Iona Capital Invests in Tire Recycling Project

Gradena Ltd. plans to manufacture wood replacement goods from waste tires and recycled UPVC.

November 28, 2012
Recycling Today Staff

The U.K.-based private equity firm Iona Capital has completed an investment in a firm called Gradena Ltd., which plans to manufacture wood replacement goods from waste tires and recycled UPVC using a patented process called nano surface intensification.

Gradena is a joint venture company between Gradsol Ltd., a London-based management consulting company that specializes in sustainability and operational consulting, particularly in the waste sector; and Dena Technology Ltd., a U.K.-based company that provides nanotechnology solutions in more than a dozen business development areas, including rubber recycling.

With the financing from Iona in place, Gradena is planning to build a system in the U.K. that will allow it to process around 1,200 metric tons of waste tires in the first year of the project. The company hopes to increase the volume of tires it can process by installing additional production lines.

Iona Capital says that the wood replacement product will be far less susceptible to degradation from adverse conditions such as heat, cold, dampness, wind, insects and UV. At the end of their life cycle Gradena products can be recycled.

Nick Ross, director of Iona Capital, says, “Iona is fully committed to providing funding for the development of environmental projects, which help to achieve the zero waste to landfill target. This project is an excellent example of supporting leading-edge technology and producing value-added products which overcome the growing issue of waste tires.”

Robert Paley, Gradsol’s finance director, says, “This project achieves not only strong financial performance, but also delivers significant environmental benefits. The main selling point of the end products is that they are much more durable than their traditional counterparts and they provide considerable additional commercial benefits. The efficient use of recycled tires and UPVC not only reduces waste volumes; these wastes can be used to produce recyclable, new products. We even expect to have “off-cuts” and “end-of life” recovery programs so that nothing is wasted. The products also reduce reliance on wood and other, non-, or less, sustainable construction products. Gardena’s process is eco-friendly and supports our sustainability initiate.”

Krause Manufacturing Launches New Website

New site aims to provide greater information for customers.

November 28, 2012
CDR Staff

Equipment & Products

Krause Manufacturing, based in Bellingham, Wash., has launched a new website that offers information about material recovery facilities among other recycling equipment that Krause manufactures. The company says the new site will provide enough information to allow customers to make more informed decisions.

“The website was designed in a way to compliment the other divisions of the CP Group of companies to show an integrated and cohesive brand. This site is one of five websites that will have similar design elements to really show relationship between companies,” Ashley Davis, CP Group’s marketing manager, says.

The site includes videos, testimonials and detailed information about recycling equipment, specifically material recovery facilities.

Krause custom engineers and manufactures systems for a range of MRF types, including single stream, municipal solid waste, waste-to-energy, construction and demolition, commercial and industrial, electronic scrap and more.

Krause Manufacturing is a division of the CP Group of companies. For more information, please visit the new site at www.KrauseManufacturing.com.

Connecticut Economy Benefits from Recycling Industry

Study finds recycling contributes $746 million and nearly 5,000 jobs to state’s economy.

November 28, 2012
Recycling Today Staff

Municipal / IC&I

According to a study by the Connecticut Economic Resource Center Inc. (CERC), Connecticut’s recycling industry contributes $746 million and 4,800 jobs to the state’s economy. Since 2006, recycling has contributed nearly $5.17 billion to the state’s economy as measured in total sales, according to the study, which the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA) commissioned.

CRRA, based in Hartford, Conn., is a quasi-public agency established by the state in 1973 to modernize the state’s solid waste disposal. Its solid waste systems serve 74 Connecticut cities and towns, and it establishes best practices for solid waste disposal and recycling management on behalf of the municipalities it serves.

“This study shows recycling is a vibrant and growing sector of our state’s economy and that CRRA, as Connecticut’s recycling leader, is the cornerstone of that economic sector,” says CRRA President Thomas Kirk.

The recycling industry in Connecticut directly contributes $435 million in sales and provides for more than 2,710 jobs to the state’s economy, according to the study. When related industries are considered, recycling accounts for more than $738 million in total sales and 4,790 jobs per year.

