Page 11 from: March 2008

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The UK’s Department for
Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs (Defra) has increased its
packaging waste recovery and recy-
cling targets for 2008 onwards.
Overall recovery goals of 72% for

2008, 73% for 2009 and 74% for 2010
will ensure that the UK meets the
2008 EU directive target of recycling
at least 60% of packaging waste.

To reflect current market factors
and updated data on Great Britain’s
performance, the target increases
for aluminium and glass for 2008 are
slightly smaller than those put out
to consultation, although they are
still higher than the 2007 goal and
are set to rise steadily year on year.

Over the next 12 months, Defra
will be working with industry, local
authorities, the Waste & Resources
Action Programme (WRAP) and oth-
ers to develop a package of measures
to increase aluminium recycling.
According to Defra, significant
improvements in collection and sort-
ing arrangements are required, par-
ticularly for beverage cans in the
household and on-street waste
streams.

Joan Ruddock, the UK’s Minister
for Waste, comments: ‘Reducing,
recovering and recycling packaging
is an important way in which busi-
ness, government and the consumer
can work together to reduce green-
house gases. These increased targets
represent our commitment to drive
up recycling in Great Britain and
tackle dangerous climate change.’

www.defra.gov.uk

UK sets new packaging
recycling targets

New glass recyclers’
association

Europe’s glass recycling industry is
to be represented by a new organisa-
tion known as FERVER (Fédération
Européenne des Recycleurs de Verre).

Headquartered in the Belgian
capital Brussels, the body recently
held its first congress in the same
city. Its 22 members from 10
European countries include repre-

sentatives from the glass production
industry and from European organi-
sations such as FEAD, FEVE,
ProEurope and Glass for Europe.

According to FERVER, its mem-
bers recycle 63% of the glass collect-
ed in Europe and operate 51 of the
continent’s 102 recycling plants.

www.ferver.org

Sims continues on
acquisition trail

Sims Recycling Solutions (SRS),
the world leader in end-of-life elec-
tronics recycling, has acquired the
prominent Canadian electronics recy-
cling business Accu-Shred as well as
RecommIT, a leading IT equipment
disposal agency in the UK.

Based in Mississauga, Ontario,
Accu-Shred represents SRS’ second
business in Canada; the company
already operates a 100% electronic
hardware recycling facility at
Brampton, Ontario. Steve Skurnac,
President of SRS in North America,
says: ‘We are extremely pleased to
welcome Accu-Shred into our busi-
ness. Their strong customer base and
commitment to providing environ-

mentally sound recycling offers Sims
an excellent platform for further
growth in the Canadian markets.’

Speaking about the takeover of
RecommIT, SRS’ Global CEO
Graham Davy comments: ‘Their
infrastructure in the UK offers Sims
an excellent platform for further
growth in an important market. The
addition of RecommIT enables us to
immediately enhance the service to
our client base by building on our
current asset services and recovery
business. Sims will now have a more
flexible logistics solution by utilising
operations based in both the north
and south of the UK.’

www.sims-group.com

Fuji Xerox opens
e-waste facility in China

The launch has taken place of the
first e-waste recycling facility in
China to be established by a foreign
company.

Printing machine manufacturer
Fuji Xerox has unveiled an integrat-
ed resource recycling facility in
Suzhou Industrial Park where print-
er cartridges, photocopiers and
printers collected from across main-
land China will be converted into 64
categories of raw material.

A wholly-owned company of Fuji
Xerox in China, the new facility rep-
resents a total investment of Yen 650

million, and has the capacity to han-
dle 15 000 pieces of equipment and
500 000 printer cartridges each year.
The operators plan to recycle 4000
pieces of equipment and 120 000
printer cartridges in the first year.

Besides Japanese Fuji Xerox, a
number of other foreign companies
are also looking to build e-waste pro-
cessing facilities in China. According
to Panasonic representative You
Nan, the company is keeping a close
watch on the sector and may soon
open a facility of its own.

www.fujixerox.com

Ukraine to lower scrap
export duties

To bring itself into line with World
Trade Organization (WTO) require-
ments, the Ukrainian government is
to lower export duties on scrap met-
als over a period of several years.

Duties on certain grades of ferrous
scrap will be cut from Euro 25 to
Euro 10 per tonne over the course of
six years, according to media reports.
For non-ferrous scrap, duties will be
reduced to 15% ad valorem (a per-
centage of the variable non-ferrous
price) over a period of five years.

Since January 2003, the Ukraine

has imposed an export duty of Euro
30 per tonne on ferrous steel scrap
and, in effect, has operated a ban on
exports of non-ferrous metals. The
ferrous scrap export duty con-
tributed to a decline in overseas ship-
ments from the Ukraine at a time
when global demand and prices were
on the increase. Domestic metallur-
gical producers therefore benefited
from scrap prices below world levels.

The Ukraine was scheduled to
join the WTO in February.

www.wto.org

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