Magazine 95 - nr 2 (Engels)

‘Ecology and the economy are now firmly and inextricably linked’ Hugues de feraudy, galloo plastics

theme: Recycling techniques/PST Post-Shredder Technologies explored

How do we achieve 95%? recycling must be a non-competitive issue number 2 - fall 2010

in the picture photography Jack Tillmanns

The ARN Recycling bunkers are empty, but within manage足 able time they will be filled with shredder waste from scrap cars.

The waste will then be separated in the factory and processed, thus recycling even more of the car.

This will help the Netherlands to achieve the 95% recycling target for cars in 2015.

p02 - 95 fall 2010

95

Post-shredder technologies

p4 Galloo Plastic’s Hugues de Feraudy on the recycling of plastics from cars

p12 The 95% directive of the European Commission p16 Advanced recycling technologies p21 Column by Daniel Goldmann on the VW-SiCon technology

p22 Case study PST

p30 HKS Metals: from scrap processor to recycler

p34 The car branche and the challenge of 95% p39 News, Media, Gadgets

p42 95 short p44 Gold seekers are waste pioneers

Legal requirements stipulate that in 2015 the European car industry must have increased its recycling percentage to 95%. The current percentage is 85%. By using Post-Shredder technologies, the last recycling percentages can be realized in order to ultimately achieve the 95% target.

Not all the PSTs we use are new; many of them are already in use in other sectors, such as the glass, metal and plastics indus­ tries. However, they are new to the car industry. By now, we have a good know­ ledge of the technologies that are currently available. We have spoken to many devel­ opers and have investigated each technol­ ogy extensively. ARN has spent years studying all available PSTs, visiting instal­ lations and carrying out tests.

Before we made a decision, we had to take account of many factors – the materials that will be delivered to us, the extent to which we need to separate if we are to meet the 95% target and what we can do with the materials that are left over after separation.

In the end, we chose a process designed by SiCon in collaboration with VW. This process is specifically equipped to handle shredder residue from cars. Besides new, specially developed technologies, the process also uses technologies from other recycling processes. We are now entering the user phase: the machines are being delivered, assembled and made ready for production.

This edition of 95 contains a great deal of information about PSTs, for example, reports on the latest developments and how the materials are recycled. We spoke to Hugues de Feraudy (director, Galloo Plastics) about the subject. And various car manufacturers give their view on the 95% target and the way in which the car industry is dealing with it. In short, this edition of 95 will show you that we are one step closer to that elusive 100%!.

Dave Bebelaar, CEO ARN

number 1 - fall 2010 95 fall 2010 - p03

Galloo Plastics

recycling plastic:

from bumper to bumper The originally Belgian Groupe Galloo has been dedicated to the recycling of metal for the last 70 years. However, in recent years, recycling plastic has really taken off – and that encouraged the group to take out a number of patents that are useful in, for instance, the automotive industry.

We spoke to Hugues de Feraudy, managing director of Galloo Plastics. text Jeroen Booij photography Maarten Corbijn

p04 - 95 fall 2010

Galloo Plastics

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Galloo Plastics

R

ecycling is not new, but now that the 95% rule is getting closer by the day, automotive manufacturers are being forced to increase the percentage of recycled materials and materials suitable for recycling in their vehicles in a very short space of time. So the demand for expertise in this field is growing rapidly. And because cars do not consist of steel alone, a desperate search is under way for smart ways to recycle all the other materials. There is absolutely no doubt that plastics will play an increasingly important role in this area. Will a completely new sector come into being as a result? Not entirely. Anyone investigating the sub­ ject will find it difficult to ignore the expertise present at Galloo Plastics, the front runner in recycling plastics. Recycling: the parent company has been doing it for decades – steel to begin with, and plastics since the early 1990s. And partly as a result of this specialization, the recent growth of the company has been nothing less than spectacular. The firm had modest beginnings: it started with one man, a small lorry and a pair of scrap shears. That was in the late 1930s. Now, around 70 years on, Groupe Galloo has a turnover of 450 million euros and employs more than 1,000 people at 50 yards, some of which have their own smelting furnaces, presses, shredders, concentration machines and processing lines. The group has made a large number of takeovers in the last few years, and this has led to explosive growth. The company is now engaged in a broad range of recycling activities, and those undertaken by Galloo Plastics comprise the best example.

Optical sorting system

The high-flying plastics branch is not located in its native country – Belgium – but just across the border in the French town of Halluin.

With its tall spire towering above the flat countryside, it could be described as typical of the level border region – were it not for the moun­ tains of shredder residue on the north-west edge. Halluin is where Galloo Plastics has been recycling plastic since the mid 1990s and where each year it converts 30,000 tonnes into 23,000 tonnes of granulate.

Although Galloo Plastics is not the only company that processes shredder residue, it is the only one that processes the residue into an end-product that is ready for use: plastic granulate.

‘We’re one of the world leaders in the field of recycling mixed plastics,’ Hugues de Feraudy told us, with a fitting sense of pride. ‘The residue contains 5% to 20% plastics that we can recover. However, to make the process cost-effective it needs to be around 10%. With automotive shredder residue alone, the percentage would be around 20%, but we recycle other things as well.’ De Feraudy was involved in the start-up of Galloo Plastics in the 1990s after he had spent some time considering plans for recycling plastics. Before then, he worked in the non-ferrous industry, specializing in zinc, copper and lead, where his main task was p06 - 95 fall 2010

finding clever ways to sort the shredder material. That is now his speciality within the plastics branch as well. One of the French company’s strong points is its patents: 10 of them, De Feraudy confirmed. Some of them are on techniques to ensure that the new material is pure. Galloo Plastics guarantees a purity of 95–98%, and that makes the company unique – as does the electro-optic sorting system it uses to further raise the level of sorting.

Licence agreement

But De Feraudy’s success is also a question of running the business cleverly. For instance, he is also involved in the start-up of a branch referred to as ECR (Environment Comminution and Recycling): a sister organization of which he is president as well. ECR was founded by tech­ nological experts with the aim of bundling their knowledge in the field of recycling. Now, the expertise of ECR is called in to help with projects worldwide, ranging from starting up a new recycling line to providing advice related to new PST factories and the use of patents. ARN has also signed a licence agreement, and the new PST factory in Tiel will collaborate with De Feraudy and his team in Halluin. ‘There are very few specialists in the field of thermoplastics, and that’s why we’re grow­ ing so rapidly,’ De Feraudy said. ‘Generally speaking, you can’t just heat and melt plastics. These days, if you want to recycle all these materials, you also have to remould them. And that’s our speciality. It’s a property of thermoplastics that they only acquire their homogenous structure by means of correct heating and cooling.’

High pressure and temperature

Unlike the material that ARN will soon be processing in Tiel, the shredder residue from scrap cars that finds its way to Halluin has usually not been sorted. So first there are two large halls where they work from rough to fine, and from fine to finer. The first task is to separate the metals from the non-metals. What is left over are containers full of coloured pieces of plastic around 10 centimetres in size. The heavy and light pieces are separated from each other and further reduced in size in hammer mills.

The process now moves from outside to inside, where the pieces are washed and dried entirely automatically. In an adjacent hall, the luxury scrap also undergoes a similar treatment. It is mainly sorted by hand and cleaned before it goes into its own shredder. Once they have been com­ pletely sorted, the plastic pieces are dried before they go into the extru­ sion machine. Galloo Plastics has five extrusion lines where the melted granulate is first pressed through a filter and then through an extrusion die, which shapes it. Before it reaches that stage, various additives and colourings are added, and the material is melted under high pressure and at a high temperature. The granulate comes out as smooth, dark grey

u

Galloo Plastics

Containers full of coloured pieces of plastic

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Galloo Plastics

In the background the extrusion line; the black objects on the ground in front are the residues left over from filtering the granulate and are called ‘pizzas’ by the people at Galloo Plastics

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Galloo Plastics

The more expensive acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, which is more suitable for technological applications, goes mostly to companies that place high demands on the material, for instance, car manufacturers.

Galloo’s patents Having gained considerable experience in the field of plastics recycling and claimed a number of patents for the recycling process, Galloo Plastics is one step ahead of the competition. Here are the descriptions of the two most important patents, as officially noted in the library of intellectual property.

Patent US7252251 (B2)

pellets, like barrels full of little liquorice sweets. Before the product is transported to the customer, tests can be carried out with special machinery to establish whether the product is strong enough.

Green programmes

One of the company’s customers is Renault, with which De Feraudy has been collaborating since 1990: ‘Before starting here, I worked for a company that only recycled battery containers for Renault and Peugeot.

