Held at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, England, Lindemann Metal Recycling held its inaugural Customer Advisory Board (CAB), attracting senior executives from leading names in the recycling sector to chart the future of the industry.
The event was led by Lindemann CEO Carl Gustaf Göransson, who highlighted the company’s new strategy – saying: “We are the leading supplier of metal recycling solutions – but essentially, we exist to transform the metal circular economy for a better tomorrow. Forging a closer relationship with customers is an important part of reaching that goal – and the inspiration behind holding the CAB.”
The keynote speaker was Tom Bird, past President of the Bureau of International Recycling. He said that the metal recycling industry was ‘green long before it was fashionable – but that it needs to get better at marketing that fact’. He highlighted how metal recycling makes an important contribution to lowering the steel industry’s carbon footprint, and predicted demand for recycled metals will continue to increase. He also said new technology and improved processing would enhance both finished quality and recovery rates. “The outlook for recycled metals is extremely positive”, he concluded.
These presentations were followed by a discussion, with all participants actively engaged. Topics covered were the risk of fire in shredding plants posed by modern batteries, lack of supply for feed material, whether bigger – or smaller – shredders were needed for EVs or if cars are to be scrapped exclusively by brand. The lack of skilled operatives was also discussed, and the possibly missed opportunity it creates for maximising the benefits of new technology.
New technologies were discussed that boost the productivity and efficiency of metal recycling equipment, and the need for processed scrap to be purer, denser, and easier to manage for steel producers. There were also discussions on the cost-quality ratio of metal cycling machines, the benefits of standardised designs and the concept of where equipment ought to be manufactured. (With the conclusion being that it didn’t always matter, in that “Quality has no geography,” said Göransson.)
Day 2 of the event involved the findings of the previous day’s round table discussions, which again highlighted the risk of fires within shredding equipment caused by rogue feed material, the need to elevate the industry’s reputation and to improve its lobbying skills, ensuring regulations support the industry, customers and the environment.
A second keynote speech was given by Dr. Christian Fröhling, EVP of metallurgy at SMG Group. He said, “Scrap metal will determine how we will decarbonise the metals industry.” He talked about scrap metal’s role in the production of ‘green steel’, and of the steel industry’s need to ‘know what is in the scrap’. He also said that the metals industry wants a ‘smooth process’, and for that to happen they need scrap that in general is denser, higher in purity and as low as possible in copper.
Delegates ended the CAB with a visit to S Norton’s recycling facility in Manchester. The site features a new state-of-the-art Lindeman EtaRip 250 Max pre-shredder and ZZ 250×260 Power Zerdirator shredder, the latter featuring the world’s first installation of the variable frequency drive (VFD) technology.
