Page 34 - Hub-4 Magazine Issue 59

Recycling
Being situated just outside the Welsh capital, Eriez Europe is already highly familiar with the UK government’s renewed commitment to “[ensuring] producer responsibility and a consistent approach to recycling”. In terms of recycling rates, Wales is proudly taking the lead in the UK, with more than 50% of municipal waste being recycled. However, it is a little- known fact that Wales stands third overall worldwide for percentage of municipal waste recycled. This goes a long way in substantiating the sustainability ethos embedded within Welsh government, community and industry. Eriez Europe’s position as the only magnetic separation manufacturer within Wales, with dedicated recycling solutions, gives it unique access to a wealth of local knowledge. This understanding of the recycling industry is also rooted in the foundation of Eriez Europe’s newly opened Recycling centre, giving customers from all industries the opportunity to see the results achieved by Eriez equipment before investing.
Presently, the Welsh government is moving towards a goal of 70% of all waste to be recycled, and this culture of constant progress is also harboured within Eriez Europe. Simply looking at sales of Eriez Europe’s Eddy Current Separator (ECS) alone, an advanced sorting system which uses a powerful magnetic field to separate non-ferrous metals from waste, provides a clear reflection of its strength and effectiveness. Just under 50 ECS machines have been purchased this year alone, many of these to local companies. This could be attributed to the fact that increasingly over the past few years local authorities have started bringing recycling in-house, a number of these throughout the wider UK choosing Eriez Europe’s ECS to fulfil this task. On a surface level, the driving force behind this move to process waste internally is a reduction of costs instead of outsourcing to contractors. However, perhaps more crucially, this shift hands more autonomy to local authorities
Eriez
Stake in Sustainability
over recycling quotas and overall quality; particularly relevant under increased pressure from government to improve recycling statistics.
Wales currently collects approximately 50% of all its dry recycling via the kerbside sort collection system, which is a valuable method of keeping contamination levels low, however recycling technologies like the ECS are relied upon to ensure effective removal of contaminants from recyclable materials. According to recent reports, PET is the most commonly used and easily recycled plastic due to its airtight and rigid, yet flexible, properties which make it particularly suitable for use in the food and drink industry. Eriez Europe manufactures an expert module for separating PET flake from metal contaminants before it is reformed in to greener packaging. This specialised ECS has an ultra-thin belt to allow the material maximum interaction with the magnetic field, an adapted nose and splitter to ensure maximum degree of separation and other unique design features. With the local demand for powerful recycling technologies and environmental policies set to ramp up across the globe, Eriez Europe is expecting demand to continue increasing. This demand has generated incentive within Eriez to seek methods of refining and improving many of its recycling solutions.
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www.hub-4.com November/December 2019 - Issue 59