Closing the circuit on Electronic waste
The first automated e-waste recycling plant in the country – and the southern hemisphere – opened recently, with the capacity to recycle one in seven tonnes of discarded computers, televisions and other electronic waste in Australia. But Sims Recycling Solutions said local e-waste recycling was very poor compared to other developed nations, calling for “proper legislation” to boost recovery.
The new Sims E-Recycling plant in Villawood, Western Sydney can take 20,000 tonnes of the estimated 140,000 tonnes of e-waste annually generated by Australians and according to Sims will recycle 98% of the material it receives.
“E-waste is currently the fastest growing waste stream in the country and includes the computers, televisions, printers, radios, stereos, DVD players and mobile phones that Australians purchase and discard by the tens of thousands every week,” the company said.
“The amount of global e-waste will continue to increase as our household appliances, office equipment and computers quickly become obsolete. As technology advances, we are buying replacements and upgrading more frequently than in the past.”
Sims’ executive director and chairman of Sims Recycling Solutions, Jeremy Sutcliffe, said nearly all e-waste generated in the country ends up in landfill.
He called Australia’s 4% e-waste recycling rate “very poor” compared to other countries with product stewardship programs and e-waste recycling legislation – such as EU nations, some US states, Japan, Korea – that reprocess “in excess of 80%” of their e-waste.
“We would very much like to open more e-recycling plants in Australia, but these types of plants have the best chance of being successful when supported by the necessary legislation,” the company said. “Until such time that the recycling of e-waste is made mandatory in Australia or we introduce the concept of product stewardship, it is unlikely Sims will be rolling out more e-recycling plants across the country.”
The Villawood plant will be able to recycle all but 200 grams of a usual 20kg computer system including the monitor, mouse, keyboard, printer and scanner, with the waste generally made up of scraps of rubber and paper labels.
Recovered plastics can be resold back to the IT and electrical manufacturing industries, for example, as some of them already contain expensive flame retardants required under various government standards for electronic/electrical equipment. Sims said metals are sold into various industries across the globe for remanufacturing into new products. Story sourced from www.EnvironmentalManagementNews.net
I&I asks: what organisations are collecting these electronic goods for supply into Sims’ plant? If your organisation does so please contact I&I so we can let readers know in future columns. Contact Colin Seaborn on 4254 0200 or 0419 841829 or click here->
How to deal with Recession?
There has been plenty of discussion worldwide about a current or possible future recession. Professor Paul Strebel of European business school, IMD, recently offered the following advice.
The slide over the last year from economic growth into recession has been dramatic. The end of 2008 looks very different from the beginning of the year. This calls for a radical re-orientation of strategic priorities to deal with the shift in the economic environment. What is the best practice for dealing with a recession? Here are six recommendations:
1. Liquidity is king
The critical role of liquidity is something that the banks have re-discovered during the current financial meltdown - admittedly a special industry in extreme circumstances. Yet no matter what the industry, if revenues drop sharply and debtors stretch out their payables, all of a sudden creditors can lose confidence and insist on immediate payment.
After 9/11 collapsed airline revenues, lack of liquidity for fuel purchases grounded Swissair in October 2001 and soon drove it into receivership. Liquidity planning is critical, based on an analysis of the payments schedule, creditor terms and debtor collectability. The liquidity plan must be stress tested to see whether it can deal with worst case scenarios. The best insurance is real cash reserves in a safe bank.
2. Reduce fixed costs and increase flexibility
The ability to rapidly scale back activity when the recessionary storm hits without incurring major losses, and then scale back up on the rebound is key to coming out ahead after the storm passes. The budget airlines, with leased fleets, highly flexible pricing and rapid response to changing market conditions, came out of the 2001/2 downturn well ahead of the slower-moving larger airlines.
3. If necessary, restructure boldly, sooner rather than later
A downturn soon reveals what parts of the business are not profitable through a full economic cycle. Hanging on to non-economic business puts strain on the profitable business, thereby diminishing its rebound potential. If restructuring is needed, it’s important to move sooner before the markets for assets and divestments begin to freeze up. Bold decision-making is key with a preference for simplicity in the final business model. HSBC, for example, began aggressively scaling back its consumer finance and mortgage business in the US well before the full subprime crisis unfolded, which has allowed it to stagger its subprime write-downs over time without panicking its customers and shareholders.
4. Exploit opportunities to re-shape the competitive landscape
For those with strong balance sheets and liquidity, recessions throw up buying opportunities of a life-time at bargain prices. Acquiring talent, assets, access to markets, or whole businesses, at distressed prices, can completely change the balance of power in an industry. Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan’s takeover of Bear Stearns, together with the disappearance of Lehman Bros., has radically altered the power structure in the investment banking industry.
5. Leaders have to manage themselves responsibly
During difficult times the poet’s admonition is critical: make sure to “keep your head when those around you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.” A calm, steady hand must be visible at the top when implementing the measures needed in points 1 to 4. To retain credibility, execution must be accompanied by socio-political sensitivity.
