Australia: Focus Enviro, a waste and organic equipment specialist, has secured an exclusive agreement with Austria’s Untha, making it the distribution partner for Untha’s shredding technology in Australia. Focus has its headquartered in New South Wales and it has a presence in Victoria, Queensland and the west of the country.

Untha’s director for global business development, Gary Moore, described Australia as one of the most exciting energy from waste markets in the world despite alternative fuel production being less developed than in Europe. “Landfill rates are rising, environmental pressures are mounting, China’s landmark movement has forced a new direction for the country’s waste framework, and a number of international waste operators, with a presence in Australia, are driving a global knowledge transfer programme to strengthen resource security,” said Moore.

Colombia: Cementos Argos co-processed more than 75,000t of solid waste in 2018. It burns alternative fuels at its Rioclara and Cartagena cement plants. Its plants also co-process up to 65,000t/yr of tyres.

Argentina: Geocycle has signed a three-year deal with the Province of Mendoza to use tyres at LafargeHolcim’s Capdeville cement plant. Geocycle has spent Euro1.15m on preparing a unit to process the tyres, according to the Los Andes newspaper. The waste management subsidiary of LafargeHolcim has also worked with the local government on setting up collection points for residents to leave old tyres. Geocycle conducted a similar project in Jujuy province in 2018 and it plans to run a similar one in Cordoba province.

Mexico: El Laboratorio de Investigación en Desarrollo Comunitario y Sustentabilidad (LIDECS) has raised the health risks from burning solid waste at cement plants in México state. Jorge Tadeo Vargas, part of the Faculty of Geography of the Autonomous University of Mexico State (UAEM) and a LIDECS representative highlighted the damage caused in Apaxco and Tlalnepantla in México and Hidalgo in Tula at a conference on the issue, according to the Milenio newspaper. Professor Brisa Carrasco of the UAEM Geography department also raised the issue of a lack of regulation and environmental and medical data on the subject.