FEATURED TOPIC – E-WASTE
Technology comes full circle E3SIXTY IS HOPING NEW URBAN MINING TECHNOLOGY WILL CHANGE THE WAY AUSTRALIA AND THE WORLD LOOKS AT E-WASTE.
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ld mobile phones, laptops and PCs are “stock standard” household items in Australia. For Anthony Karam, Managing Director E3Sixty, they’re an untapped resource. As are the 48 kilograms per capita of e-waste that Australia generates each year. For the past four years, Anthony and the team at E3Sixty have developed a process to extract materials from any form of e-waste into a clean, raw commodity for reuse. Anthony says the aim is 100 per cent diversion of e-waste from landfill and full recovery of all commodities including base materials and precious metals. “We’re deploying what we believe is a world first whole e-waste recycling solution with a focus on Environmental, Social and Governance responsibility,” he says. “A key part of our focus has been the development of metallurgical processes that allow us to do things differently than what’s in the market now. “We’re pretty excited about the next six to 12 months. Our major focus now is to work collaboratively with all the major industry stakeholders and roll out this solution.” Anthony says whole e-waste devices can be processed without the need for prior dismantling. The low-temperature technology reduces devices to a fine ore before separating valuable resources including gold,
E3Sixty’s process will extract materials from e-waste into a clean, raw commodity.
silver, copper and palladium. The end product commodity is high quality because they’ve previously been refined. He says while not the primary focus, the patented process can also be adapted to harness clean energy which can be redirected back into the plant or captured for re-use to power electric cars, heating or water treatment. “The process started as a technology play as opposed to dealing with waste,” Anthony says. “We’ve integrated a new innovative technology and combined that with several existing technologies with bespoke adjustments to come up with an end-to-end solution for e-waste.
“We worked with some manufacturers in Europe and technology developers in the United Kingdom and New Zealand to develop the process and modify some standard equipment. We knew where we wanted to get to.” Anthony says E3Sixty received a grant in round two of the Federal Government’s Manufacturing Modernisation Fund and is looking to establish a pyrolysis plant within the Parkes Special Activation Precinct in New South Wales, in addition to major operating facilities in metropolitan Sydney and Melbourne for materials recovery and separation, along with a tech centre.
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