Page 31 from: April 2008

hold waste market is unsustainable.’
For its part, the IWMA claims

this type of decision should not be
made at local government level. Its
Secretary Erik O’Donovan observes:
‘What’s happening here is that the
Dublin authorities are trying to
grant themselves exclusive rights to
the household waste market in the
Dublin region. It’s a clear example of
excluding private competition and
restricting consumer choice. The
IWMA doesn’t think this decision is
necessary or proportionate. You can-
not have a market operator dictat-
ing the competitive pitch for its com-
petitors – this doesn’t happen else-
where across Europe.’

Steve Cowman, CEO of waste
management company Greenstar
Ireland, agrees that Dublin should
not be both a regulator and competi-
tor in the waste market. ‘This deci-
sion could mean the council is air-
brushing private contractors out of
the market,’ he says. ‘This could
cause a precedent across Ireland and
prove attractive for other local au-
thorities to use their powers to cre-
ate a monopoly on waste collection.’

And he continues: ‘We don’t have
a problem competing with local au-
thorities but we do have a problem
competing when they are the regu-
lators. The council has said that it
will be reviewing the waste permits
of the 100 companies who collect
household waste. The truth is this
number has been exaggerated.
There is always going to be a certain
amount of overlap and the markets
always sort each other out.’

Metso expands
Ohio operations

The North American division of
Metso Minerals Industries, Inc. has

announced plans for a major new ex-
pansion of its manufacturing opera-
tions in north-east Ohio. To be locat-
ed near the company’s existing engi-
neering and manufacturing site in
Brunswick, the new fabrication fa-
cility will produce Lindemann scrap
metal shears and small shredders,
and will also provide a rebuilding
service for rotors used in automotive
shredders.

The company expects the new fa-
cility to be on stream in the spring
of 2008. It will have a total crane ca-
pacity of 80 tonnes and is expected
to double the fabrication capacity of
Metso Minerals Industries’ opera-
tions in Ohio. To support this in-
crease in production, the company
has added personnel in the automa-
tion, mechanical design, electrical
design and controls departments,
along with control panel building
and assembly.

Alcoa launches
UBC recycling
website

Alcoa has launched a new corpo-
rate website detailing the impor-
tance of recycling and how it helps
the environment and the economy.
The website also provides: tools to
help consumers and businesses lo-
cate recycling centres; links to recy-
cling organisations; information on
how to become an Alcoa-approved
recycler; fun facts; an interactive re-
cycling blog; and a selection of
YouTube videos from recycling en-
thusiasts.

Another video explains how the
aluminium beverage can is recycled
and returns to the grocery shelf in
60 days or fewer as a brand new
drinks vessel.

Alcoa has also called upon alu-
minium industry leaders to raise
North America’s used beverage can
recycling rate from around 52% to
75% by 2015. And with the aim of
boosting recycling and energy sav-

ings, Alcoa has also upgraded its
Tennessee operations by installing
environmental and fuel-efficient
technologies to expand recycling ca-
pacity by nearly 50%.

www.alcoa.com/recycling

Audi ready for
EU recycling
standards

German car manufacturer Audi
claims to be ready to meet the EU
standards for reuse which all Euro-
pean car manufacturers will have to
apply as of mid-2010. At that time,
all new models of car must be 85%
recyclable while at least 95% of the
materials within the cars must be
suitable for reuse. According to
Audi, the company recognised the
need for higher recycling standards
many years ago and, as a result, be-
gan making its cars more suitable
for recycling as early as the year
2000.

Booming envi-
ronmental tech-
nology market

According to an official German
study, the global environmental tech-
nology market already totals more
than Euro 1000 million (US$ 1570
million) and is expected to double in
size to around Euro 2200 million by
the year 2020. Europe emerges as a
leading player both in the production
of environmental technology and also
as a purchaser. In the alternative en-
ergy sector, Europe – and particularly
Germany – is acknowledged as a
world market leader.

R O U N D U P

www.mrb-uit gev ers.nl

www.recy cling to day.com

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