SUNSHINE RecycleFlash Weekly: September 14-18, 2026

September 18, 2026

Gold Holds Gains on Lower Oil Prices

Gold traded around $4,350 an ounce on Friday after climbing nearly 2% in the previous session, supported by falling oil prices that eased inflation concerns and helped push bond yields lower. Oil prices declined for a third consecutive session as Saudi Arabia worked to restore flows through its East-West pipeline, while President Donald Trump is set to meet with Gulf leaders next week. Treasury yields also pulled back from multi-year highs, with the US 10-year yield falling to around 4.93% after briefly exceeding 5% earlier this week. Meanwhile, investors continued to assess the outlook for Federal Reserve monetary policy following its first rate hike in three years. The US central bank signaled that additional tightening could be needed to contain inflationary pressures, with markets now pricing in roughly a 53% probability of a move in October. (Source: Trading Economics)

Silver Holds Gains on Lower Oil Prices

Silver held above $65 an ounce on Friday after climbing more than 3% in the previous session, supported by falling oil prices that eased inflation concerns and helped push bond yields lower. Oil prices declined for a third consecutive session as Saudi Arabia worked to restore flows through its East-West pipeline, while President Donald Trump is set to meet with Gulf leaders next week. Treasury yields also pulled back from multi-year highs, with the US 10-year yield falling to around 4.93% after briefly exceeding 5% earlier this week. Meanwhile, investors continued to assess the outlook for Federal Reserve monetary policy following its first rate hike in three years. The US central bank signaled that additional tightening could be needed to contain inflationary pressures, with markets now pricing in roughly a 53% probability of a move in October. (Source: Trading Economics)

Copper Holds Gains on Stronger China Demand

Copper futures held above $6.55 per pound on Friday after advancing for three straight sessions, supported by signs of stronger demand from China. The Yangshan premium, a key indicator of Chinese copper demand, climbed to $121 a ton on Thursday, reaching its highest level since November 2022. Copper was also supported by expectations of sustained long-term consumption from data centers and renewable energy projects, along with supply disruptions at several major mines. Earlier in the week, however, copper prices dropped to multi-week lows following reports that the Trump administration had postponed a decision on potential tariffs on refined copper. Meanwhile, warehouses monitored by the London Metal Exchange recorded fresh deliveries, with inflows reaching their highest level in nearly four weeks. The increase in inventories pushed London copper into contango, pointing to ample availability in the near term. (Source: Trading Economics)

Ravel Raises $8.2 Million to Scale Blended Textile Recycling Technology

Ravel, a textile-to-textile recycling technology company, has raised $8.2 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round led by One Small Planet, with participation from AP Ventures, Overlay Capital and Lichen Ventures. Existing investors, including At One Ventures, Collateral Good and Betterway Ventures, also participated. The new funding will support Ravel’s expansion from its Seattle pilot plant toward commercial-scale operations. The company’s Purification Recycling™ process is designed to recover materials from difficult-to-recycle blended textiles, including poly-elastane, and convert them into high-purity mono-material fiber using low-energy, non-destructive processes. Ravel said its technology accepts blended textile waste as feedstock, reducing the need to separate materials into pure streams before processing. The company is developing recycled outputs intended to be compatible with existing textile manufacturing systems without requiring subsidies or additional green premiums. As it moves toward commercialization, Ravel is seeking industry partners to validate blended textile waste as a feedstock and integrate its recycled materials into existing supply chains. (Source: Ravel)

Porsche Produces Battery Cells with 100% Recycled Cathode Materials

Porsche has produced battery cells using cathode active material made entirely from recycled raw materials, marking a new milestone in its high-voltage battery recycling pilot project with German recycling specialist cylib. The recycled cathode materials contain lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese recovered from Porsche’s own end-of-life high-voltage batteries. The resulting cells are now undergoing operational testing, with initial results indicating the technical feasibility of using recycled materials in new batteries. Since May 2026, end-of-life high-voltage batteries collected from Porsche Centers across Germany have been processed by cylib using a water-based recycling process. The recovered materials are tracked through a dedicated material account and are expected to become available for battery cell production by Porsche and selected partners from 2028. Porsche said further testing will assess the quality, performance and resource efficiency of the recycled materials. Results from the pilot project are expected in the second half of 2026 and could support the future use of recycled battery materials in series-production cells. (Source: Porsche)

