Earth and Industry » Waste Management

Keeping up with Technology: Ensuring Safeguards for Electronic Recycling

Wes Muir — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:26:25 +0000

Last year, I wrote here about the ever-increasing amount of electronic waste, or e-waste, produced in our country, and the recycling programs that have been created through public-private partnerships to safely process that waste. As the holiday season approaches – and more cell phones, tablets, computers and televisions are upgraded and replaced – it’s a good moment to evaluate our progress in e-waste recycling, and to highlight research during the past year that has emphasized the continued need for responsible e-waste recyclers.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), Americans now own approximately 24 electronic products per household, each with an ever-shortening lifespan. These older electronics enter the waste stream, as their owners favor more cutting-edge gadgets – and this process is happening faster each year. More than 3.5 million tons of used electronics were collected and processed in the U.S. in 2010, representing a nearly 200 percent increase from 2009, according to the 2011 Electronics Recycling Industry Survey.

E-waste is the fastest growing commodity in the North American waste stream. Volume is growing at more than three times the rate of other commodities, though there are few facilities to properly process them. Older electronics may contain potentially harmful materials such as lead, mercury and cadmium, but also contain valuable materials that may be reclaimed for use in new devices.

The potentially grave health impacts linked with improper e-cycling highlights the importance of third-party certified e-waste recyclers. Earlier this year, a study revealed that workers in uncertified Chinese e-cycling facilities and residents living downwind of those facilities displayed symptoms of respiratory illness resulting from improper e-cycling procedures.

Studies like this highlight the importance of safe e-cycling and help draw much needed attention from the highest levels of federal government. Following legislation passed by many states, last November the Obama administration directed several government agencies to establish the Interagency Task Force on Electronics Stewardship. In July, the task force released a report stating that one of its four overarching goals is to “increase the safe and effective management of used electronics in the U.S.,” and outlined collaborative next steps for the EPA, Department of Labor and electronics and recycling industries to achieve that goal.

One of those action items focused on third-party certification of e-waste recyclers, such as the e-Stewards® Certification program, created by the Basel Action Network (BAN). E-Stewards formally recognizes electronics recyclers that adhere to BAN’s stringent environmentally and socially responsible practices when recovering e-waste containing hazardous components. This program is the only e-recycler certification endorsed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace USA, the Electronics TakeBack Coalition and 68 other environmental organizations.

WM Recycle America’s efforts to prioritize the safety of workers and the environment have recently been recognized by BAN. This month, WM Recycle America announced that all seven of its North American e-cycling facilities have earned BAN’s e-Stewards Standard for Responsible Recycling and Reuse of Electronic Equipment®.

This certification comes in addition to WM Recycle America’s standing certification by the Responsible Recycling (R2) program and the RIOS® certification standard. The R2 program is a set of standards created to “protect public health and the environment, improve worker safety practices, and reduce potential exposures.” Its partner program, the RIOS® certification standard, oversees integrated quality, environmental, health and safety management in the recycling industry. Together, R2/RIOS provides an exacting standard for responsible electronics reuse and recycling, as well as recognition for compliant companies as Certified Electronics Recyclers®.

As more states pass laws requiring proper electronics recycling, we anticipate this sector of the waste industry will continue to grow. As it grows, we’ll address each new challenge with safety in mind. Already WM has joined forces with LG Electronics USA and other manufacturers to develop recycling programs that are easy and affordable for customers.

As the world becomes more tech-savvy, it is important to keep in mind the health and environmental implications of our progress. Through the R2/RIOS and e-Stewards programs, companies can follow a set of stringent guidelines to ensure that environmental, health and safety management systems are in place to track materials, and minimize emissions and worker exposure during electronics recycling operations. By developing secure recycling practices now, we can make sure the world’s technorati continue to enjoy all the latest gadgets with the assurance that their old products can be recycled or reused without hurting the planet.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by U.S. Army Environmental Command

U.S. Aluminum Can Recycling Nudges Upward… Barely

Timothy Hurst — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:48:31 +0000

58 percent of all cans recycled last year in the U.S., But...