These days, Galloo Plastics is Renault’s largest supplier of recycled poly­ propylene.’ Take the current Renault Scenic, for instance. Besides the battery container and a battery cover made from recycled plastic, this car also has many other pieces that are made from recycled plastic. For example, it has a plastic plate to strengthen the roof, plastic scoops, a plastic oil sump protective cover under the engine compartment, plastic drawers under the rear seat, plastic covers for the insides of the wheel arches, plastics clusters for the rear lights and various plastic strengthen­ ing panels and parts. Also the sound insulation on the floor and the scuttle board and the upholstery for the chairs, the floor and the boot space come from Galloo Plastics. But Galloo Plastics supplies not only the automotive industry. As well as polypropylene plastics, Galloo supplies polyethylene, which is used mainly to fabricate barrels, pipes and pallets. It sells the cheaper polystyrene mainly to manufacturers of, for example, CD cases and coat hangers, while the more expensive acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, which is more suitable for technological applications, goes mostly to companies that place high demands on the material, for instance, car manufacturers. All four thermoplastics can be subdivided according to their composition. For example, polypropylene can be further processed with additives, which generates an almost end­ u less range of possibilities.

Process for pre-concentration of recoverable polymer materials formed from residues from grinding consumer durable goods at the end of their lives such as automobiles, computer equipment and household appliances, consisting of treating the residue by steps in sequence consisting of screening, aeraulic separation, grinding and ultimate aeraulic separation, to eliminate the major part of contaminating materials from them, such as metals, glass, rubber, sand or others in order to obtain a fraction pre-concentrated in recoverable polymer materials by recycling.

Patent US6460788 Method and installation for separating all categories of polymer materials. The invention concerns a method for separating all categories of polymer materials derived from waste characterized by successive steps and phases, implemented in the following order: sequentially, a grinding step is followed by a cylindrical drum form factor mechanical separation step, which is followed by a first density separation step in parallel steps, followed by energetic cleaning of the polymer materials and ending with a second density separation step in parallel steps. Said polymer materials can, if required, be extruded.

The method enables to obtain different categories of polymer materials, and in particular PE, PP, PS, ABS, PP filled at 20 to 40% with PA, PMMA, Xenoy™, PVC.

95 fall 2010 - p09

Galloo Plastics

A million tonnes of residue

But that’s not all. De Feraudy is convinced that both the quantity and the possibilities will continue to increase: ‘Absolutely. The ratio of recycled plastic is increasing rapidly. Renault would like to incorporate more than 50 kilos of recycled plastic in their models in the very near future.’ When asked whether it is cheaper for a manufacturer like Renault to use recycled plastics, he laughed: ‘We’re dealing with the willingness of manufacturers here. Each and every one is keen to undergo development that is friendlier to the environment. Ecology and the economy are now firmly and inextricably linked.’ And that is confirmed by the initiatives of other manufacturers. Nissan has launched its ‘Green Program 2010’; Ford works with its own ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ guideline towards a steady increase in the amount of reuse in their models; and PSA (Peugeot-Citroën) indicated 2 years ago that it wanted to achieve 20% ‘green materials’ in the items it uses in cars in 2011. Galloo Plastics is reaping the benefits of the significantly increasing demand for recycled plastics. De Feraudy: ‘We now have a turnover of more than 25 million euros and we work with 45 employees, but in the near future the company will have to expand considerably. We’d like to quadruple capacity within the next few years, and to achieve that, we’re building two new production lines. In a few years’ time, we hope to be processing approximately a million tonnes of shredder residue, which will allow us to produce 90,000 tonnes of recycled material.’ t

Galloo’s recycling process The technologies used by Galloo Plastics to recycle plastics may be unique, but they are not completely new.

The skill lies mainly in combining a number of existing separation technologies, which have been adapted and patented for the processing of shredder residue. To begin with, there is the separation of the particles using liquids, a technique that was developed in collaboration with the American company Engineering Separation and Recycling (ESR), although the system is no longer used dynamically but statically, which increases effici­ ency. They built a special line with separation drums in which the most important plastics were separated on the basis of impermeability. Groupe Galloo recently took over the patents from ESR. The follow-up to this is a similarly already existing but adapted air separation technology that removes textiles and PUR foam. The copper that might be left over in the plastics and rubbers is removed using eddy current separation, and the PE plastics freed up as a result are used as fuel. After this, four drums perform further separation based on increasingly light impermeability. As a result, various materials are left over, which are now ready to be further melted down for recycling – which is a part of the process that Galloo Plastics prefers to keep secret.

p10 - 95 fall 2010

Galloo Plastics

Each year Galloo processes 30,000 tonnes of shredder residue

95 fall 2010 - p11

Legislation

Holland has the first-mover advantage p12 - 95 fall 2010

Legislation text Oswald Cornelius ilustration Myrthe Dornbos

95 fall 2010 - p13

Legislation

Since the 1990s, the European Commission has been committed to more efficient recycling. Here, the automotive industry plays an important role.

M

Marc Pallemaerts, professor of European environ­mental law at the University of Amsterdam, and head of the Environmental Governance research programme at the Institute for European Environ­mental Policy

arc Pallemaerts – professor of European environmental law at the University of Amsterdam, and head of the Environmental Governance research programme at the Institute for European Environmental Policy – explained the current situation.

Although classic car-breaking has almost completely disappeared from view in Europe, legislation relating to scrap cars gained momentum only 10 years ago, when the European directive for end-of-life vehicles was approved. A European acceptance requirement has applied since 1 July 2002. This requirement stipulates that the vehicle manufacturer is responsible for the ecologically and economically responsible management of discarded vehicles. At that time, it was unclear whether it was feasible for producers to meet the requirement.

Pallemaerts: ‘It has now been demonstrated that it is perfectly possible to fulfil the requirement. When it was proposed in the late 1990s, there was a huge amount of resistance, and Germany delayed the implementation by at least a year. I don’t hear them complaining now, though. However, there are many positive side effects.

Because it’s a level playing field, the directive has given a clear incentive to improve production systems. The need to recycle cars as cheaply as possible is taken into consideration right from the design stage. That leads to greater awareness. In addition, one of the consequences is that it makes many smaller players aware as well; for instance, the electrical goods industry. In that respect, the automotive industry certainly acts as role model. It stimulates innovation.’

Packaging waste as guinea pig

And yet the car industry was not a front runner in Europe in terms of implementing manufacturer responsibility. Pallemaerts: ‘The very first example was batteries and accumulators, for which a directive was approved in 1991. However, it did not contain quantified targets for

p14 - 95 fall 2010

recycling; they were not included until an amendment in 2006. ‘It was ultimately the packaging waste sector that functioned as guinea pig. A directive for this sector was adopted in 1994. The directive for end-of-life vehicles came into force in 2000, and was followed by analogous legislation for the electrical goods industry in 2002. So there is a clear European trend towards manufacturers’ responsibility, although there have been no new pro­ posals for years now. The Commission’s preference at the moment is for global revision of waste substances legislation – and that takes time.

‘However, there is also a tendency to leave more and more things up to individual member states. They are all obliged to achieve the target of 95% reuse and ‘recovery’ – of which 85% comprises recycling and reuse – in 2015, but by now it is clear that the only way to organize the collection and processing properly is through specialized organizations created for this purpose – like ARN in the Netherlands. Otherwise you fall back on the system whereby the producer is responsible for the end-of-life vehicles. ‘Another issue is transport over long distances, a huge logistic problem. In the latest implementation report produced by the European Commission, however, there are no figures given about the form of organization chosen by individual member states to realize the aims.

What is certain, though, is that expertise centres are needed. The Netherlands already had the system in place before the regulations were introduced, just like Sweden in fact. That is certainly an advantage, the first-mover advantage. Other member states suddenly had to comply as well, under pressure from the legislation. By now various different forms of partnership have come into existence between governments and producers.’

95% reuse and recovery

There is something else that is very important. Marc Pallemaerts: ‘You have to bear in mind that the figure of

Legislation

95% does not apply to recycling as such. It relates to ‘reuse and recovery’. That includes up to 10% thermal recycling; in other words, burning the fraction to generate energy. The terminology can be misleading, so it is important to understand exactly what the words mean.

At the moment the Commission is checking the figures.

The latest official 2008 figures from Eurostat show that 23 member states have achieved the target figure of 80% for recycling. 17 member states had already achieved the current figure of 85%. Estland, Malta and Iceland, for instance, had not reported at all. Naturally the quality of the statistics is not always completely reliable. Detailed regulations were drawn up in 2005 that describe the criteria the national statistics need to meet.

So it will be extremely interesting to see the new figures when they appear. When can we expect them? The member states have been given 18 months to report the required information to the Commission. If they do not comply, the Commission can begin an infringement procedure at the European Court of Justice. But it would then take two or three years before there is a judgement.

So with the prospect of 2015, it is certainly time for the Commission to act more assertively.’

Whether there is a risk that we are heading for disaster is not something Pallemaerts is prepared to say. ‘But the significant expansion of the European Union is certainly not advantageous. Countries that have only just joined have difficulty achieving the targets. For the two most recent member states, Bulgaria and Romania, it is probably difficult to achieve that result. To begin with, they need to set up a system to collect and process scrap cars; then there is the technical problem of increasing the recycling percentage further.’

carried out on dumping places and waste is dumped while being reported as ‘recovered’, fraud is taking place.

