Page 18 from: March 2005
Sims UK opens
large scrap
terminal
Stratford-based Sims Group UK
has opened one of Europe’s largest
metal recycling terminals in the
Welsh port of Newport. The new fa-
cility features what Sims calls the
world’s largest industrial shredder –
a 9200 hp machine that can process
350 tonnes of metal an hour – along
with a new gantry crane and a new
rail freight operation that can han-
dle more than 60 000 tonnes of scrap
metal per annum. The new terminal
represents an investment of more
than US$ 25 million by Sims and As-
sociated British Ports, which owns
several ports throughout Wales. The
project was also supported by a
grant from the Welsh Assembly.
US steel guide
also on-line
The International Iron and Steel
Institute’s (IISI) 2004 ‘Steel Statisti-
cal Yearbook’ is now available on-
line. Covering steel production, con-
sumption, trade and raw materials,
the 2004 yearbook offers data on up
to 150 countries, with some informa-
tion updated to September last year.
The 112-page report (available in
PDF format) covers total production
of primary iron and direct reduced
iron (DRI); production of crude steel,
crude steel ingots, continually cast
steel and liquid steel for castings; and
16 categories of finished steel. In ad-
dition, it explores trade issues such
as total exports and imports of semi-
finished and finished steel products,
and offers a summary of world steel
trade. Other topics include apparent
consumption of crude steel, finished
steel products, and apparent con-
sumption per capita. In addition, the
yearbook provides information on
raw materials, as well as exports and
imports of iron ore and scrap.
For more information, visit:
www.worldsteel.org
Niton opens
Hong Kong office
Niton LLC of Billerica, Massachu-
setts, USA, has opened an office in
Hong Kong to provide sales and ser-
vice support to distributors of the
company’s X-ray fluorescence metal
analysing equipment throughout
the Asian and Pacific Rim regions.
The new office, which will operate
under the name Niton Asia Ltd, can
be reached at 30/F, 30 Queen’s Road,
Central, Hong Kong, Phone: +852
2168-0699, Fax: +852 2168-0822,
E-mail: [email protected]
US citizens
waste 129 billion
beverage
containers
Last year, US citizens threw a
record 129 billion bottles and cans
into trash cans instead of putting
them into recycling bins – a stagger-
ing 60% increase when compared to
2000, according to the Arlington-
based Container Recycling Institute
(CRI). These glass, aluminium and
plastic containers – 411 for every man,
woman and child in the USA – were
therefore lost to the recycling stream.
According to CRI, the upstream
environmental impact of this throw-
away behaviour can be expressed in a
number of ways, including: energy
consumption equivalent to 36 million
barrels of crude oil per year; the an-
nual generation of 4.5 million short
tonnes of greenhouse gases; the emis-
sion of a host of toxics to air and
water; and damage to the wildlife
habitat. The downstream effects in-
clude: an estimated 126 billion glass,
aluminium and plastic containers go-
ing to landfill and into incinerators;
and an estimated 4 billion beverage
bottles and cans littering the environ-
ment and causing injury to humans
as well as animals both on land and
in the sea, says CRI.
‘Beverage manufacturers reap
huge profits from the sale of one-
way, disposable beverage cans and
bottles, but don’t want to take finan-
cial responsibility for the waste they
create,’ comments CRI’s Executive
Director Pat Franklin.
Caraustar to
supply paper to
China
Caraustar Industries Inc. of
Austell, Georgia, USA, has formed a
joint venture with various partners
to supply recovered fibre to Chinese
mills. Members of the joint venture,
known as PaperLink LLC, include
Caraustar’s Recovered Fiber Group
and Hong Kong-based Main West
Development, which operates coat-
ed duplex paperboard and recycled
medium mills in Guangzhou, China,
along with individual investors Ken
Grenier, Mike Davies and James
Chang. The three individual in-
vestors will form PaperLink’s man-
agement team, with Mr Grenier as
President, Mr Davies as COO, and
Mr Chang in charge of sales. Paper-
Link hopes to supply more than
400 000 tonnes of recovered paper in
2005 to meet Main West’s needs and
to sell to other Chinese mills.
Chinese compa-
ny to build tyre
recycling plant
A rubber manufacturer in Beijing,
China, plans to set up a plant later
this year to recycle used tyres. But
while environmental experts say the
facility will reduce pollution, the firm
is worried it will be unable to source
sufficient raw material supply. ‘We
have talked to a few big recycling sta-
tions about their support, but supply
could still be a problem,’ says Hu
Jiaqing, Vice General Manager of
Shanghai Honglei Complete Equip-
ment of Fine Rubber Powder Co.
The plant, which is scheduled to
open this August, will be capable of
recycling 50 000 tonnes each year,
accounting for some 90% of Beijing’s
used tyres. The tyres will be turned
into fine rubber powder for making
new products, according to Mr Hu.
Currently, Beijing generates
around 6 million waste tyres each
year but only some 10% are recycled,
according to the tyre division of the
China Rubber Industry Association.
www.recyclingtoday.com
A magazine for the recycling industry is published in
many countries. Although these publications mainly
cover news of the domestic markets, many of them also
signal international trends. Recycling International
rounds-up items from these magazines which are of
interest to the international recycling industry.
The magazines we co-operate with in publishing
extracts from their editorial pages are:
• Scrap (USA)
• Recycling Today (USA)
• Recycling magazin (Germany)
• Magazine Recycling Benelux (The Netherlands/Belgium)
R O U N D U P
Magazine Round Up
https://www.scrap.org
Recycling International • March 2005 18
