Page 10 from: April 2011
10 April 2011
N E W S
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EU ministers have outlined their
proposals for a revamp of electrical and
electronics waste laws, setting a lower
recycling target than that put forward by
the European Parliament.
The EU Environment Council’s proposed
revision of the Waste Electrical and Elec-
tronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive calls
for 65% recycling within eight years of
the updated law coming into effect. On
February 3, the European Parliament had
voted for a target of 85% by 2016.
The European Commission confirmed in
December 2008 that it wanted to ‘recast’
the WEEE Directive, but it has taken more
than two years for politicians from the
European Parliament and member state
ministers to come up with initial propos-
als. The directive is designed to put the
financial burden for recycling and dispos-
ing of electrical and electronic waste on
to manufacturers and suppliers. The law
states that waste products should be col-
lected and appropriately recycled, and
that consumers should be able to return
these used products free of charge.
The Environment Council has pro-
posed that member states must
collect 45% of the electrical and
electronic devices put on the mar-
ket from four years after the new
law comes into effect, to be raised to 65%
four years later. However, this is not the
end of the negotiations: the next stage is
for an agreement to be reached between
the European Parliament and other legis-
lative bodies through discussions sched-
uled to take place in the second half of
2011. Environmental advocates called the
new requirements a ‘watering down’ of
proposals put forward by the European
Parliament. The 45% approach is too soft
and too slow if the EU is serious about
tackling its fastest growing source of
waste, environmentalists said.
‘They have clearly delayed the collection
target,’ Stephane Arditi, policy officer for
the European Environmental Bureau, said.
‘The main problem is the fact that we
don’t have a proper collection system or
an economic system to incentivize proper
collection and treatment of e-waste.’
Wide gap between
WEEE target proposals
UNESDA, the union of European
non-alcoholic beverage associations,
together with the European Federation
of Bottled Waters (EFBW) have called on
their respective memberships to adhere
to specific design criteria for PET bottles
in order to improve their recyclability.
Incompatible materials can adversely
affect the PET recycling process. Compo-
nents of PET bottles such as barriers, addi-
tives, full-body sleeves and opaque colour-
ing are leading to deterioration in the
quality of recycled PET and negatively
impacting bottle-to-bottle recycling, it is
argued. In order to improve the quality
and economic viability of PET bottle recy-
cling, UNESDA and EFBW have therefore
recommended their members to imple-
ment ‘Design for Recycling Guidelines’ – a
set of specific criteria established by the
European PET Bottle Platform (EPBP).
‘We are encouraging all our member
companies and the wider industry to
review their current and new PET bottle
specifications against the EPBP guide-
lines for resource-efficient PET packag-
ing,’ confirms Cees Van Dongen who
heads up packaging issues at UNESDA.
‘The bottled water and soft drinks indus-
tries are fully committed to operating in
an environmentally sustainable manner,’
adds Philippe Diercxsens, a leading pack-
aging expert and Vice-Chair of EFBW’s
Environment Committee. ‘Our goal is to
encourage members to consider the recy-
cling of PET bottles at the very beginning
of the planning process when developing
new PET bottle designs.’
UNESDA and EFBW hope their members
will achieve compliance with the EPBP
guidelines by the end of 2012.
www.unesda.org
Initiative to improve
PET bottle recyclability
Electronic scrap processor Sims
Recycling Solutions (SRS) has expanded
its European operations by acquiring
two computer and information technol-
ogy asset recovery companies – namely
Dutch-based Device and Germany’s
ergoTrade. The former runs operations in
the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech
Republic while the latter operates in
Germany and Hungary.
SRS’ CEO Graham Davy comments: ‘Our
ICT asset recovery service is already lead-
ing the market in the UK. With the new
acquisitions, Sims will become market
leader in Germany. Meanwhile, our
unique set-up of sites across Continental
Europe will enable us to strengthen our
service offering to clients with multi-
national responsibilities.’ The two busi-
nesses are said to bring expertise within
their local and neighbouring markets and
a number of synergies which provide an
excellent fit with Sims.
The combined businesses will be led by
Thomas Wolff, Managing Director of Asset
Management Central Europe, and by Marc
Faller, European Business Development
Director. www.simsrecycling.com
More e-waste recycling
acquisitions for Sims
China’s leading scrap metal proces-
sor China Metal Recycling (CMR) has
entered into a non-binding memoran-
dum of understanding with Guangdong
Materials Group Corporation (GDWZ).
The two parties have agreed to set up a
recycling joint venture in which CMR will
hold a 58% stake and GDWZ the
remaining 42%; this new entity will have
a registered capital of RMB 300 million.
According to CMR’s board, the proposed
co-operation with GDWZ will enable it
to team up with one of the largest com-
panies engaged in the recycling and
dismantling of scrapped vehicles, as well
as in the scrapping of ships in Guang-
dong Province. The link-up will also help
to enhance and refine CMR’s waste col-
lection network.
Having started up operations in the year
2000, CMR claims to be mainland China’s
largest scrap metal recycler in revenue
terms. Based in Guangzhou and with
recycling facilities in Guangdong, Jiangsu
and Hong Kong, CMR is involved mainly
in collecting and processing steel, copper
and other scrap metals for onward sale.
State-owned GDWZ, restructured from
the Resources Bureau of Guangdong, is
a large-scale enterprise engaged in
various material resource operations.
www.chinametalrecycle.com
Joint venture for China
Metal Recycling/GDWZ
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