Italy and Ireland are already infamous; Greece has also been fined. The Commission continues to follow these countries but does not use enough resources to combat infringements. The obligatory reports are used first and foremost, but there are also other methods. The technical experts at the Commission can also utilize other information. In addition, the Commission also receives complaints from citizens, environmental organizations and companies. But there are only 40 officials working in the enforcement department in Brussels. That is probably less than the number of environmental inspectors in an average province in the Netherlands. So they are understaffed. These people work on the basis of files.

They do not have the time or resources to go on site.’

Eco-innovation and eco-recycling

And yet Pallemaerts remains positive. Certainly about Post-Shredder Technologies: ‘For certain post-shredder materials it is still troublesome to find good potential markets. There needs to be a greater incentive to investigate the possibilities and then innovate. It is not obligatory to adopt reuse in the automotive sector, but we need to think more about how European funds for eco-innovation can be utilized to encourage eco-recycling. I am convinced that a PST factory is a positive initiative. The further people get in the member states, and the more reliable the data is in the future, the faster we will discover where the points of connection are. We still have 5 years to find out.’ t

Visit http://ec.europa.eu/ environment/waste in the menu waste streams -> end of life vehicles for everything about the ELV directive of the European Commission

Control of dumping

And then there is the issue of dumping. This is also covered by a European directive that has been in force since 1999. Pallemaerts: ‘The dumping directive is harmonized, but there are extremely serious problems with its implementation. So long as no balanced controls are

95 fall 2010 - p15

productinfo

Recycling is

hot p16 - 95 fall 2010

productinfo text Mark Litjens photography Dreamstime

Resources are becoming exhausted, while the mountains of waste keep growing. Fortunately, the scientific and business worlds see it as a challenge to solve both problems in a single stroke. After all, reusing waste (including prosperity waste) means much less use of resources.

Furthermore, smart solutions and technologies are continuously increasing the yield from recycling. The Netherlands puts its best foot forward in this respect.

Y

ou can read everything you ever wanted to know about the Post-Shredder Technology in the new ARN factory further on in this edition of 95, but there are many more advanced technologies that increase yield.

Peter Rem is a recycling researcher affiliated with TU Delft, a technological university that is involved in many collaborations with the business world. For example, Rem is associated with Inashco and ReSteel, two recy­ cling companies that make use of technologies developed

by TU Delft. Rem: ‘The time between something being invented and its actual application is getting shorter all the time. And it has to get shorter, because the clock is ticking as far as recycling is concerned.’

Proper cleaning

Recycling is an activity that has been around for a long time. But recycling well is getting increasingly difficult.

Rem: ‘Take steel scrap, for instance. Even after sorting by hand, 10% is still contaminated – with tin, copper or chrome, for example. Each reuse increases the contami­ nation. So the quality of the end product becomes lower and lower, and is eventually unusable. Therefore, proper cleaning is a must and science can contribute here.’ The researcher knows this from his own experience.

ReSteel makes use of the Clean Scrap Machine (CSM) developed by Rem’s group. The CSM filters almost all the copper particles out of steel scrap mechanically, whereas it used to have to be selected by hand. The selection takes place on the basis of density, colour and chemical compo­ sition. It is not yet possible to make it completely free of copper, but significantly less manual work is required.

Rem: ‘And the great thing is that steel contaminated with

copper is worth next to nothing on the reuse market, while clean steel and particularly clean copper fetch good prices.’ An innovative discovery, was also the opinion during the Industrial Processing trade fair, where ReSteel Interna­ tional won the 2010 Process Innovation Prize. The machine is ‘a real stimulus for the environment’ according to the jury.

Entrepreneurial scientist

Another example where science and business have connected well is demonstrated by Inashco’s method of working. Rem’s group has made a significant contribution here as well: ‘Household refuse incineration produces ash that is contaminated with very fine copper and aluminium particles, which are too small to filter out. But this residue – bottom ash – is nonetheless used in the building indus­ try, for road foundations, for example. Because it is not completely pure, parcels of bottom ash are now wrapped in foil before use. We looked at the structure of bottom ash and developed a separation method, which produces clean mineral ash that no longer contains any copper or alumin­ ium and so can be used without any further processing.

After carrying out the first tests, Inashco has recently tri­ pled its capacity to 120 tons per hour.’ These are two devel­ opments to be proud of, but the party’s not over yet for Rem. He recently won the Entrepreneurial Scientist Award from Yes!Delft. He has put the €40,000 prize money into the development of a new concept that is intended to halt the export of metals to the Far East, where non-ferrous metals are still sorted by hand in a primitive fashion – mostly by children working in dangerous conditions. It is too expensive to do it here, but Rem’s new discovery will change that. He will reveal his secret at the end of the year. u

On www.yesdelft.nl there is a short film about the most enterprising scientist at the TU Delft, Peter Rem 95 fall 2010 - p17

in the picture photography Marco Peters

When it opens, ARN Recycling will process circa 30,000 tonnes of automotive shredder waste per year.

This amount will even­ tually grow to 100,000 tonnes per year, processing more than just automotive shred­ der waste.

The shredder waste will be separated using post-shredder technol­ ogies and reduced in size to pieces measur­ ing a maximum of 40 millimetres. These materials (fractions) will then be separated according to density.

The various metal and plastic fractions will be used as raw materials in, for instance, the auto­motive industry.

p18 - 95 fall 2010

productinfo

Magnetic liquid

Director Charles Smeeman with the Recycling Innovation Award for the MDS technology

Another Dutch invention was developed by Bakker Holding, in Son (province of Brabant). The company is extremely active in the environmental sector. A Bakker Holding sister company, Liquisort Holding, has devel­ oped a revolutionary sorting method, based on separation using magnets, which has now been patented worldwide.

During the Recycling 2010 trade fair, Liquisort even received the Recycling Innovation Award for the so-called MDS technology. Charles Smeeman, Director at Liquisort, received the prize from recycling guru Dr. Ad Lansink and Henk Meinen from Recycling Magazine Benelux. The MDS technology was chosen as the most innovative from five innovative technologies nominated by an independent professional jury. Charles Smeeman, director of Liquisort: ‘We separate material mixes in mag­ netic liquid, using their individual specific gravities. The viscosity of the fluid is practically the same as that of water, but we can make the liquid seem lighter or heavier by using a magnetic field. So the particles drop to the bottom, remain floating in the liquid or drift to the sur­ face. The exact level depends on their weight.’

By using the company’s Magnetic Density Separator (MDS) unit, the magnetic liquid can achieve up to 20 times its own density or even be made lighter than water.

The MDS is thus a unique piece of equipment. t 95 fall 2010 - p19

in the picture photography Marco Peters

An application has not yet been found for every material that comes out of the factory as end-fraction. However, ARN Advisory is busy searching for new products and potential markets for these materials. To give examples, a prototype of a brick and of a kitchen counter top have been made, and the fabrication of traffic signs and insula足 tion material have been investigated. It is important to work towards producing a fraction that is as clean as possible and to achieve the highest quality processing possible, so that we can make, for instance, clear glass.

p20 - 95 fall 2010

column

The Volkswagen-SiCon-Process: a review after the first 10 years

T

he environment-friendly treatment of End of Life Vehicles (ELVs) that takes into account the economic and social demands of global market com­ petition is a challenge for the recycling business as well as for the automotive industry and its suppliers.

This was true a decade ago, when the development of the Volkswagen-SiCon-process started, driven by envi­ ronmental questions and legal regulations linked to these. This is still true and may gain further impor­ tance at a time where questions of saving resources get more and more into focus.

The challenge to deal efficiently with shredder residues has been taken by the Volkswagen AG and the SiCon GmbH to generate a technical solution and the necessary structures for implementation.

Developing separation processes, opening channels for the derived secondary raw materials and adapting the system to different markets characterized the work of the early years. The technology has been transferred to a commercial scale in partnership with shredder companies and consumers for the derived materials. A number of plants in Europe meanwhile are under operation, a first plant in the United States will follow in near future.

The major prerequisite for the successful expansion of this technique is the shift in thinking away from a waste which needs to be discarded towards a resource which can be exploited. Saving natural resources by regaining secondary raw materials from waste streams to replace primary raw materials in industrial processes will serve both the environment and the economy.

ELVs and even shredder residues should thus be seen as a “complex ore”.

And the technical development did not stop.

Experiences from running separation plants and from consumers of the derived secondary raw materials helped to improve technologies and product qualities.

Research is going on to find further applications for materials that could be derived from shredder resi­ dues in cooperation with partners from universities, research institutes and industry. Since cars and later on End of Life Vehicles will get more and more com­ plex, treatment and recycling technologies have to keep up with that.

Major threats to the economic efficiency of Volkswagen-SiCon plants may result from high export rates of ELVs, cheap low level disposal alternatives for shredder residues and an insufficient adaptation to new developments. Due to changes in product com­ position, raw material prices and market structures chances will outbalance the risks in the future though.

