RECYCLING RESOURCES

By Staff -- Purchasing, 9/7/2000

Energy stops sales of nuclear site scrap metals

Energy has stopped the sale of scrap metal from nuclear weapons facilities, aiming to make sure that radioactive metals are not recycled into industrial, commercial or consumer products. Sales won't resume until weapons site managers can assure that the metals are free from any detectable radioactive contamination. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson wants a new standard to evaluate the material by year's end. For some time, Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been trying to develop a new minimum allowable contamination level for recycled material. It is not known when that standard will be issued. Supporters of the recycling programs contend the levels of contamination are too low to pose a health and safety threat, in most cases much less than what one would be exposed to by an X-ray. Critics have argued that metals with any trace of contamination should not go into general commerce. One of the most vocal has been the Steel Manufacturers Association, which represents electric furnace steelmakers dependent on scrap as their key raw material. The SMA, in a recent report, cited 50 incidents where radioactivity in scrap metal shipments was above guidelines.

EU focuses on car scrap compliance

Metals federations across Europe are examining compliance options for metals recyclers under the European Union's end-of-life vehicle (ELV) directive. The EU agreed in May to new legislation covering scrapped motor vehicles, which generate around nine million tonnes of waste materials annually. The law means carmakers will cover most of the cost of taking back all cars sold after January 1, 2001, when they reach the end of their lives and are scrapped. The law will force carmakers to recycle or reuse 80% of car weight from 2006, rising to 85% by 2015. Around 75% of material is already recycled or recovered. In Great Britain, for example, around 1.7 million tonnes of ELV material currently is recycled each year, principally in the form of recovered ferrous and nonferrous metals."

Salvaged stock feeds drywall plant

The new Lafarge Gypsum facility in Silver Grove, Ky., has an estimated annual capacity of 900 million square feet of gypsum drywall and will be the largest single-line wallboard production facility in the U.S. More important, primary raw material requirements at the state-of-the-art plant are coming completely from recycled materials, including reclaimed paper and synthetic gypsum, a by-product from the Zimmer power plant in nearby Moscow, Ohio. An identical facility, also to be fed with recycled materials, is scheduled to come online in Palatka, Fla., early in 2001.

Bronx paper mill scrapped

After planning for six years, Morse Diesel International has canceled plans to build a paper-recycling plant in the Bronx. The paper mill would have generated $200 million in annual revenue by supplying recycled newsprint to local newspapers. Project managers blamed rising interest rates, the fluctuations of the paper market and cost estimates that escalated to $700 million from $400 million for killing the venture.