March 2010, No.2 E-scrap recycling: Roll-call for standards Taking the ‘waste’ out Guangdong plays the of industrial wastes technology trump card RI_001 Cover-4.indd 1 19-02-2010 14:33:46 presents New Sierra 80 2C HD No one plays better in this field! The first Automatic Baler designed to process turnings and tyre wire scrap. The performance of a briquetting press with the productivity of a baler. AR_2530.indd 1 19-02-2010 09:09:53 VIEWPOINT is a month ly busi ness mag a zine for the inter na tion al recy cling indus try and is pub lished 10 times a year. Euro-English Address The fact you’re reading this means that, at the very P.O. Box 2098 least, you have a rudimentary understanding of the 6802 CB Arnhem The Netherlands English language. But even the English must confess that some aspects of their mother tongue defy all Delivery Address Jacob Marislaan 30 reason.... 6813 JV Arnhem The Netherlands Phone +31 26 3120 994 ot being a native English speaker myself - I was desire to find new means of expressing itself. That Fax +31 26 3120 630 born in Germany and raised in the Netherlands is why stars are visible when they are out, whereas E: info@recy clin gin ter na tion al.com N W: www.recy clin gin terna tion al.com - I know from experience how difficult this appar- when lights are out they are invisible. And that’s also ently easy-to-understand language can be. But have why my watch starts when I wind it up and yet Publisher & Editor Manfred Beck you ever wondered why foreigners have so much winding up this observation brings it to an end. [email protected] trouble with English? Well perhaps it’s because In the 27 member states of the European Union, peo- English is such an infuriatingly illogical language. ple speak 23 different languages. So if you want to Deputy Editor Gert-Jan van der Have For example, there is no egg in an eggplant, no ham make big money, become an interpreter at the EU [email protected] in a hamburger, and neither pine nor apple in a Parliament. In an attempt to cut costs, the European pineapple. English muffins were not invented in Commission has now announced an agreement Magazine Administrator Helga Fresen England and French fries were not invented in whereby English will be the official language of the EU [email protected] France. And to add to this never-ending list of rather than German which was the other possibility. Editorial con sul tant paradoxes, we find that quicksand sucks you in As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty’s Govern- Ian Martin slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is ment conceded that English spelling offered some [email protected] neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. room for enhancement and simplification. As a Contributing edi tor/Consultant tech nol o gy result, it has accepted a five- Prof. Ir. Wijnand Dalmijn, Technical year phase-in programme to University of Delft, The Netherlands be known as ‘Euro-English’. Contributing to this issue ‘There is no ham in a hamburger.’ In the first year, ‘s’ will Helga Fresen, Ian Martin, Adam Minter, replace the soft ‘c’. Sertainly, Dave Sammut, Voermans van Bree Photographers this will make the sivil serv- ants jump with joy. The hard Art Direction Inpladi Lay Out Studio ‘c’ will be dropped in favour And I have not finished by a long chalk, whatever of the ‘k’. This should klear up konfusion and key- Printing Company that means. If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn’t boards kan have one letter fewer than at present. vanGrinsven druk kers Venlo bv the plural of phone booth be phone beeth? If a veg- No doubt, there will be growing publik enthusiasm Advertising Sales etarian eats vegetables, what the heck does a in the sekond year when the troublesome ‘ph’ will Jan Willem Ypma Phone: +31 343 517 488 humanitarian eat? And why do people park on be replaced with ‘f’. This will make words like Fax: +31 343 510 253 driveways and drive on parkways? Well, I guess you ‘fotograf’ 20% shorter. In the third year, publik E: [email protected] have to marvel at the unique complexity of a lan- akseptanse of these new spellings kan be expekted Subscriptions guage in which you fill in a form by filling it out. to have reached the stage where more komplikated Subsciption rate: e 149 a year Sometimes, I think all English speakers should be changes are possible. Governments will enkourage (excl. V.A.T.) committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. the removal of double letters which have always ben ISSN 1387-8700 What sort of language allows people to ship by truck an obstacle to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that and send cargo by ship? Or have noses that run, for the horible