Coming from a holistic approach the VolkswagenSiCon-process is an integral part of a recovery and recycling concept for complex waste streams like ELVs and thus can and will be adapted to necessary changes in the treatment chain at a sufficient early stage. A close cooperation between OEMs, waste treatment companies, the raw materials industry and the other links of the chain will pay off. The flexibility and expandability of the process guarantees that ELVs may further on be exploited as “mines on wheels”.

Daniel Goldmann

Daniel Goldmann is professor at the TU Clausthal and holds the chair in mineral and waste processing. Before this, he worked for Volkswagen AG, and developed together with SiCon Technology the VW-SiCon-process.

In 2006 the technology was awarded with an European Environ­ mental Award.

95 fall 2010 - p21

case study

Case study on PST (Post-Shredder Technologies)

text Jeroen Booij, Dave Bebelaar photography Jack Tillmanns stills 3d-animations Selected View infographics Frédérik Ruys

p22 - 95 fall 2010

case study

Time is running out to achieve the 95% recycling target for cars in 2015. But the arrival of ARN’s new PST factory in Tiel could just give the Netherlands a pioneer’s role in the automotive sector. Here, you will find everything you need to know about the factory and the applications for which post-shredder technologies have been developed.

95 fall 2010 - p23

case study

Starting point for the processing.

Using this dosing hopper and a weigh belt, the capacity of the line is regulated so that the hammer mills achieve maximum production.

T

he modern, austere-looking building in Tiel that took ARN two years to construct, raises a number of questions. Not surprisingly, dozens of curious visitors have had a guided tour even before the factory’s opening.

And each time, technical manager Ron van der Leeuw – one of the 13 people already working at the factory – has to explain it again: ‘No, you won’t find any scrap cars here in the future.’ This is because the PST process does not come into operation until the car wrecks have already been shredded, which is why the technology is called ‘post’ shredder. Van der Leeuw rummaged about in a pile of shredder waste. The only thing to remind you of the cars is a piece of tyre or upholstery and the occasional steering wheel cover. From the beginning of next year, 30,000 tons of this waste will be processed here for recycling. This amount should increase to 100,000 tons within the foreseeable future. p24 - 95 fall 2010

The only way to achieve 95%

Hans van de Greef became managing director of the recycling factory on 1 March 2009. The function fits in perfectly with his past: ‘Before this, I worked in rubber recycling, and before that I started up a factory for sludge processing and manure processing.’ The reason for this factory’s arrival is crystal clear, according to van de Greef: ‘It’s the only way to achieve a recycling percentage of 95%. ARN is the only organization in Europe to tackle the issue in this way, which means that the rest might soon end up with a big problem.’

The figure of 95% is not an isolated factor. It has to be realized from 85% material recycling; the remaining 10% comes from thermal recycling – reuse to generate energy. Van de Greef: ‘The Netherlands has been quick off the mark. Other countries are still trying to figure it out. Furthermore, the structure in the Netherlands yields

case study

Separation installation for plastics.

Here the plastic stream from the ASR is separated into three substreams. These make their way individually towards final processors such as Galloo Plastics.

reliable statistics. Because ARN reimburses the cost of dismantling certain materials, they know exactly what happens to them. You can see what ends up where, right down to the last kilo. Tyres are collected in other places as well, but you never know exactly where they end up.

Besides, gathering statistics is a process that requires patience and creativity. Some rather unlikely countries claim that they’ve already achieved the 95% norm.

They’re getting away with it – for the time being. But one day, new European directives will prescribe measurement methods.’

The art of separation

The trick, of course, lies in the separation of shredder residue. Van de Greef: ‘To recycle or separate waste, the process needs to be as automated as possible, otherwise it requires a huge amount of manual work.’ And both of these involve high costs. ARN has made huge invest­ ments: the PST factory cost a cool €25 million. Van de Greef: ‘If we move towards 100,000 tons per year, we expect the factory to be self-financing. But thanks to the factory, car dismantling companies will no longer have to take the bumpers and PUR foam out of cars, for exam­ ple. That saves us about 30 to 40 euros per wreck, because quite simply that takes many hours. If you do that for

Hammer mills. The ASR delivered to them is reduced in size to a maximum of 40 mm.

Afterwards, the residue stream can be separated further using a sieve and windshifters into the three main streams: minerals, plastic and fibres.

200,000 vehicles, it generates a considerable saving.’ The separation process is actually quite simple. First, a uni­ form size of particles needs to be achieved. The shredder residue is reduced to a maximum of around 40 millime­ tres using hammer mills. It is then separated according to density. That is done using air and liquid of a certain density. The light material rises to the top in a current of air or a liquid bath. After that, it is a question of skim­ ming off. It sounds simple, and van de Greef agreed: ‘It’s not rocket science. The difficulty is the scale of the whole thing. If you have 120 of these separation tanks standing in a line, it becomes a logistics challenge.’

Searching for applications

Iron, aluminium and most of the copper have already disappeared by the time the shredder residue arrives in Tiel. That is logical: if you leave it in the waste, you get €125 per ton for it. For copper you get €4,000 per ton, so it is worthwhile.

Ron van der Leeuw: ‘To begin with, we were afraid that we would get mostly wet material coming in, but from talks with the shredders it seems that they are prepared to make sure that the material gets to us dry. After all, wet means more kilos – and that costs more money.’ Accord­ ing to van de Greef, shredders are also going further and

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95 fall 2010 - p25

case study

further with separating materials: ‘When we began, we had the idea that there would be about 8% ferrous and non-ferrous in the material. By now that figure is much lower. And the same goes for the mineral frac­ tion, which is predominantly glass and sand. It’s purely an economic consideration.’ But this doesn’t have to be a disadvantage.

Van de Greef: ‘That mineral fraction is a difficult market, so perhaps it actually makes it easier, in fact. We’re trying hard to get rid of it in construction-related products – applications connected with cement and so on. But bearing in mind the impurities it contains, it’s still very difficult.’ p26 - 95 fall 2010

There are more examples of what will happen with the separated waste streams in the future. The fibre fraction, which comes mainly from upholstery and floor mats, is already being used in sludge dewatering. In the past, pul­ verized coal was used. And van de Greef thinks that you can also make new insulation materials from it: ‘Or pal­ lets, which are currently made from chipboard. Couldn’t we make them from recycled plastic as well? What we’re looking for is the highest possible application value, and we’d very much like to collaborate with companies that are willing to carry out checks and tests. If a specific idea causes problems, we’re potentially prepared to invest as well. Other companies will say: it’s your problem.

case study

‘I’ve always believed that recycling plastics would really take off, but many people laughed at me when I started processing plastic bottles in 1991. Shortly before that, a ban on plastic beakers had been introduced in two American cities and I wanted to do something positive in that direction. With hindsight, it was too early then. But I still set up my research bureau. Now we have plants in three countries where recycled plastic is made: Austria, China and the UK. ‘In Austria, we work mainly with shredder residue from electronic equipment; in the UK it comes mainly from cars. We’ve investigated shredder residue from all over the world and found that the amount of metals differs enormously – from 1 or 2% to as much as 13%. But the shredders are getting better and better at sorting. They can’t afford not to these days. This is a fantastic development for us. I’m convinced that recycling plastics is going to undergo the same development as steel, aluminium and paper. It’s still in its infancy, so it’s normal that not everyone agrees. But it will be accepted in the long run.

‘The great thing about our product is that it has an extremely high application value. Apart from colourings, nothing is added – but of course that’s something the plastic manufacturers do, too. To begin with, recycled plastic was used for poles and flowerpots; now you come across it everywhere. For instance, the green vacuum cleaner range from Electrolux uses our plastic. Incidentally, it really grieves me that the USA is lagging behind with developments. Our country has around 5 million tons of automotive shredder residue per year, but we can do nothing with it because legislation makes it almost impossible; so it’s all exported. I’m ashamed of this state of affairs. But this situation will also change soon. Just wait until they find out it’ll create a whole lot of new jobs.’

Mike Biddle

president and founder of MBA Polymers

What we’re looking for is the highest possible application value, and we’d very much like to collaborate with companies that are willing to carry out checks and tests.

But for us it’s worth the research and the arithmetic at the very least.’

Things are already going well with the plastics, in this respect. Van de Greef: ‘That’s the stream with the highest added value.’ They can be divided into 3 fractions, sepa­ rated out according to specific gravity. The first of these is the fraction weighing less than 1.1 kg per litre; this includes in particular the PP and PE plastics which

ultimately end up as reused plastic in new cars. Then there is the 1.1 to 1.3 fraction, which will be injected into the iron production process in blast-furnaces in the future, to act as a catalyst in the reduction process of iron oxide. What remains is the fraction heavier than 1.3, which unfortunately still has to be dumped because its chlorine level is too high. Van de Greef: ‘It doesn’t contain enough PVC for PVC recycling and it contains

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95 fall 2010 - p27

case study ‘I work for companies that want to do something with plastic recycling; I act as a human encyclopaedia in the commercial and technical areas, and particularly in the field of shredder waste. In that capacity, I’m closely involved with projects in Luxembourg, Spain, France and the UK, and also for ARN in Tiel. To begin with, we made an inventory to get an idea of the technical possibilities for separating out plastics. Plastic components are taken out of the shredder fraction and preferably go back to the automotive sector. The aim is to achieve the highest possible percentage of recycling. It is very strange to think that until recently, all that shredder waste ended up on the dump or in the incinerator, and now it’s being given a second life.

