Material Recovery

It is possible to process mixed waste streams in individual aggregates and in process chains.

Diana Butron
EU Commission Published Delegated Legal Act
At the end of July, the EU Commission published its delegated act to concretise the taxonomy regulation which was approved in principle at the middle of the same month.
Council of the EU
Council adopts new regulation on batteries and waste batteries
The regulation will regulate the entire life cycle of batteries – from production to reuse and recycling – and ensure that they are safe, sustainable and competitive.
Argus GmbH
Methodology, Design and Implementation of Solid Waste Analysis (SWA), Turkey
The ARGUS approach consists of a well developed sampling and sorting methodology and an evaluation process to predict the accuracy of the SWA results. According to the local circumstances we can propose three different methodologies for SWA. The differences are found primarily in taking the sampling units.
Experts / Involved Parties
M.Sc. Civ Eng Torben Kristiansen
Ramboll
Professor Enrique Posada Restrepo
WtERT Colombia, HATCH, Grupo Pospin
Tim Marth
Allied Mineral Products, LLC
‘SugarcreteTM Slab’ team
SugarcreteTM Slab – Upcycling sugarcane bio-waste into construction materials
The ‘SugarcreteTM Slab’ project brings together experts from the University of East London (UEL) and sector leading organisations Grimshaw and Tate & Lyle Sugar to co-create ideas and offer viable construction solutions for real world applications upcycling sugarcane bio-waste.
Umwelt Bundesamt
Better recycling of boats
Digital product passport can help recycle fibre-reinforced composite materials
European Union
Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions
Identifying Members States at risk of not meeting the 2025 preparing for re-use and recycling target for municipal waste, the 2025 recycling target for packaging waste and the 2035 municipal waste landfilling reduction target
ChatGPT
ChatGPT - the Truth about Zero Waste Initiatives
While zero waste initiatives have gained popularity in recent years, the truth is that achieving zero waste is not always possible or feasible.
ICP Environmental and Geotechnical Engineering
10th Waste-to-Resources -2023
With support of ISWA, Waste-to-Resources 2023, the 10th International Symposium and exhibition on Circular Economy, mechanical biological treatment (MBT), material recovery facilities (MRF) and Recycling from 5th to 7th of June will again be a leading platform for international exchange of knowledge about material and energy recovery from waste.
Diana Butron
Indiana plastics recycling plant caught on fire
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) detects asbestos and organic pollutants
Waste&Recycling
Amazon invests in Canadian bio-plastics research
Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund is investing in Genecis, an Ontario-based bioplastics company founded by scientist Luna Yu. Genecis uses organic waste, like table food scraps, to create a biodegradable bioplastic that is an alternative to conventional plastic packaging.
October 2022 EEC/WTERT Bi-Annual Conference took place in New York
"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:
E-Waste: A Hazardous Treasure Evangelos Gidarakos, Maria Aivalioti*
Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is one of the most complex and heterogeneous waste streams, containing a wide variety of substances, some hazardous, some valuable and some both.
A combined PVC Swelling and Ball Milling Approach for Highly Efficient Recovery of High-Purity Cu and PVC from Waste Wire Harnesses Shogo Kumagai, Harendra Kumar, Tomohito Kameda, Yuko Saito, Toshiaki Yoshioka
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.
Small WEEE plastics in Republic of Korea: Application Material flow analysis (MFA) and safety assessment for recycling Nahyeon Cho, Young-Yeul Kang * , Ji-Yeon Kim, Young-Sam Yoon, Tae-Wan Jeon
To realize a circular economy and carbon neutrality, it is necessary to improve factors that impede recycling, such as plastic waste treatment in the informal sector and manage hazardous substances in plastics for safety.
Assoc. Prof. Grzegorz Lisak
Environmental Sustainability is a national defense responsibility in Singapore
Now Grzegorz Lisak (Head of WtERT-Singapore) has been appointed as a member of EAPES.
ESWET
The EU should reaffirm the role of Waste-to-Energy in the circular economy
ESWET welcomes the European Commission’s 2023 Work Programme and the renewal of the Green Deal’s ambitions.
DGAW, German Association of Waste Management
DGAW Position: Is the EU taxonomy leading us into a waste disposal emergency?
Taxonomy - what is it? The EU Taxonomy Regulation (EU) 2020/852 of June 18, 2020, defines the conditions under which an economic activity is considered environmentally sustainable.
WtERT Germany
WTERT Germany in the Baltic States
On behalf of the German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania e.V. and financed by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment WtERT Germany was to prepare a strategy paper for sustainable waste management in the Baltics and organize a workshop with clear recommendations and impulses.
PetStar
Implementing a circular economy in Mexico through PET recycling
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is an indispensable plastic for our modern society, commonly used for beverage and food packaging. Due to its characteristics like strength, resistance, lightweight, and clarity, the use of PET has increased exponentially since 1990. Nowadays, more than 30.5 million metric tons of PET are produced per year all around the world. In Mexico, PetStar has revolutionized the plastics industry by designing an innovative circular process around PET and the beverage sector.
Recent examples of Plastic Packaging Regulations Diana Tamayo
Plastic packaging is one of the biggest concerns of our society. Plastic represents a valuable ally in multiple applications, such as food packaging, cosmetics, beverage, retail, and many others. However, it has also become a curse. Plastic packaging material flows are mostly linear, meaning that more than 50% of the plastic produced is designed to be used only once [1], ending up in landfills, or even worse, in the forests or the ocean.
How to get started with alternative fuels Hubert Baier, WhiteLabel-TandemProjects UG
Cement plants are capable of consuming a wide variety of alternative fuels, in line with local availability, plant requirements and emissions limits.
Wirtschafts- und Servicebetrieb der Stadt Pirmasens
Future oriented construction with recycled building materials in Pirmasens, Germany.
On the campus of the Technical University of Kaiserslautern in Pirmasens, a pavilion has been built in the beginning of 2021, using almost exclusively reclaimed building materials. The important innovation is that the reprocessed building materials are used in the same way as the original building material, as in precast concrete elements, for example, and no longer as inferior fillers. One can therefore speak of reuse - as opposed to recycling.
WEEE Forum
Potential for Improvement in Handling of Electronic Waste
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.
RWTH Aachen University
Sensor-Based Sorting & Control Conference
The first conference Sensor-Based Sorting & Control took place in 2004. Since then it was organized every two years and stands out because of its internationality. In 2018, 150 people from 24 different countries participated.
J. Energy Resour. Technol.
Effects of Carbonization on the Co-Activation of Sludge and Biomass to Produce Activated Coke Liwei Wang, Lin Lu, Minghua Li, Yulin Liu, Xiaohan Ren, Yiannis A. Levendis
Activated coke was prepared by mixing sewage sludge and waste poplar bark biomass from furniture manufacturing. The physical activation method of these feedstocks with steam for 1 h at 850 °C was implemented.
Podcast Republic
Sustainably Speaking Episode 7: Advanced Recycling: Combining Science and Sustainability
Podcast Episode with Professor Marco J. Castaldi from WtERT US - Listening Recommended!
Waste Recovery Project in Istanbul, Turkey
A new system for waste collection and separation was implemented in Istanbul which should support people in need, clean the streets and gain value out of recyclable materials.
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