mes created by silent ‘e’s in the English Copyright 2010© that matter? How can a slim chance and a fat chance language is disgraseful and should be eliminated. All rights reserved. No part of this be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are at By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such pub li ca tion may be repro duced or opposite ends of the spectrum? How can quite a lot as replasing ‘th’ with ‘z’ and ‘w’ with ‘v’. During ze fifz trans mit ted by any means with out writ ten per mis sion of the pub lish er. and quite a few mean the same thing? And how can year, ze unesesary ‘o’ kan be dropd from vords kon- the weather be as hot as Hell one day and as cold as taining ‘ou’ and similar changes vud of kors be aplid Member of Hell the next? to ozer kombinations of leters. After zis fifz year, ve But let’s face facts: English was invented by people, vil hav a realy sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor not computers. And therefore the language reflects trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to under- the creativity of the human race and its constant stand each ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru! Delivered to you carbon neutrally by Manfred Beck Editor P003 Viewpoint 3 19-02-2010 15:12:57 With the unique blend of know-how and a combined workforce of over 1,000 professionals, the group has a strong market presence and im pressive production power. And these benefits are passed on to the business partners. The group is basically active in the international trade The group’s core business consists of recycling copper, of primary and secondary metals and their residues. tin, nickel and lead into marketable metals through Other business activities are the processing of metal cost-efficient and environmentally sound refining scrap and scrap iron, the supply of comprehensive technologies. The yearly output from the smelting and recycling services and the processing of waste electro- refining process is more than 350,000 tons of material. nics and electrical equipment. 600,000 tons of The converters are flexible enough to treat complex and material are handled annually. lower grade materials. www.metallumholding.com providing resources METALLUM Holding S.A. Le Dôme Espace Pétrusse 2, avenue Charles de Gaulle LU-2014 Luxembourg Phone (+352) 27 48 73 1 [email protected] AR_2522.indd 1 10-02-2010 11:36:01 IN THIS ISSUE 22 Pachinko pay-out for Japanese recycler Pachinko is an obsession in Japan. Furthermore, the machines on which the game is played enjoy a relatively short life-span - and that means a recycling business opportunity. This article examines how eCONeCOL of Fujinomiya City has added the outfall from this hugely popular leisure pursuit to its wide array of commercial ventures. 24 Guangdong plays the technology trump card Confronted with falling volumes, spiralling labour costs and an increasingly tight regulatory framework, leading scrap operators in the Guangdong region of China have turned to mechanised sorting and other forms of technology to wring the last drop of value from the material they 16 Roll-call for e-scrap process. Their mood and motivation are encapsulated in a single comment: ‘We can’t do things the way that we used to do them.’ standards The ninth International Electronics Recycling Congress to be organised by Swiss 30 Taking the ‘waste’ out company ICM took place in late January and attracted a record attendance of more than of industrial waste 400 delegates from 33 countries. In addition, After all of the cost of mining metals from the the event drew 34 exhibitors to the parallel ground, the conventional landfill-based alternatives trade show - including equipment manu- for chemical fixation and disposal of metal-bearing facturers and service providers. In this article, residues and sludges represent a waste of money Recycling International reviews the highlights and resources, as well as a long-term environmental of a congress which has become a firm and legacy. Now, innovative Australian company Intec Ltd has implemented a recycling facility to extract important fixture on the electronics and recover those metals for further use. recycling calendar. 34 Cheng Ho Hsing: fulfilling a machine-builder’s dream The annals of recycling history are packed with stories of talented individuals overcoming modest backgrounds to create hugely successful businesses. Chin Tung Chen certainly fits into this category. The founder of leading Taiwanese scrap processing machinery manufacturer Cheng Ho Hsing Heavy Industries Co., SECTIONS MARKETS ANALYSIS Ltd began with a dream of owning his own company - and with, Viewpoint / 3 Ferrous scrap / 36 quite literally, a single cow.