The start-up FZ-Recycling GmbH & Co. KG celebrates its first system in operation today. The small, decentralized EPS extrusion plant is built into a container and is used on a large construction site in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler. Used EPS insulation material, i.e. styrofoam, otherwise an expensive waste to dispose of, is cleanly processed into compressed EPS directly on site....
With the subtitle “From throwaway to circular economy”, the New Live initiative has published a magazine and launched an online platform that deals with recycling material made from tire rubber, so-called end-of-life tires (ELT)....
According to a study by Fraunhofer Umsicht, we pollute our water with one kilogram of microplastic from tire abrasion per year and head. This is a tremendous amount and the phenomenon is known to all. Because if a tire would not wear, then some properties would be poorly pronounced, such as the braking behavior of a car. But can we be satisfied with that? The scrap tire industry does not want that....
India is the 3rdlargest e-waste contributor in the Asian continent behind China and Japan. And India is facing an acute problem of e-waste ending up in the informal sector. In order to understand the problem Prayag Desale analyzed the e-waste situation in Indian metropolitan cities. Guided by Thinking Circular Prayag Desale identified the collection & recycling challenges and assessed possible solutions. [caption id="attachment_1782" align="alignleft" width="300"] Waste picker form Pune, India. Photo by Prayag Desale[/caption] The rising problems of e-waste and its management by informal sector has raised various social and...
The world around us continues to be in a state of flux - with new innovations and technologies being developed across the globe every day. Digitalization revolutionized modern living and changed the way we work. The phenome of a throwaway society is worldwide. Even the developing countries show a rapid growth in mobile devices. This trend is nowhere else more obvious than in India. India's smartphone market hugely relies on the low and mid-range “budget phones”, which are designed as littering products. These range of products is regularly upgraded...
A delicious, warm pizza, just ordered from the pizza place around the corner and delivered to the office within 30 minutes. The product, delivered in what appears to be an ecologically sound recyclable cardboard box, eases our guilty conscience as regards our carbon footprint. Our mouths water until we ask ourselves where the box has actually come from and whether the pizza actually absorbs the heavy metals from the box like a sponge. Heavy metal pizza instead of salami pizza? Professor Braungart, chemist and forefather of Greenpeace’s chemistry department,...
Part 2 of series: Eco-design for plastic packaging and the errors that can be avoided. “Residual emptying” - this cumbersome term is an important criterion when designing plastic packaging. All too often, however, it is still not taken into consideration. This is not only annoying for us consumers, but also for recyclers. We have all been there; despite your best efforts, the shampoo bottle, cooking oil bottle, the toothpaste tube (which is too hard) or the body lotion bottle with dispensing mechanism isn’t quite empty. A nuisance for users as...
Part 1 of series: Eco-design for plastic packaging and the errors that can be avoided We associate the words “natural” or, at the very least, “environmentally friendly” with the term “organic”. And this does not just apply to food but also to packaging. Yet, there are surprises awaiting even there. In the case of yoghurt, for example. Of course, it is not just in health food stores but also in supermarkets where you will find pots of delicious yoghurt with inciting packaging designed to draw attention to a healthy...
Peter Kurth, President of the Federal Association of the German Disposal, Water and Raw Materials Management (BDE) addressed a change of circular economy in the newspaper Welt. The most important argument was left out tough: There is value from waste. A critical response: Question: Would you burn money? Lemke: Since China is returning plastic waste to its sender, the German managers of waste incineration plants are happy, they do not have a problem firing them. At least 600.000 tons of plastic waste were shipped to China according to the German...
44 electrical appliances, 12 energy-saving light bulbs, 33 lights, half a car and 40 batteries are accrued per person in Europe - a total of around 250 kg. These data show once again the challenge of the circular economy and provide yet further evidence of the need for a raw material transition. At least we have this data now: Up to now, tracing material flows on the subject of waste electronic and electrical equipment represented a huge challenge for companies, scientists, authorities and NGOs. A significant step has now...