Displaying items by tag: plastic

Philippines: CRH subsidiary Republic Cement and its waste management subsidiary Ecoloop are seeking to establish partnerships with 'sustainability-minded' organisations. BusinessWorld News has reported that Republic Cement and Ecoloop process waste for 12 private companies and 30 local government units. Philippines law will require that large organisations recover 80% of their plastic packaging waste by 2030. For 2023, the minimum is 20%.

Ecoloop managing director Angela Edralin-Valencia said “Our goal is to make our cement a greener and more environmentally friendly product. Our ambition is to replace 50% of our fuel consumption with alternative fuel." She added "A lot of investments have to be put in place from our end to get to that number, but we are still reviewing our options.”

Philippines: Republic Cement is supporting efforts to remove plastic pollution from the sea by co-processing the waste in its cement production. The Business Mirror newspaper has reported that the cement producer has partnered with plastic waste collector Pure Oceans to take delivery of shipments cleaned up from off the coasts of Batangas and Davao.

Republic Cement chief executive officer Roman Menz said "Republic Cement is proud to partner with organisations such as Pure Oceans. Their deep commitment towards safeguarding the environment, while making significant contributions to the Philippine plastic waste crisis, is an inspiration for us to continue doing what we do in order to make a tangible impact on our communities, towards building a greener and stronger republic."

Through its partnerships with local fishing communities, Pure Oceans diverted 1.93m bags of plastic waste over the three years prior to the start of October 2022.

Philippines: Holcim Philippines has signed a deal to receive 6.5t/yr of shredded waste from Bunawan municipality’s Panacan barangay for co-processing as alternative fuel (AF) in its cement production. SeeNews has reported that Holcim’s waste management subsidiary GeoCycle will process the AF. The partners aim to increase the volume of deliveries in future.

Davao cement plant manager Sam Manlosa said, “We are proud to provide our host barangay Panacan a sustainable waste management solution and thankful for their trust. We hope this partnership will further expand to other communities and the entire city of Davao so we can be a stronger partner in its sustainable progress.”

Panacan is the 28th community throughout the Philippines to enter into a waste management partnership with Holcim Philippines, and its 18th new partner in 2022. In August 2022, the company secured deliveries of waste collected in Bulacan province’s Binangonan, Cainta and Taytay municipalities in Rizal province for co-processing at its Bulacan cement plant.

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.

Egypt: Cemex has signed a three-year cooperation protocol with VeryNile. Local press has reported that VeryNile is in the process of expanding its waste collection capacity. Through the partnership, the cement producer will provide finance for VeryNile's waste collection equipment purchases and cover its operating costs.

Denmark: Norway-based Geminor has commissioned a new refuse-derived fuel (RDF) production plant in Aalborg, Jutland. The plant is equipped with a windshifter separator, allowing it to extract up to 70% of plastic in residual waste, in addition to metals and wood. This produces a heavy bio-RDF with low fossil content, of the type previously developed by the company at its HUB research facility in Landskrona, Sweden. Though more expensive to produce than other types of RDF, the company believes the fraction offers higher profitability due to its taxation benefits.

India: ACC and Ambuja Cements have together installed a Geocycle Bubble Barrier plastic waste separator in Bhakra Beas Management Board Lake at Sunder Nagar, Himachal Pradesh. The installation will collect the waste for use as refuse-derived fuel at ACC’s Gagal cement plant in the state.

The Holcim India subsidiaries’ first such installation, on the Mantola Canal in Uttar Pradesh, has collected 500t of plastic waste since its commissioning in April 2021, and is targetting a total of 2400t in 2022.

Holcim India CEO and managing director Neeraj Akhoury said "We are committed to building a sustainable future by adopting clean and green technologies. Our efforts and expertise in co-processing has created a unique solution to sustainable disposal of the marine plastic waste that creates pollution. This initiative will also contribute towards promoting circular economy. Taking this mission ahead, we will continue our efforts to implement this innovative technology across the country."

Japan: Austria-based Untha has awarded an exclusive distribution agreement in Japan to Axia. The distributor has taken delivery of a mobile Untha XR shredder for use as a demonstration unit at its customer sites and ordered six more models.

Axia CEO Kazunori Kawata said “China’s ban on waste plastic imports means Japan has sharpened up on its domestic recycling capabilities. The introduction of Untha’s engineering experience will really disrupt the market. Operators are starting to think differently about machine reliability, throughputs and lifecycle costs. As a nation, we must increase our productivity and capacity, and we need a different class of machine to be able to do this – one that is highly configurable, versatile and built to last. Output precision is also crucial.” He added “If Japan is to enhance its commitment to the environment, it is important that we seek to use energy efficient technologies within our waste and recycling facilities. Renowned globally for using 75% less energy than competitors’ diesel-hydraulic machines, the Untha XR shredder doesn’t just improve the net carbon impact of the process – it keeps fuel costs low, too. Some customers have been known to save US$135,000/yr in fuel costs alone.”

China: E-cigarette producer RLX Technology has announced a planned investment of US$3.10m in a used vape pod recycling scheme. The company will supply the plastic waste for use as an alternative fuel (AF) in cement production. It has partnered with the China Siyuan Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to supply the cement produced to infrastructure projects in rural areas.

CEO Kate Wang said “As one of the most essential materials for infrastructure, cement is key to the rural economy. Thus, RLX Technology plans to donate the cement to build roads, bridges and clean lavatories to improve the life of rural citizens.”

RLX Technology will launch vape pod collection in Beijing in September 2021, followed by 10 other cities before February 2022.

Philippines: Aboitiz Equity Ventures and CRH subsidiary Republic Cement says that it is seeking partners to supply it with plastic waste, which it can co-process as refuse-derived fuel (RDF). The Business World newspaper has reported that the company has set a target of 10m plastic bags/day by 2021.

President and chief executive officer Nabil Francis said, “We would like to commit to a very ambitious target next year, and this target is to co-process not less than 10m equivalent of plastic bags/day, starting from the very beginning of next year.” Angela Edralin-Valencia, the resource recovery director of Republic Cement’s Ecoloop division, said, "It's going to be double what we are currently doing, and it's just the beginning.”