Q - Is Australia a price
taker in the global ferrous and non-ferrous markets?
A – Australia
follows the prices quoted on the London Metal Exchange (LME) for
non-ferrous metals. Local steel mills purchasing shredded
ferrous scrap will negotiate monthly prices with their suppliers
based on the weighted value of recent sales contracts in the
region.
Q - How often do the metals
prices fluctuate?
A – Metal prices
fluctuate continuously in response to economic cycles of boom
and bust, new construction commencements, manufacturing
activity, Government infrastructure policies, usual supply and
demand pressures, rumours, natural disasters and catastrophes
such as war.
Q - What percentage of lead
acid batteries are currently recovered in Australia?
A - In Australia
there are no reliable figures kept, but lead acid batteries are
often quoted as being one of the most recycled products
collected in industrialized countries with some estimates
placing the recovery rate as high as 95%.
Q - What metal materials
collected by local councils can be recycled and how?
A - Councils
often operate waste transfer stations and these are good sources
of domestic metals, brought in vehicles to the station. These
include metal roof sheet, old bicycles, pipe, guttering,
whitegoods, pots, pans, brass items, car panels, etc. Council
run landfills will have these items plus abandoned automobiles,
heavier whitegoods, and miscellaneous demolition metals. All of
these materials are fragmented and sorted in large hammermills
(shredders) operated by Norstar, Simsmetal , Smorgon Steel
Recycling and Sell & Parker.
Q- What quantity of ferrous
is recycled from the Australian market each year?
A - At least 3
million tonnes of ferrous metals are recycled in Australia each
year from domestic as well as commercial / industrial sources
Q - What are the major
contaminants in ferrous loads recovered?
A - The major
contaminants are items that are flammable, contain chemical
residues that are toxic, explosive or otherwise harmful, gas and
pressure cylinders, asbestos and occasional radioactive items.
Other items that contaminate loads but are less dangerous
include masonry materials like concrete and brick, plastics,
glass, timber, rubber and soil.
Q - Name the top five
commonly traded non-ferrous metals in Australia.
A - paper bin
that is put out for recycling usually includes a number of
different types of paper - possibly including old newspapers,
shopping boxes and scribbling pads that you used at school.
Other things
mixed with the paper like staples, sticky tape, glue, plastic,
metal clips and food must be taken out before the paper is
recycled.
Unsorted paper
can be used for packaging, while using recycled paper for
newspaper requires sorting into different types by hand. The
better quality paper collected, the higher the quality of the
recycled paper that is produced.
Following
sorting, recycled paper is squeezed together to form big blocks
of paper and taken by truck to the paper mill. At the mill, the
waste paper is mixed with water in a machine like a washing
machine. Objects such as staples and plastic binders are removed
and go to the rubbish tip.
In this process,
between 10% and 30% of the waste paper's volume will be lost
because the paper is made up of fillers and other materials like
clay that are absorbed in water.
For some
products, the ink on the paper must be washed off. In this
process, a slush of paper and water is mixed with a detergent
and air to form a froth on the top of the mixture (like bubbles
in a bubble bath).
This froth is
skimmed off, and the mix is ready to go into the paper machine
before it can be dried and made into new paper.
Waste paper can
be recycled about five to ten times before it cannot be re-used
anymore. We can't go on recycling the same piece of paper
forever, because the fibres break down and cannot form a strong
enough "web" to make paper.
Q - Can all paper be
recycled?
A - No, but most
paper can be recycled. Paper in books, government departmental
files and in company files is generally not available for
recycling. Paper used in plasterboard for house building can't
be recycled, and tissues are not recycled.
Q - What other limits are
there on how much paper is recycled in Australia?
A - The size of
Australia is one of the biggest limitations to how much paper
can be recycled here. In places like Tasmania, Western Australia
and the Northern Territory - where the quantity of paper used is
small and the distance to the recycling plant is large - it is
often too costly to collect paper for recycling. This is also
the case in many country areas.
Q - Can recycled paper be
used to make any type of paper?
A - No. The
lowest grade of paper is newsprint, with packaging paper next
and the best paper being for printing and writing.
