Page 24 from: January / February 2014
24 January/February 2014
The KleanKover recycling initiative from Kuusakoski US spans the collection, sort-
ing and crushing of cathode ray tubes (CRTs).
‘The leaded funnel glass is stabilised chemi-
cally to prevent leaching,’ notes the company’s
vice president of sourcing, sales and logistics
Anssi Takala. ‘So it can be rendered non-haz-
ardous.’ After extensive testing, the glass is then
sent to a municipal waste landfill facility to
serve as alternative daily cover (ADC). Previ-
ously, only compressed virgin soil has been
used to top off a day’s deposits of waste.
‘In my experience, no matter where you are –
whether in Europe or the States – you have to
deal with CRT glass,’ says Takala. ‘It is a problem
that has surfaced practically everywhere. That
is why we challenged our partner Peoria Dis-
posal Company to come up with a sustainable
use for our treated CRT glass.’
Huge stockpiles
The ‘best part’ about
the resulting solution,
according to Takala, is
that the company can
finally handle incom-
ing volumes and does
not have to stockpile
material. He cites 2013
research by Transpar-
ent Planet which found that 330 000 tonnes of
CRTs were being stockpiled across the USA.
The severity of the issue was underlined by the
huge quantities – exceeding 10 000 tonnes –
discovered at former e-scrap sites in both Ari-
zona and Colorado last summer.
Takala hails KleanKover as ‘an entirely new’
application for CRT glass. And although this
solution involves landfills, the material is defi-
nitely not dumped, he asserts. ‘Using the glass
in this way actually makes landfills more sus-
tainable because the glass extends the life of the
landfill due to its density,’ he explains.
Rapid impact
Kuusakoski currently has the capacity to proc-
ess 50 000 tonnes of CRT per annum. Accord-
ing to calculations made before pursuing the
collaboration with Peoria, the figures ‘will not
be that big in the start-up days’, Takala accepts.
‘But I believe we will be able to make an impact
rapidly and will face steady growth.’
This is good news given a recent estimate by the
US Environmental Protection Agency that 7.2
million tonnes of CRTs are currently available
for collection throughout the country. ‘That is
a lot of CRT glass, obviously,’ acknowledges
Takala. Indeed, CRTs are thought to account
for approximately 45% of all e-scrap.
What deepens the problem is the fact that there
By Kirstin Linnenkoper
are just four CRT glass recycling outlets on the
North American continent – only one of which
is located in the USA. The other facilities are in
Canada and Mexico. Together, these sites boast
an annual capacity of roughly 128 000 tonnes
and are capable of managing no more than 60%
of the CRT glass recovered each year.
This latter number is a far cry from the ‘vast
majority’ that will need to be treated over the
next decade, estimated at 85%. Such a massive
surge in CRTs would equate to some 206 000
tonnes per year, meaning an immediate annu-
al processing shortfall of 78 000 tonnes. Kuu-
sakoski warns that volumes may reach even
larger proportions (up to 392 000 tonnes) if
operations are optimised owing to a mix of
increased consumer interest in e-scrap recy-
cling, implementation of e-scrap programme
laws and disposal bans in additional states.
A glass ‘tsunami’?
Meanwhile, a worrying factor is that the Mexi-
can facility – which represents no less than 80%
of existing capacity – is believed likely to close
its doors by 2016 or perhaps even as early as
Making WAVES
against the CRT flood
Anssi Takala: ‘KleanKover can
handle great volumes of CRTs.’
Judging by the ultra-flat televisions proudly displayed in most of
today’s living rooms, it is easy to conclude that the reign of the cath-
ode ray tube (CRT) is over. ‘However, there is not going to be a sudden
stop of CRT glass by any means,’ says Anssi Takala, vice president of
sourcing, sales and logistics at Kuusakoski US. He is ‘optimistic’
about CRT recycling prospects and asserts the company’s new
application for the discarded glass – named KleanKover – is sure to
‘open up a lot of new opportunities’.
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