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* SiCon
Germany-based recycling engineering firm SiCon has launched its own industrial
plant at Antwerp in Belgium for the treatment of shredder residues. In co-opera-
tion with one of Europe’s leading steel scrap companies Belgian Scrap Terminal
NV (BST), the company has unveiled a plant capable of treating up to 20 000
tonnes per annum from BST’s two shredder plants using the VW-SiCon process.
www.sicontechnology.com
* Valvan
Belgian baling systems manufacturer Valvan has supplied an automatic speech
recognition system to the TEXAID textile sorting plant at Schattdorf, Switzer-
land. Using a headset, the TEXAID sorting team classifies every single item
according to material, quality and texture; computer controls then ensure that
a blast of air directs each piece to the correct storage container. ‘Through this,
the unit costs can be reduced, which makes us quite competitive with Eastern
European companies that produce at considerably lower labour costs,’ explains
TEXAID’s Director Martin Böschen.
www.valvan.comPragati Papers Industries
Ltd of Delhi, India, is constructing a
Rs 5 billion Rupee (US$ 124 million)
recycled paper plant at Dahej in the
Bharuch district of Gujarat. Likely to be
commissioned in 2010, the facility will
produce 400 tonnes of newsprint per
day from recovered paper.
The company’s Managing Director P. N.
Taylor says: ‘The project will be spread
over a 400 000 sq ft area. Of the total
project cost, about 80% will be funded
through bank loans while the remain-
ing shall be through internal accruals.’
The scheme also includes a 16 MW
waste-based power unit.
More than 80% of the paper consumed
in India is being collected, of which only
20% is being made available to the
paper industry while the remaining
60% is usually diverted into other uses
such as wrapping paper and packag-
ing. But Mr Taylor insists: ‘We have
been in the business of collecting waste
papers for the last 20 years and hence
it should pose no problems. We also run
a 250-tonne-per-day paper-manufac-
turing plant based on recycled paper in
Punjab and, therefore, we have gained
valuable experience and expertise.’
India’s 40 000-plus newspapers have
been affected by the increase in both
imported and indigenous newsprint
prices. Quoted at US$ 760 per tonne in
March, experts believe the price will
exceed US$ 1000 per tonne.
India is a marginal player in terms of
global newsprint consumption, account-
ing for barely 2 million tonnes of the
world total of 38.3 million tonnes.
Around 45% of the country’s require-
ments are met from domestic sources.
Paper recycling initiative
in India
The Competition Commis-
sion of South Africa has imposed a
Rand 146 million (US$ 18.75 million)
‘administrative penalty’ on one of the
country’s major scrap metal companies
in respect of its involvement in collu-
sion and price-fixing in the ferrous and
non-ferrous scrap metal markets. New
Reclamation Group (Reclam), which
also processes cardboard, paper, glass
and plastics, has 24 months to pay the
penalty in three instalments.
The penalty represents 6% of the unlist-
ed company’s annual turnover in the
affected markets. One aspect of the col-
lusion involved rigging bids relating to
the sale of wagons, tankers and coaches
by Spoornet – a provider of rail freight
services in South Africa. This was uncov-
ered by the Competition Commission in
July last year during raids to obtain infor-
mation about a separate matter – the
proposed merger between the company
and a client, SA Metal and Machinery.
At the time of the raids, the company
said it ‘strongly’ denied any bid rigging.
Reclam was headed at that juncture by
CEO Martin van Wijngaarden, who is
now head of new business for Recla-
mation Holdings, which controls New
Reclamation. He was replaced as CEO
at the beginning of this year by Michael
Movsas.
www.reclam.co.za
Hefty penalty for
New Reclamation Group
Some 30.7% of glass beer
and soft drink bottles were recycled in
the USA during the course of 2006,
according to recently-released data
from the US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA). Glass made up 5.3% of
the municipal solid waste stream by
weight, with 25.3% of all glass con-
tainers being recycled.
The data for 2006 show little change
from those of the previous year. The US
recycling rate for 2006 was 24.3%
(excluding composting), up slightly from
the 23.7% recorded in the previous
year. Meanwhile, the number of kerb-
side recycling programmes in the USA
now stands at 8660, having fallen from
the high of 8875 recorded in 2002.
Slight increase in US glass recycling rate
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