Displaying items by tag: Recycling

Oman: Raysut Cement Company has launched a programme to recycle industrial byproducts for use as alternative fuel in cement production and electricity generation, to align with Oman's goal of net zero emissions by 2050.

Hilal bin Saif Al-Dhamri, Acting CEO of Raysut Cement, said "We use secondary industrial materials resulting from production processes across various industries. These are recycled in cement manufacturing and are categorised into two types: one that can be reused as an alternative fuel in plants, the other is used as a partial replacement to the main raw materials leveraged for cement production.” He added "We implemented a project to reuse exhaust heat and convert it to electrical energy at the Raysut Cement plant in Salalah. This innovative approach permits the plant to generate approximately 30% of its electrical energy, by reducing around 50,000t/yr of CO₂. As a result, the Salalah Raysut Cement plant stands out as environmentally friendly, distinguished by its capability to provide clean energy for cement production."

Al-Dhamri also noted that the company was able to enhance the efficiency of its Salalah plant through this programme, by reducing the clinker content while improving the performance of cement in concrete. This has reportedly contributed to a CO₂ emissions reduction of around 18% compared to ordinary cement.

Lithuania: Recycling company Ekobāze is set to construct a plastic byproducts and solid recovered fuel (SRF) processing complex in the Akmenė Free Economic Zone. The project is valued at about €12m and received €10m in EU financing, according to BNS News. It will create 60 new jobs. The complex will supply SRF to Akmenės Cementas, the sole cement producer in Lithuania, utilising post-consumer plastic unsuitable for recycling in its production processes. Ekobāze will process other plastic into pellets. Construction will begin at the end of 2025, with production starting in early 2027.

Thailand: Finland-based environmental technology company Tana Oy has entered into a partnership with Thailand-based GMC Engineering, a waste management solutions company. This partnership enables GMC to distribute Tana Oy's recycling machines and landfill compactors across Thailand.

Switzerland: Holcim has acquired recycling, ready-mix concrete and aggregates company Cand-Landi Group. The company employs 250 people across its operations in Western Switzerland. Holcim plans for Cand-Landi Group to supply alternative raw materials and fuels for use at its Eclépens plant. It says that the acquisition will increase its recycling capacity of construction and demolition materials by 100,000t/yr.

Holcim CEO Miljan Gutovic said "The acquisition of the Cand-Landi Group will advance decarbonisation and circularity in Switzerland, a lighthouse market for innovation at Holcim. I look forward to welcoming all 250 employees of the Cand-Landi Group and investing in our next chapter of growth together."

India: Kerala has converted approximately 48,000t of non-recyclable waste into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) for use in cement plants, from the period of January - December 2023. The Department of Local Self-Government reported that 29,826t originated from the government sector and 18,205t from the private sector. The material was collected from households and shops, separated at collection facilities and sent to cement plants for co-processing. The local authorities managed the collection and separation of dry waste.

The state has ‘significantly’ invested in infrastructure for dry waste storage, with 167 resource recovery facilities, 1981 collection facilities, 20,904 mini collection facilities, and 57 storage warehouses over 45,522m². The Haritha Mithram mobile app has led to an increase in door-to-door waste collection and the volume of dry waste processed. The state has added 41 more warehouses so far in 2024 to manage the increased waste collection.

Europe: The European Parliament voted in favour of multiple amendments to the European Commission’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) on 22 November 2023. The amendments remove, modify or make non-binding the PPWR’s 2040 reuse targets. Meanwhile, 2030 targets were made adjustable to recycling rates. Total packaging volumes are still required to drop by 5% by 2030 and by 15% by 2040 in each member state.

Sustainability lobbying organisation Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS) described the introduction of recycling rates into a lower schema of waste targets as ‘comparing apples with pears.’ ECOS attributed the amendments to a ‘barrage’ of false claims, scaremongering and lobbying from industry players.

ECOS programme manager Mathias Falkenberg said “This decision will not sufficiently address rising plastic and packaging waste or the pollution crisis. The European Parliament has just weakened a perfectly feasible solution to tackle throwaway culture without offering an alternative. It is very frustrating that the European Commission’s progressive prevention and reuse agenda has not received full support from the Parliament today.”

ECOS founded the Alliance for Low-Carbon Cement & Concrete (ALCCC), an association of companies focused on alternative building materials production, in May 2023.

Jamaica: Cemex subsidiary Caribbean Cement has co-processed 1t of waste at its Rockfort cement plant under the National Environment and Planning Agency's Adopt-a-Beach programme. Since July 2022, the producer has also recovered 500kg of recyclable materials for processing by its partners. The Our Today newspaper has reported that the cement company has carried out three cleans of its adopted beach, Sirgany Beach, to date.

Finland: Kuusakoski is planning to spend over Euro4m towards building a new composite shredding and treatment plant at Hyvinkää. The investment includes the renovation of a building that currently exists at the Kuusakoski Hyvinkää site, as well as the construction of the new processing line. The new plant will consist of two shredders, several covered conveyors, a magnet and a dust control system. 35% of the spend will be financed by Business Finland from RRF (Recovery and Resilience Facility) funding. Commissioning is scheduled by the end of 2025.

Mikko Kuusilehto, the president and chief executive officer of Kuusakoski, said "Our investment brings the circular economy solution piloted in Germany to Finland. With it, we can provide the best industrial scale recycling process for composite materials locally." He added, "The demand for a recycling solution for composites is rising already, as the amount of composite waste will increase: wind turbines, airplanes, boats and other vehicles contain considerable and increasing amounts of composites."

The shredded composite material will be supplied to cement plants for use as an alternative fuel.

Mexico: Cemex has launched its global waste management subsidiary Regenera. Regenera will be involved in the reception, management, recycling and coprocessing three major waste streams: municipal and industrial waste, construction, demolition and excavation waste (CDEW) and industrial by-products. It will tie in with Cemex’s own cement sustainability initiatives, for instance in its supply of waste recovered from the River Nile to Cemex Egypt’s Assiut cement plant for co-processing as alternative fuel (AF).

Czech Republic: Lafarge Cement says that it has achieved an alternative fuel (AF) thermal substitution rate of 95% at its Čížkovice cement plant. The plant's fuel mix includes contaminant fractions from local plastic recycling. As a result of the move, the plant no longer uses any natural gas in its cement production.

In 2022 as a whole, the producer plans to increase its share of reduced-CO₂ cement sales, increase construction waste recycling in its products and reduce its cement's water consumption.