The recycling of secondary waste in Polish recycling companies

© 2021. Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( CC BY-SA ) Rocznik Ochrona Środowiska Volume 23 Year 2021 ISSN 1506-218X pp. 715-730 https://doi.org/10.54740/ros.2021.050 open access Received: 26 July 2021 Accepted: 15 October 2021 Published: 06 December 2021 The Recycling of Secondary Waste in Polish Recycling Companies Maciej Wędrychowicz * Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Institute of Materials and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Zielona Góra, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6203-229X Petr Besta Department of Economics and Management in Industry, Faculty of Materials Science and Technology, VSB – Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6309-708X Izabela Gabryelewicz Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Institute of Materials and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Zielona Góra, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0691-4108 Roman Stryjski Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Institute of Materials and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Zielona Góra, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9191-2889 Patryk Krupa Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Institute of Materials and Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Zielona Góra, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8388-0175 * corresponding author’s e-mail: mwedrychow[email protected]gora.pl Abstract: This article analyses the recycling of secondary waste in Polish recycling companies. An innovative method of processing PCBs is presented and trends that should be followed by plants processing non-ferrous metal waste are indicated. In conclusion, it is emphasised that the Polish WEEE recycling market is still at the early development and growth stage and the most important goals that enterprises should set themselves include cost optimisation, improvement of waste management logistics and increases in the level of recycling. Keywords: recycling industry, circuit boards, precious metals recovery 716 Maciej Wędrychowicz et al. 1. Introduction Recycling secondary waste in Polish enterprises begins with the extraction of metallic waste of various types, after which, it is then separated. No company in Poland has yet developed a complete waste stream processing technology, i.e., a waste stream with more specific dimensions, density and chemical composition, etc; it is mainly copper scrap together with PCB scrap – printed circuit board scrapas well as alkaline batteries. It is assumed that from one tonne of printed circuit boards – with one piece weighing approximately 150 g – it is possible to recover approximately 27 g of metals, such as, gold, copper and palladium (Woynarowska & Żukowski 2009). One tonne of processed alkaline batteries contains from 26% to 65% of steel in the form of a shield, from 4% to 10% of electrolyte in the form of potassium hydroxide, from 20% to 35% of manganese powder, from 20% to 35% of zinc oxide and trace amounts of carbon. The average recovery of these metals by Polish companies is 70-75%. The problem with today's processing of waste scrap, in terms of environmental protection, is the processing capacity of installations in Poland, which theoretically amounts to 12 million tonnes, of which 20% of enterprises do not have an address, which raises doubts as to their actual storage and operation. The recycling industry is one of the most innovative branches of the economy. In less than 10 years, the extraction of raw materials from landfills will become an important business field, as the content of elements such as copper and gold, in waste, is higher than that for extracted ore (Burzyńska 2018). 2. The importance of recycling in waste management In managing materials, raw materials and recycled materials are becoming ever more important. A clear upward trend can be observed in the recovery of materials. Due to ever increasing improvement in waste sorting systems and to a consistent policy favouring its use, the "return rate" of materials can, in some cases, be as high as 75%. The use of waste, that is, the recovery of secondary raw materials, both from production processes and from purchasing, is becoming increasingly important for ecological and economic reasons, related to the protection of the natural environment in the limiting of greenhouse gas emissions (Jacyna et al. 2018) and water pollution, as well as limiting the energy consumption of production (Woźniak et al. 2017a, Woźniak et al. 2017b); this entails an increase in the use of waste being a source of cheap and environmentally-friendly raw materials. This applies, inter alia, to scrap steel and waste, along with non-ferrous metals, such as copper, aluminium, lead, zinc and tin. Extracting metals from waste materials is less energy intensive than from primary sources. End-of-life vehicles (Chamier-Gliszczyński 2010, Kosacka-Olejnik 2019, MerkiszGuranowska 2018), waste batteries (Dobrzycki et al. 2019), waste electrical and electronic equipment and municipal waste enable the recovery of metals to a large extent (GUS 2016). The Recycling of Secondary Waste… 717 Table 1. Trade in recyclable waste in commercial units in 2016-2017 (Institute for Research on Market Economy 2017) Waste Year Revenue Total From own activities Purchase Import in tonnes Steel and cast iron 2016 4373166 223083 4103038 47046 2017 4564604 288082 4167234 109288 Copper 2016 238519 43957 141003 53559 2017 218449 7258 167151 44040 Lead, zinc and tin 2016 32224 1353 27417 3454 2017 27741 1220 23164 3357 Aluminium 2016 273130 3184 241881 28065 2017 272121 3394 229216 39511 Customer expectations towards green-technology (Kanalikova et al. 2019, Marczewska et al. 2020), recycling companies are constantly growing, especially in the context of supporting the implementation of sustainable development goals (Zajac at al. 2020), including the implementation of the principles of the circular economy. The primary goal of companies is to maximise the recycling of production waste, which can be achieved through sorting-at-source, efficient internal logistics (Straka et al. 2020, Zajac et al. 2017) and transportation and above all, increasing the number of fractions that can be recycled. Effective recycling is also an important element of an increasingly important model of an innovative approach to business, which is the circular economy (Chamier-Gliszczynski & Krzyzynski 2005, Czwajda et al. 2019). The European Union is also working towards a circular economy. It is an idea that will significantly support enterprises in reducing the over-exploitation of raw materials and reduce environmental pollution (Gabryelewicz et al. 2020). Recycling materials from used products and reusing them is one way to save natural resources and, at the same time, meet the growing demand for these raw materials (Chamier-Gliszczyński 2011a, Chamier-Gliszczyński 2011b). In order to improve the recovery of materials from used cars, Directive 2000/53/EC (Chamier-Gliszczyński 2011) and Directive 2002/96/EC introduced minimum levels of recovery and minimum levels of re-use and recycling (Table 2). 