Blue Whale Materials Completes Full Battery Recycling Processing Line in Oklahoma

Blue Whale Materials (BWM) has completed the full processing line at its battery recycling facility in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and begun commissioning as it moves toward expanded operations. The integrated line can process lithium-ion battery cells, modules and packs in a single operation using BWM’s proprietary Blacksand® technology. The process produces thermally treated black mass containing recovered nickel, cobalt and lithium from end-of-life batteries and production scrap. The project represents the first phase of BWM’s U.S. Department of Energy expansion grant at the Bartlesville facility, increasing annual battery feedstock processing capacity from 14,000 to 20,000 metric tons. The company said the expanded capability will allow it to serve domestic customers at greater scale and increase the supply of recovered critical minerals. Commissioning is expected to continue through the end of 2026 as BWM ramps the facility toward its expanded capacity. (Source: Blue Whale Materials)

EGA Completes Acquisition of 80% Stake in Italian Aluminum Recycler Eco Green

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) has completed its acquisition of an 80% stake in Italian aluminum recycling company Eco Green after securing all required regulatory approvals. The deal, announced in April, expands EGA’s recycling operations in Europe, with Eco Green to be rebranded as EGA Eco Green. Eco Green operates two plants in northeast Italy and specializes in aluminum scrap collection, sorting, casting and dross processing. The company distributes more than 70,000 tonnes of aluminum annually, including around 23,000 tonnes of scrap collected at its Villafranca di Verona facility and more than 20,000 tonnes of secondary aluminum sows produced at its Nogara di Verona plant. EGA said the acquisition brings its global aluminum recycling capacity to more than 400,000 tonnes per year across the UAE, U.S., Germany and Italy, with another 200,000 tonnes under development. Eco Green is also expanding its Nogara facility with an additional 20,000 tonnes of annual recycling capacity, expected to be completed in December 2026. EGA said Eco Green’s network of more than 350 scrap suppliers and over 60 European customers will further support its growing recycling business. (Source: EGA)

Lithium Begins Operations to Produce Recycled Lithium Carbonate

R3 Lithium has begun operations at its 154,000-square-foot facility in Covington, Georgia, producing lithium carbonate from 100% recycled battery materials. The company also secured $15 million in Series A funding from investors including Integral GlobalTech Partners, TDK Ventures and Axial Partners to upgrade the existing production line and move toward continuous commercial operations. The facility has 30,000 metric tons of annual battery-shredding capacity and a 2,500-metric-ton lithium carbonate production line, with space for another 2,500-metric-ton line. R3 Lithium said the plant previously produced 99%-purity lithium carbonate from fully recycled feedstock at production scale and is projected to account for more than half of U.S. lithium carbonate production in 2027. R3 Lithium uses a calciner-based crystallization and water-based precipitation process to recover lithium directly from recycled black mass on a single site, without primary mining or overseas refining. The company has secured about $1 billion in signed offtake agreements, including with Trafigura, and plans to develop additional modular lithium recycling facilities across North America and Europe. (Source: R3 Lithium)

Alliance to End Plastic Waste Reports Early Progress Under Strategy 2030

The Alliance to End Plastic Waste has released its 2025 Progress Report, marking the first year of implementing Strategy 2030 and highlighting efforts to address barriers to plastics circularity. In 2025, the Alliance reduced 138,162 tonnes of unmanaged plastic waste and valorized 165,317 tonnes, bringing cumulative totals since its inception to 378,147 tonnes reduced and 418,529 tonnes valorized. The Alliance also helped catalyze $641 million in third-party and impact-investor funding commitments since 2019, while its education and behavior-change initiatives have reached more than 1.5 million people. Under Strategy 2030, it is shifting toward larger Country and Thematic Programs focused on recycling systems and cross-market challenges such as flexible plastics. In Indonesia, the Alliance launched an integrated waste management pilot in Malang Regency and committed up to $40 million to apply the model across multiple cities and regencies. In India, a municipal waste processing facility in Mathura-Vrindavan is operating at 75% capacity and is expected to process up to 300 tonnes of waste daily. The Alliance also advanced flexible-plastics projects in Europe and North America and continued using its capital and expertise to attract investment in circular plastics technologies. (Source: Alliance to End Plastic Waste)

