Recycling Articles

The rapid development of the electric mobility market will see demand for lithium batteries grow at year-on-year rates of more than 30% until 2030, by which time lithium batteries will account for 78% of total production. However, the rapid rate of degradation of these batteries makes it necessary to implement the most advanced recycling technology, with the capability both to prevent environmental impact and recover the raw materials they contain at the end of their service life. Many of these raw materials are critical due to their scarcity. This is the goal of the BATRAW project, in which Recyclia is participating.

Fundación Ecolec encara el último semestre del año con el reto de cumplir los objetivos ecológicos a través de la recogida separada de RAEE a través de las iniciativas #Green y de las alianzas entre fabricantes, distribuidores y usuarios.

The Spanish Draft Royal Decree on Packaging and Packaging Waste clearly defines what can be considered as recyclable packaging, as well as laying the foundations for the recyclability messages included on packaging to be true, impartial and auditable. DríadeSM's evaluations, Recyclability Certificate and Recyclability Seal are aligned with the precepts established in this Draft Royal Decree. 

At EuRIC, we are working to ensure that the forthcoming European Directive on packaging and packaging waste is reinforced with a view to increasing recycling rates, improving packaging design to facilitate recycling, and increasing the recycled material content of new packaging products.

The concept of balance can be defined as the equilibrium between two or more situations. The term is applicable to different fields, such as physics or economics, but today we will focus on the environment. In speaking of "ecological balance" we cannot fail to mention one of the most valuable natural habitats on the Iberian Peninsula, the Iberian dehesa grassland.

The shortage of raw materials, a lack of materials to manufacture new electronic devices and intensive use of technology all come together in a new global context. Within this scenario, Fundación Ecolec has, through its activity and different initiatives, enabled citizens and social agents to become aware of the importance of correct WEEE management as a sustainable way of recovering precious metals.

the CIRCULAR CARBON project seeks to develop and commission a pilot plant to convert waste generated in Valencia into activated carbons with high added value for applications in the energy and environment sectors.

We begin 2022 with FuturENVIRO’s special issue of the year on waste, featuring our by now well established section entitled “In depth: Analysis of 2021”. In this section, leading actors and trade associations from the sector offer a review of the most significant events in the waste industry during the past year.

Recyclia, the entity which manages the Ecoasimelec, Ecofimática and Ecopilas foundations, was created in April 2012 to avail of synergies and combine the experience and knowledge accumulated over two decades in the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and battery recycling sector.

The production of Solid Recovered Fuels (SRF) and Refuse Derived Fuels (RDF) is a strategic component of integrated waste management policy. It also forms part of energy strategy and the fight against climate change....

An entire sector against eSIR | Ion Olaeta, President of FER, member of the Board of Directors of EuRIC and Vice-president of the European Plastics Recycling Board (EPRB).

TEIMAS: Spearheading digital transformation in the waste sector

RESPECT: Desarrollo de procesos de reciclado sostenibles para la industria del plástico

Ecopick ayuda a optimizar la clasificación y reciclaje de residuos farmacéuticos en la planta de Biotran

Los residuos se reivindican como recursos para aportar valor a la industria

Empezamos el año con un primer número especial de agua de FuturENVIRO, con nuestra ya instaurada sección especial denominada “A Fondo: Análisis 2020”. Una sección en las que personalidades y asociaciones del sector del agua hacen un repaso de los acontecimientos más importantes en el sector del agua durante el año.

STADLER and TOMRA delivered the fully automated sorting plant for Sysav Industri AB, which sorts pre- and post-consumer mixed textile waste in southern Skåne, in Sweden. STADLER designed and built the plant, while TOMRA...

Evolving towards a circular economy is a very important challenge for any society due to what it involves: more efficient use of resources and reducing the exploitation of raw materials in order to guarantee...

ScrapAd, plataforma mundial para conectar compradores y vendedores de todo tipo de residuos y metales

The production of Solid Recovered Fuels (SRF) and Refuse Derived Fuels (RDF) is a strategic component of integrated waste management policy. It also forms part of energy strategy and the fight against climate change....

According to the United Nations, 53.6 million tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) was generated worldwide in 2019. This is the equivalent of 7.3 kg per capita, 21% higher than in 2014,...

  LIFE4FILM and LIFE PLASMIX In this report, we will describe the different stages and processes of two European LIFE projects based in Granada in which FCC is participating as project coordinator. The initial classification stages...

We closed 2019 with more good news. An all-time record of 896,450 tonnes of glass jars and bottles was collected in the green containers. With each passing year, we are coming ever closer to...

The 15M movement brought about a change in the way of doing politics. The philosophy that decisions come unilaterally from government bodies has started to be questioned and it is now felt that account...

