver prices has been attributed to increased buying activity from traders, driven by rising concerns over tariff threats and inflation risks stemming from recent US economic policies. The global spot price of silver also experienced a 0.4% increase, reaching $37.17 per ounce, as reported by Reuters. Rahul Kalantri, Vice President of Commodities at Mehta Equities, commented, “Investors are seeking safety amid fresh tariff threats and policy risks, which are stoking inflation fears.” (Source: Times Now)

Philippines Gold Price: Gold Rises, According to FXStreet Data

Gold prices rose in Philippines on Friday, according to data compiled by FXStreet. The price for Gold stood at 6,049.05 Philippine Pesos (PHP) per gram, up compared with the PHP 6,037.25 it cost on Thursday. The price for Gold increased to PHP 70,554.88 per tola from PHP 70,417.30 per tola a day earlier. (Source: FXStreet)

Capral, Sims Metal and Rio Tinto Launch Closed-Loop Aluminium Recycling

Capral, Sims Metal, and Rio Tinto announced the advancement of a more sustainable future for Australian aluminium through a new closed-loop recycling initiative. In this collaborative process, post-production aluminium scrap from Capral is sorted and processed by SIMS Metal and remelted at Rio Tinto’s Boyne Smelter (BSL), creating a domestic circular supply chain. The result: 1,000 tonnes of aluminium with a minimum 20% recycled content, returned to Capral for use in local extrusion operations. A great step forward in building a greener, more resilient onshore manufacturing industry. This latest development builds upon a successful trial conducted in 2024, marking growing momentum toward more circular and lower-carbon aluminium production in Australia. In that trial, Capral partnered with Boyne Smelter to trial recycled-content aluminium billet produced from 100 tonnes of post-production scrap sourced from Capral’s Bremer Park extrusion plant in Southeast Queensland. That scrap was remelted and cast into billet with a minimum of 20% recycled content, demonstrating that high-quality, recycled-content billet can be made reliably onshore, paving the way for broader adoption. (Source: Capral)

Veolia to Build UK’s First Innovative Closed-Loop Recycling Facility as Part of £70m Plastic Push and £1bn Investment by 2030

Veolia, a leading resource management company in the UK, launches its biggest UK plastics recycling project with a £70 million investment which will include the country’s first “tray to tray” closed loop PET recycling facility in Battlefield near Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Construction on the facility has begun, with plans for the site to be operational by early 2026. This initiative forms part of the company’s broader commitment to the circular economy in the UK, with total investments set to reach around £1 billion by 2030. (Source: Veolia)

Production Begins at Expansion of EGA Spectro Alloys Recycling Plant in the US

Emirates Global Aluminium announced the start of production at the expansion of the EGA Spectro Alloys aluminium recycling plant in Minnesota in the United States. The expansion adds 55 thousand tonnes of secondary billet production capacity in the first phase. The ramp-up to full production is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2026. The expansion takes EGA Spectro Alloys’ total production capacity to 165 thousand tonnes per year of recycled aluminium ingots and billets. Metal from the expansion project will be sold under EGA’s recycled aluminium product brand RevivAL. The completion of the expansion project at EGA Spectro Alloys brings EGA’s global aluminium recycling capacity to 195 thousand tonnes per year, with plants in the United States and Germany. EGA is currently building the UAE’s largest aluminium recycling plant in Al Taweelah, which will have a capacity of 170 thousand tonnes per year of aluminium billets. The UAE recycling plant is expected to begin production in the first half of 2026. (Source: EGA)

Cascades Announces the Permanent Closure of Its Niagara Falls Corrugated Medium Manufacturing Operations

Cascades Inc. announces that its corrugated medium manufacturing facility in Niagara Falls, NY will be permanently closed as part of the optimization of the Company’s packaging production platform. Production will end no later than September 3, 2025. This announcement aligns with the Company’s commitment to support strategic growth by focusing on profitability and customer service levels. The Niagara Falls production site has an annual production capacity of 200,000 short tons. A second machine at this facility was closed in 2023. Closure costs are estimated at approximately $5 million. “This is a difficult decision, but one that is an essential part of our focus on optimizing the performance of our Packaging sector,” said Jean-David Tardif, Executive Vice-President, Packaging. “The future growth momentum for Cascades and our customers is very promising, and we are well-positioned to capitalize on opportunities for strategic and sustainable growth. We know what we need to do to get there—simplify, optimize and focus,” he added. (Source: Cascades)