You can used
printing and writing paper to make lower grade papers such as
packaging and newsprint, but only printing and writing paper can
be recycled into more printing and writing paper.
However, if your
computer uses a laser printer, the printed paper is not suitable
for recycling into printing and writing paper. This is because
with a laser printer the print is melted into the paper, not put
on by ink. This makes the print difficult and very costly to
remove.
Q - What types of paper do we
produce in Australia?
A - Types of
paper produced in Australia include cardboard, packaging,
newsprint, plaster board, a range of industrial papers, tissues
and a number of printing and writing papers.
There are more
than 70 different types of paper produced here with a wide range
of uses:
Cardboard is
made into packing boxes and cases for items such as beer,
fruit and eggs;
Daily
newspapers are printed on newsprint;
Plasterboard
is used for the walls of houses;
Industrial
papers are made into paper bags and bags to hold cement and
chemicals;
Tissues are
made into handkerchiefs, toilet paper and in cleaning and
health materials, and
Printing and
writing paper is made into things like schoolbooks, writing
pads and magazines.
Packaging,
newsprint and industrial paper make up more than two-thirds of
the paper produced and used. Not all of the paper used in
Australia is made here - more than half of the printing and
writing paper used here comes from overseas.
Q - How much of the paper
produced in Australia is made from recycled paper?
A - Recycled
paper makes up 61.5 per cent of the fibre used in paper
production. 100 per cent of the content of packaging and
industrial paper is recycled paper. Australian newsprint
contains from 20 to 55 per cent recycled fibre. On average, 12
per cent of the content of tissues is recycled paper, with most
of this used in a small range of tissue brands. The recycled
content of printing and writing papers varies greatly on the
grade of paper, but on average it is 10 per cent.
Q - How much waste paper is
collected each year for recycling?
A - More than
1.6 million tonnes of waste paper is collected each year, most
of which is used in making paper. This represents 49.6 per cent
of the paper consumed in Australia, and more than 68 per cent of
the paper produced in Australia. Around two-thirds of the waste
paper collected is boxes, cartons and other forms of packing
paper. Almost one-third of the waste is old newspapers.
Collecting this paper saves the cities and towns we live in
about $80 million per year in reduced rubbish disposal costs.
Q - How much paper goes into
rubbish each year?
A - Paper makes
up between 10% and 15% of the rubbish that is taken from houses
to the rubbish tip. Rubbish from houses makes up just under half
of the total rubbish produced in Australia.
The other half
of the rubbish comes mainly from building sites but also from
offices, shops and factories. Surveys suggest that waste paper
makes up less than one-tenth of the total rubbish going to
Australian rubbish tips.
Q - Is recycling a modern
innovation?
A - No, the
first paper mill to use recycled material in Australia was built
in 1815 (using recycled rags). Waste paper collections from
households and factories began in Melbourne in the 1920s.
Q - How many Australian paper
mills use recycled paper?
A - Out of the
18 paper mills in Australia, 14 mills use waste paper in some or
all of their products.
Q - Does Australia recycle as
much paper as other countries?
Most fibre used
to make paper in Australia is recycled. Fibre from recycled
paper currently makes up 61.5 per cent of total production, and
this figure has increased significantly in recent years because
of major investments made by the industry. Australia is a world
leader in recycling newspapers. Australia recovered for
recycling 72.4 per cent of newsprint used in 2001. In contrast,
the average recycling rate in Western Europe is 49.8 per cent,
while in the US it is 45 per cent. In Europe, the large numbers
of people living in small areas make it cheaper and easier to
collect waste paper.
Q - What are the benefits to
the environment from recycling paper?
A - The main
environmental benefit from recycling is the lower volume of
rubbish going to rubbish tips.
In some
circumstances, recycling can reduce the amount of electricity
used in making paper, and therefore the amount of greenhouse
gases emitted (although this will not always happen).
Since recycling
mainly replaces fibres from trees grown in plantations ("virgin
fibre") or waste from other timber harvesting, it does not have
a major impact on the logging of Australia's native forests.
