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Picture: Coffee capsules after recovery from municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash

Instead of regular filter coffee, many people nowadays drink coffee from machines which use portioned coffee capsules. Dependent on the producer and the country of production, the capsules are made of aluminum, mixes of aluminum and plastics or with plastics only. In Germany alone, in 2014, around 3 billion capsules were thrown away according to an article in the German “Spiegel magazine 10/2016”, resulting in 5,000 tons of aluminum and plastics waste.

Currently, most countries lack systems to collect used capsules for recycling. Instead, they are thrown away and end up as household waste. The aluminum fraction however is a valuable resource; not only in the sense of the material volume itself, but especially regarding climate change, as the production of aluminum requires a very high amount of energy, which is mostly produced from coal or gas.

In cities where municipal waste is burnt in Energy from Waste Plants, it is the processing of the remaining incinerator bottom ash (IBA) in our installations that recovers these capsules. As we process around 2.3 million tons of ash every year, we recover more than 230,000 tons of metals (non-ferrous and ferrous) per year from IBA. Thus, REMEX operations present a very real and significant factor in improving the CO₂ balance. more

Picture: Venkat Patnaik, Managing Director of REMEX Minerals Singapore Pte Ltd.

On 3 August 2016, the National Environment Agency (NEA) of Singapore accepted the offer submitted by Consortium IFA REMEX VBM for the demonstration of treatment of incinerator fly ash (IFA). The Consortium, consisting of the German REMEX Mineralstoff GmbH, its subsidiary REMEX Minerals Singapore Pte Ltd and the Dutch company Verwerking Bedrijfsavfalstoffen Maasvlakte, is one of three contestants in this project.

In a society where sustainability is the order of the day, no one wants to dispose waste in landfill. This is especially true for Singapore, where limited space and high fees for landfilling present additional challenges. Currently, in Singapore, fly ash and bottom ash from the existing four household waste incinerators are being deposited in landfill.

However, it is envisioned that all incinerator bottom ash (IBA) will be utilized in recycling projects. Once this is achieved, only the IFA waste stream will remain subject to landfill as no environmentally safe method to reuse this material exists. Yet, it is possible to reduce its volume and hazardous properties by undergoing special processing. This is the reason Singapore now plans to construct an IFA treatment plant – A forward-thinking investment by the NEA to improve existing infrastructure.

The Consortium IFA REMEX VBM convinced the Awarding Agency with its tender, recommending the method of cold immobilization. Cold immobilization is a process to bind the leachable substances in waste by changing their chemical and physical properties. It is a hybrid method involving a combination of chemical stabilization and solidification. Chemical stabilization includes all processes to bind and immobilize pollutants in the waste product. Solidification means physically encapsulating the waste products. All this is necessary to enable the safe deposit of hazardous IFA in landfill.

The project will be headed by Mr. Venkat Patnaik, Managing Director of REMEX Minerals Singapore Pte Ltd. Since its incorporation in 2014, the company has been implementing state-of-the-art projects for the treatment of incinerator bottom ash from household incineration plants in Singapore. As owner of the region’s most advanced metal recovery facility at Tuas, REMEX aspires to be the NEA’s first point of contact on matters pertaining to household waste incineration residues.

According to the Letter of Acceptance of the Government of Singapore, the demonstration project started in September 2016 and is scheduled to end in March 2017. The results of this project will form the basis on which the NEA will decide the supplier for the planned IFA treatment plant.

Pictured in front of the entrance to the headquarters of HEROS Sluiskil B.V. is the high-profile delegation from Taiwan, including the Minister for Environment, Dr. Lee Ying-yuan

In September, Taiwan Minister for Environment, Dr. Lee Ying-yuan highlighted his country’s ongoing commitment to a circular economy by leading an expert delegation from the Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration, Sinotech Engineering Services Ltd, The Industrial Technology Research Institute and REMONDIS Taiwan on a European visit to see first-hand how German and Dutch companies are meeting environmental obligations through efficient, sustainable and economically viable resource management.

As part of Minister Lee’s vision to integrate higher quality secondary construction materials into Taiwan‘s circular economy, the delegation visited REMEX owned HEROS Sluiskil B.V. to learn how Europe’s largest IBA processer is producing more advanced aggregates from incinerator bottom ash.

Following Minister Lee’s visit, The Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration R.O.C held the 4th International Conference on Sustainable Materials Management and Resource Sustainability Technology in Taipei, where REMEX aggregates from IBA were shown to an international audience as an example for quality recycling solutions.