Waste not, want not

Toni Reftman explains how Eldan Recycling are stepping up to the challenge of recycling End of Life Tyres and WEEE.

“Within the European Union 3.1 million tons of end-of-life tyres are produced per year and 20 kilos of WEEE per capita which equals 8 million tons”
-Toni Reftman

Industrial and municipal waste constitutes a growing global problem. In the EU, the Waste-directive now regulates how we dispose of waste. Further regulations have been introduced for two groups of products - end-of-life tyres and Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE). Both groups fall into the category of producer's responsibility, which means that the producers and importers are responsible for the collection and recycling of end of life products.

It was recently announced in several papers that just within the European Union 3.1 million tons of end-of-life tyres are produced per year and 20 kilos of WEEE per capita which equals 8 million tons. Whilst a lot has already been done to deal with the problem, a great deal more still needs to be done.

The industry is evolving to cope with the challenge of recycling these quantities and organisations like ETRA (European Tyre Recyclers Association) are promoting the use of rubber products made from end-of-life tyres.

Eldan Recycling has expertise in size reduction and separation of waste materials and we have developed equipment to process a large variety of products in large quantities at low personnel and energy costs.

The corporate roots of Eldan Recycling A/S dates back to 1956 and since the beginning the Denmark-based company has specialised in development, manufacturing, marketing and installation of machines and complete plants for the recycling industry. We persistently observe and comply with market requirements and are one of the most innovative enterprises having installed more than 7000 single machines and 770 complete recycling systems worldwide, which comply with present requirements and are easily adapted to future requirements.

Our field of expertise includes plant and equipment for recycling of: aluminium scrap, scrap tyres, cable scrap, municipal solid waste, WEEE, refrigerators, industrial scrap, shredder light fraction/automotive shredder residuals (SLF/ASR), etc.

During 2008, we considerably expanded our production facilities by adding two new production halls to the premises. This step was taken to meet the high demand for Eldan equipment and to shorten the delivery time.

We are one of the few companies delivering equipment to the recycling industry, which has its own production facilities ensuring the quality of the product and the flexibility of the production program.

We are a turnkey supplier of complete plants, i.e. the customer only deals with one partner from the initial contact to being supplied with a customised solution. Our technical staff are responsible for the design and development of the plant and our project managers and supervisors are in charge of the project work, installation, erection, training and commissioning of the plant.

We build different plants to meet specific end-products. Using the modular approach, a large number of combinations can be supplied both with regard to processing volumes and the production of output sizes. The modular approach covers all customer requirements for equipment to process at different levels down the 'recycling road'. The Eldan plants are "Multi-Size" plants, which means that it is merely a question of changing the screen combination in the machines, should you wish to produce a different output size. In the recycling of tyres, for example, Eldan equipment is able to produce everything from shreds, chips, granulate down to powder - all products having their own outlet within the recycling market.

The Eldan WEEE recycling plants are designed to process all kinds of electronic waste. The process involves the size reduction of the input material through an Eldan ring shredder, heavy pre-granulator and heavy granulators together with separation equipment that separates the material into the following fractions: Ferrous Metals, Stainless steel, Aluminium, Plastics/Organics, Mixed Non Ferrous suitable for refining.

Toni Reftman is Managing Director of Eldan Recycling A/S. He has worked for Carl Bennet Group since 2004 and is responsible for three companies: Eldan Recyling A/S, Proline AB and Eleiko AB. He studied at The University of Lund and obtained a Ph.D in mechanical engineering.