718 Maciej Wędrychowicz et al. Table 2. Target values of recovery and recycling rates for individual product categories (Institute for Research on Market Economy 2017) Item Product category Recycling in % Recovery in % 1 Large household appliances 75 80 2 Vending machines 75 80 3 IT and telecommunications equipment 65 75 4 Consumer devices 65 75 5 Small household appliances 50 70 6 Lighting equipment 50 70 7 Electrical and electronic instruments 50 70 8 Toys, recreation and sports equipment 50 70 9 Instruments for surveillance and control 50 70 10 Gas discharge lamps 80 The recycling of copper and aluminium reduces the exploitation of these rare and valuable raw materials and also minimises the amount of waste produced during ore extraction. The re-use of plastic reduces the consumption of crude oil and avoids many years of storage in landfills. Thanks to the recovery of materials, water is a valuable resource. Recycling aluminium uses half as much water as when produced from primary raw materials (Duan et al. 2009). In addition, metals that end up in waters and soils pose a significant threat to the natural environment, through inappropriate management (Gabryelewicz et al. 2018). The recovery and re-use of copper and aluminium reduces the possibility of their leakage into the environment. The recycling process uses much less energy than the extraction of natural resources and also reduces carbon dioxide emissions (Reconomy 2017). 3. Recycling enterprises in Poland In Poland, information on the management of the WEEE is published by the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection in annual reports. It follows, from the reports, that in 2017, in total, more than 518.9 thousand tonnes of WEEE were introduced into the territory of Poland (Główny Inspektorat Ochrony Środowiska, 2018). The collection rate was 34.7%, which amounted to 4.1 kg of waste equipment per capita. The average for one EU citizen is around 15 kg. According to the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection, there are 16,001 enterprises or organisations dealing with electronic waste in Poland; these are divided into collection companies, waste processing companies and companies involved in the recovery process, but there is no single comprehensive company dealing with processing, from start to finish. A very small number of companies – some 180, The Recycling of Secondary Waste… 719 process about 905 thousand tonnes of waste. Comparing the data on the capacity and quantity of processed or recycled materials, it is clear that there are processing capacities, but these are used to a small extent only. This is due to the existing downturn in the metals market and the growing shadow economy. Analysing the market data, it is possible to confirm the assessment existing in J. Hausner's (Hausner 2017) report that the Polish WEEE recycling market is in the development and early growth phase, but is still very fragmented. None of the legal instruments used in Poland so far, e.g. a ban on depositing certain fractions of waste in landfills, changes in waste management at various levels of administration, introducing additional powers for municipalities and obligations for entrepreneurs, have brought any tangible environmental effect nor have they caused a dynamic development of the market. Pathologies in the WEEE system were also described in the PwC report of 2014, "Irregularities in the WEEE management system in Poland"(Narodowy Fundusz Ochrony Środowiska, 2015), which shows that as much as 40% of officially processed e-waste is only "paper recycling". This is evidenced, inter alia, by the heaps of unprocessed waste equipment lying around, in some processing plants. The presented analysis of the amount of available scrap and the number of companies dealing with the collection and processing thereof, shows that at least 2.5 thousand potential recipients are registered in Poland. These are companies that are already active in the field of scrap processing and metal recovery. The largest enterprises in the copper scrap processing market in Poland can be mentioned here: 1. KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. – a national enterprise in the extraction and production of copper. In recent years, the Company has been expanding its plant in Legnica to include a scrap ironworks, producing about 65 thousand tonnes of copper from scrap annually and extends further activities in this regard through the combustible construction of a waste treatment centre. 2. KGHM METRACO – the largest company in Poland and central Europe engaged in the purchase, processing, recovery and trade in copper scrap. It is the main supplier of scrap metal to KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. and is one of the largest exporters of copper scrap. 3. OLMET – one of the largest companies in southern Poland dealing with the purchase and processing of scrap metal, including scrap copper. 