Gold from garbage - some seem to be getting it right

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Article from  here

Environment: Getting Gold From Garbage – 

How Some Are Making Waste A Resource

Source: European Commission
Published Tuesday, April 17, 2012 - 10:36

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Top performing Member States have recycling rates of up to 70 % and bury virtually nothing, whilst others still landfill more than three-quarters of their waste. How have the best performers turned waste from a problem into a resource? A new report from the European Commission today explains that it is by combining economic instruments. A mix of landfilling and incineration taxes and bans, producer responsibility schemes and pay-as-you-throw prove to be the most effective tools in shifting waste streams to more sustainable paths.. If the EU is to meet the objectives set out in the Resource Efficiency Roadmap – zero landfilling, maximising recycling and reuse, and limiting energy recovery to non recyclable waste – these economic instruments will need to be introduced more widely across all Member States.

Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik said: "Waste is too valuable to just throw away, and if you manage it right you can put that value back into the economy. Six Member States now combine virtually zero landfilling and high recycling rates. Not only do they exploit the value of the waste, they have created thriving industries and many jobs in the process. This report shows how they achieved it: by making prevention, reuse and recycling more economically attractive through a selection of economic instruments. We now have a common responsibility with the Member States and local authorities to ensure that these instruments are effectively used and spread across the EU. This is one of the central goals of the Resource Efficiency Roadmap."

Experience in the Member States shows that a combination of the following instruments is the best way to improve waste management:

Landfill and incineration taxes and/or bans – the results of the study are unequivocal: landfilling and incineration rates have decreased in countries where bans or taxes have driven up costs for landfilling and incineration.

"Pay-as-you-throw" schemes have proved very efficient in preventing waste generation and encouraging citizens to participate in separate waste collection.

Producer responsibility schemes have allowed several Member States to gather and redistribute the funds necessary to improve separate collection and recycling. But cost-efficiency and transparency vary greatly between Member States and between waste streams, so these schemes need careful planning and monitoring.

Significant differences between Member States

There are significant differences in waste management between Member States. According to a Report published by Eurostat on 27 March (see STAT/12/48), the most advanced six Member States - Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Sweden and The Netherlands - landfill less than 3 % of their municipal waste. At the other extreme, 9 Member States are still landfilling more than 75 % of their municipal waste. Recent statistics published by Eurostat show continuous progress in some new Member States, where recycling rates are increasing rapidly. Municipal waste generation has also decreased in several Member States probably due to the economic downturn.

Economic Instruments needed to reach EU objectives

Replicating these instruments in all Member States will be necessary if the EU is to meet the targets set out in its waste legislation and its targets for resource efficiency. This is why the possibility of making their use legally binding in some cases will be assessed in a 2014 review of EU waste targets. The Commission is also including sound waste management in conditions for receiving certain European funds (see IP/11/1159 and MEMO/11/663).

Waste is good business

Meanwhile the Commission is encouraging Member States to implement existing waste legislation more effectively. Waste management and recycling industries in the EU had a turnover of € 145 billion in 2008, representing around 2 million jobs. Full compliance with EU waste policy could create an additional extra 400 000 jobs within the EU and an extra annual turnover of € 42 billion (see IP/12/18). Improved waste management would contribute to achieving several objectives and targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart sustainable and inclusive growth.

More information

The report and detailed results for each Member State:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/use.htm

ESTAT Report on municipal waste management:

STAT/12/48

Study on macroeconomic modelling of sustainable development and the links between the economy and the environment:

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/enveco/studies_modelling/index.htm#macro

Commonwealth Product Stewardship: corporates: resource recovery from E-waste

Logo from Wingecarribee Shire Council site

This item was sourced from 4-Traders

11/17/2011 | 08:20 pm

Enter MOU to acquire an 

E-waste recycling company

17 November 2011
ANNOUNCEMENT HydroMet enters MOU to Acquire an E-waste Recycling Company An Emerging Market in the Waste Management Industry

The Board of HydroMet Corporation is pleased to announce that, as part of its diversification and expansion plan, the company has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with a rapidly growing E-waste recycling company, PGM Refiners Pty Ltd, to take a controlling stake via a new share placement which would be funded by HMC from internal resources.

