Demolition Day 2010: Review
TITECH organised international congress
Demolition Day 2010: Alternatives to Landfill and Incineration
How can mixed demolition waste be recycled economically? This challenging question and how to best approach the idea dominated the International Waste Disposal Industry’s discussions during a recent seminar in Bad Ems.
The Demolition Day event, which took place over the 28th and 29th April 2010 and was organised by TITECH, the leading manufacturer of sensor-based sorting systems, received a huge interest from the International Waste Disposal Industry. The development of the secondary resources market, increasing disposal costs in most European countries and ever more stringent legal requirements have undoubtedly contributed towards this surge in interest. Over 50 participants from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Poland, and France met in the picturesque Bad Ems near Koblenz for joint discussions on the matter.
Christian Pak of TITECH, acting on behalf of Prof. Dr. Ing. Thomas Pretz (RWTH Aachen) introduced the topic by exploring the qualitative development of mixed demolition waste in Germany. A good example because during the 90’s there was a dramatic change in disposal costs for mixed demolition waste, with inert and non-inert material being collected separately on the construction site. The qualitative changes due to this separate collection relate to composition and bulk density (mixed demolition waste is similar to mixed commercial waste), presented new requirements to the recycling technology and the machine concepts.
With the aim to extract more valuable materials from mixed demolition waste for recycling, Mike Falconer-Hall of WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) then defined the central tasks of the waste industry and the related opportunities. Lucy J. Robinson of the Scott Wilson Group used her presentation to depict the yield of resources from mixed demolition waste by means of Near Infrared Technology (NIR). In doing so, she also revealed the results of a scientific joint project conducted by WRAP, TITECH and Greenstar LTD.
Anticipation increased when the two TITECH experts Oliver Lambertz and Thomas Heder introduced the practical aspect of the proposal: a LIVE trial in the modern machine at Zimmermann Recycling & Transporte GmbH in Lahnstein. Whilst presenting details on the design and the output of the machine, they also discussed alternative technical machine concepts for mixed demolition waste including sample calculations. In addition, they focused on market-defining factors such as legal conditions, the increase in disposal costs and the changing market for solid recovered fuels and resources.
The machine demonstration took place at Zimmermann Plant in Lahnstein. After a short boat trip from the conference location across the Lahn in beautiful weather the participants were assured that installed TITECH NIR sorting systems really can generate usable fractions like film, paper, wood or inert material from mixed demolition waste with its complex composition.Oliver Lambertz, Business Development Manager at TITECH stated, "Even though different disposal structures in Europe require individual machine concepts, we all aim for the same target: to develop treatment concepts as economically, efficiently and flexibly as possible and to avoid landfill where necessary. In this, recovery of marketable resources as well as high-quality solid recovered fuels from mixed demolition waste plays an important role."
This was reinforced by the lively discussion regarding the development of the solid recovered fuel market, which has recently seen a positive increase in turnover at least in Germany. Other topics that were covered included the economic aspects of material sorting, the increase of landfill and waste incineration costs."The event has shown the importance of networking in order to meet today's requirements successfully. An increase in material recycling of waste could also help improve the CO2 balance. The European Waste Legislation demands an increase in recycling and material recycling as well as a significant reduction of the waste in landfills", explained Oliver Lambertz. "The joint discussions of efficient solutions that have taken place over Demolition Day 2010 proves we are willing to form a successful collaboration on an international level. Furthermore, the positive feedback from the participants encourages us to organise similar events in the future.”