Quantitative environmental indicators Apart from the most common environmental impact categories in lifecycle assessment, such as climate change (measured in terms of carbon footprint), water consumption (measured by water footprint), and others such as...

In line with its objective to become a benchmark publication in the waste management and recovery market, FuturENVIRO presents a series of specials that are now regarded as invaluable reference and consultation guides for...

It is estimated that between 640,000 and 800,000 tonnes of mfishing gear is lost worldwide annually and may remain in oceans for up to 600 years. This may well account for over 10% of...

  Can you imagine parents awarding grades to their own children? With the exception of the most conscientious parents, the impression would be created that all our sons and daughters were achieving academic excellence. But...

We begin 2020 with FuturENVIRO’s first special issue of the year on waste, featuring our by now well established section entitled “In depth: Analysis of 2019”.  In this section, leading actors and trade associations from the...

The solution lies in focusing our efforts on promoting the circular economy and fighting on all fronts to meet the European target of incorporating 10 million tonnes of recycled plastic into new products by...

EasyWaste (FREE) EasyWaste (FREE) is now available on the App Store and on Google Play. This version is free of charge and does not require registration. It allows users to access and contact responsible waste...

  Nonetheless, despite the very positive figures, Ecoembes, the organisation which coordinates recycling in Spain, wishes to continue innovating in the quest for new solutions adapted to the daily lives of citizens, whilst helping local...

This opinion article provides a summary of 2018, an intense year, which I believe has laid the foundations for a change of economic, social and business model. I look forward to 2019 with optimism,...

In this context, selective waste collection is of special importance and more so if we bear in mind that the models being driven by the EU make it necessary to have greater investment at...

A priority within this rethinking process is to create a circular economy in which waste ceases to be considered a problem and is treated as a valuable resource that enables the prevention of overexploitation...

The challenge of Waste4Think is to improve waste management, not only in economic or operational terms, but also in terms of environmental and social impacts. For this purpose, each of the four pilot schemes...

There are few activities that exemplify the circular model more than glass container recycling. It converts waste into a valuable resource and helps the environment by saving raw materials and energy, as well as...

Asphalt mixtures are the most commonly used material for the construction of paved surfaces worldwide. During the manufacture and onsite laying of these mixes, it is necessary to heat aggregates and binders to temperatures...

40 years ago, American John Goodenough invented the lithium  ion battery, which powers laptops, smartphones and many other electronic devices. Since then, numerous companies have joined the race to develop powerful, safe, long-life power units....

The world population is expected to increase by 2,200 million in just 30 years. This means that the population will grow from the current figure of 7,600 million to 9,800 by 2050. Two thirds...

LIFE RECYPACK is a demonstration project that is studying four solutions to current problems in the process of treating commercial plastic packaging waste (containers and packaging), mainly polyethylene (PE) and expanded polystyrene (EPS) in...

Baleares was the only Autonomous Community lacking a Waste Act. Recently, the Parliament of the Balearic Islands passed the Balearic Islands Waste and Contaminated Lands Act. This pioneering legislation at national level in Spain,...

The agreement, entered into by the Àrea Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB), the Catalan Waste Agency (ARC) and the 36 metropolitan municipalities, has been ratified by the Metropolitan Council. It establishes the individualisation of commercial and...

Waste management is going through a crucial period in Spain and in Europe. The quantity of waste packaging generated by society has been increasing, and political and social concern has been growing in parallel,...

  Innovation is one of the keys to enable European circular economy targets to be met. The ambitious targets that have been set require an improvement in waste recovery to enable subsequent recycling in all...

After the legislative change, R&D dominates the market. The main target for Spanish company i2ma is: No cartridge to landfill! Since appearing on the market, toner powder cartridges have become a pending matter with respect...

CIRCE is participating in the European CIRC4Life project, funded by the European Commission as part of the Horizon 2020 programme. The project seeks cooperation between companies and consumers to foster more sustainable and more...

The company has completed the first stage of the extension to its environmental complex in Cerceda, with the commissioning of a new facility to recover materials from conventional waste. This facility is a prime...

We begin 2019 with FuturENVIRO’s first special issue of the year on waste, featuring our by now well established section entitled “In depth: Analysis of 2018”.  In this section, leading actors and trade associations from...

The plant features a reception pit of 5,000 cubic metres and five treatment lines, each with the capacity to process 40 tonnes per hour. These lines are equipped with over 30 optical sensors to...

Resurja is currently responsible for treating all the waste produced in the province’s 97 municipalities. The “Jaén-Sierra Sur” Plant receives the waste collected in 32 municipalities located in the west of the province, including...

The project entrusted to Bianna Recycling encompassed engineering, manufacture, assembly, commissioning, staff training in operating and maintenance, and plant maintenance. The facility will serve the population of Santiago de Querétaro and will manage around...