PGM is an Australian based company with a newly upgraded processing facility in Dandenong, Victoria and has plans for expansion into other states. The company expects that with the recently passed Commonwealth Product Stewardship specifically designed to increase E-waste recycling rates, reduce E-waste from landfill and reduce illegal exports, there will be substantial quantities of E-waste requiring to be recycled by companies such as PGM.

PGM has designed and developed its own technology to recover valuable commodities such as aluminium, copper, steel, plastics and precious metals from electronic waste. It also separates and upgrades the television glass fraction (CRT) which predominantly contains lead to be sent for lead recovery by lead smelters. It is expected the above acquisition should increase the combined processing capability of both Hydromet and PGM and along with downstream processing will offer an enhanced one stop solution to the growing E-waste problem in Australia. The senior members of PGM's management team should offer further resources and strength to the overall growth of Hydromet in the future.

On completion of the final agreement, this acquisition is subject to the approval of PGM shareholders and, as Dr Lakshman Jayaweera, Chairman of Hydromet, and his son Mr Karvan Jayaweera have interests in and are directors of PGM, approval of this transaction by Hydromet shareholders is also required under the Corporations Act. The Hydromet shareholders meeting to approve this transaction should take place in February 2012.

For further information:
Gregory Wrightson
Managing Director
02 4271 1822
Lot 3, Five Islands Road, Unanderra NSW 2526 Australia
PO Box 42, Unanderra NSW 2526 Australia
Telephone: +61 2 4271 1822 Facsimile: +61 2 4271 6151
Website: www.hydromet.com.au email: office@hydromet.com.au

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The cans and can'ts of recycling and resource recovery

Bin it properly, there's no time to waste

• COUNCIL

19 NOV 11 @ 06:03AM BY MATT PEARSON

Waste transfer recycling station manager Mick Pombert at Chullora. Picture: SIMON BULLARD

MANY OF us have stood bleary eyed over the recycling bin first thing in the morning pondering whether that thing in our hand is rubbish or recycling.

But have you ever wondered where it all goes after the decision is made?

Well, the answer is probably somewhere like Chullora Resource Facility.

The 13.5ha site, run by waste management company SITA, takes in refuse and recycling from across Sydney and operates in much the same way as the sites used by Woollahra Council in Alexandria and Rockdale.

Despite being one of the city’s smaller sites, Chullora still deals with between 600 and 800 tonnes of waste and recycling each day.

Much of the sorting is done by machines, which predominantly use weight to distinguish between different materials, but the human touch is still needed to pick out the waste and to do some of the sorting.

For example, green, brown and clear glass are separated by hand so they can be recycled effectively.

Woollahra Council waste projects co-ordinator Pamela Mina explained that the commercial success of these operations proved Sydney residents were really getting the message about recycling.

“Our community is really good at recycling,” she said.

“We’ve got really good recycling rates. I think we have an 80 per cent recovery rate at the moment.

“So people are pulling out and separating 80 per cent of what’s recyclable from their garbage. Awareness and education is a huge focus for us, getting the message out there about what is recyclable.

“We hold a lot of workshops for residents, so they are able to actually go out there and actively participate in waste minimisation.”

RECYCLING RULES
* All hard plastics can now be recycled; you no longer need to pay attention to the numbers or symbols on packaging.
* Soft plastics, such as bubble wrap, should not go in recycling bins.
* The parts of pizza boxes that have food on them cannot be recycled but the clean areas can.
* Items smaller than a 50 cent coin are almost impossible to recycle effectively; consider this when deciding what to do with bottle tops.
* Plastic bags can’t currently be recycled and anything you put in a plastic bag, even if it’s in the recycling bin, will go into landfill.
* Bottles and jars are the only type of glass that you should recycle. Drinking glass, window glass or other types have a different melting temperature.

The article above was so informative that I had to reprint it.

It has come from here