In a move bound to have ripple effects throughout the industry, a pillar of the e-scrap world has announced major closings in Canada and the U.K.

Sims Recycling Solutions (SRS), the e-scrap division of publicly traded Sims Metal Management, announced the sudden closures on Tuesday. All three of SRS' Canadian sites will be closing – accounting for nearly 300,000 square feet of processing space – and "a substantial portion of SRS in the U.K." will also close, the initial announcement reads.

In a sign of the increasingly tight CRT market, regulators in California have moved to increase the payments issued to firms that collect and/or process lower value electronics to help them fully cover recycling costs.

Jeff Hunts, branch manager of the e-waste program at California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), issued a Request for Approval last week to boost the collection payment for materials in the covered electronic waste (CEW) category from 16 cents per pound to 18 cents per pound.

A CRT-collecting e-scrap firm in Utah has come under extensive state-level scrutiny for being slow to address operational miscues identified by regulators. The issues allegedly facing Stone Castle Recycling, which include improper storage of CRT glass, large outdoor and indoor stockpiles of various material and "deficiencies" in current plans of operation, were detailed in a pair of letters to the firm from Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) over the past several months. The most recent letter, dated May 22 and obtained by E-Scrap News through a public records reques

The founder of an embroiled East Coast e-scrap company is being sued for allegedly misrepresenting the firm's value. Jonathan Yob, who founded and served as the president of Creative Recycling Systems (CRS) for 18 years, is at the center of a lawsuit claiming Yob overstated the value of CRS when it was sold in 2012 to a group of investors.

In its annual release of OEM collection obligations, the state of New Jersey made a significant announcement regarding CRT management.

According to a letter sent out to electronics manufacturers and obtained by E-Scrap News, the state's e-scrap program will not allow OEMs to fulfill 2014 collection goals by sending CRT glass for processing as alternative daily cover (ADC).

As firms continue to search high and low for affordable and legitimate options for final disposition of CRT glass, several states with e-scrap programs are taking a stance on using the material as alternative daily cover (ADC).

The issue for officials in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Vermont comes down to whether or not firms can meet original equipment manufacturer (OEM) recycling goals by sending CRT glass for use as ADC. And that debate is often tied into a second question: Are there other viable disposal options out there?

At the closing general session of the 2014 ISRI Convention & Exposition, presumptive presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke to over 1,000 attendees about recycling and how the industry fits into the larger U.S. and global economy, but not without some controversy.

Just as Clinton began speaking, a member of the audience threw a strapped shoe and some papers at the former Secretary of State. Clinton responded with humor, saying, "My goodness, I didn’t know that solid waste management was so controversial.

Want evidence of how difficult it is to craft effective statewide laws for the rapidly evolving e-scrap landscape? Just look to New Jersey and the collection quagmire that's unfolded there.

According to a state official and various e-scrap stakeholders in the Garden State, materials recovered under the state's e-cycling law have piled up at some collection sites in recent months, in large part because industry consolidation and the ongoing CRT dilemma have sparked major funding deficits when it comes to moving material downstream.

Industry certification bodies R2 Solutions and Basel Action Network (BAN) released formal clarifications this week on the way certified firms may handle CRT glass.

Issuing a formal rule clarification on March 26, R2 announced board members unanimously moved to ban the use of CRT glass as alternative daily cover (ADC) under the new iterati

The leader of a key House environmental subcommittee said a much-discussed federal bill limiting e-scrap exports will not be taken up in the current Congress.

In a meeting with the Institute of the Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Rep.