‘Recycling plastics from shredder fractions is still in its infancy, so it’s difficult to paint a picture of the market.

About three years ago it was hardly carried out at all. Nevertheless, the methods we use have been tried and tested in France and Sweden, where people have been working with them for a few years now. We mainly separate the materials using float–sink technology, in other words based on the various densities of plastics.

The lighter fractions float; the heavier ones sink.

‘But you can only make that kind of investment if you handle huge amounts of waste; a relatively small individual shredder company could never recover the costs. You have to combine forces. Even so, the main reasons for investing in plastic recycling are still driven by legislation; think of the ban on dumping, for instance. But it will become increasingly important. The composition of end-of-life vehicles is changing rapidly. Metals are being replaced more and more with plastics, not least to reduce weight. As a result, not only the amount of plastics is increasing, but also the number of sorts of plastics is increasing. But ultimately it is not so much driven by legislation or economic aspects; it’s also a necessity. Plastic is an oil product and the oil reserves are not endless. That is now a recognized fact.’

Dick Kramer Freher Kumulus BV

From waste to raw material in 10 steps 1

5

4

2

7

Fibres

Iron 10

8

3

TI

EL

Aluminium and copper

Stainless steel

9

6

PVC arm Minerals

After a long search, ARN opted for the VW-SiCon technology in the PST factory. You can read more in cocreator Goldmann’s column on page 21

p28 - 95 fall 2010

too much for incineration, so we’re still looking for solutions for this fraction.’ The remaining ferrous and non-ferrous residue goes to the metal-processing compa­ nies. And finally, the dust fraction goes to the dump.

Steps forward

From next year, the PST factory will run purely on auto­ motive shredder waste to begin with. But there is also shredder waste from prosperity scrap, which in the Netherlands amounts to around 150,000 tons per year.

With the costs of dumping plus dumping tax of around €140 per ton, the price currently charged by ARN is lower.

However, the costs for incineration are lower than the PST tariff. Van de Greef: ‘We’ll have to operate in line with market prices. In order to compete with incineration,

Aluminium and copper

Minerals

you have to lower your prices. Current incineration prices are actually too low to make recycling an attractive proposition. In the Netherlands and Germany, dumping policy has been adapted to incineration capacity. As a result, prices are under a huge amount of pressure.’

Incidentally, the 30,000 tons of shredder residue the factory is starting with comes purely from Dutch wrecks.

Perhaps part of the future expansion will come from across the border. Even so, van de Greef is sure of his ground: ‘I’m convinced we’re going to achieve that 95%.

But the challenge in the short term is whether we can sell enough of the residue stream to get below the 10% ther­ mal fraction. But if you don’t make a start, you’ll never get anywhere. Experience is ultimately the only way to take steps forward.’ t

case study

: Vision for 2015 and beyond

In 2005, ARN presented its vision for the coming 10 years. It’s now time to take stock. Have we seen significant changes in the availability of resources? Have there been revolutionary technological changes? And what about environmental awareness? We invite you to join us while we reflect upon these issues.

ARN has a positive outlook on the future. The world will, of course, change in the years that lie ahead, but there is no need for pessimism about shortages. Some solutions will arise from technological developments, while others will be found by the market. And the concept of sustainability will increasingly become a question of common sense within both business and government. There is no gloominess at all about the future opportunities that ARN will have.

The demand for resources will continue to rise as a result of the growing world population and the increasing desire for prosperity that goes along with it. Resources will not become scarcer, but it will be more difficult to access them. As a result, setting up collection systems and technologies to recover materials will become increasingly important. Supplies of steel, aluminium and copper will not run out in the foreseeable future. Prices will vary intermittently, with consequences for the scrap market. But ARN expects these to be an incidental phenomenon.

We should probably expect more structural changes in the area of fossil fuels. This will lead to the re-evaluation of nuclear energy and other alternatives. The automotive industry is putting a sustained effort into the introduction of the electric car. The expectation is that in 2020, around 5% of the worldwide production of cars will be electric.

Oil as a resource for plastics will remain available in sufficient quantities. However, rising oil prices will lead to a greater price difference between virgin and recycled plastic, which will make it even more worthwhile to use recyclates. In addition, secondary material will be added increasingly often to production processes.

ARN puts a strong emphasis on the implementation of separation and processing technologies for shredder residue, as highlighted by the new factory in Tiel. As regards the politics of dumping and incineration, a level playing field will stimulate investment in recycling technology – and will ultimately lead to a self-supporting recycling chain for end-of-life vehicles. ARN will continue to develop expertise in the area of recycling technology. It will also develop sales channels for recyclates in order to keep realizing the maximum environmental performance possible at acceptable costs.

With the chosen course of providing even better environmental performance at significantly lower costs, ARN is convinced that it possesses the necessary qualities to remain the leading authority in the Netherlands in the field of car recycling for another 10 years. In addition, we expect to be able to make a contribution in the domain of recycling and its management, as well as in other areas and across the border. The transfer of knowledge will therefore be a policy spearhead for ARN in the coming years. There is thus every reason for an optimistic outlook on the future.

95 fall 2010 - p29

relation

p30 - 95 fall 2010

relation text Oswald Cornelius photography Jack Tillmanns, Hollandse Hoogte

HKS Metals is one of the largest scrap processors in the country: every year, the company’s 6 sites process a million tons of scrap metal. HKS is possibly also the most progressive of the country’s scrap processors. Managing director Kees Heuvelman: ‘In the past, the only people working in this sector were big strong men with massive biceps and filthy hands, but soon they’ll all be walking around here in white lab coats.’

Men of steel W W

ell over 70,000 car wrecks go through the shredder every year at HKS Metals in the Amsterdam docklands, but today the huge machine has come to a standstill due to a technical fault. As a result, the impres­ sive mountain of wrecks lies untouched, which is some­ thing that happens only very rarely.

Managing director Kees Heuvelman told me that cars are only a part of the scrap processed by HKS: ‘Cars represent around 20 to 25% of the input. The rest is “luxury” scrap: bicycles, washing machines, computers.

The good thing is that the shredder can separate all sorts of things these days. We’ve reached the stage where we can separate copper, aluminium and steel entirely automatically. Want to know how this works?

Well, that’s our secret. To a certain extent, we’re selftaught in this area, but I can give you a glance behind the scenes. We use colour separation technologies. The shredder material moves along on a belt at 40 kilo­ metres an hour and our special cameras detect red and yellow copper parts, which are then separated.’

Location manager Stefan van der Wekken added: ‘The technology already existed. Aviko uses it to sepa­ rate black and white chips from each other. However, it is really new to the scrap world.’ These are the sorts of technologies HKS Metals has used to build up its pioneer’s role.

Waste is not waste

The company has been in existence for decades as a recycler of ferrous and non-ferrous metals into highquality resources for metal producers. But it gained sig­ nificant momentum when it merged in 1993 with

Hoogovens, international metal recycling companies from the Dutch concern Steenkolen Handels Verenig­ ing (SHV) and Thyssen Sonnenberg Recycling (TSR), in Duisburg. HKS was resold in 2006 and is now jointly owned by Corus and TSR. According to Heuvelman, the scrap trade is changing very rapidly: ‘More has changed in the last 3 years than in the preceding forty-three years. Up until 1971 – when the first shredder arrived in the Netherlands – car wrecks were cut up or demolished with a hatchet. When the European Coal and Steel Community stopped its involvement in the scrap trade in the late 1970s, it was suddenly “hot” to invest in scrap and there was a prolif­ eration of scrap dealers. But the quality of the scrap began to change, and we now have shredder scrap that contains only 0.25% copper. Until recently, there was still plenty of copper wire in the waste. It’s very difficult to extract properly, but new glass fibre technologies make it possible. Here we use analysis equipment that can establish the exact composition of the scrap, and that makes us unique in Europe. These days we have 3 sorts of waste, of which a couple are useful for making plastics and biofuel. And the copper, aluminium and brass we extract can go directly to the smelter.’ But as far as van der Wekken is concerned, the arrival of the shredder is not in fact the greatest change: ‘There were actually two big developments. The arrival of the shred­ der was the first, and that was driven by technology. The second is the realization that waste is actually not waste any more. That’s a very recent development. The great reversal started in 2007, right after that Al Gore film came out, in fact.’

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95 fall 2010 - p31

relation

From commercial to operational

In the course of time, an increasingly clear division has emerged between the coarse and the fine mechanical work at the thousand metre long site of HKS. On one side there are mountains of rails and other coarse material, much of which is processed by HKS itself. Any­ thing too long or large for the oven is cut up, burned or pressed to whatever size the client wants before it is sold. On the other side is the shredder. The mountains of scrap there consist of considerably smaller pieces. Heuvelman: ‘In the past, the only people working in this sec­ tor were big strong men with massive biceps and filthy hands, but soon they’ll all be walking around here in white lab coats. There’s no longer any doubt that’s the way it’ll go. The only question is how long it will take before it happens. We have large numbers of people who understand scrap, but suddenly we also needed to understand waste.

