India: UltraTech Cement’s Reddipalayam plant at Ariyalur in Tamil Nadu has started receiving domestic waste from the Vellore Municipal Corporation. The shipments are part of a local smart city initiative, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. Normally the cement plant sources its waste-derived fuels from a 150km radius but a special exception has been made in this case.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the cement producer and municipal corporations in the state to supply regular consignments of non-biodegradable wastes. At present 24 municipalities and one corporation in the state have signed contracts with UltraTech Cement to supply waste-derived fuels.

Algeria: Groupe des Ciments d’Algérie (GICA) has started testing processing waste-derived fuels at its Meftah cement plant. The pilot project will handle waste fuels and sewage sludge, according to the Algeria Press Service. Testing started in October 2017 and it will continue until 2021 before the plant starts to use alternative fuels commercially. The company also hopes to spread the use of alternative fuels to other cement plants in the country following the pilot stage. The plant is operated by Société des ciments de la Mitidja (SCMI-Meftah), a subsidiary of GICA.

Austria: Saubermacher Dienstleistungs has ordered a XR3000C shredder from Untha for the single-stage processing of commercial and household waste at a sorting plant in Vienna. The Styrian-based waste and recycling company produces refuse-derived fuel (RDF) for the cement industry. The company’s main requirement was that the RDF should have a particle size of less than 80mm and be produced by means of a single-stage shredding process, rather than a two-stage shredding process with coarse and fine shredding. Saubermacher Dienstleistungs wanted a machine with a throughput of at least 20t/hr. It also chose the XR3000C model for its energy efficiency.

Indonesia: Environmentalists have criticised a government plans to burn medical waste in cement kilns. Yuyun Ismawati, co-founder of environmental organisation Bali Fokus, told the Jakarta Post newspaper that burning the clinical waste could cause pollution and that it was only an emergency solution. The Environment and Forestry Ministry asked four cement companies in April 2018 for help with disposing medical waste after two of the six medical waste companies in the country stopped operations as a result of legal sanctions.