Philippines: Holcim Philippines says it is importing alternative fuels or processed engineered fuels (PEF) as it cannot source them locally. It said it was ready to ‘cooperate and provide more information and clarity’ on PEFs in response to plans by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to ban imports of waste. It added that a statement by the Environment Management Bureau had confirmed that PEFs conform to the DENR Administrative Order 2010-06: Guidelines on the Use of Alternative Fuels and Raw Materials in Cement Kilns.

The company said it started using PEF in 2018 and that it accounts for 5% of its alternative fuels consumption. It has been importing PEF to ports at Davao and Tagoloan. It conceded that if the DNER enacts its plans to ban waste imports it would follow government regulations.

The cement producer is responding to a trend against waste imports into South-East Asia. In May 2019 the Philippines recalled to ambassador to Canada in a row over mislabelled recyclable imports. Malaysia has also ordered plastic waste to be sent back to its originating countries.

UK: Andusia has signed a solid recovered fuel supply (SRF) supply contract with Powerday, a recycling and waste management company based in London. Powerday can process up to 1.6Mt/yr of construction, demolition, municipal, commercial and industrial waste.

Powerday completed a Euro2.25m upgrade to its materials recovery facility (MRF) in west London in mid-2018. Andusia and Powerday have formed a partnership in order to export 10,000t/yr of SRF to be recovered at a cement plant in the Mediterranean. This is one of Powerday’s first SRF trades since completing its MRF facility upgrade.

Ecuador: Geocycle has commissioned a XR3000C mobil-e type shredder from Austria’s Untha for its Guayaquil operations. The product will be used to process various waste streams including plastic, paper and wood from industrial waste producers to support cement production. Biomass and municipal solid waste (MSW) processing is planned for the future.

“With Untha’s help, we’re helping Ecuadorian businesses transform waste into ‘ready for co-processing’ materials. We’ve invested in flexible, high capacity, single step shredding equipment, supported with world-class engineering support, so we are extremely excited about this plant becoming fully operational,” said Dorin Pepenel, Geocycle Ecuador.

Mexico: Residents from El Refugio, Atotonilco de Tula have complained about the unauthorised burning of yires at Cementos Fortaleza’s El Palmar plant. The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources stopped tires being burned at the plant in February 2019 due to a lack of an impact study and an environmental licence, according to the El Universal newspaper. Residents allege that the plant has been burning tyres at night since the ban. They are concerned about health issues resulting from burning tyres.