However, there
may be environmental costs associated with recycling such as
increased usage of fossil fuels by the trucks collecting the
waste material.
Q - Can recycled paper be
used for other things besides making paper?
A - Yes,
recycled paper can be used for things like fuel, house
insulation, building materials (in doors, furniture and walls),
potting mixture for gardening, insulation in cars and shoes.
Q - How much of the paper
collected goes back into newsprint and what happens to the rest?
A - In 2003
Norske Skog deinked and recycled some 170,000 tonnes of
Recovered Paper (RP) into newsprint. The suitable recovered
paper are made of Old Newsprint (ONP), Old Magazines (OMG),
inserts flyers, catalogues.
Q - Who is Norske Skog?
A - Norske Skog
is the second largest producer of newsprint in the world. Norske
Skog is headquartered in Oslo and has operations in 15
countries. Norske Skog has three mills in Australasia - the
Albury Mill in NSW, the Boyer Mill in Tasmania and the Tasman
Mill in New Zealand. The overall production is 850,000 T per
annum of Newsprint.
Q - How much are old
newspapers worth?
A - The RP price
varies according to demand and supply and also according to
quality (ie level of contamination). Norske Skog offers long
term Supply Agreement with a floor price that guarantees the
supplier/owner’s material of a minimum revenue.
Q - How could we improve our
recycling performance?
A - Australia
already has an excellent recovery rate for old newspapers but we
could still improve, particularly in relation to quality. A
recent study by consultants Nolan ITU found that recovery of
recyclables is highest for a kerbside recycling system employing
fortnightly collection of commingled containers in an MGB and
fortnightly collection of paper and cardboard in a separate MGB,
ie a 3bin system.
The study found
that separating paper and cardboard from other recyclables
provided the highest environmental benefits due to highest
yields. The study also found that recycling of paper to make new
paper provides significant environmental benefits. These are
much higher than the use of paper for energy recovery.
Q - How many trees do we save
by recycling old newspapers?
A - Recycling
doesn’t save trees. The pulp and Paper industry in Australia get
woodpulp from plantation thinnings (logs which are not suitable
for other uses - too small, bent, etc ) and sawmill’s chips from
timber offcuts. More information on
www.norkse-skog.com.au or call Recycled Fibre
Division on (02) 9283 1444
Q - What percentage of
whitegoods are currently recovered in Australia?
A - No reliable
figures are available in Australia, but whitegoods are a common
component of metal recycling programs and whitegoods recovery is
very high. However, the mistaken impression is that old
whitegoods are a major problem for the environment.
Q – Are there concerns about
the toxicity of any whitegoods that do become landfilled?
A – Whitegoods
often contain brominated flame retardants in order to meet
strict electrical safety standards. Small amounts of dioxin and
furan emissions could potentially be released in the unlikely
event of a landfill fire. We have not seen any evidence linking
groundwater contamination to leaching from landfilled whitegoods
residuals.
Q - What is Fisher & Paykel
doing to reduce the toxicity of whitegoods?
A – Fisher &
Paykel has an ongoing commitment to reducing the environmental
impacts of our products, especially through ongoing innovation
and product redesign. Fisher & Paykel eliminated the use of
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in foam insulation back in 1994 and
has reduced product toxicity to negligible amounts. Although
whitegoods often get classified with waste electrical and
electronic equipment such as computers and televisions,
whitegoods are far lower in toxicity.
Q - What is Fisher & Paykel
doing to increase the recovery of whitegoods?
A – Whitegoods
are currently shredded and their metal recovered through
existing recyclers. Under current conditions, this is the best
approach to maximising recovery and should be encouraged. Fisher
& Paykel has conducted product disassembly trials and is working
with Governments to further increase product stewardship for
whitegoods and encourage maximum utilisation of the existing
recycling network.
The Plastics Coding System is
designed to be easy to read at a glance and distinguishable from
other marks put on rigid plastic containers by manufacturers for
use in processing and identification.
The system uses a
triangular-shaped symbol composed of three arrows, with a number
in the centre indicating the material from which the bottle is
made, as follows:
