Ardagh honored for innovation

Ardagh Group, the parent company of glass container plants in Dunkirk and Winchester, continues to break new ground in the area of environmental best practices.
The company has been presented with a Resource Recovery Award for successfully recycling pellets used in water softening at its Dongen plant in The Netherlands.
The pellets are a residual waste product from water treatment, and Ardagh has found a way to use them to replace limestone as a raw material in the production of clear container glass.
Ardagh developed a purpose-built truck which dries the pellets when they are in transit between the water treatment plant and the glass factory, using a CO2-neutral drying process that relies on the heat from the truck’s engine.
The process has resulted in Ardagh consuming 10 percent of the annual Dutch production of the softening pellets.
The award was presented at the International Resource Recovery Conference in Belgium by the International Water Association and is in recognition of world class achievements with the most positive environmental impact.
“This particular solution, replacing 7,000 tons of limestone with the calcite grains, required thorough development and testing,” said Sven-Roger Kahl, glass technology manager for Ardagh Glass Europe, in a prepared statement. “Our sister plants are now looking carefully at how they can adopt the technology.”

More jobs added
Excellon Technologies Inc., a Fort Wayne supplier of high-tech clothing for the defense and aerospace industries, expects to add 415 jobs over the next three and a half years.
The jobs will be related to the expansion of production of CapeAble Sensory Products, a line of weighted clothing that provides a calming pressure for those dealing with stress, anxiety, autism, and a variety of other health conditions. The line involves 18 different products.

Tickets on sale
The Jay County Chamber of Commerce has announced that tickets are now on sale for the annual Food and Drink Festival, formerly known as Taste of Jay County.
The event is set for Sunday, Sept. 27, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Jay Community Center, Portland. Tickets are $15 for adults, and $12 for seniors and children of 5 to 12 years of age.

Now an anchor
A South Adams High School graduate has been promoted to the position of main anchor for WFFT Local News First at Ten.
Brooke Welch, a Berne native and graduate of Huntington University, began her broadcasting career in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Gigabit city
Bluffton is now calling itself Indiana’s first “gigabit city.” Residents now have access to Internet speeds p to 100 times faster than typical residential broadband service.
The upgrade is the result of a public-private partnership between city government and Adams-Wells Internet Telecom TV.

Expanding
Metaldyne LLC plans to expand its operations in Bluffton. No new jobs are expected to result from the 37,000-square-foot expansion of the company’s current plant.

Unleash chickens
McDonald’s announced this week it plans to transition to cage-free eggs over the next 10 years at its restaurants in the U.S. and Canada.
The fast-food industry has been under pressure from animal welfare groups to make the change. Burger King has also made a cage-free commitment.
McDonald’s USA buys about 2 billion eggs a year. That’s about 2 percent of the entire U.S. egg supply.