The study also shows in 2012 more than 4,800 people are employed in the recycling industry in the state. In terms of collective employee compensation, proprietors’ incomes, indirect business taxes, profits and other property-type income, the total value measured nearly $470 million, including labor income of more than $275 million and indirect business taxes of nearly $59 million and $134 million estimated in dividends, interest payments, rents and profits.

CERC performed the study using an IMPLAN economic impact analysis input-output model, which explored the total economic impact of the recycling industry at the state level and also the impacts associated with CRRA.

From 2006 through 2012, CRRA’s economic impact was $883 million in total output, 861 jobs per year and $529 million in total value-added, which includes labor income of $362 million. In addition, CRRA, through its recycling processing center in Hartford and satellite transfer stations around the state, operates and accounts for between 30 and 40 percent of the state’s total industry employment, according to the study.

“While these numbers are substantial, they are conservative estimates of the overall impact of all aspects of the recycling activities in Connecticut, which reach well into other industry sectors within the state,” says Alissa DeJonge, CERC director of research.

Based in Rocky Hill, Conn., the Connecticut Economic Resource Center Inc. is a nonprofit corporation and public-private partnership that seeks to provide objective research, marketing and economic development resources consistent with making Connecticut a more competitive business environment.

Electronics Recycling Asia: A Rare Procedure

Establishing techniques to recycle rare earth metals profitably remains elusive.

November 28, 2012
Recycling Today Staff

Conferences & Events Legislation & Regulations

After a rapid price spike in 2011, users of rare earth metals quickly began considering how to best recycle the current above-ground supplies of these metals. A panel convened at the Electronics Recycling Asia conference in November, however, admitted that significant barriers remain to widespread recycling of rare earth metals.

Freelance journalist Adam Minter moderated the panel and noted that prices for rare earth metals spiked in late 2010 and early 2011, then subsequently drifted back downward. “These kinds of price cycles will determine how much recycling takes place,” said Minter.

Panelist Professor Jinhui Li of China’s Tsinghua University noted that rare earth metals deserve their “rare” label, as the 130,000 metric tons produced in 2011 is a fraction of the 15 million metric tons of copper or the 1.5 billion metric tons of steel produced that year.

In an earlier presentation on rare earth metals recycling, Li said some 36 percent of the world’s rare earth metal reserves are believed to be in China but as of 2010 China’s mining activity was producing 94 percent of the world’s output.

Panelist Crystynna Ewe, the Singapore-based head of take back for the Asia Pacific and Japan region for Dell Inc., said rare earth metals recycling “was a very new topic” for Dell, though the company considers product life cycles important and favors the use of recycled content.

From a technical viewpoint, panelist Christian Ekberg, a professor at Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology, said rare earth metals “are rare because they are difficult to separate; this is why universities are involved—it is a challenge.”

Ekberg also asked whether the potential supply of rare earth metals in the ground is especially lacking or whether regulations prohibiting mining are “the source of the problem” and why China is nearly the sole source of output of mined rare earth metals such as yttrium, cerium, europium and terbium.

Panelist Thomas Langer of German company OSRAM AG provided an overview of that company’s commercialized process to recover yttrium, cerium, lanthanum, europium and terbium from end-of-life fluorescent lamps. “It is, for us, profitable,” Langer said.

While some panelists and audience members with questions expressed optimism that technological solutions to boost rare earth elements recycling will soon develop, Ekberg sounded a note of caution. “Technology will not automatically catch up,” he stated. “It is difficult to separate lanthanites (rare earths) from other materials. The technology is not emerging very fast, I must say.”

Professor Li also pointed to attempts thus far to recover indium from LCD (liquid crystal display) monitors. At the current price of indium, “you’re going to lose money if you recycle it,” Li said,” so this is not economically sound.”

The Electronics Recycling Asia conference, organized by ICM AG, was Nov. 13-16 in Guangzhou, China.

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