Orora’s Post

We celebrate Global Recycling Day, so a few words from me. I've been studying WtE (Waste to Energy) plants in Europe, especially their impact on the environment. This topic sparks controversy, but I want to highlight the positive strides, and benefits these plants bring to the environment. First, some numbers! Europe boasts over 500 incineration plants, burning a whopping 100 million tonnes of raw material. According to Tekniska verken i Linköping AB, 4 tonnes of material can match the energy of 1 ton of oil, 1.6 tonnes of coal, or 5 tonnes of wood waste. Now, onto the UK. Tolvik Consulting notes around 57 plants in 2022. Not bad, right? But here's the twist - especially for hazardous waste, the capacity numbers aren't great. Why? The journey starts with emission requirements, setting a high bar for WtE plants, resulting in lower pollutants. Health worries, living too close - it's a story. People want to be environmentally friendly, but not necessarily neighbours to the plant. Just look at Japan - integration is possible. Early engagement, honesty, and education are key. Navigating regulations like Environmental Permitting, Industrial Emissions Directive, and Health and Safety, the industry focuses on public safety, and environmental protection. The emergence of new plants in the UK should be met with enthusiasm, and a steadfast commitment to stringent environmental standards and health and safety measures. Modern WtE facilities innovate with advanced filters, scrubbers, and catalytic converters, forming the foundations of sustainability. At Axil Integrated Services ♻️ we’re all about sustainability, exclusively partnering with reputable plants in Europe. Strict standards and monitoring are non-negotiable. We’re not just shipping waste; we're tracking it, and transforming it into energy/heat in mainland Europe. Eco-friendly shipping? Absolutely! Think liquefied natural gas, biofuels, to cut Scope 3 emissions. Another factor we consider when choosing the right shipping line to transport the goods for the customers. WtE plants play a crucial role in waste management and energy sector, contributing to the UK’s efforts to achieve sustainability goals. Driving positive change through innovation, responsible practices, and community engagement. What do you think? To read the full article go here: https://lnkd.in/eTPNQFJy CIWM Environmental Services Association The Recycling Association Recycling Today Sky News BBC News EuRIC - The European Recycling Industries #sustainability #renewableenergy #zerowaste #circulareconomy #wastemanagement

Clean tech firm Sustane Technologies Inc. gets new CA$950k grant: Halifax-based Sustane Technologies, a clean tech firm focused on waste management, has secured a CA$950k grant from Canada’s federal government via ACOA - APECA. The company focuses on municipal solid-waste diversion and repurposing through its 40,000 square foot plant located in Chester, Nova Scotia. The company claims that its innovative & patented technology can recover and reuse up to 90% of curb-side garbage. The company also produces synthetic naphtha fuel and fertilizer by recycling this waste. Peter Vinall, President and CEO of Sustane Technologies, said that this garbage, a lot of which is plastics, would otherwise typically go to the landfills. With this government grant, Sustane Technologies will create, test, and certify a synthetic naphtha fuel (gasoline) made from end-of-life and single-use plastics. It will market and export its non-combustible recycled fuel to petrochemical businesses. As a result, they can potentially utilize this fuel instead of fossil fuels to make new plastics. Overall, this circular supply chain converts waste into a marketable commodity, reducing carbon emissions and keeping it out of landfills. Vinall added that each year, its processing facility can recycle 70,000 tonnes through municipal solid-waste diversion & repurposing. In fact, this equates to its factory eliminating 216,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually. This is roughly same as removing 50,000 automobiles off the road and is almost 10% of Chester’s total carbon footprint, the company said. Gudie Hutchings | Robert Richardson | Fraser Gray #cleantech #climatetech #grant #government #Canada

📢 New paper by Maja Wiprächtiger and Stefanie Hellweg: Does a high recycling rate mean low environmental impact? The study found that even an extremely large recycling rate above 95% of solvents in a chemical company was only able to retain 50% of the environmental value. Therefore, a maximum mass-based circularity is not necessarily enough to warrant sustainability, and additional measures such as the use of renewable energy or feedstock would be required in the specific case study to further reduce the environmental impacts. The study highlights that impact-based circularity metrics are needed to ensure sustainability, in addition to mass-based indicators. 📒 To read more: https://lnkd.in/eJMys2pN

