China: Eleven people have been detained in Yangchun, south China's Guangdong Province, after demonstrations against a project to build a waste incinerator adjacent to a cement plant turned violent.

Protesters said the demonstrations drew hundreds of people agitated over the risk of pollution from the project."How will we survive breathing in noxious smoke?" said one of the protestors.

Tension persisted for two days, with protesters saying that hundreds of people had been gathering near the gates of the cement plant.

Germany: SPECTRO Analytical Instruments has launched a new application brief detailing the advantages of using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) spectrometers to perform elemental analysis in the field on soil and sewage sludge samples.

Determining the best course of action when addressing a contaminated environmental site requires precise identification of the contaminating elements and a determination of the amounts present. Traditionally, this elemental analysis has been done in laboratories using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), however, transporting soil and sewage sludge samples back and forth from the field to a laboratory adds considerable time and cost to the remediation process.

The new brief, 'Analysis of Soil and Sewage Sludge in the Field with a Portable ED-XRF Spectrometer,' describes new improvements in portable ED-XRF spectrometers that enable environmental professionals to rapidly characterise samples in remote areas with minimal preparation and with very high accuracy of analysis in environmental monitoring, geochemical prospecting and mining applications. The benefits versus laboratory-based elemental analysis include speed, precision, accuracy and cost-effectiveness.

The brief also outlines key factors to consider when comparing various portable ED-XRF spectrometers and their variations in performance, ease of use and suitability for the field analysis of soil and sewage sludge samples.

UK: International recycling and waste management company Suez opened a new solid recovered fuels (SRF) plant in Rugby, UK on 18 September 2015. It will supply the Cemex Rugby cement plant with SRF for the next 25 years.

Suez's SRF plant will convert waste from across Warwickshire, Northamptonshire and the wider Midlands area into Climafuel®. Suez will supply Cemex with 240,000t/yr of Climafuel; 200,000t/yr from its SRF plant in Rugby and 40,000t/yr from its SRF plant in Birmingham.

The Rugby SRF plant was built as part of a 25-year deal between Suez and Cemex that was signed in 2012. Suez leased land opposite Cemex Rugby from Cemex in 2013 and construction of the Euro25m SRF facility began in 2014. The commissioning of the equipment took place earlier in 2015.

The SRF facility can process up to 300,000t/yr of waste. Around 70% of the input material comes from businesses in the region, while the remaining 30% is household waste, much of it originating from Northamptonshire County Council. The majority of the waste would otherwise be destined for landfill, but the SRF process enables Suez to extract recyclable materials, which, processed any other way, would be too contaminated to viably recycle.

"We are very pleased to officially open the Rugby SRF facility and formally mark the start of this long-term partnership between Suez and Cemex," said Jean-Marc Boursier, senior executive vice president of Suez in charge of the recycling and waste recovery division for Europe. "Suez is investing considerably in infrastructure to produce sustainable industrial fuels in the UK. The group now supplies 1.1Mt/yr of SRF worldwide. This solution gives us the ability to extract recyclable materials that would otherwise have been lost. It provides Cemex with a sustainable, long-term alternative to fossil fuels. This inauguration is a symbol of our commitment to the production of renewable energy fuels. Energy derived from SRF offers numerous advantages, because it is renewable, transportable, abundant and economically attractive."

Vietnam: Holcim is using shoes as an alternative fuel in Vientam thanks to its new solid recovered fuel (SRF) plant from shredding specialist Untha, according to Equipment World.

The new SRF plant will use waste from Vietnam's largest shoe factory once it has been delivered. It was pre-assembled and tested in Austria and is currently being shipped by sea to Holcim in Vietnam. Delivery is expected in September 2015. The SRF plant will convert the waste by using an anti-explosive Atex-specification XR3000 Cutter waste shredder with two 113kW motors, conveyor, over-band magnet, control room and water-powered fire suppression technology. The plant can process 10t of material into the 8mm, high calorific value fuel.