Tag Archives: ewaste management

Garb announces new Italian joint venture

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Garb Oil & Power Corporation, of Salt Lake City, Utah, has announced a JV partnership in Rome, Italy to build and operate an E-Waste plant in the Viterbo province. The plant will have 25,000 metric tons input and produce output in copper, aluminum,  alloys and plastic.

Once operational the plant is hoped to provide revenues in excess of euro 6,000,000 ($8,400,000 U.S.) per year of operation. All raw materials will be sold to local entities for further processing. The plant will be locally funded and initial funds are available to start the project, the company said.

The JV will be 51% owned by Garb and 49% by a group already present in the provincial waste recycling business. The company will then build, own and operate a 25,000 metric ton E-Waste plant. The estimated cost of the project including land, building and plant is expected to be approx. $25 million USD and is scheduled to be completed by September 2012. Funding for the E-Waste Plant will come through the engagement of a local bank and will be guaranteed by an insurance bond.

Garb Oil & Power Corporation supplies plants for Rubber Recycling, E-Waste and E-Scrap Recycling, Waste to Energy and OTR processing plants. For more information visit http://www.garbop.com/

WM completes two electronics recycling acquisitions

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Waste Management has purchased two electronics recycling firms, in a series of financial transactions announced Aug. 1.

The company, through its recycling subsidiary WM Recycle America LLC, acquired Access Computer Products, Inc. and Mordell LLC. Access Computer Products provides cell phone, ink and toner cartridge, and consumer electronics reverse logistics, remarketing, and recycling services. Mordell, LLC, a re-commerce partner responsible for refurbishing and selling used computer equipment obtained through Access and other third party suppliers, was also acquired by WM Recycle America. Both are based in Loveland, Colo.

“Waste Management is committed to providing solutions to our customers for managing their electronic waste,” said Pat DeRueda, president of WM Recycle America. “This acquisition will expand Waste Management’s presence in the growing electronics recycling and re-commerce market and provide an additional high value service to our customers. Waste Management is committed to maximizing the value of the components in electronic materials as well as other materials it manages.”

The company has a partnership with Cartridge World to recycle ink cartridges, announced in May 2011.

This acquisition contributes to Waste Management’s sustainability goal of tripling the amount of material it recycles to 20 million tons by 2020.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Waste Management, Inc., based in Houston, Texas, is the largest provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. It is also the largest residential recycler and a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. For more information visit http://www.wm.com/.

 

E-waste should not be wasted

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Commentary by Amanda Smith-Teutsch | Electronic Waste Journal

In a study released last week, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries reports the total scrap recycling industry – including metals, glass, fibers, plastics, and paper, amongst other materials – contributes $90.6 billion to the U.S. economy each year.

Electronics recycling is a small, but growing, part of this impact. The same trade organization, earlier this year, released the initial results of a study on U.S. e-waste recycling and found the industry has already grown from less than $1 billion in 2002 to $5 billion in 2010 in the country. At its conference in May, ISRI said the industry could grow to $8 or $10 billion in the coming years.

What is needed to make sure the electronics recycling industry continues on this path of growth? A positive legislative environment is one step in that direction. Since 2002, 25 states have passed some form of electronics recycling mandate, banning electronics from landfills and usually holding manufacturers responsible for funding their recycling.

A recently announced federal initiative hopes to voluntarily increase electronics recycling. But such voluntary efforts don’t often have the same impact as jurisdictions where the force of law dictates electronics’ end-of-life management. The increasing number of states with electronics recycling mandates is likely one of the driving forces behind this growth, along with public interest and voluntary manufacturer environmental responsibilities.

The U.S. EPA estimates that in 2009, of the 2.5 million short tons of e-waste generated in the country, about 25 percent was recycled.

That’s criminal.

That means that in 2009, the U.S. electronics recycling industry didn’t have access to 1,875,000 short tons of electronics, which instead now sit languishing in landfills, where the valuable commodities of aluminum, copper, plastics, and precious metals are lost forever.

In 8 years, the electronics recycling industry has grown from providing 6,000 full time jobs in the U.S. to 30,000. Imagine the economic impact if e-waste recycling was incentivized throughout the entire U.S., and not just half of it.

Official government photos of e-waste announcement at Round2 in Austin.

 

New electronics recycling industry fact sheets released

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The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries has released its latest set of fact sheets summarizing the state of the scrap recycling industry, and electronics recycling is included in its data.

The fact sheets are downloadable and printable PDF files, located at www.isri.org/factsheets.

“The scrap recycling industry is not only growing in size, but is continuing to play a more and more important role in job creation, helping level the U.S. trade balance, and strengthening the economy as a whole,” said ISRI President Robin Wiener.  “Despite this, many misconceptions about the industry continue to linger. ISRI is a clearinghouse of information about our industry, our members and how what they do is having a positive impact in local communities and around the world.”

In the U.S., the trade industry reported, the electronics recycling industry has grown from less than $1 billion in 2002 to more than $5 billion annually. The industry now employs more than 30,000 full time employees, up from 6,000 in 2002.

Last year, the U.S. electronics recycling industry processed 3 million to 4 million tons of used and end-of-life electronics equipment. More than 70 percent of the collected equipment is manufactured into specification grade commodities — including steel, aluminum, copper, lead, circuit boards, plastics and glass. Commodities are then sold around the U.S. and the world.

Equipment collected from businesses and commercial interested comprises up to 75% of the market, ISRI said, and the U.S. industry has plenty of room to grow – the trade organization estimates U.S. recyclers are currently operating at about 50% of their operational capabilities.