  Grupo SPR, an international company based in Spain, acts as an integrated partner to offer solutions and equipment for waste treatment and raw materials recovery (secondary fuels, metals recovery, plastics recycling, etc.). In recent years,...

The light packaging recovery plant, which is a key factor in the success of recycling in Mallorca, has been constantly improving operations since it opened in 2003. This plant represents a vital preliminary stage...

We begin 2018 with FuturENVIRO’s first special issue of the year on waste, featuring our by now well established section entitled “In depth: Analysis of 2017”.  In this section, leading actors and trade associations from...

Spent Foundry Sand (SFS) generation is intrinsic to metal casting processes. Most ferrous foundries use sand moulds and cores for casting, which are discarded after pouring (lost mould technique). This generates large amounts of...

Solid waste is a commonly identified impact of tourism, but is rarely examined in tourism literature. Globally, it is estimated that the tourism industry is responsible for the generation of 35 million tonnes of...

Ecoembes has been promoting the recycling of domestic packaging in Spain for 20 years, an illustration of the organisation’s commitment to the circular economy. During this period, Ecoembes has been committed to the implementation...

The URBANREC project is an ambitious initiative which seeks to recover bulky waste throughout Europe. Over 60% of this type of waste currently ends up in landfills. URBANREC seeks to endow this waste with...

The project has a duration of 42 months and features the participation of 19 partners from 6 European countries. It seeks to integrate and validate 20 eco-innovative solutions covering the entire value chain of...

Óscar Martín, CEO at Ecoembes When reviewing 2016, previewing what is already happening in 2017 and looking ahead to the 2020 scenario, we need to explain why Ecoembes is unveiling a vision which goes beyond...

In mid-April, Bulk Handling Systems (BHS) announced the arrival of Max-AI™ technology, an artificial intelligence system that identifies recyclables and other items for recovery. Through deep learning technology, Max-AI employs both multi-layered neural networks and...

Our ongoing objective is to make FuturENVIRO the leading  publication in the waste management and recovery  market and, like last year, our Technical Guides provide a  consultation reference for experts in the recycling industry. We...

We begin 2017 with FuturENVIRO’s first special issue of the year on waste, featuring our by now well established section entitled “In depth: Analysis of 2016”. In this section, leading actors and trade associations from...

The RESEAT project has the objective of recovering high-quality seats from end-of-life vehicles (ELV) at authorised vehicle treatment centres (previously known as scrap yards) in the Basque Country. Currently, ELV seats do not tend to...

Nature as the source of inspiration A deafening noise announced that the Japanese bullet train was entering or leaving a tunnel. An unbearable thunderous din for residents of the affected areas. It was urgently necessary...

First it was glass and containers, then paper and board and, since a few years ago, electrical equipment and batteries. For all these waste streams, legislators and experts have considered Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)...

Through the ECOMATEX project, AITEX is working on the research and provision of alternative materials to those commonly used in sectors such as construction, and providing these materials with enhanced features in terms of...

One of the reasons for this lack of attention is that relatively little of this type of waste has been produced due to the long lifecycle of the modules; between 20 and 25 years...

Background In 2002, what was said to be Europe’s most advanced waste treatment facility went into operation in Valladolid. The municipal plant, which has been in operation for almost 15 years, serves the entire province...

According to the most recent Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Affairs (MAGRAMA) annual report (for the year 2013) on waste generation and management at municipal level, the Ecocentral Granada is the leading Spanish...

The “Another End is Possible” campaign for solidarity in recycling will continue until the month of June in the city of Malaga. Thus far, the project has enabled the collection of 27,165 kilograms of...

The best data available, which does not always coincide with the official figures, shows that around 37.5% of municipal waste is biowaste. In simple terms, three principal sources of this waste can be identified:...

How is this possible? That has been a key question for Eugenio Garnica, founder of Spanish startup Eugenio Garnica and his team during the last 3 years. After an intense “Customer Discovery” process, lot of...

The latest meeting of the International E-Waste Management Network (IEMN), held in September in Bogotá, provided an opportunity for an overview of the activity throughout the world. The main conclusion is that we still...

The production of Solid Recovered Fuels (SRF) and Refuse Derived Fuels (RDF) is a strategic component of integrated waste management policy. It also forms part of energy strategy and the fight against climate change....

The Fuenlabrada Industrial Waste Sorting Plant, commissioned in July 2015, receives commercial and industrial waste from public and private clients based in the Autonomous Community of Madrid. The plant recovers materials of value from...

The European Union is firmly committed to the circular economy. The circular economy implies less exploitation of natural resources and a profound transformation of production chains and human habits. The role of recycling is...