Mars Launches $250 Million Sustainability Solutions Fund

Snacking, food, and pet care products provider Mars announced the launch of the Mars Sustainability Investment Fund (MSIF), a new $250 million fund aimed at providing capital to companies developing solutions to address key industry sustainability challenges. According to Mars, the new fund will deploy capital across investment funds as well as through direct investments, targeting solutions to sustainability challenges across the company’s value chain in areas including the sourcing of its ingredients, the health aspects of its products, and circular packaging. Focus areas for investments from the new fund include “Advanced Agriculture,” targeting technologies that reduce the emissions associated with agricultural inputs in the company’s products, “Innovative Ingredients and Raw Materials,” including lower emissions or healthier alternatives to existing ingredients in its products, and “Next Generation Packaging,” with a focus on packaging circularity, including recyclable, compostable or otherwise bio-benign replacements for flexible plastics. (Source: ESG Today)

ENEOS and Mitsubishi Chemical Complete Construction of Chemical Recycling Facility toward Launch of the Plastic-to-Oil Conversion Business

ENEOS Corporation and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation announced that the chemical recycling facility toward launch of the plastic-to-oil conversion business, which had been under construction at MCC’s Ibaraki Plant (Kamisu City, Ibaraki Prefecture) since July 20211, has been completed, and a ceremony to mark its completion was held on Wednesday, July 2, 2025. This facility employs hydrothermal plastic recycling technology (Hydro-PRT™) that features supercritical water to chemically break down waste plastic procured externally and convert it into oil. The technology has been made available under a license agreement with U.K.-based Mura Technology Ltd. The recycled oil produced with the technology is used as feedstock at both companies’ existing refinery and naphtha cracker and reprocessed into petroleum products and various chemicals and plastics, thereby helping to realize a circular economy. (Source: ENEOS)

Alupro Commits to Helping Welsh Authorities Reach EPR Targets

At this year’s LARAC Wales Conference (8 July), Alupro will launch a commitment to support Welsh councils in meeting their Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (EPR) targets. The event, which takes place at the Parkgate Hotel in Cardiff, brings together senior representatives to discuss the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the waste and recycling sector. With a raft of legislative changes set to impact local authorities over the coming months, Alupro is offering to guide councils through the changes needed to not only take advantage of the impending opportunity, but also to achieve stretch targets set out as part of national zero waste by 2050 ambitions. Through its national network and thriving membership base, Alupro will provide insight and expertise to ensure Welsh councils are effectively equipped to deliver upon expectations. In addition, through its latest communications initiatives, it will offer the engagement, education and behavioural change potential to deliver measurable impact. Throughout the LARAC Wales conference, the Alupro team will be on hand to discuss its EPR commitment, as well as to share recent examples of its MetalMatters and Every Can Counts campaigns. (Source: Sustainable Packaging News)

Clean Vision Corporation Breaks Ground on Clean-Seas West Virginia Facility

Clean Vision Corporation, an emerging leader in innovative plastic conversion and circular oil development, is proud to announce the groundbreaking of its Clean-Seas West Virginia (CSWV) facility in Belle, West Virginia. The initial 50 tons-per-day (TPD) plastic pyrolysis plant represents a key step in advancing the region’s role in the global circular economy. The Belle facility is expected to bring over 40 high-paying technical and operational jobs to the area during its initial phase. As the company executes its expansion plans to scale the facility to 200TPD, it anticipates creating more than 100 full-time jobs. (Source: Clean Vision Corporation)

US Will Impose 35% Tariffs on Canadian Imports, Trump Says in Letter

Donald Trump has said the US will impose a 35% tariff on imports from Canada next month and threatened to impose blanket tariffs of 15% or 20% on most other trade partners. In a letter released on his social media platform, Trump told Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, the new rate would go into effect on 1 August and would increase if Canada retaliated. Carney said on X that his government would continue to defend Canadian workers and businesses in their negotiations with the US as they worked toward that deadline. (Source: The Guardian)

Trump Affirms 50% Tariff on Copper Imports Will Start Aug 1

President Donald Trump on Wednesday affirmed that the United States will levy a 50 percent tariff on copper imports starting Aug. 1, following through on an earlier statement that he would target a key metal used for semiconductors, lithium-ion batteries, renewable energy technology and more. (Source: The Washington Post)

Europe’s Fight Against Plastic Pollution Gets Boost as EIB Backs Swedish Innovation Packaging Company PulPac

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending €20 million (around 220 million Swedish kronor) to Swedish sustainable-packaging company PulPac to tackle global plastic pollution. The EIB financing will support the development and commercialisation of a fibre-based technology developed by PulPac as an alternative to single-use plastics. Gothenburg-based PulPac is scaling up its patented Dry Molded Fiber technology, which produces rigid packaging from renewable cellulose fibre. The technology represents a disruptive improvement over traditional wet molding — currently the dominant method for fibre-based packaging—by enabling faster production with significantly lower environmental impact. The company will focus on food and retail applications, including coffee cup lids, plates, cutlery, bottles, fashion hangers, and pharmaceutical packaging. (Source: EIB)