IlluMyFi

Hertz Global Holdings reported net income of $23 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, for the second quarter 2015, compared with net income of $72 million, or $0.15 per diluted share, for the same period last year. The Company also reported that adjusted net income for the second quarter 2015 was $88 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, compared with $132 million, or $0.28 per diluted share, for the same period last year. Total revenues for the second quarter 2015 were $2.7 billion versus $2.8 billion for the same period last year. Corporate EBITDA for the second quarter of 2015 was $379 million versus $446 million in the second quarter of 2014. Total U.S. Car Rental revenues were $1,615 million in the second quarter of 2015, down 3% from the second quarter of 2014 as a result of a 2% overall decline in transaction days. This decline was attributable to a decrease in airport rental volume, as well as a decrease in off-airport rental volume due in part to the closure of approximately 200 stores. Total RPD declined 1% driven predominantly by lower fuel-related ancillary revenue. Excluding the impact of ancillary fuel sales, U.S. Car Rental Total RPD was flat for the quarter compared to the same period last year. The revenue reduction experienced during the quarter was partially offset by a 5% reduction in direct operating expense versus the same period last year. Net depreciation expense increased 2% versus last year, due primarily to a larger fleet, while net depreciation per unit per month remained flat year-over-year. U.S. Car Rental adjusted pre-tax income for the second quarter of 2015 was $174 million, a decrease of $10 million versus the prior year period. U.S. Car Rental achieved an adjusted pre-tax margin of 11% for the quarter, which was 29 basis points lower than the prior-year period. Corporate EBITDA for the U.S. Car Rental segment for the second quarter of 2015 was $203 million versus $221 million in the second quarter of 2014. Total International Car Rental revenues were $556 million in the second quarter of 2015, down 13% from the second quarter of 2014. This decrease was primarily due to the unfavorable year-over-year impact of foreign currency, which reduced revenues by $105 million. Excluding the impact of foreign currency, revenues increased $20 million, or 4%. Revenue growth was driven by a 4% increase in transaction days resulting from improved business mix from U.S.-source rentals, primarily in our Europe market. Revenues in the second quarter of 2015 were negatively impacted by lower fuel revenues as a result of lower market prices and a change in fuel purchase plans sold in the Europe market that took effect late in the second quarter of 2014. Total RPD for the segment remained flat year-over-year, excluding currency effects. International Car Rental adjusted pre-tax income for the second quarter of 2015 was $45 million, a decrease of $12 million versus the prior year period, of which $11 million was the result of legal reserve and other related one-time write-offs. Corporate EBITDA for the International Car Rental segment for the second quarter of 2015 was $54 million versus $68 million in the second quarter of 2014. Total Worldwide Equipment Rental revenues were $375 million for the second quarter of 2015, down 2% compared with the prior-year period. Excluding the impact of foreign currency, revenue increased $3 million, or 1%. Revenue was negatively affected by accelerating weakness in upstream oil and gas markets during the quarter. Excluding both foreign currency and the impact of weakness in upstream oil and gas energy markets, revenue was up 6%. Worldwide revenues for the second quarter were favorably impacted by a 2% increase in worldwide equipment rental volumes. The increase in volume was driven by new account growth, which is predominantly derived from small local contractors and specialty segments as we diversify our business. Pricing for the second quarter was up 1% year-over-year. Worldwide Equipment Rental adjusted pre-tax income for the second quarter of 2015 was $42 million, a decrease of $25 million from $67 million in the prior year period. Corporate EBITDA for the Worldwide Equipment Rental segment for the second quarter of 2015 was $147 million versus $166 million in the second quarter of 2014. ■

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13.01.24 09:55

by poandpo.com

Scientists come up with technology to recycle used clothes rather than simply bu...

When you go running in the woods in your running tights, elastane is the reason they fit you so comfortably. Elastane is an elastic material that allows the fabric to stretch and adapt to your body. But when elastane fibers are mixed with cotton, wool, nylon or other fibers, as is the case in many clothes today, the clothes become almost impossible to recycle. It is extremely difficult to separate out the different fibers, and therefore the materials in the clothes cannot be recycled. For this reason, clothes and other textiles are among the materials that we are the worst at recycling. Only about 6% of clothes thrown away by Danish households are recycled. In comparison, 32% of all plastic packaging is recycled in Denmark. But this may change, says Assistant Professor Steffan Kvist Kristensen from the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center at Aarhus University. Together with a number of colleagues, he is behind a new technology that can separate out fibers in mixed fabrics. The work is published in the journal Green Chemistry. "We've developed a method to remove elastane completely from nylon. We're not quite there yet with cotton, because some of the cotton fibers are broken down in the process. But we believe that, with some minor adjustments, we can solve this problem," he says and continues: "In other words, we can disassemble the fabric so that we can recycle far more textiles in the future." It is not easy to separate elastane and other fibers once they have been woven together. Clothes are made by winding the main fibers, such as nylon or cotton, around the elastane fibers, which consist of long chains of molecules. The fibers only break apart if we break the long chains of molecules, explains Steffan Kvist Kristensen. "The many links in the elastane chain are bound together by a small molecule called a diamine. By heating the clothes to 225 degrees Celsius and adding a specific alcohol, we have found a method to break down the bonds in elastane. When this happens, the chains fall apart and the materials separate. "The whole process takes place in what is in effect a large pressure cooker that we feed the textiles into. We then add a little alcohol and some base and heat it up. Then we let it cook for just over four hours, and when we open the lid again, the different fibers will have been separated." When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the United States not only lost several thousand soldiers, hundreds of aircraft, and many of its largest warships. The country also lost access to about 90 percent of the natural rubber they depended on so much. Therefore, like the Germans, they began to produce synthetic rubber. After the war, production of synthetic rubber led to the discovery of a number of derived synthetic fibers that could be used in textiles. One of these fibers was elastane. In 1958, the chemist Joseph Shivers invented elastane, or Spandex as it is also often called in the United States. Since then, elastane has found its way into more a...