METALS RECYCLING Irish metals target for recycling
The metal packaging industry teamed up with local authority waste partner- ship arc21 and its waste partner Bryson Recycling to launch the MetalMatters programme to householders across the east of Northern Ireland in February. The campaign is the UK’s biggest industry-funded recycling programme and is focused on boosting collection levels for packaging, involving funding partners from across the metal packag- ing, reprocessing and drinks industries. Funded jointly by the metal packag- ing producers and reprocessors, arc21 and the Department of Environment’s Rethink Waste campaign, the aware- ness programme is designed to increase the amount of metal packaging col- lected from the kerbside and has been rolled out in 11 local authorities. One of the key messages is that there is no limit to the amount of times metal products can be recycled. “I congratulate Metal Matters on
this innovative initiative. Recycling metal packaging saves energy and valu- able raw materials while reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill,” said Northern Ireland’s Environment Minister Alex Attwood.
“The high intrinsic value of used metal packaging like food and drink cans and foil trays is a key incentive and major economic motivation for increasing recycling, adding significant value to kerbside collections and help- ing to keep down the cost of waste collections to the ratepayer. The new programme will help arc21’s 11 constituent councils pro- mote their recycling services through direct mail to local households. It will also use arc21’s education bus and extensive advertising on local radio and public transport. The eight-week campaign will reach more than 407,000 households, repre- senting over half of Northern Ireland’s
The launch at Stormont
population. It is based on a pilot pro- gramme developed by the Beverage Can Makers Europe (BCME), Novelis and Tata Steel,
and supported by
WRAP. The 2010 pilot scheme saw capture rates for metals increase by up to 40% in some collection rounds, as well as increases in collections of other dry recyclables.
www.metalmatters.org.uk The Saturn project shows its metal
Sensor-sorting Automated Technology for advanced Recovery of Non-ferrous metals (SATURN) is a three-year research project that has been designed to demonstrate the enhanced recovery of non ferrous (NF) metals from waste using an advanced sensor sorting tech- nology.
Co-ordinated by RWTH Aachen University in Germany and support- ed by a consortium of four European partners – Envirolink in the UK and Mekon, Titech and pbo in Germany, the EU-funded project claims to have successfully demonstrated how sensor sorting technology can separate NF
metals that originate from municipal solid waste (MSW) and from commer- cial waste.
The drivers behind the project lie in the challenges that Europe now faces. Waste legislation requires the pre- treatment (incineration or mechanical/ mechanical-biological) of MSW before final disposal. While the extraction of NF metals at this stage is techni- cally and economically feasible, the separation techniques applied produce concentrates of different NF metals and alloys as well as substantial shares of impurities. Before qualifying as sec- ondary raw materials for use in the metallurgical indus- try, a separation into the different metals and an extraction of impurities is needed. Current separation methods rely mostly on manual sorting outside the European Union, which means
42 Local Authority Waste & Recycling March 2012
the loss of valuable resources. According to the partners, SATURN enables the advanced sorting to take place in the EU. This adds value and improves energy efficiency thanks to an increase in recycling rates. It also helps the sector to achieve waste recovery targets.
According to the partners, trials have shown how high-purity prod- ucts can be produced and high yields achieved. Further results highlight additional benefits and opportunities for the wider supply chain.
For instance, the partners claim the aluminium product from the SATURN plant achieved over 95% purity. Also there have been significant carbon sav- ings when compared with mining the virgin equivalent.
The project’s final results will be presented at the International Sensor Sorting conference to be held in Aachen, Germany on 19 April.
www.saturn.rwth-aachen.de
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