For more on the fact sheets, visit www.isri.org/factsheet

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New federal policy good news for electronics recycling

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Commentary by Amanda Smith-Teutsch | Electronic Waste Journal

E-waste burst onto the national stage yesterday as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, General Services Administrator Martha N. Johnson, and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley were joined by the CEOs of Dell Inc. and Sprint, and senior executives from Sony Electronics to discuss the new federal initiative to promote the U.S. electronics recycling industry. The government also released a 35-page report prepared by the Obama Administration’s e-waste task force, formed last year.

The government initiative will ban all federal electronics from landfill, will place greater emphasis on Design for Recycling, support recycling options and systems for American consumers; and strengthen America’s role as a global steward of electronics at their end of life. Under today’s strategy, the federal General Services Administration will remove products that do not comply with energy efficiency or environmental performance standards from its information technology purchase contracts used by federal agencies, and will ensure that all electronics used by the Federal government are reused or recycled properly.

Such a policy will have far-reaching effects. Jackson noted the federal government is the largest purchaser of IT equipment in the nation, and as it agitates for change as it buys new products and recycles the old, the impacts are sure to be felt industry-wide.

Also discussed yesterday was the importance of industry self-policing through certification standards. That such a discussion was held on a national stage is only beneficial to the electronics recycling industry as legitimate recyclers seek to dispel perceptions of toxic e-waste dumping overseas.

While much of the country already benefits from mandatory electronics recycling, it’s important that the federal government take the lead in advancing awareness for the rest of the nation. That the government is supported in the initiative by some of the largest electronics manufacturers in the nation doesn’t hurt the new policy’s chances of success, either.

The announcement included voluntary commitments from Dell, Sprint and Sony – presumably in addition to environmental commitments the companies have already made – to EPA’s industry partnership aimed at promoting environmentally sound management of used electronics.

“Our goal at Dell is to deliver the highest quality and most efficient products to our customers with the least environmental impact,” said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, Dell Inc. “Last fiscal year, we diverted more than 150 million pounds of end-of-life electronics globally from landfills, and we are well on our way to meeting our goal of recycling 1 billion pounds by 2014. We encourage everyone in our industry to commit to easier, more responsible recycling as we all work to protect our planet.”

“To be recognized by the EPA for responsible e-waste recycling is an honor for Sprint and a chance to build on our industry-first Electronics Stewardship Policy,” said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. “Our current policy and today’s commitment with the EPA highlights our goal to handle electronic waste holistically – from product design to disposal – and is another proof point to our broader commitment to sustainability innovation.”

“At Sony, any product we make and put our name on, we will take back and recycle in the most responsible manner,” said Mark Small, Vice President for Corporate Environment, Safety and Health. “‘We Make It, We Take It Back’ has been Sony’s policy since 1995.  This partnership – in coordination with the EPA and other stakeholders – will help us reach our “Road to Zero” goal, Sony’s vision of zero waste and zero environmental impact throughout the complete life cycle of all our products and related activities.”

News of the announcement was carried not only in the environmental press, but in local newspapers and on major blog sites and news portals. Regardless of the impact the new policy will ultimately have, for one day at least the American public took a moment, glanced at their computers or mobile phones and realized that some day, these devices will have to be handled responsibly.

Commentary – Recycling a key part of mineral policy

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Commentary by  Electronic Waste Journal

The rare earth elements have exotic names: cerium, bastnasite, lanthanum, yttrium, neodymium. But these hard-to-extract elements are vital raw materials for our electronics, renewable energy and national defense. They supply magnetism, luminescence, and strength to our video screens, cell phones and satellites.

Nearly all of the world’s supply – 95% – is sourced from China.  In 2009, reports the U.S. government, global production was 132,000 metric tons. All but 3,000 of those tons came from China. New facilities are planned – Molycorp, of Denver, hopes to produce 19,000 tons per year from its Mountain Pass mine in California sometime next year, and Lynas of Austrialia is hoping to open its Lynas Advanced Materials Plant in Malaysia to process deposits from Mount Weld in Western Australia sometime after government regulations are satisfied.

Still, extracting and processing the elements is expensive and prices are skyrocketing. Neodymium, used in everything from personal electronics to anti-lock brakes and airbags, as increased in price 130 percent, from $130/kg to $300/kg since December. Dysprosium, used to make electronic components smaller and faster, has increased 50 percent over that time period, from $700 to $1050/kg.

U.S. Congress is getting into the act – three pieces of legislation have been introduced this session with the aim of filling the supply shortage of the elements crucial to economic and national security, with one goal of shifting some of the production to the U.S. The bills are:  H.R. 2011, sponsored by Doug Lamborn (R-CO), S.1113 sponsored by Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and S.383 sponsored by Mark Udall (D-CO),

With this emphasis on domestic production, it’s important recycling comes into discussion. While costs associated with recycling rare earth elements have been prohibitive, with escalating costs for the material it is time for another look.

Umicore and Rhodia, two European companies have announced a new recycling process to recover rare earth metals from nickel metal hydride (NiMH) rechargeable batteries.

The companies jointly developed the new process, which combines Umicore’s proprietary battery recycling process and Rhodia’s rare earth refining expertise. The companies say the process is applicable to the entire range of rechargeable NiMH batteries, from those used in consumer electronics to those in hybrid vehicles.

Hopefully the European announcement is just the first of many such developments in rare-earth recycling innovations.

 

 

Global rare earth element production (1 kt=10^6 kg) from 1950 through 2000 20 November 2002 Source http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2002/fs087-02/