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ENERGY FROM WASTE


Technology drives European aluminium can recycling success


THE simple aluminium can is a perfect example of successful waste and recycling management. In 2018, Europe’s recycling rate for the aluminium drinks can reached a new record high of 75%. This is up from 54% in 2010.


This is an important recycling success story, especially when it is estimated that around 200bn aluminium cans are used globally each year. In fact, the aluminium drinks can is the most recycled packaging product on the planet.


The recycling success of aluminium is not limited to simple drinks cans: the overall rate for aluminium packaging has risen from 41% in 2010 to 52% in 2018. However, the growth in the recycling rate may not be enough to reach the Alupro [Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation) 2020 target of 85%. The latest record 75% recycling rate is only a 3% increase on 2017.


Technology drives recycling success The recycling of aluminium drinks cans is a true success story. Producers of other products, such as plastic bottles, could learn a great deal from the way Alupro and other aluminium organisations turned the packaging product into a global recycling phenomenon. This is a function of design, marketing and simple economics.


Product design


The product design is simple. The only mistake was made in the early 1990s when a plastic widget was introduced to beer cans which, although it could be


separated from the shredded aluminium, produced additional waste.


Marketing


The marketing campaign executed by Alupro and other organisations around the world has been excellent. They reached out to schools, businesses, charities, and recycling organisations. People were willingly separating and collecting aluminium cans. This resulted in a huge awareness of the recycling nature of aluminium.


Economics


Unlike many waste products, a used aluminium can has a meaningful value. In fact, the return on recovering aluminium cans is often key to the successful running of a recycling operation.


Technology enables recovery Although there are initiatives to collect aluminium cans, the ability to successfully recover the material from other waste is a key reason for the product’s recycling success. Since the late 1980s, recycling companies have used the Eddy Current Separator. The magnetic system dynamically expels aluminium cans from non-metallic waste. This automated method is simple to use and relatively inexpensive with a very quick return on investment.


An Eddy Current Separator consists of a short belt conveyor that has its drive located at the return end and a high- speed magnetic rotor system installed at the discharge end. The magnetic rotor, which is positioned within a separately rotating non-metallic drum, revolves at around 3,000 revolutions per minute during operation whilst the outer drum cover rotates at the speed of the Eddy Currents’ belt conveyor.


As the eddy current system's rotor spins at these high speeds, an electric current is induced into conducting metals. The induced electric current produces a magnetic field, which opposes the field created by the rotor, repelling the conducting metals over a pre-positioned splitter plate. The remaining materials such as plastics, glass and other


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dry recyclables will simply free-fall over the rotor, separating them from the repelled metals.


Increasing future recycling rates Recycling and waste management has never had a higher profile. This latest positive news offsets the continued negativity surrounding single-use plastic and plastic waste. Although recycling plastic is more difficult, maybe the industry can learn from the aluminium success story.


www.buntingeurope.com


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