Copper, one of the most precious metals

"Sustainable Waste Management: The Forefront of Innovation" was the topic under which Prof. Marco Castaldi's organising team gathered a wide range of presentations from around the world:

This work developed combined PVC swelling by organic solvent and ball or rod milling approaches for the recovery of high purity Cu and PVC from thin and ununiform cables in waste wire harnesses.

57.4 million tons of e-waste were generated worldwide this year. This represents a new record. Despite valuable raw materials, only a small fraction is recycled.

On 18 March, a meeting of the EU environment ministers took place. Among other things, the EU Battery Regulation was discussed. Accordingly, the new EU Battery Regulation - as part of the European Green Deal - is supposed to include the environmental and social impacts of batteries throughout the entire product life cycle.

On 18 March, the Global Recycling Day took place and was dedicated to the theme #RecyclingHeroes. In this context, there were many campaigns on social media to highlight the relevance of recycling.

In respect of a limited amount of raw material, costs, CO2 and waste reduction, high precision metal recycling is getting more and more important these days. Contaminations of the melt with unwanted or outright detrimental elements (e.g. C, S, P, Cu or Pb in steel, Cr or Ni in low-alloy steels, Li in aluminium and so forth) are a huge liability toward the ‘‘alloy-to-alloy’’ recycling goal and essentially the only option in this case, is either costly dilution with clean raw materials, downgrading or worst case scenario discarding.

Illegal end-of-life vehicle exports from the EU are a cause for concern

Together with Mr. Thomas Schwarz (photo), Managing Director of Zweckverband Waste Management Region Hannover (aha) Werner Bauer and Dr. Karoline Borner, WtERT-Germany had the pleasure to visit the impressive photography exhibition "Ctrl-X, A topography of e-waste" of documentary photographer Kai Löffelbein in Hanover.

In 2012 the Dutch Waste-to-Energy sector agreed upon a Green Deal with the government to either clean the Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator (MSWI) bottom ash stemming from Waste-to-Energy, or find other applications for it rather than the IBC application in embankments (closed application; IBC = isolation, management and control). As a member of the Dutch Waste Management Association, N.V. HVC was one of the companies that signed this Green deal and committed to the goal stated therein.

In this project, which is being worked on by Fraunhofer Umsicht Sulzbach-Rosenberg with WtERT Germany and em & s, a recycling center is to be set up, among other things, in which various valuable waste materials, e.g. old electrical equipment can be registered.

This study is a comparison of the effect of biochar produced by bioenergy systems, via the pyrolysis and gasification processes, on the immobilization of metals/metalloids in soil.

Due to an increasing demand for valuable and critical metals and decreasing onshore resources, the development of deep-sea mining strategies became more important during the last decade. Both polymetallic nodules and seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) deposits have been identified as potential metal resources for the future.

Several approaches to machine learning algorithms for the analysis of LIBS data collected from scrap pieces on conveyor belt have been tested.

Abstract: The European Commission prohibits the use of classic incandescent light bulbs, and suggests their replacement by energy saving electric light or by compact fluorescent lamps (CFL).

Electrical and electronic equipment that contains private data, such as mobile phones or notebooks, is often stored in private households.

Recycling of metal and aluminium knows no limits because it can be remelted as scrap indefinitely. Pressrelease: REDWAVE Bild: Fotolia

In order to treat household waste Romerike Avfallsforedling (ROAF) located in Skedsmorkorset north of Oslo, Norway required the installation of a mechanical Treatment facility to process 40,000 tpa. Together with a Norwegian based technical consultancy Mepex and German based technical consultancy EUG the project was tendered and the plant build against a technical specification. In 2013 the project was awarded to Stadler Anlagenbau and since April 2014 the plant is in operation with an hourly throughput of thirty tons. The input waste contains specific green coloured bags containing food waste which is collected together with the residual waste from the households. The process recovers successfully the green food bags before the remaining waste is mechanically pre-treated and screened to isolate a polymer rich fraction which is then fully segregated via NIR technology in to target polymers prior to fully automated product baling. Recoverable Fibre is optically targeted as well as ferrous and non-ferrous metals. All food waste is transported off site for further biological treatment and the remaining residual waste leaves site for thermal recovery. In 2015 the plant has been successfully upgraded to forty tons per hour and remains fully automated including material baling.

The waste disposal system in Poland is one of the least advanced in Europe. Despite great efforts over the last 20 years municipal waste landfilling has only reduced from 95 percent in 1991 to 73 percent in 2010. This still means that millions of tonnes of post-consumer waste continue to be landfilled.

Mexico is at the beginning of the clean and renewable energy race. The Energy Reforms were instituted only in 2014 when the new regulatory governmental entities began their work. Nonetheless, they are already working in benefit of new energy companies. There is indeed a very strong basis for a new order and reform, but there are still some areas that have only just begun to get attention.

Waste-to-Energy installations generate around 25 percent bottom ashes, that may be considered non-hazardous waste. On a total of 76 million tonnes of incinerated waste, this means a total of roughly 19 Million tonnes of bottom ashes.

In Oktover 2015, a German delegation including Werner Bauer from WtERT Germany went to Kaluga, Russia for an international exchange of experience in the fields of environment and development. There was a lecture event with an accompanying technical programme on 6./7.10.15 on the subject of waste management.

A novel Pyrometallurgical recycling route is being designed to recycle complex metallic materials containing plastics such as waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE). The new proposed methodology overcomes huge challenges like improved recovery of valuable metals, better control of hazardous substances, improved process control and recycling capacity. The recycling process for E-Scrap would be developed in such way that no waste would be obtained and all products and byproducts could be saleable materials.

The investigation of the effect of moisture on the release and enrichment of heavy metals during pyrolysis of municipal solid waste is essential. This is important owing to: (i) the increasing amount of metals in the solid product of pyrolysis beyond the normalised level; (ii) the effect of moisture on the overall cost of pyrolysis process; and (iii) the utilisation of pyrolysis products.