Leaders lose credibility when they go on a big expense-paid fox hunt in England right after announcing a multibillion government bailout, or continue to promise eight figure bonuses in a firm that’s losing money. Instead, socio-political credibility requires they forego their bonuses, like the top executives at Goldman Sachs and UBS, as well as Josef Ackermann at Deutsche Bank, did in 2008.
6. Board members have to be strong sparring partners
Board members have to control the conduct of the business on behalf of the shareholders while, at the same time, supporting management in the value-creating process. In particular, during a recession, they have to ensure that management acts on points 1 through 3 to ensure the security of the business, while also encouraging management to be alert for windfall investment opportunities. This calls not so much for diversity on the board, but for board members with industry expertise, who are willing to support the CEO with difficult downsizing decisions and act as strong sparring partners to assess the desirability of potential investments.
The board can make the difference, as it did at Credit Suisse when the risk management committee called for a radical reduction in exposure to mortgage derivatives in mid-2006, exactly when the CEOs at rival banks were pushing for higher returns with more investment in the same instruments.
Story sourced from IMD at http://www.imd.ch/research/challenges/TC101-08.cfm?bhcp=1&MRK_CMPG_SOURCE=webletter-nov-08&wt.mc_id=webletter-nov-08
Sh.. it’s valuable!
The value of water, energy and nutrients contained in 1ML of sewage is approximately $1,130, according Professor Tony Priestley, deputy CEO at the CRC for Water Quality and Treatment. He is calling for a “paradigm shift” to view industrial wastewater as a resource in a carbon constrained economy, and he has detailed existing and developing technologies that could allow this resource to be tapped.
He said all waste is a sign of production inefficiency, but because 100% efficiency is impossible to achieve in real world conditions, “industrial wastewater production will always be with us”.
“An alternative viewpoint is to consider the wastewater itself as a valuable resource,” Professor Priestley said. “Apart from the water itself, wastewater can contain organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, metals and salts, which themselves have value.”
Professor Priestley, who spoke at the recent Excellence in Industrial Water Conference, said 1ML of domestic sewage contains $1,000 worth of water, $64.90 worth of energy from organic carbon such as methane, $50 worth of ammonia and $26.40 worth of phosphorus (2007 prices).
Priestley provided examples of some technologies to improve resource recovery from sewage, such as:
• Small gas turbine generators optimised for generating power from biogas, which is currently commercially available;
• Source separation – minimum water use, minimising dilution of waste, and is currently available for domestic wastewater;
• Production of struvite from anaerobic digester effluents, which captures both ammonia and phosphorus, and is being used in a Canadian commercial plant;
• Sulphide precipitation of heavy metals that recovers heavy metals and a readily dewatered solid, which is being developed in field-scale commercial trials;
• Enhanced thermophilic anaerobic digestion that maximises conversion of organic carbon to methane and nitrogen to ammonia, which is being demonstrated in field experiments;
• Microbial fuel cell oxidation, which can convert soluble organic waste to electricity, is being demonstrated in laboratory conditions;
• Ammonia recovery with semi-permeable membranes, being currently demonstrated in lab conditions; and
• membrane separation that recovers high-quality steam, also being demonstrated in lab conditions.
“These technologies will have to overcome the thermodynamic barriers to recovering valuable resources from relatively diluted waste streams, or even challenge the current approach of using high grade water to dilute these resources in our industrial waste streams,” he said. “To become truly sustainable, the world will need this paradigm shift.”
Story sourced from www.EnvironmentalManagementNews.net
Waste water testing facility
A new water testing facility set up by ASIRC in Victoria is a tool for industries to find innovative wastewater treatment and recycling solutions cost-effectively and flexibly, the organisation’s chairman said. The facility’s initial project helped cement maker Geocycle save nearly $1 million through the offsite testing service on offer, said ASIRC Chairman John Mitchell.
For more information go to: http://asirc.org.au/asirc_water.html
Get the good dope at breakfast from Fahey
University of Western Sydney Office of University Engagement on behalf of MACROC - Macarthur Regional Organisation of Councils has sent out the following invitation to a CEO breakfast forum on Tuesday, 9 December 2008 from 7:30am for 7.45am to 9:30am at The Fitzroy Room, Campbelltown Catholic Club, Campbelltown
Guest Speaker: The Hon. John Fahey AC, a former Premier of NSW, former Federal Minister for Finance and Administration, and current President of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
The MACROC CEO Breakfast Forums are designed as a networking event for business enterprises of all sizes. Admission is $30 per person.
To attend, please complete and return the registration form found at
http://www.macroc.nsw.gov.au/articles/articlefiles/77-CEO%20Forum%203%202008%20Flyer.pdf
by Thursday, 4 December 2008. A hot plated breakfast will be served.
Enquiries: 4645 4937
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