Page 24 from: December 2007
New campaign
to collect
e-scrap
A campaign known as ‘Wecycle’
has been launched in the Nether-
lands to promote the collection of old
electronic devices. Initiating the
move is the NVMP Foundation which
groups together manufacturers and
importers of electrical and electronic
devices. The early impact has been
dramatic: in the town of Tilburg,
where the Wecycle campaign was be-
gun, the public has brought forward
hundreds of appliances for recycling.
ARN celebrates
three million
recycled cars
Members of the Dutch car recy-
cling association Auto Recycling Ned-
erland (ARN) have scrapped their
three millionth vehicle and thereby
recycled some 334 260 tonnes of ma-
terial. At present, around 85% of a
car’s weight is being recycled but ef-
forts will be made to push this figure
to 95% over the coming years. Accord-
ing to ARN, this target could be
reached by manual work and through
additional mechanical separation
techniques.
ARN was established by the
Dutch car industry in 1995 with the
objective of reducing the amount of
waste from end-of-life vehicles. To
this end, the body co-operates with
a number of different parties
throughout the car recycling chain.
Dollars from old
coins
A US metals company is hoping
its Congressional representative can
help reverse a federal law intro-
duced last year which prohibits old
pennies from being melted into sec-
ondary ingots in order to prevent
profiteering from the escalating val-
ues of the metals.
Jackson Metals of Southern Ohio
sifts through roughly 5 billion pennies
each year to cull pre-1982 coins which
contain some 1.7 cents worth of cop-
per. According to a news item in ‘The
(Cleveland) Plain Dealer’, the firm
wants to segregate these older coins
for melting by ingot-makers serving
the fixtures and hardware markets.
Newer pennies with a minimal cop-
per content would be re-circulated in
parts of the country where the coins
are needed, according to Jackson Met-
als’ President Walter Luhrman. Ac-
cording to the news report, Mr
Luhrman has been working with his
Congressman Zack Space on a bid to
introduce a bill or amendment to
overturn the penny-melting ban.
Currently, Jackson Metals is tar-
geting Canadian nickels made before
1981 because these contain metal
worth more than 14 cents apiece, as
well as other older coins with a metal-
lic value well above their face value,
according to ‘The Plain Dealer’.
E-scrap
recycling lags
behind
A survey conducted by Kelton Re-
search in the USA has found that only
23% of Americans recycle their obso-
lete electronic equipment and that
41% either dispose of or store them.
The Staples retail group, which
sponsored the survey, is promoting
a collection programme covering its
1400 stores throughout the country.
Begun in May, this initiative gives
consumers the opportunity to deliv-
er computers or any other piece of of-
fice technology equipment to the
store for recycling, for which a
US$ 10 drop-off fee is charged.
‘Between 2000 and 2007, an esti-
mated 500 million computers became
obsolete in the USA,’ says Mark
Buckley, Staples’ Vice President of
Environmental Affairs. ‘We know
that many businesses and con-
sumers want eco-friendly options, so
we’re helping them move from think-
ing about it to taking some action.’
In addition, Staples provides free
in-store recycling facilities for cell
phones, PDAs, pagers, digital cam-
eras, chargers and rechargeable bat-
teries. The company has teamed up
with Collective Good – an organisa-
tion which refurbishes products
where feasible, or recycles them and
donates a portion of the proceeds to
charity.
City’s sharp
decline in scrap
thefts
The Macon-Middle Georgia Metal
Theft Committee in the USA has con-
firmed a substantial decrease in the
incidence of metal thefts in the city of
Macon, Alabama. Having peaked at
84 incidents in December 2006, the
monthly total has since fallen to a low
of nine – a drop attributed in part to
the efforts of the committee formed in
November last year.
The committee brings together
groups affected by metal thefts in
the region, including members of the
central Georgia recycling industry,
law enforcement bodies, prosecutors,
property owners, utilities, railroads,
the construction industry and other
governmental agencies. Its format
has been replicated in other commu-
nities, and committee members are
being asked to share reasons behind
their success with other local and
national organisations.
One key factor in reducing the
number of thefts has been the shar-
ing of information by all those in-
volved and affected by metal thefts.
EU/Russia steel
trade agreement
The EU and Russia have signed
an agreement on trade in steel prod-
ucts at a summit in Mafra, Portugal.
According to Dow Jones News Wires,
the deal modifies quota levels to take
www.recy cling mag a zin.de
A mag a zine for the recy cling indus try is pub lished in
many coun tries. Although these pub li ca tions main ly
cover news of the domes tic mar kets, many of them also
sig nal inter na tion al trends. Recycling International
rounds-up items from these mag a zines which are of
inter est to the inter na tion al recy cling indus try.
The mag a zines we co-oper ate with in pub lish ing
extracts from their edi to ri al pages are:
• Scrap (USA)
• Recycling Today (USA)
• Recycling mag a zin (Germany)
• Magazine Recycling Benelux (The Netherlands/Belgium)
• Recy cling & Waste World (UK)
• Recykling Poland
R O U N D U P
Magazine Round Up
www.mrb-uit gev ers.nl
www.recy cling to day.com
Recycling International • December 2007 24
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