The 2024 UN Global E-waste Monitor (GEM) - a flagship report for #circularity professionals - just came out; and it brings some very bad news! - #Ewaste reached 62 million tonnes (Mt) in 2022. - The figure is up 82% from 2010 and on track to rise another 32%, to 82 Mt, in 2030. - The rate of e-waste generation outpaces the growth of its environmentally sound management by a factor of 5. - Of the US$ 91 billion value of metals in e-waste, only $28B is recovered while $62B is lost. - Just 1% of rare earth elements demand is met by e-waste recycling. A call for hope from the report, however, is that if countries could bring the e-waste recycling to 60% by 2030, the benefits would exceed costs by more than $38B. A great thanks to Kees Baldé , Garam Marc Bel, Deepali Sinha Khetriwal , Shunichi Honda, Vittoria Luda di Cortemiglia and other authors for such an important piece of work! #wastemanagement #circulareconomy #sustainability #energytransition

The Lagos State Government's decision to ban the use and production of Styrofoam, marks a crucial milestone in the State’s attitude towards waste management and a laudable step in responding to what has become recognized as the menace that has risen from the use of SUPs. The reason why the ban has been announced, as LASG develops and implements its enforcement plan, attends heavily to the potential benefits to common hygiene that residents Lagos stand to enjoy – the benefits are ultimately environmental. Styrofoam like many other SUPs made from substances like polypropylene, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride have established themselves in the daily lives of many for the convenience and the ease of access that they imply. These plastics are cheap, easy to produce and conveniently fit for the purposes to which they are used including food consumption, storage and many others. These items contribute significantly also, to various economic sectors and as of the time of writing, was a branch of manufacturing that commanded a global market value exceeding $22bn as of 2021. However, the mobility that their convenience carries as well as their ubiquity means that after their use, these items even when carefully disposed, have been found in many places where they have not been intended. SUPs have been found at the bottom of oceans, in the bellies of dead wild animals, at the top of Mount Everest, and in their hundreds of thousands of kilograms annually, they have been found in the myriad drainage channels of Lagos where they have caused blockages that have contributed to flooding, disease proliferation and other significant problems. It is for reasons like these that the classical definition of pollution: “the introduction of materials or forms of energy into the environment at a rate faster than they can be dispersed”, comes to mind. SUPs have, for a very long time expressed themselves as a persistent environmental problem with an extremely elusive solution. Advocating for, and promoting the use of alternatives to SUPs has recently gained popularity amid on-going efforts by municipal governments and concerned groups to drive widespread adoption. However, it is a noteworthy rebuttal to question how sustainable the practice is, of selectively banning materials implicated in difficult to solve problems, while highlighting the potential economic losses that these bans usually imply. While that point remains valid, the development of solutions like recycling and increasing the efficiency of collection mechanisms for SUPs and other waste items already in circulation, is an approach that pays respect to proper waste management and sustainability while retaining a fundamental structure that is open to innovation, economic growth and continuous improvement all to the combined benefits of the environment. FREEE Recycle supports the Lagos State Government's Styrofoam ban as we work towards a cleaner and healthier environment for all.

❗️A record 62 million tonnes (Mt) of e-waste was produced in 2022, Up 82% from 2010. On track to rise another 32%, to 82 million tonnes, in 2030. ❗️The world’s generation of electronic waste is rising five times faster than documented e-waste #recycling, the UN’s fourth Global E-waste Monitor (GEM) reveals. https://bit.ly/3U4gCck

CIRCTEC to construct Europe’s largest end-of-life tire pyrolysis recycling in the Netherlands Hellerup, Denmark – Discarded tires pose significant environmental and health risks, accumulating in landfills, and polluting ecosystems with toxic substances. The current scale of tire waste exceeds the reach of existing recycling efforts, with over half of Europe’s waste being incinerated or being exported to Asia and Africa for environmentally damaging disposal, underscoring the vital need for innovative solutions in tire waste management. Moreover, the increasing adoption of electric vehicles will further exacerbate the tire waste problem as tires used for electric vehicles wear down faster. CIRCTEC, a UK-headquartered technology company, has developed a proprietary technology for decomposing old tires through pyrolysis, (a process that transforms waste into valuable circular materials through thermal decomposition in an oxygen-free environment), and for upgrading the products to high-quality recycled chemicals and renewable fuels. With the funding raised, CIRCTEC will construct Europe’s largest end-of-life tire pyrolysis recycling facility in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. At full capacity, the Delfzijl plant will be able to tackle approximately 5% of the 3.6 million tons of end-of-life tires that are generated in Europe annually. CIRCTEC’s technology offers a scalable solution to the global tire waste problem by embracing circularity and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with the new Delfzijl plant set to be capable of reducing emissions by the equivalent of circa 3% of the greenhouse gas emissions of the entire chemical industry sector of The Netherlands. In its pyrolysis process, CIRCTEC produces (i) its proprietary sustainable marine fuel HUPATM, (ii) circular naphtha for responsibly sourced plastics, polymers and chemicals, and (iii) high-quality recovered carbon black for use back into tires, rubber and plastics manufacturing. CIRCTEC previously announced long-term offtake agreements with BP for its sustainable marine fuel and circular naphtha products, and with one of the largest global producers of carbon black, Birla Carbon, for the recovered carbon black. This means the entire output of the new plant being constructed at Delfzijl is fully sold. Allen Timpany, Co-founder and CEO of CIRCTEC, said: “We are very pleased to welcome Novo Holdings and A.P. Moller Holding to our board to continue our growth journey together. The success of this new investment round gives us the partners that will enable us to take CIRCTEC to the next level in realizing our goal of scaling sustainability. Bringing our technology to a global scale will generate meaningful contributions to the sustainability of the planet.” Circtec