Poly Coated Paper Alliance Releases U.S. Design Guide for Mill Recyclability

The Poly Coated Paper Alliance (PCPA) has released its 2026 Design for Mill Recyclability Guidance, described as the first comprehensive U.S. guide focused on the recyclability of poly-coated paper packaging, including cartons, coffee cups and ice cream containers. The guide provides brands, converters and manufacturers with a framework based on feedback from paper mills representing more than 90% of consumption of relevant recovered fiber grades containing poly-coated paper packaging. It identifies how coatings, adhesives and other non-fiber components can affect reprocessing and classifies packaging features as fully compatible, conditionally compatible, not compatible or unknown. PCPA said the guidance was adapted from existing global resources, including the 4evergreen Alliance, to reflect U.S. mill conditions. The alliance also incorporated findings from RFID tracking, optical sorting and bale audits. The guidance comes as California prepares to implement extended producer responsibility requirements for packaging. PCPA said the resource is not a mandatory standard or a guarantee of regulatory compliance and will be updated as new testing, mill feedback, standards and regulatory requirements emerge. (Source: PCPA)

NAPCOR Roadmap Targets 42% Cut in U.S. PET Beverage Bottle Emissions by 2050

The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) has released a new decarbonization roadmap outlining strategies to reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. PET beverage bottle systems through 2050, even as production increases. Developed by Eastern Research Group (ERG), the ISO-compliant analysis projects a roughly 57% reduction in emissions intensity and a 42% decline in total annual emissions for the PET beverage bottle systems studied by 2050. The modeled reduction is equivalent to removing about 323,000 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles from the road. The roadmap examines 16.9-ounce water bottles and 16.9-ounce, 20-ounce and 2-liter carbonated soft drink bottles. It identifies lightweighting, renewable energy and manufacturing efficiency as near-term measures, while greater collection, recycling capacity and recycled PET content could drive additional reductions. By 2035, emissions intensity for the 16.9-ounce water bottle system is projected to fall about 44% from the 2023 baseline, while the three soft-drink bottle systems could decline 35% to 43%. NAPCOR said further progress will depend on stronger collection and sorting infrastructure, reliable supplies of high-quality recycled PET and continued investment across the domestic recycling system. (Source: NAPCOR)

Philippines Launches National Plastic Action Roadmap to Advance Circular Economy

The Philippines has launched its National Plastic Action Roadmap, a nationwide framework developed with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and government agencies to address plastic pollution and improve management across the plastics value chain. The roadmap builds on a national baseline assessment of plastic waste flows from consumption through disposal and recovery. Its System Change Scenario calls for upstream measures such as waste reduction, reuse and substitution, alongside stronger recycling and disposal systems. Technical experts from a Metrics Advisory Group helped validate the assessment and inform the roadmap. The initiative comes as plastic waste continues to contribute to pollution and clogged waterways, particularly during the monsoon season. By combining interventions across the value chain, the roadmap aims to increase plastic recovery and recycling while reducing leakage into the environment. The framework also provides a basis for government agencies, businesses, civil society and development organizations to collaborate on implementation. (Source: UNDP)

France Drops Mandatory Plastic Bottle Deposit System

France has decided against introducing a mandatory deposit return system for plastic bottles, prompting support from local government associations that favor alternative measures to improve collection and recycling. France Urbaine, the Association of Mayors of France, Intercommunalités de France and the Cercle National du Recyclage welcomed the decision, which followed months of consultations with local elected officials. Under the new approach, municipalities will be encouraged to establish voluntary deposit schemes. A joint report from France’s General Inspectorate of Finance and General Inspectorate for Sustainable Development had concluded that a mandatory system would not improve the overall recycling performance of plastic bottles. The four associations are calling instead for stronger producer responsibility, greater funding for public waste management, increased reuse and recycling, fewer plastic bottles placed on the market, and expanded access to public drinking fountains. Their proposals target a 90% collection rate for plastic beverage bottles and annual collection of 315,000 tonnes. (Source: Reuters)