Recent BIR World Recycling Convention & Exhibition in Hong Kong (22-24 May 2017)

Shredder Committee:

USA heads shredder plant league table

The USA and Europe are home to around 68% of the world’s 914 shredders, it was revealed at the latest meeting of the BIR Shredder Committee, held at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre on May 23 under the chairmanship of Alton Scott Newell III of US-based Newell Recycling Equipment.

The committee’s updated list shows 322 shredders in the USA and 300 in Europe, where Italy (52 units), France (45), Germany and the UK (both with 39) lead the way. Of the 292 shredders located elsewhere in the world, Japan is thought to have a population of 110 units while a further 73 are to be found in China. Then there is a wide gap to Canada on 26 shredders.

The meeting also featured three guest presentations on latest developments relating to the recovery of metals from automotive shredder residue (ASR):

• Tim Shuttleworth, President and CEO of Eriez Manufacturing Co. in the USA, provided details of his company’s permanent scrap drums, Shred1 ballistic separator and eddy-current systems, while also highlighting the value of its Metal Loss Monitor for measuring excess losses from the separation process. This sends out alerts when pre-set thresholds have been exceeded, thus enabling users to save money and validate process improvements and adjustments.

• Among a host of company products described by Jason Looman, President of Steinert US, Inc., he highlighted the EddyC Fines whose new splitter “can be set with millimetre precision, horizontally and vertically at the same time” for the more precise separation that is essential with fines. The rotational speed of the pole drum can be set at up to 4000 rpm.

• Didier Haegelsteen, Managing Director of SGM Gantry SpA in Italy, detailed his company’s new approach to recovering fine metals from ASR, which incorporates a three-step micro fines process of pre-concentration, concentration and polishing. The middle step involves rotary drying to reduce the fines moisture content to a consistent 15%. Metal commodities emerging from this new approach boast purity levels greater than 95% and, in some cases, above 98%, the speaker claimed.