GARWER WasteXchange News

Australian environment minister welcomes consultation on waste tyres Posted: 22 May 2008 05:28 PM CDT Minister for the Environment, Peter Garrett, has announced the release of a consultation package on end-of-life tyres for public comment. Mr Garrett said the consultation followed the April meeting of the Environment Protection and Heritage Council (EPHC), which agreed to move forward with a nationally consistent approach to managing end-of-life tyres. "This joint industry/government approach is a great achievement and I particularly welcome the commitment of the tyre industry to finding a solution to the problems associated with end-of-life tyres. "In Australia, approximately 240,000 tonnes of end-of-life tyres enter the waste stream each year. These are landfilled, stockpiled or illegally dumped," Mr Garrett said. "The proposed recycling scheme will drive innovation, decrease environmental impacts and build end-of-life management costs into product prices. "I encourage all interested stakeholders to comment on the proposed scheme during the consultation period, which runs from May to July." During this time, public forums on the proposed scheme will be held in major cities across Australia.

Environmentally friendly recycling of cars in the EU Posted: 22 May 2008 05:28 PM CDT Recycling scrapped cars plays an important role in reducing pollution by decreasing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. A new study has investigated advanced technologies to increase the recovery rate from end-of-life vehicles, which can help EU Member States achieve EU targets for resource and energy recovery. Approximately 9 million end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) are scrapped every year in the EU and recycling plays an important part of the waste disposal process. Cars are primarily composed of metal (about 75 per cent) and a range of other materials. Currently, the metal components can be separated and completely recycled but this leaves a mainly organic residue, which is disposed of in landfills or incinerated. ELVs are collected and dismantled to remove the battery, tyres, fluids and any parts that can be re-used and the wreck is shredded. The metallic parts are separated by physical processes and recovered as ferrous scrap (iron and steel, comprising 70 per cent of the total vehicle waste) and nonferrous metals (5 per cent), all of which is recycled. The 25 per cent remainder is the automotive shredder residue (ASR), which is composed mainly of plastics, contaminated with any metallic and other parts that could not be separated. This is often disposed of in landfills as solid urban waste and is not recycled. The study suggests that recovery rates for ELVs set in the EU Directive on end-of life vehicles1 will not be met until the volume of the ASR is further reduced. Treatment of the ASR therefore focuses on recovering any useable materials, reducing the volume of the ASR to cut down on the quantity that will end up in landfill, and recovering the energy from the petrochemical content of the plastics. Three advanced methods of treating ASR were examined - incineration, pyrolysis and gasification. Public concerns about emissions produced from incinerating or burning the ASR meant this method was considered less environmentally friendly than pyrolysis. No disadvantages were found using pyrolysis, where heat was used to break down the organic material in the absence of oxygen. Treatment of the ASR by pyrolysis yielded ferrous and nonferrous metal contaminants, which could be recovered and recycled and oil which could be used as a secondary fuel. It also produced recoverable gas which could be reused as an energy source and a small volume of solid residue which would be disposed of in landfill. Gasification was also considered a better option for treatment of the ASR than incineration, because the process produced fewer emissions. It also produced gas which could be used as a fuel source and residues that could be used in the construction industries. Manufacturers are advised that incorporating end-of-life management principles into the early design and development stages of vehicle production can ensure maximum recycling when the vehicles reach end-of-life stage.

Legislation boosts the UK waste electronics recycling market Posted: 22 May 2008 05:23 PM CDT The waste electronics recycling industry is rapidly growing in Europe and this is mainly thanks to legislation; principally the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive complimented by the ROHS (Restriction On the use of certain Hazardous Substances) directive, which represent the most important driver in this market. The WEEE Directive aims to increase the 're-use, recycling and recovery' of waste by limiting the amount of waste going to final disposal and providing an incentive for producers to design more environmentally-friendly electrical and electronic equipment through producer responsibility. This measure along with associated local legislation has already had a strong impact on the fast increasing waste stream of electrical and electronic equipment across the EU. On this topic Frost & Sullivan will host a free telephone and web briefing on Tuesday 27 May 2008 at 3.00 p.m. GMT to provide industry participants with an overview of the Waste Electronics Recycling Market. With respect to impact, legislation, along with landfill site scarcity in certain countries, will be the most important driver for both prices and volumes in the waste recycling industry. Legislation is based on producer liability and includes a take-back obligation that aggressively supports recycling of major components. The impact of legislation as a key driver in this market is already visible in countries which have created strong local laws to supplement these EU policies. 'The WEE Directive has already spurred on intense interest and activity in the electronics waste market in Europe. Suppliers recognise this legislation as a key promoter of activity in the recycling market as is evidenced by the growing number of associations assisting companies to comply and regulate the collection, reuse, recycling and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment," observes Suchitra Padmanabhan, Frost & Sullivan's Programme Manager. The market is still geographically fairly concentrated with Germany setting the pace for other countries to follow. The Alpine Region, consisting of Austria and Switzerland, is also well ahead of most other European regions. The United Kingdom and Ireland and the Netherlands also have an important electronics recycling industry that is actively supported by local legislation and pressure groups, which will shape market demand. In the future, the relative importance of the French and Scandinavian (including Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden) markets is expected to grow significantly. Overall, it is evident that the EU is fiercely committed towards enhancing its recycling portfolio and reducing the potential impacts of a rapidly growing electronics and IT industry on the waste management industry. The recycling market is therefore expected to grow rapidly over the next 5 years as the rest of the countries in the EU try to keep pace with both legislation as well as advanced neighbouring countries with respect to compliance and setting up high environmental standards for recycling. Highlights of the briefing include: an analysis of the legislative trends, market activity in growth regions and some responses companies have already taken to address this legislation. This briefing will benefit equipment manufacturers and servicing companies in the waste management market by discussing emerging trends and providing forward projections for the European Waste Management Industry.

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