Michael Brunn

With 70 employees and a main warehouse in Castelfranco Veneto covering 50,000 square metres, the company specializes in the fast and efficient supply of ready mixes for foundries and steelworks throughout Italy.

The region now accounts for almost one-third of global plastics use, with annual per capita use ranging from 32 kg in lower middle-income countries to over 100 kg in many upper middle- and high-income countries in the APT region. In 2022, the region leaked 8.4 Mt of plastics into the environment - over one-third of the global total, including 3.5 Mt from ASEAN Member States and 4.9 Mt from China. Plastic leakage refers to any plastic that enters the terrestrial or aquatic environment, resulting from inadequate collection and disposal. This includes plastic waste, such as packaging or beverage cups, that is littered or openly dumped.

The Commission adopted the Steel and Metal Action Plan (SMAP) on 19 March to address the significant challenges affecting the competitiveness of the EU's metals industries. One key pillar of this plan is promoting metal circularity, which not only supports the decarbonisation of metal industries but also aligns with the Commission's proposal to achieve a 90% reduction of net greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, compared to 1990.

Vanheede is setting the course for even more efficient recycling with a state-of-the-art sorting plant at the Rumbeke site. The plant processes up to 100,000 tons of residual waste annually and can separate eight waste streams.

For the first time in the battery recycling sector, lithium was extracted and purified from shredded electrodes (black mass) containing various chemistries, including nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) and lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP), using a single processing line. This integrated approach enhances process flexibility and may reduce capital expenditures.

Hagerstown, Maryland-based Conservit Inc., which has been in business for more than 50 years, maintains a forward-looking attitude toward the metals recycling industry and the possibilities offered by sorting and other technological advances.

As an important supplier to the major Italian iron and steel groups, foundries and refineries, Cometfer is characterized by its know-how in the procurement of scrap materials coming from various industrial activities and productions. To further increase efficiency in scrap handling, Cometfer opted for the Sennebogen 825 E material. In addition to the 825 E, 8 other Sennebogen machines are in operation at Cometfer.

Aimplas is addressing this issue through innovative technologies such as physicochemical delamination, a combination of mechanical separation techniques, and enzymatic recycling. These approaches have enabled the efficient and sustainable recycling of multilayer waste, allowing it to be reintroduced into the value chain or used to produce new recycled plastic products.

Since 1958, thousands of records in all sorts of colour variations have been produced every day west of Amsterdam. To ensure that not a single gram of the precious PVC plastic is wasted, Record Industry recycles production waste directly on site using shredding technology from Weima and Wanner.

The plant will serve as a technological foundation for future commercial operations, which are expected to begin in 2026. The focus is on a chemical recycling process designed to recover high-purity lithium and graphite from black mass - a processed form of battery material. These recovered materials can be reintegrated into battery cell production.