16.1.17

Recycle Technology and Spot Energy Commodities

In an effort to drive down the cost of technologies needed to reuse, recycle and re-manufacture materials such as metals, fibers, polymers and electronic waste, the Energy Department has announced the creation of its Reducing Embodied-energy and Decreasing Emissions Institute.

REMADE is part of the Manufacturing USA initiative, aimed at achieving a 50 % improvement in overall energy efficiency by 2027.

Headquartered in Rochester, New York, REMADE will leverage up to $70 million in federal funding, subject to appropriations.

In 2016, the spot energy index in the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index rose more than any other commodity group, some 48 %, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.

Among individual commodities, zinc, natural gas, crude oil and diesel saw larger percentage increases than all other commodities.

EIA notes that commodity price movements for 2016 were influenced by global economic growth as well as by commodity-specific supply-side factors.