Car recycling: still striving for top gear |
 The car recycling industry continues to struggle to find the right solution to achieve the 95% EU recovery target for end-of-life vehicles which becomes effective by 2015. The issue of how to extract those extra few percentage points kept delegates busy at the recent 8th International Automobile Recycling Congress (IARC) in Munich. Also discussed were the results of car recycling trials in a number of countries and the issue of hard-to-recycle automotive shredder residues.
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Treating ASR: Maind buoyed by test results |
 What to do about automotive shredder residues, or ASR? This question has dominated international meetings for a number of years as Europe’s legislators have sought to tighten restrictions on materials sent to landfill. For its part, Maind Srl of Italy has been testing a technology which, it believes, could prove hugely effective in this field.
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Used tyres and plastics: a source of black gold? |
 Imagine: you accept a load of scrap tyres through one gate of your yard; and at the other gate, you fill up your supplier’s truck at your very own petrol station using diesel derived from those same tyres. Well, Global Resource Corporation of the USA has developed an emission-free and low-energy technique for converting used plastics and rubber - and perhaps even auto shredder residue (ASR) - into black gold.
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Catalyst recycling ever more crucial to PGM supply |
 Power generation problems, labour disputes, safety-related stoppages and a number of other issues are adversely affecting production of the platinum group metals (PGMs). However, recovery of platinum, palladium and rhodium from automotive catalytic converters is continuing to climb year on year. This article reviews the key factors influencing the PGM markets and is based on a report written by Ashok Kumar and Rajesh Seth of US-based A-1 Specialized Services & Supplies, Inc. - a leading global player in the recycling of PGMs |
Scrap shortfall will open door to DRI |
 With the supply of scrap for steelmaking expected to become increasingly short in the years ahead, there is a belief that market opportunities will widen for producers of direct reduced iron (DRI). In this article, the author offers his personal view on the outlook for DRI as a raw material used in steelmaking.
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Lead-acid battery recycling in China |
 There are over 300 battery recycling units in China and only a very small proportion of these can claim an annual production capacity greater than 20 000 tonnes, which is well short of the international norm. In effect, plants using backward technologies still represent the mainstream of this industry in China. This article looks at obstacles to the development of a more modern battery recycling industry in China and to possible solutions.
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Challenges face scrap suppliers and consumers |
 ‘One of the greatest challenges for European industry over the next few years will be the supply of raw materials,’ declared Rolf Willeke, Executive Board Member of the German steel recycling body BDSV, in his speech at the ‘Stahlmarkt 2008’ conference held last month in Düsseldorf, Germany. The following article reflects the main points of a presentation covering, among other topics, the relationship between scrap suppliers and consumers.
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Over and out for secondary aluminium? |
 In China, companies operating in the secondary aluminium sector have experienced a dramatic change in fortunes over recent years. Long gone are the days when profitability was counted in double-digit percentage terms. But will those days ever return? This article examines the roots of current market conditions and casts an eye to the future.
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Attractive prospects for Master Magnets |
 Master Magnets of Redditch, UK, started from relatively humble beginnings although its two early leading lights could already count on many years’ experience of the ‘magnetics’ business. Three decades later, the company is known in the UK and well beyond for taking on the trickiest of magnetic separation problems.
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