Forestcorte has over 12 years of experience in this sector in Portugal, Spain and France. EMSA, which has exclusive importation rights for the Irish Edge brand, has supplied Forestcorte with two machines: a Slayer...

Recicolchón has been set up in Griñón for the purpose of providing a solution to the treatment of this waste, through the separation of valorisable elements. Used mattresses have always been a waste type that...

2014 was undoubtedly an important year for the waste recovery and recycling sector in Spain and it also set the scene for much of the development of the sector in the coming years. However,...

An analysis of the electronic recycling sector in our country in 2014 obliges us to examine three fundamentally important factors: the transposition of the the 2012 Directive into Spanish law, the economic recession and...

2014 saw a slight improvement in waste paper and board recovery, though the sector has yet to take off as a direct result of weak consumption in these years of economic recession. Whilst awaiting...

In the year 2000, Tiana, Tona and Riudecanyes became the first Catalan municipalities to implement door-to-door (DtD) selective collection of municipal waste. Since that time, owing to the excellent results in terms of both...

The Spanish Association of Energy Recovery from Municipal Solid Waste (AEVERSU) is a non-profit organisation representing waste-to-energy plants. Its mission is to inform society of the work carried out by these plants, promote the...

The waste management and treatment sector in Spain, and specifically the waste-to-energy sector, closes the year with no option but to “swallow” (there is no choice in the matter) a reform in the electricity...

Masias Recycling is currently focusing on the treatment of the wet fraction of waste, which creates most problems and represents the largest waste fraction. Other systems tend to treat only the dry fraction, the...

Last October, AENOR (Spanish Association for Standardisation and Certification) participated in a number of conferences organised by ATEGRUS within the framework of the Municipalia exhibition in Lleida. AENOR presented a conference entitled “Landfill Management....

A study with over 50 real samples of domestic and industrial compost from the organic fraction of municipal waste shows the viability of domestic composting as a waste treatment technique, with the generation of...

In 2011, 22.7 million tonnes of domestic waste was generated in Spain (480 kg per capita). A large proportion of it was disposed of in controlled landfills (15.8 million tonnes or almost 70%). However,...

At the recent edition of K 2013, held in Düsseldorf from October 16 to 23, Erema showcased its new INTAREMA® technology for plastics recycling, based on a newly developed and globally patented counter current...

PlasticsEurope and the ITENE recently brought together the different actors operating in the plastic value chain and the waste management sector at a conference held at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Affairs....

The possibility of prioritising recycling within the European Union was set out for the first time in November 2012, when the additional sixteenth provision of the Waste Act was published. This extended to all...

The “ZeroWIN Production Model” was developed within the framework of the ZeroWIN Project (“Towards Zero Waste in Industrial Networks”). This environmental engineering project was carried out in collaboration, and was largely funded by the...

The Ambilital MSW management centre has acquired 4 TITECH units, featuring the latest sensor-based infrared, visible spectrum and X-ray sorting technology, for the automation of its waste and packaging treatment lines. With this equipment,...

The technology sector is in a constant state of development. A consequence of this evolution is the incorporation of new materials into devices, which in turn creates new recycling requirements. Although there may not...

Through the combined treatment of a wide spectrum of waste at an integrated plant, the LIFE REVAWASTE takes a giant step forward in the area of sustainable management. The pace of life in today’s society...

There is currently extensive growth in the use of plastics in all sectors of their application. After they are used, plastic materials and products become waste, which in turn is a very valuable resource....

The European plastics industry makes a significant contribution to the welfare ofsociety by facilitating innovation, creating quality of life for citizens and providing efficient use of resources. Therefore, in its commitment to the environment,...

This article seeks to analyse, in the most up-to-date mannerpossible, the MSW situation in Spain, with special emphasis on the energy recovery of reject remaining after pretreatment,sorting and separation of recyclable materials. A great...

Current waste management systems seek increasingly automated processes. To complement automated loading and unloading systems inside tunnels, Zitrón Manutención offers an automatic system for the opening and closing of tunnels. This makes for safer...

Following the recent introduction of waste electrical and electronic equipment regulations and disposal legislation across Latin America, demand for effective recycling solutions has increased considerably. These laws, which cover the discarding of commercial waste...

Lindner-Recyclingtech (L-RT), an Austrian company specialising in shredding solutions, has been developing, manufacturing and selling shredders for 65 years. This experience enables L-RT to deliver the best and most versatile single shaft shredders. L-RT...

Limasa is a mixed enterprise responsible for public cleaning, collection, transport, treatment and removal of MSW in the city of Malaga. The company has recently completed the upgrading of the Packaging Waste Sorting Plant...

According to UN forecasts, the coming years will see a significant increase in the world population, to 8,000 million by 2025 and 9,300 million by 2050. By 2025, annual waste production is forecast at...