We’re in the middle of that process of change at the moment.

‘Until the 1970s, the scrap trade was run by a few Jewish families. In those days, a piece of equipment was bought now and again so as to be able to run the business. These days, 90% of our expenses are for personnel and machines. That has everything to do with a culture change. When I moved to Amsterdam in 2000, there was no affinity at all with the operational aspects. Everything revolved around commerce. But people have come to realize that they’re dealing with enormous value.’

Heuvelman does not mean value in terms of money, but in terms of the importance of what they are doing for the environment, and therefore for the continued existence of our planet. ‘You see, in the past many operations were carried out manually. Cast-iron stoves were broken up by hand. We’d set fire to 50-odd tons of cables with­ out anyone even thinking that it was perhaps not good for the envi­ ronment. It was a different era, and there were perhaps only 3 stationary cutters in our country at the time. Now there are around 300. But, 20 years ago if I mentioned at a party that I was in the scrap trade, I’d spend the rest of the evening on my own! Now when I say I’m in the recycling business, I’m popular. Honestly, it’s really true.

And this is all driven by the fact that our reserves are running out.’ p32 - 95 fall 2010

Not a pioneer

And what about in 10 years time? What will the scrap sector look like then? Both gentlemen had to think about that one.

Van der Wekken: ‘In the future, manufacturers will be obliged to make use of eco-design and, as a result, entirely different materials will become available. There’re hardly any bicycles at all these days that don’t have stainless steel spokes. Titanium is also very much on the up and up. Currently, the metals used in gear housings are practically pre­ cious. Where’re they going to end up in the future?’

Heuvelman: ‘There will also be developments in the scrap sector itself.

At the moment we work with a shredder with a 25 ton rotor that turns at 600 revolutions per minute. It releases a huge amount of flame, smoke, noise and dust. I can imagine that that will also change, that an installation will come along that rotates at a mere 25 revolutions a minute. Actually, the shredder hasn’t changed in the last 40 years. It’s a big, fierce machine with lots of hammers, but it still conceals a large number of secrets. But the basic concept hasn’t changed.’

When I asked whether the Netherlands is a pioneer in this sector, the two gentlemen gave a definite ‘no’. Van der Wekken: ‘Compared to Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia, we’re still in our infancy. Legis­ lation there is much stricter. As recently as December 2009, all our waste still went to the dump as a matter of course. In those countries, that hasn’t been the case for years now. They go much further in recy­ cling their flows of waste. For example, waste is processed into fuel for the production of pallets. Naturally, we’re also looking at the possibili­ ties. It will happen here, too; it’s just a matter of time. The arrival of ARN’s PST factory brings it one step closer. Of course we’ve already agreed to let our waste be processed further there.’

If Asia starts to use cutlery

But what about the trade itself? Heuvelman: ‘The prices of scrap rose to a very high level in 2003. We’re getting the same prices now that we got in guilders before the euro was introduced. World steel consump­ tion increases every year, and the same is true of the non-ferrous mar­ ket. Growth in the turnover of scrap is far higher than for minerals.’

relation

And is it true that China claims a large percentage of that by now? Van der Wekken: ‘China is a slightly overrated market as far as steel is concerned. We send a container there now and again, but it doesn’t account for much. We do sell copper wire that is stripped there. But China’s electrical steel industry makes hardly any use of scrap. They use a lot more minerals and coal. The scrap they do buy comes mainly from areas nearby. However, we do plenty of business in India and Pakistan. They produce a lot of long steel products, and using scrap for that purpose is an attrac­ tive proposition. The product of the smelting process is a type of steel that can be shaped easily, and that’s much more appealing than a big lump of steel from an integrated steel factory.’

Heuvelman: ‘But in Asia there are 3 billion people with the standard of living that we left behind us in 1912, in a manner of speaking. If they all start eating with knifes and forks, it’ll have a huge impact on the price of nickel. The same goes for plastics, too.’

And what does that mean? Besides HKS Metals, will there soon be an ‘HKS Plastics’? Heuvelman sighed before continuing: ‘We talk about it often. We’d need to create a department that allows certain investments.

But will that ever happen? At any rate, it’s certainly yet not our priority.’

Fluctuating metal prices

Heuvelman and van der Wekken have their hands full keeping up with the prices of steel and non-ferrous metals. Metal prices fluctuate dramatically. The price rose by 80 euros a ton last April, but 30% drop in one month does not surprise the gentlemen either. Van der Wekken: ‘The crisis in the autumn of 2008 is in­famous.

Still. We bought car wrecks for next to nothing back

then.’ So what determines the price? Heuvelman: ‘Several prices lie at the basis of the MRF index – the norm within the sector that’s set by the Metal Recycling Federation. Export is one of the prices. The cost price in Germany, which is traditionally a large market, is another. In simple terms, you can say that the MRF rise or fall is an average of those two. But the market is still pretty nervous. If a bank director catches a cold somewhere in America, we notice it right away. I don’t expect that to change in the short term. Scrap is after all a product of industry. That things are not going well at the moment in industry is a fact of life for us.

In the first 7 months of this year, we received more than 50% less turnings than in the first 7 months of 2008. This is a very strong indication that perform­ ance within the EU is under fire. After all, the metal industry makes the materials for the rest of the indus­ trial sector. It’s very worrying.’ And then there is the non-ferrous market, which is driven by the stock mar­ ket. Heuvelman: ‘There you can buy and sell futures, just like potatoes. The pension funds and other organi­ zations have cottoned on to that little game by now.

But if those gentlemen get fed up with it, the whole sector would collapse right away. Those huge fluctua­ tions seem appealing, but considering the risks, we have to cover ourselves. You could put your company in great danger in an instant. There’re plenty of exam­ ples. And with shares you can wait until the price is at its highest; for us, it’s doubtful whether we could sell it to our customers in that case.’ According to Heuvel­ man, it has been known for some time that the steel price will be listed on the stock exchange: ‘Tests are already being carried out, so it’s certainly going to hap­ pen. It’s a pity, though. The adrenalin rush you get from this trade will be more or less lost soon.’ t

Managing Director Kees Heuvelman (r) and location manager Stefan van der Wekken: from waste processors to recyclers

95 fall 2010 - p33

manufacturers

Efficient recycling is an earning model

p34 - 95 fall 2010

manufacturers text Wim Oude Weernink photography Beeld fabrikanten

Recycling as an instrument for achieving a better environment entails more than separating out harmful substances. Car manufacturers together with the economic operators in the recoverychain have to realise the recovery of 95% of all the materials and substances used in cars at the lowest possible cost.

T

he automotive industry has known the enormity of the challenge for quite some time now: an EU directive stipulates that in 2015, 95% of a car must be recovered. It is a target with a previous history, and spe­ cial nuances in its implementation. That is certainly true for the Netherlands. We are the front runner in Europe in the recycling of cars, with a strong emphasis on efficient processes to recycle or recover materials, so that recycling can be realized cost-effectively.

End of Life Vehicles Directive

ARN was established as the collective implementing body in the Netherlands in 1995, five years before the EU published its first paper about an imminent directive on end of life vehicles. Since 2006, it has been known that in 2015, 95% of the weight of a car must be suitable for recovery, in whatever form. And because automotive

producers together with the economic operators in the recovery chain are responsible for removing their prod­ ucts from society, it was left to the sector to work out how to fulfil the requirement.

Toyota’s alternative materials

Willy Tomboy of Toyota Motor Europe in Brussels: ‘It’s not easy. It’s not pan-European legislation but a directive, which means that each European country is free to achieve the target in line with its own legislation. In addi­ tion, we’re confronted with differences in infrastructure.

For instance, in Germany the recycling process is coordi­ nated and carried out by a private organization, in Belgium the responsibility lies partly with the importers and the Netherlands has opted for the ARN scenario: an implementing body managed by the importers via the RAI Association, and a fund to finance the recycling

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95 fall 2010 - p35

manufacturers

For the car manufacturer, the challenge starts during the development phase of a car, and involves choosing resources and materials that are worth recycling and/or are easy to separate in the recycling process.

Search on youtube.com for ‘how to completely recycle a car’ and watch the video where the entire process of car recycling using VW-SiCon technology can be seen.

process. But some other countries are not nearly that far.

In the United Kingdom, for example, there are still a lot of illegal breaker’s yards.

‘We at Toyota have been active since 1997, setting up initiatives that include the development of alternative materials suitable for reuse. It began with research into replacements for lead, mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium. But it’s also particularly important to fully understand the various rules and regulations You even have to deal with the registration of vehicles in different countries in order to trace them in the recycling process.

That makes the implementation of the End of Life Vehicles Directive quite complex. Three aspects are important to us for a good overview: harmonization, simplification and definition.’