🚨 #ICYMI 🚨 Eivind Kallevik, who took over as President and CEO of Norsk Hydro in May, has emphasized that recycling will remain at the heart of Hydro’s 2030 strategy. 🌍♻️ #Hydro has ambitious plans to boost the recycling of postconsumer #aluminum scrap to between 850,000 and 1.2 million metric tons per year by 2030—a significant leap from the 443,000 metric tons recycled last year, which was a 38% increase from 2022. Kallevik highlights that recycling is the fastest way to zero-carbon aluminum and plays a crucial role in the #global green transition. 💡 Want to know more about Hydro’s path to a sustainable future? Read the full story and see how their efforts are paving the way for a low-carbon world. 🌱👷♂️ We Make ♻️ Easy! #GreenTransition #RecyclingRevolution #SustainableFuture #CarbonZero Recycling International Recycled Materials Association (ReMA) Houston Public Works Houston Housing Collaborative 👉 https://lnkd.in/e-c8b-EJ

Porto Central, Brazil Sets Sail Towards Sustainable Ship Recycling Future: MoU Signed for Groundbreaking Yard Feasibility Research The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) marks a significant step towards exploring the feasibility of establishing a cutting-edge ship recycling and decommissioning yard in Porto Central, Brazil. This collaborative agreement aims to conduct in-depth research to assess the viability and potential benefits of such a project in the region, highlighting a commitment to sustainable practices and economic development. Porto Central and Modern American Recycling Services Europe (subsidiary to Modern American Recycling Services, Inc.) are esteemed industry leaders in logistics, construction, and maritime services, respectively. 1.     Porto Central: spanning over 20 million square meters, is set to become one of Brazil’s newest deep-water industrial port complexes. With a 25-meter draft capability, it can accommodate the world’s largest vessels and will handle various types of cargo, including crude oil, gas, energy supplies, offshore supplies, grains, fertilizers, ores, containers, and general cargo, among others.  2.     M.A.R.S., Inc. stands at the forefront of decommissioning and ship recycling, with M.A.R.S., Europe A/S serving as its subsidiary. Specializing in highly contaminated and complex projects, M.A.R.S., Europe A/S upholds a commitment to environmentally sustainable practices in ship recycling and decommissioning, leading the way in safety and sustainability standards within the industry. Collectively, these companies offer a rich background of expertise, creativity, and unwavering devotion. Together, these companies bring a wealth of experience, innovation, and dedication to the table, setting the stage for a groundbreaking collaboration to explore the feasibility of a Ship recycling and decommissioning yard in Porto Central, Brazil. The proposed yard project offers numerous benefits for the local community, economy, and environment. In terms of scope and impact, the proposed yard has the potential to be a transformative project that significantly influences the local area and beyond. The scope could include not just the physical yard itself but also related facilities, services, and community engagement programs. The impact could range from immediate economic benefits like job creation and revenue generation to long-term effects such as improved quality of life, environmental preservation, and sustainable growth. It is essential for stakeholders to carefully consider the social, economic, and environmental implications of the project to maximize its positive outcomes and address any potential challenges effectively. Dwight, Dwayne, Kim, Marcella, Tommy, Mauricio, Cody, Cecilie, Pawel, Simion, Kees, Rick #Shiprecycling #Shipping #Oilandgas #Decommissioning #Brazil #desmantelamento