Page 11 from: March 2014

N E W S

11March 2014

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Joke of the Month

Double jeopardy

A young man is walking in an abandoned alley in Cairo when he trips on
something metallic. Gripping his foot in agony, he looks down to see a
strange object stuck in a crack in the pavement.  Realising it is a gold lamp,
he instantly grabs it and rubs it until it gleams in the light. And sure enough,
out pops a genie.
‘Hello, my new master,’ it intones. ‘As dictated by laws of old, I will grant you
three wishes – but there is a catch.’
The young man is ecstatic. ‘Sure, sure, what’s the catch?’ he asks.
The genie replies: ‘Every time you make a wish, every lawyer in the world
will receive double what you ask for.’
‘Well, I can live with that,’ the young man exclaims.
‘It is agreed. So what is your fi rst wish?’ asks the genie.
‘I’ve always wanted a Ferrari,’ comes the reply. Poof! Within seconds a
brand new Ferrari materialises in front of the beaming young man.
‘Now every lawyer in the world has two Ferraris,’ the genie states. ‘Next wish?’
‘I’d love a million dollars,’ the man responds. The words have barely left his
mouth when a huge pile of bank notes appears at his feet.
‘Now every lawyer in the world has two million dollars,’ the genie points
out. ‘So what is your fi nal wish?’
The man thinks for a moment, smiles to himself and says: ‘Actually, you
know, I’ve always wanted to donate a kidney….’

Mike Biddle
The founder of pioneering plastics recycler MBA Polymers, Mike Biddle, is step-
ping down as president. As a non-executive board member, however, he will still
play a prominent advisory role in the company’s future growth strategy. Biddle
comments: ‘I hope that I can contribute to that future even more outside the
company by working to unlock plastics trapped in large waste streams around
the world.’ He cites economic access to large amounts of concentrated plastics
as ‘the next barrier to more rapid growth of MBA’s business model’.
www.mbapolymers.com

People

S P O N S O R E D B Y Sierra International Machinery, Inc. www.sierraintl.com

Business
PV Cycle France
Leading players in the French photovoltaic industry have established PV Cycle
France for the collective management of discarded PV modules under upcoming
French WEEE law. The collaboration involves the PV Cycle Association, Syndicat
des Energies Renouvelables, Urbasolar, Sillia Energie and various other players
and is hoped will better prepare the industry to meet future legislative obligations.
www.pvcycle.org
GPS
Garuti Processing Solutions (GPS) is the name of a new machinery supply
company specialising in balers, including shear balers. Based in Ferrara, Italy,
the company has landed four orders since its recent start-up, reports founder
Marco Garuti. GPS offers stationary, semi-mobile and mobile balers as well as
shear balers. www.gps-recycling.com

Substantially weaker demand
from China dented American exports of
plastics scrap last year, according to
Census Bureau statistics. US overseas
shipments to all destinations fell 5% in
volume terms to 1.9 million tonnes while
overall value dropped 8% to less than
US$ 860 million – well below the 2011
peak of more than US$ 1 billion.
In value terms, exports of US plastics
scrap to China tumbled 18% last year to
US$ 412 million while shipments to

Canada slumped 23% to US$ 70 million.
In contrast, the value of US plastics scrap
deliveries to India jumped 24% to
US$ 65 million while sales to Indonesia
soared 219% to US$ 34 million.
The fi gures support the view expressed
at last October’s meeting of the BIR
world recycling body’s Plastics Commit-
tee that China’s Green Fence import
quality controls had helped to shift trade
fl ows to other countries, notably else-
where in Asia.

5% decline in US
plastics scrap exports

Retraction
In the January/February issue of Recycling International, the article ‘Making
waves against the CRT fl ood’ mistakenly reported that a leading facility in
Mexico representing some 80% of the CRT recycling market is potentially
closing its doors in the period 2014-2016.
To avoid any confusion, Mexican CRT recycler Technologies Displays Mexi-
cana (TDM) has pointed out to Recycling International that there is no
question of its facility closing anytime in the foreseeable future. In a land-
scape of diminishing outlets for CRT glass TDM remains ‘one of the largest
glass plants in the world’.

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