Increasingly difficult

For the car manufacturer, the challenge starts during the development phase of a car, and involves choosing resources and materials that are worth recycling and/or are easy to separate in the recycling process. The only thing is, the closer you get to the target of 95%, the more difficult it becomes. The material composition of the vehicles and the well established recycling infrastructure for ferrous and non-ferrous metals ensure the achievement of already 75% according to people in the business. But after that it gets increasingly difficult. Even here in the Netherlands, each extra per cent requires more effort. We already recycle slightly more than 85% and are therefore on target for the 2015 goal. But after dismantling usable parts and components and then shredding the end-of-life vehicle, we have to separate the residue materials, includ­ ing plastics – and that’s a difficult operation. That is also the phase for recycling energy, which makes up as much as 10% of the recovery process. Some materials are suit­ p36 - 95 fall 2010

able for energy recovery. The last 10% of the recycling percentage to be achieved will be particularly difficult. It can only be reached using high technology. Raymond Gense, manager of Sustainable Development at Pon (which, for instance, imports all the Volkswagen group products): ‘The problems are no longer at the front end of the process. The challenge is to make that last 10% cost-effective for recycling as well.’

VW-SiCon

That is why Volkswagen went to great lengths to not just take account of recycling on the product side, but also to develop a suitable process itself. The result is SiCon GmbH, a separate company that offers the ultimate automated recycling process – to Volkswagen, but also to others, including the ARN PST factory. Gense: ‘It’s all about selling the automatically separated residue materi­ als at the highest possible price. For example, SiCon makes it possible to separate certain fleecy residues that are important for water treatment purposes in such a pure form that it is no longer necessary to buy in expen­ sive water purification carbon. And in turn, during prod­ uct development, Volkswagen focuses on finding the proper materials to suit this process.’

u

manufacturers

Almost every car manufacturer devotes part of its website to its own view on car recycling.

And some of them even have a site entirely dedicated to the subject, for instance www.sustainability. psa-peugeot-citroen.com

95 fall 2010 - p37

manufacturers

Mutual responsibility

In 1990 Opel becomes the first automaker to im­ plement a recycling chain for plastics: the Rüsselsheim engineers systemati­ cally eliminate hazard­ ous materials such as asbestos and cadmium from the manufactur­ ing process. At the same time, sustainable reductions of paint solvents and CFC’s are achieved. p38 - 95 fall 2010

Opel believes that ‘mutual responsibility’ is key when it comes to reaching the 95% target. ‘It’s the only way to reach the target’, according to an Opel spokesman.

‘Opel’s approach to fulfilling the requirement laid down in the ELV Directive is to preserve the existing infrastruc­ ture for recycling and recovery and to optimize it further.’

The International Dismantling Information System (IDIS), which was set up by 27 car manufacturers in order to satisfy the requirements and laws drawn up by the EU, is a good example of creating and offering a prag­ matic and efficient tool to the dismantlers. ‘It is impor­ tant for producers to see recycling as a non-competitive issue,’ according to Opel. ‘Car manufacturers are free in how they implement their strategy, but all their products use more or less the same materials, whether it’s an Opel, a BMW or a Volkswagen. The system makes no distinc­ tion in that respect.’ Opel is extremely decisive in its opinion that there must be an open information exchange amongst car manufacturers in the pursuit of optimal recycling and recovery.

Dubious figures

However, there are still different ways of thinking.

Opel: ‘As far as the infrastructure of the individual EU

member states is concerned, various implementations of the directive are possible. Opel’s role is to support the national processing organizations. In the area of legisla­ tion, the greatest problem is getting hold of accurate data. It’s still far too laborious to collect the correct information and, on top of that, the figures often do not reflect the reality. The member states should not have the illusion that the figures are correct: nobody knows the “correct” figures. So Opel is proposing pragmatic solutions. For example, the given fact that average percentage of metals in an end-of-life vehicle is 75%. That figure is accurate. So why do all the eco­ nomic operators have to report the figures for our endof-life vehicles, every single year, kilo for kilo? A fixed but statistically proven quantity of metals and of pos­ sible other materials should be assumed, as that would make it unnecessary to carry out a lot of expensive investigations. ACEA participates in a European discus­ sion group that argues in favour of more pragmatic methods for collecting data and calculating figures.

That’s the automotive industry’s priority at the moment.

Calculations are performed to two decimal places, but the question remains: what exactly is an “accurate” figure? Numbers are far too often extremely dubious – to say the least.’ t

News, Media, Gadgets

Little

green note Despite the many new features on our iPhones, Blackberries and PCs, Post-it sticky notes are still as popular as when they were invented 25 years ago. The latest arrival is the green version, which is made from 100% recycled paper. In addition, these Post-it Notes are produced in an environmentally friendly way and are, of course, immediately recog­ nizable by their green colour. Available from various outlets, including www.p-plus.nl.

Worn-out record Ocean’s five Electrolux gives added meaning to the term prosperity waste with the introduction of their ‘Five Vacs from the Sea’. It concerns five vacuum cleaners built up around litter found in five different world seas and their coastli­ nes, beaches and coral reefs. The plastic material was col­ lected by people who would have been carrying out the task anyway. The vacuum cleaners are purely a way of making a statement. Electrolux has indicated that it would like to work towards 100% recycled plastic in the near future. At the moment, approximately 70% recycled materials are used. The fascinating cam­ paign can be followed in many different ways: via Facebook, Blog, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube.

See www.electrolux.com/vacfromthesea.

A brilliant idea: a bowl made from an old LP. Pressed once again, but with an entirely different purpose this time. No two copies are the same, of course. Available for €15 from www.skoonecodesign.nl.

Two in one

Since waste management and energy use are becoming increasingly connected, ARN took the logical step of integrating the energy components of the energy scan offered by the MKB Energy Centre into its own environ­ mental scan. This enables ARN Recycling Services to provide a complete scan. The ARN environmental scan makes clear how a company manages energy and where savings can be realized, often with simple adaptations.

The account managers at ARN can also provide tips about waste products that can generate money. More information: www.arn.nl/milieuscan.

The target date for packaging waste is even closer than the one that applies to automotive waste: by the end of 2012, 42% of plastic packaging waste in the Netherlands must be efficiently recycled. That will not happen of its own accord, which is why the Dutch Nedvang foundation (the name is derived from ‘Nederland van afval naar grondstof’, which means ‘the Netherlands from Waste to Resource’) launched the Plastic Heroes campaign. The campaign is being run together with the Dutch municipali­ ties, as the collection, separa­ tion and processing of plastic packaging at the local level is organized in various ways.

See www.plasticheroes.nl.

95 fall 2010 - p39

News, Media, Gadgets

PET bottles Last year, HP became the first manufacturer to offer not only recycled ink cartridges, but also an affordable printer containing recycled plastic. HP DeskJet models D1660, D5560 and D2660 consist of 25, 35 and 50% recycled plastic, respectively; besides from PET bottles, the plastic comes partly from old ink cartridges. In the United States, HP markets a printer that is made from 83% recycled plastic. HP has set itself the target of incorporating 46 million kilos of recycled material into its printers between 2007 and 2011. See www.hp.com.

Tyre basket

These baskets are made by hand from used car tyres in Morocco. No two baskets are identical! For sale at www.skoonecodesign.nl or www.keetenkoter.nl.

Increase in waste disposal fee In the Netherlands the waste disposal fee was raised on 1 July 2010 from €15 to €45. The fee was, in fact, reduced on 1 January 2007 because the introduction of PST technology in the Netherlands will ultimately lead to a reduction in annual costs.

However, since the construction of the factory in Tiel has been subject to considerable delays, the fund has been depleted faster than expected in the last two years. ARN would prefer to abol­ ish the fee as quickly as possible, but without the fee it will be impossible to achieve the 95% recycling percentage. As is exten­ sively explained in this issue of 95, the waste disposal fee allows ARN to carry out research and to invest in the recycling of old cars in the PST factory in Tiel. p40 - 95 fall 2010

Seat belt The bags in the BELT! collection are fabricated from reject and used car seat belt material. Seat belts have to meet many requirements, as safety is paramount. Belts that do not meet the requirements are rejected and can subsequently be incorporated into the bags. And the great thing is that the seat belt material makes the bags extremely durable and stain-resistant. Available from various outlets, including www.skoonecodesign.nl.

Dismantling by hand partially comes to an end The introduction of PST technology in the Netherlands brings about some changes. One important change is that by January 1 2011 dismantling certain materials from the car by hand at the disman­ tling company will no longer take place. The materials in question are mainly the so-called C6-2 substances such as PUR foam, rubber strips and large plastic components. So these materials end up in the shredder waste after the shredding process. In the PST factory, the shredder waste is separated into processable streams. This not only results in lower costs in the chain, but in particular allows the realization of an increased recycling percentage. In 2011, ARN will focus attention on improving quality in the chain. The spearhead here is reducing the number of end-of-life vehicles that are out­ side the ARN network.

