[getsmart-l] Still less for the landfills

[John O'Gorman]

"The unwanted electronics contain copper and precious metals including gold and silver called "electronic scrap" and for Xstrata they represent a growing and profitable business."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080117.RESCRAP17/TPStory/?query=xstrata
METALS

Xstrata finds profit in tech trash
New legislation is turning the recycling of 'electronic scrap' into a growing business
ANDY HOFFMAN MINING REPORTER Globe and Mail January 17, 2008

Mick Davis, the burly head of aggressive international mining firm Xstrata PLC, wants your old computer.

He also has his eye on the cellphone you stopped using three years ago, that boat anchor of a scanner gathering dust in your basement and that printer of yours that hasn't worked for a decade. He'll take your old TV, too.

This is neither a shakedown nor an ill-conceived attempt at diversification by the Anglo-Swiss miner.

The unwanted electronics contain copper and precious metals including gold and silver called "electronic scrap" and for Xstrata they represent a growing and profitable business.

Xstrata Copper's recycling operation has become the world's largest consumer of e-scrap. It currently processes 50,000 tonnes of the material a year at its Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Que.

Yesterday, the company unveiled plans to double the smelter's e-scrap processing capacity to 100,000 tonnes by 2010. As computers, cellphones, BlackBerrys and other electronic devices become more prevalent, the amount of electronic waste generated by consumers has soared.

Few smelters, however, are able to recycle the material in a cost-effective manner. Horne is the only copper smelter in Canada able to effectively handle the e-scrap, said Paul Healey, the manager of recycling at Xstrata Copper.

"We see a need in the market for us to expand our recycling activities. We are one of a limited amount of companies that can do it in a sound environmental manner," Mr. Healey said in an interview from Austria where he was attending a conference.

North Americans generate a staggering amount of electronic waste. In Ontario alone, 70,000 tonnes of discarded televisions, computers, monitors and printers end up in landfills every year. 

Often, the old electronics that aren't incinerated or sent to landfills, are shipped to developing countries in Asia or Africa where they are stripped of their valuable components by hand. 

Now governments around the world, including the European Union are passing legislation requiring electronic materials to be recycled rather than exported. 

By some estimates, Europeans produce 20 kilos per person of waste from electronic devices and electric appliances a year. The EU hopes to recycle four kilos per person a year.

Xstrata is predicting the legislation and similar laws elsewhere will result in a major increase in e-scrap material to feed the Horne smelter.

"The implementation of the directive in Europe is certainly driving the supply of this material. ... Everything with a plug will need to be recycled," Mr. Healey said.

E-scrap, which is most often delivered as shredded circuit boards to the smelter is cheaper for Xstrata to purchase than traditional copper scrap.

*****

By the numbers

20 million tonnes

Between 20 and 50 million tonnes of electronic waste is generated worldwide each year. (United Nations)

2 billion 

Projected number of cellphone users worldwide in 2008. (UN)

1,600 tonnes

Amount of copper that can be recovered from 100 million recycled cellphones. Also, 35 tonnes of silver, 1.5 tonnes of palladium and 3.4 tonnes of gold. (U.S. EPA) 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.web.net/archives/getsmart-l/attachments/20080117/9a355a4e/attachment.htm