Exclusive: A fire not raging

Delegates attending the “Fueling the Future” session of the 2015 Plastics Recycling Conference Europe event received updates on two topics affecting the long-term status of the plastics recycling sector.

Keith Freegard, director and founder of United Kingdom-based Axion Recycling Ltd., provided some insight into the plastics-to-fuel and waste-to-energy markets while Shailesh Gothal of Belgium-based Gemini Corporation NV described several changes to the shipping and accounting procedures that are critical to recyclers.

Freegard said operators of some plastics-to-fuel systems often confront a paradox: “They need clean feedstock [for their systems to run best], but if you have clean feedstock, why not recycle it?”

In the United Kingdom, a landfill tax of some £83 per tonne (€116, or $128) has provided an incentive to send difficult-to-recycle plastic scrap to either traditional mass burn waste-to-energy plants or to facilities with emerging energy conversion technologies, said Freegard.

Such materials can include auto shredder residue (ASR), contaminated plastics such as medical devices, raw meat food trays and materials rejected from recycling plants, such as packaging made from biopolymers or packaging with two or more resins in layers or affixed to each other. Axion Polymers, said Freegard, makes a solid recovered fuel (SRF) product derived in part from ASR and other mixed materials.

Although he is in the recycling business himself, Freegard said an assessment of the pros and cons of simply landfilling some of this material versus converting it to energy is not clear cut. In spacious countries, under the landfill scenario (when the landfill is managed properly), the property can be used for recreational purposes at the end of the landfill’s life; the resulting methane gas can be captured and converted to energy; and if polymer prices later skyrocket, the landfill could be mined if it proves profitable. “Is that such a bad thing?” asked Freegard.

Self-described “technocrat” Gothal said technology is quickly and quietly solving many of the headaches that have plagued the international trade of plastic scrap and other recycled materials.

Gothal said Gemini Corporation has incorporated electronic data interchange and specialty (most often cloud-based) software platforms to link its trading, shipping, financing and accounting functions.

He told attendees that the International Chamber of Commerce, SWIFT and other supporters of Bank Payment Obligations (BPOs) are attempting to help traders and recyclers smooth out the trading and payments process, ideally eliminating situations where buyers or sellers attempt to renegotiate a contract while a container is on the water.

As Gemini Corporation has phased out paperwork and separate systems in favor of electronic invoicing and integrated systems, Gothal said the company has seen its cost to process an invoice fall from $16.67 per invoice to just $3.34.

Before integrating its systems, “Employees were actually managing communication, not accounting,” said Gothal. Just as importantly, he added, the company’s timeframe to pay its suppliers has fallen from 16 days to 4 days, creating “happy suppliers” who also are loyal ones, according to Gothal.

The 2015 Plastics Recycling Conference Europe event was Oct. 28-29 at the Eurostars Madrid Tower Hotel in Madrid.