News, Media, Gadgets

cradle to cradle According to chemist Michael Braungart and architect William McDonough, our notions about the environment are leading to the sustainment of the ‘cradle-to-grave’ production model, in which huge amounts of waste and pollution are produced. Braungart and McDonough believe that the only way to make any progress is by designing intelligent products that are made from materials that can be repeatedly returned to technological or biological cycles – and they should know, because they have designed or redesigned countless products. It’s a refreshing view.

Title: Cradle-to-Cradle: waste equals food Written by: Michael Braungart and William McDonough Publisher: Scriptum. ISBN: 9789055945771 Pages: 237. Price: €19.90

Hip Green You want to travel along the road towards a better environment – but where to begin? This booklet could be a useful guide. Based on examples of eve­ ryday Dutch people as well as a few celebrities, it gives an overview of things you can do to contribute to a better environment. Some are funny while most are useful, and all are described in a pleasantly informal style.

Title: Hip Groen (available in Dutch only) Written by: Machteld Stilting Publisher: Bruna ISBN: 9789022994757 Pages: 224 Price: €19.95

Sustainable development…

a global opportunity This book demonstrates that sustainable developments are not just hype. They are part of a global trend that accounts for a positive twist, according to Anne-Marie Rakhorst, Dutch Businesswoman of the Year 2000. She is convinced that a sustainable world with sustainably developed products and sustainable technologies can be achieved by everyone. She gives plenty of examples, ranging from biodegradable clothing and energy generation by means of a dance floor, to the air-conditioned bed and the high-efficiency boiler that supplies the household with energy like a mini power station.

Title: Duurzaam ontwikkelen… een wereldkans (available in Dutch only). Written by: Anne-Marie Rakhorst. Publisher: Scriptum ISBN: 9789055946419. Pages: 230. Price: €29.95 (hardback).

Heat George Monbiot, columnist at the British newspaper The Guardian, is convin­ ced that climate changes can be halted by reducing our carbon dioxide emis­ sions by 90% in the next 20 years. Monbiot writes in his book that although far-reaching changes are necessary, reducing such emissions is not an impossi­ ble task, and that the changeover can only succeed with a fair system. He does not base these conclusions on gut feelings, but corroborates his findings with thorough research.

Title: Heat Written by: George Monbiot. Publisher: Jan van Arkel ISBN: 9789062244690. Pages: 360. Price: €5 95 fall 2010 - p41

95 short

Recycling plastic: from bumper to bumper

4

Take the current Renault Scenic, for instance. Besides the battery container and a battery cover made from recycled plas­ tic, this car also has many other pieces that are made from recy­ cled plastic. For example, it has a plastic plate to strengthen the roof, plastic scoops, a plastic oil sump protective cover under the engine compartment, plastic drawers under the rear seat, plastic covers for the insides of the wheel arches, plastics clusters for the rear lights and various plastic strengthening panels and parts. Also the sound insulation on the floor and the scuttle board and the upholstery for the chairs, the floor and the boot space come from Galloo Plastics. But Galloo Plastics supplies not only the automotive industry. It sells the cheaper polystyrene mainly to manufacturers of, for example, CD cases and coat hangers, while the more expensive acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, which is more suitable for technological applications, goes mostly to companies that place high demands on the material, for instance, car manufacturers.

Case study on PST

22

The trick, of course, lies in the separation of shredder resi­ due. Van de Greef: ‘To recycle or separate waste, the process needs to be as automated as possible, otherwise it requires a huge amount of manual work.’ And both of these involve high costs. ARN has made huge investments: the PST factory cost a cool €25 million. Van de Greef: ‘If we move towards 100,000 tons per year, we expect the factory to be self-financing. But thanks to the factory, car dis­ mantling companies will no longer have to take the bumpers and PUR foam out of cars, for example. That saves us about 30 to 40 euros per wreck, because quite simply that takes many hours. If you do that for 200,000 vehicles, it generates a considerable saving.

p42 - 95 fall 2010

Holland has the first-mover advantage

12

The directive for end-of-life vehicles came into force in 2000, and was followed by analogous legislation for the electrical goods industry in 2002. So there is a clear Euro­ pean trend towards manufacturers’ responsibility, although there have been no new pro­posals for years now. The Commission’s pref­ erence at the moment is for global revision of waste substances legislation – and that takes time. ‘However, there is also a tendency to leave more and more things up to individual member states. They are all obliged to achieve the target of 95% reuse and ‘recovery’ – of which 85% comprises recycling and reuse – in 2015, but by now it is clear that the only way to organize the collection and processing properly is through specialized organizations created for this purpose – like ARN in the Netherlands.

Men of steel

30

Here we use analysis equipment that can establish the exact composition of the scrap, and that makes us unique in Europe. These days we have 3 sorts of waste, of which a couple are useful for making plastics and biofuel. And the copper, aluminium and brass we extract can go directly to the smelter.’ But as far as van der Wekken is concerned, the arrival of the shredder is not in fact the greatest change: ‘There were actually two big developments. The arrival of the shredder was the first, and that was driven by technology. The second is the realization that waste is actu­ ally not waste any more. That’s a very recent development. The great reversal started in 2007, right after that Al Gore film came out, in fact.’

95 SHORT

credits

Recycling is hot

16

Recycling is an activity that has been around for a long time. But recycling well is getting increasingly difficult. Rem: ‘Take steel scrap, for instance. Even after sorting by hand, 10% is still contaminated – with tin, copper or chrome, for example. Each reuse increases the con­ tamination. So the quality of the end product becomes lower and lower, and is eventually unusable. Therefore, proper cleaning is a must and science can contribute here.’ The researcher knows this from his own experience. ReSteel makes use of the Clean Scrap Machine (CSM) developed by Rem’s group. The CSM filters almost all the copper particles out of steel scrap mechanically, whereas it used to have to be selected by hand. The selection takes place on the basis of density, colour and chemical composition.

ARN is the Dutch centre of expertise for recycling in the mobility sector. It has managed the recycling chains in this sector for fifteen years. ARN has grown into a centre of expertise in the field of recycling, chain management and knowledge exchange. ARN uses its expertise to advise companies and public authorities – in the Netherlands and abroad – on a variety of issues relating to sustainability.

95 is a magazine for business relations of ARN and appears twice a year Publisher ARN P. O. Box 12252 1100 AG Amsterdam de Entree 258 1101 EE Amsterdam telephone +31 (0)20 66 131 81 info@arn.nl www.arn.nl Design and production Móbile P. O. Box 317 1400 AH Bussum telephone +31 (0)35 609 80 00 info@mobile-pr.nl www.mobile-pr.nl Editorial board Dave Bebelaar, Arie de Jong, Janet Kes, Jeroen Booij, Gert Enklaar Editors Gert Enklaar, Janet Kes Contributors Jeroen Booij, Oswald Cornelius, Jeroen Ekeler, Mark Litjens, Wim Oude Weernink Project management Viona Nieuwenhuis Art direction Michel Giezen

Efficient recycling is an earning model

34

Opel believes that ‘mutual responsibility’ is key when it comes to reaching the 95% target. ‘It’s the only way to reach the set target’, according to an Opel spokesman. ‘Opel’s approach to fulfil the require­ ment from ELV directive, is to preserve the existing infrastructure for recycling and recovery and to optimise it further.’

‘It is important for producers to see recycling as a non-competitive issue’, according to Opel. ‘Car manufacturers are free in how they implement their strategy, but all their products use more or less the same materials, whether it’s an Opel, a BMW or a Volkswagen. The system makes no distinction in that respect.’ Opel is extremely decisive in its opinion that there must be an open information exchange amongst the car manufacturers in the aim for optimal recycling and recovery.

Photographs, infographics and illustrations Lex Banning, Maarten Corbijn (Corb!no), Myrthe Dornbos (Alamitti), Marco Peters (fotograaf.nl), Selected View, Frédérik Ruys, Jack Tillmanns, Dreamstime, Getty Images, Hollandse Hoogte, beeldmateriaal fabrikanten en betrokken organisaties Printing Habo DaCosta, Vianen Translation English issue sbv anderetaal, Noordeloos © Móbile, Bussum 2010 No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the prior written consent of the publisher and editors. All the information in this magazine has been compiled with the greatest possible care.

The parties concerned are not responsible for any inaccuracies or omissions, of any nature whatever, that may nevertheless appear. The user cannot derive any rights from the information provided in this magazine.

95 fall 2010 - p43

text Mark Litjens photography Getty Images

Gold seekers are waste pioneers The gold seekers who roamed the ‘Wild West’ of the United States in the nine­ teenth century with their pickaxes and sieves, were also waste pioneers. The method they used is applied today in recycling.

Everybody has seen images of men with gold pans standing in flowing streams.

What they did was separate gold from the unwanted material. By making the mesh of the sieves as small as possible, gravel and gold stayed behind, while the water and mud passed through the mesh and back into the stream.

Modern recycling installations also uti­ lize differences in size or weight to retain what is wanted and release what is unwanted. Although the ‘technology’ of the gold seekers has been much refined, the basic concept remains the same.

ARN’s latest PST factory is an ultramodern example of this: waste is separa­ ted in the factory on the basis of size.