Recycling Industry News
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Treatment specifications for cooling appliances |
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April 01, 2007.
The household appliance industry (represented by CECED), electro scrap take-back schemes (WEEE Forum) and specialist electronics recyclers (EERA) have agreed on a set of specifications with respect to the collection, transportation, storage and treatment of end-of-life household cooling and freezing appliances containing hydrocarbons (HC).
Since the mid-1990s, HCs such as butane, propane and pentane have almost completely replaced ozone-depleting gases such as CFC (chlorofluorocarbon), HCFC (hydrochlorofluorocarbon) and HFC (hydrofluorocarbon) which had been used as refrigerants and blowing agents for refrigerator foam insulation. The three organisations have developed the specifications because EU Directive 2002/96/EC on waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) does not specify how appliances containing HCs should be treated in the recycling process. HCs are flammable and so the aim has been to create a treatment specification that respects health and safety requirements.
The ... more
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Wal-Mart to reduce packaging |
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April 01, 2007.
In order to cut costs as well as protect the environment, the world’s leading retailer Wal-Mart has formally launched a plan to reduce excessive packaging.
According to the company’s President and CEO Lee Scott, Wal-Mart will co-operate with its suppliers to reduce all packaging by 5% before 2013. This would be equivalent to cutting the number of truck movements by 213 000 per year, or saving 324 000 tonnes of coal or 67 million gallons of diesel oil. Cost savings to Wal-Mart are estimated at US$ 3.4 billion.
... more
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Boost for steel can recycling |
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March 01, 2007.
More than 5 million tonnes of steel cans were recycled in 2005 - equivalent to a recycling rate of 64.9%, according to the Brussels, Belgium-based International Iron and Steel Institute’s Committee on Packaging (PACKCO). This means that the rate increased by 7.4 percentage points between 2001 and 2005.
Around 25% of all the steel in a can comes from recycled sources. Chairman of PACKCO Roger Steens comments: ‘Packaging steel has again justified its unique position as a sustainable material for the packaging industry. Steel cans are not only durable, tamper-resistant, shelf-stable and convenient containers, but also very considerate to the environment. Recycling has always been a priority for the steel industry.’ ... more
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Thumbs-up for specialist fridge recycling units |
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May 01, 2007.
The best possible approach to recycling end-of-life fridges and freezers is to bring them together with CFC-containing appliances in a single specialist recycling plant, according to a life-cycle assessment study carried out by the Öko-Institut in Darmstadt, Germany.
Modern advanced fridge recycling plants are able to process obsolete refrigeration appliances without prior sorting, irrespective of the refrigerant in the cooling circuit or the blowing agent in the polyurethane foam. The environmental scientists at the Öko-Institut conclude that the joint processing - or ‘mixed-mode processing’ - scores higher on all key environmental indicators than any other treatment mode currently being practised in which prior sorting of appliances is performed.
The association is hoping the study’s unambiguous conclusions will put an end to any proposals to modify the EU’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive and its associated implementing regulations in EU member ... more
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New route to circuit board recycling |
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May 01, 2007.
Electronic circuits in discarded computers, mobile phones and other devices could be recycled less harmfully using a technique developed by researchers at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. Unlike current methods, the new technique can be used to reclaim valuable metals such as copper without releasing toxic fumes into the atmosphere, such as occurs when circuit boards are introduced into copper smelters.
The new approach involves crushing boards and using a high-voltage electric field to separate metallic and non-metallic materials. The metals can then be reclaimed by distilling in a vacuum while the non-metal components can be compacted into plates for use as building materials.
Printed circuit boards are made from insulating layers of fibre glass and resin, with electronic components and interconnecting circuitry on top. The number of these boards manufactured worldwide is growing by around 9% per annum, with China and Taiwan alone producing more than 200 million square metr ... more
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Panda paper |
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May 01, 2007.
A Chinese animal centre is making sure nothing goes to waste with its proposal to turn panda dung into paper.
Liao Jun, a researcher at Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base, says the idea came to workers during a visit to Thailand where they came across paper made from elephant dung. They thought fibre-rich panda droppings would produce an even finer quality paper and are in talks with several paper mills. Jing Jing, Ke Bi, Ya Ya and dozens of other pandas living at the Chengdu breeding base produce around 200 tonnes of dung each year, which consists mainly of bamboo and fibre. The animals lack an efficient digestive tract and absorb less than 20% of what they eat.
It is hoped waste from the pandas will be turned into reams of office paper and rolls of wrapping paper. The researchers are aiming to bring a production line on stream by next year. Mr Liao says: ‘We are not interested in doing this for the profits but to recycle the waste. It’s environmentally friendly, we can use the pap ... more
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Say ‘I do’ in a disposable wedding dress |
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May 01, 2007.
She has designed throw-away clothes, dishes and textiles out of paper. Now Finland’s Tuija Asta Järvenpää has found a new market: disposable wedding dresses. Prototypes have been made out of shiny, translucent white paper and have been designed for one-trip use only. The basic model can be styled with various prints as well as ornamental cut-in patterns and folds, and is available in medium and large sizes.
With this latest initiative, Ms Järvenpää aims to show that even disposable products can be valuable. Now working in a design studio in Helsinki, she was educated at the prestigious Gerrit Rietveld Art Academy in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. By creating products that are explicitly designed for a short life-span, she is looking to offer an alternative that will not only help render people’s lives more comfortable but also gradually change their patterns of behaviour.
The wedding dresses made out of paper were introduced during an exhibition at the Kunsthalle in Helsinki. A ... more
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