Egypt: Cemex Egypt has expanded its Cleaning the Nile waste recovery scheme, in partnership with VeryNile, into its home city of Assiut. Workers from the local fishing industry delivered four truckloads of plastic waste to Cemex Egypt's Assiut cement plant.
Cemex Egypt and UAE regional president Carlos Gonzalez said “Since we started working with VeryNile, we have wanted to expand the initiative to Assiut, and we are delighted to see the initiative taking off in our second year of cooperation."
Nigeria: Dangote Cement plans to upgrade its Ibese cement plant in order to use biofuels in its cement production. The Nigerian Guardian newspaper has reported that the plant will receive a pneumatic feeding system for the kiln of its Line 2. Dangote Cement plans to use palm kernel shells, rice husks, coconut shells and sugarcane bagasse, along with sawdust. The producer says that this will reduce its CO2 emissions by 5.2% and help to divert local agricultural waste from incineration.
Project head Sumaila Muhammed said “We carried out alternative fuel resource mapping within our host communities. We decided to collect these wastes and convert them into valuable energy resources as smokeless, renewable biofuel."
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.
Philippines: Cemex Philippines has secured a contract with Manila Water Company for the supply of biosolids from sewage processing for use as alternative fuel (AF). Cemex Philippines has already taken receipt of 10t of biosolids at its Antipolo cement plant in Luzon's Calabarzon Region.
Cemex Philippines’ sustainability and public affairs director Christer Gaudiano said “As pioneers of the use of biosolids as AF in the country, we have just signed what will now create the series of significant steps towards making circular economy a reality."
Sustainability initiatives form one arm of Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum's Golden Arrow award for good management, which Cemex Philippines won for the second time on 9 February 2023.
