October 2026 was a consolidation month. The biggest check was written in hazardous waste, new plastics capacity opened in the Midwest while a chemical recycling project shrank, and the battery materials sector kept attracting early-stage capital. Here is what moved, drawing on reporting from Resource Recycling, Waste Dive and company announcements.
Mergers and acquisitions
Clean Harbors to acquire EnviroServe. The largest transaction of the month was Clean Harbors’ agreement to buy EnviroServe, an industrial and environmental services firm, in a deal reported at roughly $470 million. It extends Clean Harbors’ footprint in field services and hazardous waste handling, and continues a multi-year pattern of the big environmental services players buying regional operators rather than building from scratch.
Circulate Capital backs Bumi Baru. Circulate Capital, the investor focused on plastics circularity in South and Southeast Asia, announced an investment in Indonesian recycler Bumi Baru. The deal is another sign that institutional money for mechanical recycling is flowing to emerging markets where collection infrastructure, not technology, is the bottleneck.
New capacity
Caracal opens a Baltimore hub. Caracal launched a health care recycling services hub in Baltimore, adding to its existing Charlotte location. Hospital and lab waste streams, from sterilization wrap to single-use plastics, are an underserved recycling niche with high contamination challenges and strong demand from health systems with sustainability targets.
Polyethics expands to Ohio. Canadian plastics recycler Polyethics opened a new facility in Ohio, adding processing capacity for polyethylene scrap in a region with heavy manufacturing and packaging demand.
Retrenchment
Loop Industries trims India plans. Loop Industries, the PET depolymerization developer, reduced the planned capacity of its India project. It is the latest chemical recycling venture to scale back ambitions as financing has become harder and offtake agreements slower to close. Mechanical recycling, for all its limits, continues to win on cost.
PCA Middletown closure. Packaging Corporation of America announced the closure of its Middletown, Ohio operation. Containerboard mills are a major consumer of recovered fiber, so closures in the Ohio Valley affect OCC bale demand and pricing for MRFs across the region.
Battery and critical materials
NEU Battery Materials raises $7.6 million. The lithium iron phosphate battery recycler closed a funding round to scale its electrochemical recovery process. LFP chemistry is winning share in stationary storage and lower-cost EVs, but it has historically been less attractive to recyclers because it contains no nickel or cobalt. Technologies that make LFP recycling pay are drawing investor attention.
Aclara and university research. Aclara Resources continued to advance its rare earth recovery work, and Michigan Technological University received a $1 million award for recycling research. Public research money for critical minerals recovery is one of the few areas where federal and state funding has been stable.
What to watch in November
- Minnesota EPR registration deadlines and any further California SB 54 rulemaking.
- Q3 earnings commentary from the public haulers on commodity prices, particularly OCC and PET.
- Whether further chemical recycling projects are delayed or canceled heading into 2027.
Our News Wire section tracks these stories daily. This roundup is compiled monthly by the Real Zero Waste editorial team.
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