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’.

E – S C R A P

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