Sustainable manufacturing: OEMs are recovering usable resources from waste
The price of commodities such as energy, metals, chemicals, and other materials has soared since the turn of the century. This is so much the case that large OEMs, such as BAE Systems and Jaguar Land Rover, are focusing on the recovery of usable resources from waste and on sustainable manufacturing.
BAE is considering recycling old submarine design records contained on X-ray film to recover precious metals such as silver (see box, overleaf). And sustainability at JLR’s Halewood facility on Merseyside involves recycling aluminium scrap from the press shop, delivering savings of £2 million a year.
Input cost inflation is frequently cited as a factor that has adversely affected engineering businesses in industrial surveys, especially when the economy was in the doldrums. With this in mind, should companies be doing more to source sustainable resources in terms of both cost and availability – and to make use of those resources once they have been bought?
Let’s take a recent case. Liquid helium, which is used extensively in medical equipment such as MRI scanners, is soaring in price owing to a global shortage. So its price in Europe has in the past three years gone from about £3/litre to £6/litre.
Liquid helium is made as a byproduct of natural gas production. The US maintains a strategic stockpile, but has been releasing less onto the market. In addition, two prominent liquefaction plants have gone offline. So companies that rely on liquid helium as a feedstock are being squeezed.
Problems such as this do spur technological development. For example, a British company, Cryogenic, is developing medical systems that need much less liquid helium for clients in markets such as Australia and South Africa, where shortages are acute. But for some companies, the soaring cost can erode profit margins and make businesses less competitive.
Dr Adam Read is an expert in sustainability and resource management at Ricardo AEA, a former division of the Atomic Energy Authority that ended up under the wing of automotive consultancy Ricardo a year ago. He argues that, with pressure on resources growing and costs spiralling, sustainability is no longer just about doing what’s right for the planet.
“If you can understand your resource risk, if you can secure the feedstocks you’re going to need for the next 20 years, then the chances are you’re going to be among the industry leaders,” he says
“Every business operating at the moment has some resource risks: if you can make those less sensitive to price fluctuations in the global commodities markets, then any efficiencies you generate will have an impact on the bottom line.
“For example, [fast food company] McDonalds has changed processes because doing so generates more revenue. It’s doing it not because it’s green but because it makes good business sense.”
Money from metal: Manufacturers are looking to recycle aluminium
Part of the drive to do more with less and reduce waste must come from legislation. Recycling rates have improved, but have been easier to implement among the big hitters in industry in Scotland than in England. There is also a more holistic approach to resource management – of waste, energy and water – north of the border.
Read says the UK should not be so reliant on gas from the Ukraine or timber imported from Scandinavia to be used as biomass. We should also be developing infrastructure that runs on our waste here, he says.
Supermarkets have got it right when they use organic waste to feed their own combined heat and power plants, which in turn provide electricity to drive refrigeration units, says Read. “Should we not be investing in infrastructure when there is a European outlet for our waste, such as refuse-derived fuel?
“We need more government leadership: the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs wants waste prevention, but isn’t this really about the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills? It’s environmental – but it’s also about investment opportunities.”
Recovering metals from waste streams (see box, above) should be a priority for companies that rely on rare earths, he says. “They are finite resources – those mines will not last for ever.” Much metal embedded in electronics waste is being discarded needlessly, he adds.
Meanwhile, innovations by companies at the top of the supply chain should filter down to smaller players. As the IMechE argued early this year, waste in the food and drink industry is shocking, says Read. “Anaerobic digestion has a role in making use of otherwise wasted food, although we should be redistributing food to those on the poverty line.”
In 2011, a third of all profit warnings by FTSE 350 companies were attributed to rising resource costs, he says. It’s not a problem that is set to go away.
He adds: “Engineers are a thrifty bunch, but it’s the novel stuff that needs to be accounted for – some of the things big engineering companies don’t necessarily think about, such as rare earth metals.”
Midlands firm mines X-rays for resources
Recycling precious metals from waste can garner significant rebates for manufacturers. A company in the Midlands, Betts Environmental, recovers metals from used X-ray film, sludges and aerospace engineering processes and obtains rebates – sometimes worth hundreds of thousands of pounds – for its clients. For example, Betts – part of a wider group that supplies these resources to the jewellery sector in Birmingham and elsewhere – generated a £138,000 rebate when it worked with engineering firm Doncasters to collect and dispose of X-ray film.
Precious metals are typically collected as part of general waste, or sorted into the hazardous waste stream and sent for incineration or to hazardous landfill. Where materials are not recovered for recycling, organisations are paying standard disposal costs when they could be receiving a significant rebate based on the value of the precious metal, says Betts. This rebate could be used to offset the collection and disposal of other waste materials.
Hidden value: Used X-ray film yields valuable silver
“Our core product to be recycled is X-ray film from the NHS and also industrial sectors,” says Simon Hundal, general manager at the company. “We find that industrial companies are unaware of the value of X-ray films. And there are other engineering processes that feature precious metals where they are not being recycled.”
Large users of X-rays are still making them in a traditional way, despite the ubiquity of digital technology, he says. X-ray film yields plastic as well as silver for recycling. Removing the silver in the recycling process leaves a clear, high-quality plastic which can typically be re-used in the food packaging industry.
Often, film is left lying around in warehouses. BAE Systems retains X-rays of quality records for long periods, for example. “Some companies will have been sending these materials to landfill, although it’s difficult to say how much has gone,” Hundal says. “There is a lack of awareness on the part of waste management companies. It’s only now they are starting to sit up and take note. A lot of this waste would have been either shredded or sent for deep burial.”
Another source of valuable materials is solar panels, he adds. Companies may be disposing of these as glass without taking account of the silver and platinum that they contain.