Aluminum can recycling rates in the U.S. peaked at over 65 percent in 1994. At the time, the country was a world leader in the category. Times have changed.

In 2008, when the U.S. aluminum can recycling rate was at 54 percent and heading still downward, an aluminum industry trade group adopted the goal of getting to a 75 percent aluminum can recycling rate by 2015. Since then, can recycling rates have only slowly been nudging upward — 58 percent of all cans sold in the U.S. were recycled last year, the most in a decade — and the U.S. aluminum industry is not only in danger of falling well short of its 2015 goal, if current trends continue, the U.S. may end up plateauing at around 60 percent for some time.

Unlike plastic bottles, aluminum cans may be remade into stock for new cans virtually indefinitely and at much lower costs than using virgin stock. Making aluminum from recycled cans consumes 97 percent less energy than making it from bauxite. Substantially lighter than glass bottles, aluminum cans are increasingly attractive to producers who see the giant potential savings in shipping costs.

Despite obvious advantages, aluminum can recycling in the U.S. and parts of Europe remain surprisingly low, especially as compared to countries like Japan, where aluminum can recycling tops 92 percent, and Brazil, where officials say the goal of recycling all aluminum cans is not far out of reach.

Experts point to a number of factors that explain the variance in aluminum recycling rates the including the falling cost of bauxite, energy prices, access to the recycling system, recycling laws, cultural and societal norms, as well as unique economic conditions in the given country. In Brazil, for example, where aluminum cans emerged well before the country's big economic growth spurt of the 1990s and beyond, as many as 180,000 people now earn their living by collecting cans daily, forming an informal recycling network that has not developed to the same scale in the U.S. and Europe.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Orin Zebest at flickr

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Can Water Treatment Technology Offer the Fracking Industry a New Face?

Allison Leahy — Fri, 06 May 2011 11:31:50 +0000

Natural gas is domestically abundant (2,587 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas in the United States) and it burns cleaner than oil and coal (30% and 50% less carbon dioxide emissions respectively), but removing the hydrocarbons from mile deep shale beds has proven to be a dangerous and environmentally damaging endeavor.

During fracking, a mixture of water, sodium, sand, heavy metals, soap, chemicals and hundreds of other components are injected into cracks in the shale bed at extremely high pressures. Breaking open the rock allows gas and other volatile organic compounds to be released. It can take 6 million gallons of this fluid to frack one well and wells may be fracked multiple times. The DOE approximates 21 billion barrels of produced water is generated each year and as we seek ways to end our dependence on foreign oil, those numbers will rise.

It's bad enough the fracking process is a massive drain on the water supply and even worse when you consider that the chemical-laden wastewater is injected into underground wells around popular fracking sites in places like Texas and Arkansas. The geology around the Marcellus Shale Formation in Pennsylvania (which holds enough natural gas to fuel the U.S. for 2 years) doesn't lend itself to this bury-and-forget technique.

Currently, flowback and produced water is taken from drill sites to nearby wastewater plants [PDF] unequipped to filter dissolved hydrocarbons, radioactive chemicals, and other volatile organic compounds. The mixture is eventually dumped into the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers-the drinking source for tens of millions of people. Thankfully, Pennsylvania is cracking down on this practice, but they are left with the problem of what to do with all that briny fracking fluid.

The answer is Osorb, a silica (or glass) that swells eight times its size while scavenging dissolved hydrocarbons, polymers, and chemicals. The purification system, developed by ABSMaterials (with funding from the DOE) removes 99% of oil and grease, more than 90% of dissolved hydrocarbons, and "significant amounts of production chemicals".

Of two pilot-tested systems, one processed 6 gallons every hour and the other could handle 60 gallons in the same time. Not the most efficient solution, but a lot better for local residents than waking up to a cup of hot methane and lemon. The private company has announced that a 72,000 gallon per day, trailer-mounted purification system will be in use (most likely designated to Marcellus) by this summer.

As the natural gas market skyrockets, we hope more fracking sites filter flowback using Osorb's portable trailer technology, but until regulations are put in place, it is doubtful that all of the wells (1386 were drilled last year) will recover and treat their produced water with such diligence. It is simply too cheap and easy to continue pushing the produced water through municipal systems--that is, until more lawsuits pop-up.

Follow Allison Leahy on twitter or reach her by email.

Image Credits: todbaker, EIA

An Inside Look at the World’s Largest “Bag-2-Bag” Recycling Facility [Photos, Video]

Allison Leahy — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 21:28:15 +0000

Hilex Poly is working hard to develop a recycling stream that will change the way you think and feel about about plastic bags.

"We want to be the industry that helps improve and green other industries" explained Phil Rozensky, Director of Marketing and Sustainability, before leading myself and three other journalists on a tour of their impressively large (the world's largest) and efficient (machines run at 85%, a gold-standard) facility. Keep scrolling to follow along.

Bail storage: an HDPE sanctuary
An estimated 8 billion pounds of plastic bags and wraps are tossed out as trash every year in the US alone.

The world's population uses plastic bags at the rate of one million every minute.

Many people think that because plastic grocery bags aren't accepted at Municipal Recycling Facilities (they clog machinery and start fires) they aren't recyclable. In fact, the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic that composes these grocery bags is 100% recyclable and Hilex Poly's"Bag-2-Bag" recycling facility in North Vernon, Indiana does just that.

The facility operates under the guidance of 250 employees working around the clock to crank out 28 million plastic bags every day.

Bailed plastics are brought in by rail and truck from participating retailers and industries.

Sorting
The reclaimed grocery bags are passed through a magnetic metal detector and hand-sorted to remove contaminants such as car keys, bowling balls, submarine sandwiches and any other materials that may have wound up in the mix.

Centrifuge and Extrusion
A quick, wet spin-cycle forces more contaminants to sink to the bottom of a centrifuge where another extrusion process draws a steaming pile of undesirable materials (namely receipts) out the side via a screw mechanism.

Plastic Shred
The remaining plastic is shredded into flake and treated in a silo with a hot air dryer.

Compounded North Vernon Pellets
A scraper and two heat sources push across the plastic as it is formed into pellets. Pellets from the wet-line process described above and the dry-line process (which includes higher-value stretch films and first-use plastic bag scrap such as handle cut-outs) are reprocessed to form compounded North Vernon (CNV) pellets.

It takes about a dozen CNV pellets to make a post-consumer recycled grocery bag
100% post-consumer recycled plastic bags are possible, but demand is outstripping supply such that Hilex Poly currently produces bags with a minimum of 25% recycled content. Their goal is to be manufacturing 40% post-consumer recycled plastic bags by 2015.

The Bubble Machine
CNV pellets are weighed and mixed in a barrel at the bottom of these extruders where they are heated to 430F. By the time the bubble forms a cone, its temperature has dropped to 200F thanks to cooling air that runs the length of the film. When the film reaches the floor above it is wound onto rollers at a manageable 120F. The rollers spin clockwise to offset twisting.

Plastic Film Rolls

The average roll weighs about 1500 lbs. Tan rolls in the foreground and gray rolls in the background are made from post-consumer plastics--the white and blue will become first-run bags; "breaks my heart to see it go away like that. It should have a note, 'return to original owner'" said Regional Manager, Doug Johnson, who followed the company from Texas.

Water-based Ink Printing Presses
None of these are currently printing "return to original owner".

A Bag is a Bag is a Bag Again
Hilex Poly's "Bag-2-Bag" program has saved well over 30 million pounds of plastic from the landfill.
Phil Rozensky speaks on behalf of the misunderstood polymer, reminding us that "there is no such thing as a single-use bag".

Most Americans reuse their plastic bags as garbage liners (about 60%), some will return them to a retailer to be recycled (13%) and others toss them out egregiously (20%). If you're like me, you have a stash in a kitchen drawer and call on them to act as leak-proof lunch sacks and to protect your gear and electronics when out in a drizzle.

One unsettling fact I learned was of the United States' growing demand for 'reusable' polypropylene bags. According to the U.S. International Trade Commission, we import 1.8 billion of these bags each year. Six times the population of just over 300 million. These cheap (15 cent) imports are quickly becoming the next disposable bag.

The best way to combat plastic pollution and waste of this magnitude is to stop accepting bags of all kinds and tote own (make sure it's made with a strong, natural fiber). Still, it might make sense to bag the ban and refocus productive energy and educational resources on promoting this sustainable, domestic, green industry that provides us with cradle-to-cradle consumer convenience.

Return grocery bags, overwraps (from paper towels, tissues and bottles), newspaper bags, dry cleaning bags and other clean home polyethylene films (#2 or 4) to participating locations and ask local merchants to consider the switch to post-consumer recycled grocery bags.

Follow Allison Leahy on twitter or reach her by email.

For more info on why "Gray is the New Green" watch Earth911.com's interview with Hilex Poly's Director of Marketing & Sustainability, Phil Rozenski-- here.

Nuclear Radiation Experts: 2,000 Tons Nuclear Materials Spewing Radioactivity for Months

Allison Leahy — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:33:42 +0000

Earlier today, Earth & Industry had the chance to participate in a call with leading international radiation experts and learn what they had to say about the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi Plant and the threats posed by nuclear fallout.

The Physicians for Social Responsibility news event was held to address concerns about misleading and incomplete information that is being provided about the Japanese nuclear catastrophe and was led by Dr. Ira Helfand, lifelong nuclear energy educator and former president of Physicians for Social Responsibility; Dr. David Richardson, associate professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of North Carolina; and Dr. Marvin Resnikoff, an international consultant on radioactive waste issues.

A streaming audio replay of this telenews conference will be available here. Read on to learn more about areas of concern and the impact of this disaster.

2,000 Tons of Nuclear Materials at Fukushima Daiichi

Six reactors, seven fuel pools and a storage tank total almost 2,000 tons of nuclear material. The reactors alone are storing 1000 times as much nuclear energy as the Hiroshima bomb released in one concentrated dose and include waste that has been undergoing nuclear fission for 3 years. Continued exothermic reactions make for more radioactive contaminants and contribute to the gravity of the daunting situation in Japan.

The Heat is On---For Months!

Steam explosions and burn off from exposed fuel pools are the hazards causing the most concern.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed a partial meltdown in reactors 1, 2 and 3 and workers have already experienced two fires at Reactor 4. They can no longer get close to problem areas because water, which serves to shield workers and cool the fuel, is not being dropped and gamma radiation is extremely high. As the water evaporates it exposes the nuclear fuel and uranium rods begin to burn, emitting more heat and radioactive cesium. Uranium is then able to mix with water and begin the reaction that sends radiation into the atmosphere.

Reactor #3 is especially dangerous, as it is fueled with a combination of Mox and uranium. Mox fuel releases plutonium, which has a 24,200 year half-life and can cause lung cancer at extremely low doses.

Roofless spent-fuel pools sit at the top of the reactors (70-80 feet up), if these pools aren't cooled to a temperature below 1800 F, hydrogen will be created and more explosions will occur.

Though water cannons are being deployed, Japan is having trouble resupplying water to cool the affected areas, which leads Dr. Resnikoff to believe that temperatures could be soaring for months.

External Ionizing Radiation and Human Health

There remains a lack of information on the environmental levels of external ionizing radiation--the kind that moves through the body in waves (think: gamma and beta rays)--but knowing these measurements of total body radiation exposure doesn't indicate personal health risk as much as knowing the exposure rate to specific tissues. We do know that the "Fukushima 50" (the workers left battling the meltdown) are in a grave situation, facing hazards of extreme heat, explosions and fires, and that the workers must move through some sites in a matter of minutes to avoid acute radiation.

Radioactive Isotopes and Ambient Radiation

Ambient radiation and the dispersion of radioactive isotopes will cause numerous health problems, warns nuclear expert, Dr. Ira Helfand. Radioactive isotopes may be inhaled, ingested, or absorbed into the bloodstream through open wounds and pose more of a threat to the Japanese population than radiation waves or beams. Land 100 miles downwind of Chernobyl was contaminated with radioactivity and is still not safe to use, "if winds blow in the direction of Tokyo, it is conceivable that large parts of Tokyo could be contaminated in this way," he says. A forecast for easterly winds could be the city's saving grace.

Exactly how much ambient radiation will be released is impossible to say and measured levels vary dramatically moment to moment. We will likely not know the volume released to the environment until the materials that remain stored at Fukushima are assessed. The highest levels noted by Dr. Helfand are 40 rems-- a dose that would cause sickness after 2.5 hours of exposure.

Of the 200 different radioactive isotopes that could be released, 4 pose real risk to human health:

Iodine 131 - concentrates in the thyroid, has a half-life of 8 days, leads to thyroid cancer

Strontium 90 - concentrates in bone marrow, has a half-life of 90 years, leads to bone cancer and leukemia

Cesium 137 - prevalent in all tissues, has a half-life of 30 years, can cause multiple cancers

Plutonium 239 - concentrates in the lungs, has a half-life of 24,200 years, low doses lead to lung cancer

Reach Allison Leahy on twitter and through email.

Image Credit: daveeza via Flickr

Demand for Degradable Packaging Soars

Timothy Hurst — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:24:37 +0000

Demand for environmental friendlier packaging is projected to increase nearly 4 percent annually to $41.7 billion in 2014, according to a new report. The real growth sector driving the industry will be degradable packaging, which is forecast to grow over 13 percent annually over the same time period.

Published by The Freedonia Group, Green Packaging to 2014 found that lower manufacturing costs and continued demand for "green packaging" —defined in the report as packaging that comprises recycled content, or reusable or degradable packaging—will outpace growth in the larger packaging sector with the fastest gains anticipated for degradable packaging and plastic recycled content packaging.

From corn cups to sugar-beet takeout containers, degradable packaging is forecast to expand an impressive 13.6 percent annually to $685 million in 2014, driven by price competitiveness with conventional resins, manufacturing capacity expansions, and continued demand for greener manufacturing, goods and services.

Hat tip: Greener Package

Tesla’s Closed Loop (and Profitable) Battery Recycling Hits Europe

Timothy Hurst — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 09:57:42 +0000

The darling of the electric car world, Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA), has just launched a closed-loop recycling program for its Lithium-Ion battery packs throughout Europe. And thanks to the unique technology employed by their recycling partners, Tesla says the process will actually be profitable.

At the end of their 7-10 year life, Tesla will recycle battery packs at a Umicore facility in Belgium where the Brussels-based materials technology company will break them down to be reused in batteries, plastics and specialized concrete.

"[T]he metals can be reused in the battery cells and any plastics can be reclaimed and used to mold new plastic parts for our vehicles," Tesla's Director of Energy Storage Systems Kurt Kelty wrote in a recent blog post about the process.

Because the program just started and there are few Tesla battery packs already at the end of their lifecycle, it will be a few years before this program gets into full swing and starts to capitalize on economies of scale. But that doesn't mean it's not already profitable.

And as the market for EVs expands and the demand for raw materials rises, the program should become increasingly profitable, all without government incentives.

"Working with Umicore has allowed us to completely recycle the Roadster battery packs profitably, without special financial incentives necessary to promote recycling," writes Kelty.

How is it profitable? Umicore will produce an alloy that will be further refined into cobalt, nickel and other metals. After that, they will transform the cobalt into high grade lithium cobalt oxide, which can be resold to battery manufacturers. Cobalt is the most expensive material in Tesla's batteries.

"We already reuse cobalt in the batteries," Kelty explains. "The overall closed loop recycling system becomes possible, and much more efficient, once the quantities rise to a level to justify the investment for recycling of the other components – especially the plastic."

Tesla says Umicore's recycling technology saves a minimum of 70 percent on CO2 emissions at the recovery and refining of these valuable metals, substantially reducing the carbon footprint for the manufacturing of Lithium-Ion batteries. One of the few byproducts of process is an inert slag containing calcium oxides and lithium which goes into the production of special concretes.

For now, Tesla's battery recycling program in the U.S. is nowhere near as advanced as it is in Europe, with Tesla recycling just 60 percent of material from expended batteries.