4. Złomex S.A. – the largest company in Małopolska (Lesser Poland Region) engaged in the purchase and recycling of scrap metal. In 2016, 140 million tonnes of waste were generated in Poland, 8% of which was municipal waste (12 million tonnes). The main sources of waste were: mining and quarrying (approximately 52% of the total amount of generated waste), industrial processing (21%) and electricity generation and supply (16%). In the last decade, the largest share in the amount of waste generated was waste 720 Maciej Wędrychowicz et al. generated during the exploration, extraction and the physical and chemical processing of ores and other minerals (56% in 2016) and waste from thermal processes (22%). Of the total amount of waste generated in 2016, 49% of waste was recovered, 42% was disposed of as landfill and 4% was disposed of by other means. The basic method of handling municipal waste in Poland was getting rid of it as landfill. In 2016, 37% of the total quantity was earmarked for storage, that is, 4.3 million tonnes while 28% - some 3.2 million tonnes of waste – was recycled. 19%, 2.3 million tonnes, was thermally disposed of in incineration plants and 16%, 1.9 million tonnes, of municipal waste was biologically processed (Kulczycka & Karaś, 2016). In 2016, a total of 233 million tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment was collected in Poland, including 224 million tonnes from households. The largest amount of waste equipment was collected in the group consisting of large-sized household appliances – 50% of the total weight of the equipment collected, ICT and telecommunications equipment (14%) as well as consumer equipment and photovoltaic panels (9%). In 2016, batteries and accumulators with a total weight of 131 thousand tonnes were placed on the market in Poland, including portable batteries and accumulators, approximately, 13,000 tonnes (10%) of car batteries and accumulators approximately 95,000 tonnes (72%) and industrial batteries and accumulators approximately 24,000 tonnes (18%) (Jajczyk et al. 2020). As was the case the year before, in 2016, it was not possible to reach the level of collection of used batteries and portable batteries specified for Poland. The level obtained was 39% against the required 45% (Raport GUS 2017). According to the report entitled Countering the Illegal Trade of WEEE, only 35% of the WEEE produced (Huisman et al. 2015) is officially registered in EU countries. The report for individual EU countries shows that: 1. In the EU-28 countries, as well as in Norway and Switzerland, the total amount of WEEE generated was 9.45 million tonnes in 2012; 2. Only 35% (3.3 million tonnes) of WEEE were registered in official reports as having been collected and recycled. The remaining 65% (6.15 million tonnes) were recycled under conditions inconsistent with EU requirements, including 2.2 million tonnes of WEEE which had been mixed with other scrap, 1.5 million tonnes of which were exported, including 1.3 million tonnes which constituted non-documented WEEE exports and used EEE with only 0.2 mln tonnes constituting official exports. 750 thousand tonnes were thrown away with municipal waste with an additional 750 thousand tonnes of WEEE having had their valuable parts removed by collecting companies but not recorded, as such, in the statistics and 950 thousand tonnes having been managed contrary to the regulations, e.g. thrown into forests; The Recycling of Secondary Waste… 721 3. In the case of illegal exports, it was indicated that 30% of WEEE was marked as equipment intended for re-use or repair and not for storage; 4. It has been estimated that 4.65 million tonnes of waste is not properly managed or is illegally sold on the European market. This applies in particular to the trade in defective WEEE, from which parts, containing valuable metals are most often removed. In the international waste shipments register, the mass of waste exported and unprocessed in Polish enterprises in 2014/2015 amounted to a total of 778,960 kg; in 2013 this was 115,647 kg. The destination country for the export of used metallic waste was Finland. By 2022, the value of metallic waste in the world is expected to grow from $ 66 billion to $ 400 billion and the amount of waste per capita is expected to be about 19 kg. This exponential increase in waste is mainly due to the fact that the average lifetime of electronic equipment does not exceed 4 years. The environmental management system promoted as being compliant with the requirements of EMAS and ISO 14001, based on the PDCA cycle model, encourages entrepreneurs to identify environmental problems and plan appropriate actions, in order to limit the negative impact on the export of this waste. 4. Innovative approach to recycling in Poland Since 2019, Polish recycling plants have been applying an innovative approach to the processing of scrap through the innovative use of metallurgical equipment and aggregates, using newly developed metallurgical refiners, as well as using innovative separation methods. An innovative approach to the recovery of Cu and precious metals from low-copper, WEEE and PCB scrap, assumes the production of a metallic phase during processing, the main component of which will be copper, as a solvent for precious metals. This will reduce the loss of precious metals during the "fusion" of scrap, containing Au, Ag, to the metallic phase. The use of this innovative approach at the scrap melting stage, will allow the loss of precious metals, throughout the cycle, to be curtailed, because gold, silver and other precious metals will follow copper, thus avoiding losses in further technological operations. Most scrap recycling companies and plants are limited to a very narrow scope of work which consists in obtaining a commercial product through a minimum amount of work and involvement in the processing of a given type of scrap. The effect of this approach is to extract a just large enough useful fraction of valuable metal from the entire mass of waste that can be easily sold. In such a procedure, the remaining part of the waste, often containing, for example, plastics, is not managed (Yazici & Daveci 2009). This results in the generation of processed waste, which is very difficult to be managed further and which, in many 722 Maciej Wędrychowicz et al. cases, ends up as landfill. However, this procedure does not contribute to the improvement of the recycling rate of scrap metal in Poland, nor to environmental protection. This procedure is mainly brought about by a lack of knowledge regarding the methods of processing polymetallic waste, including PCBs, which in many cases causes scrap processing plants to focus solely on mechanical separation. Mechanical methods are an alternative technology for the recovery of precious metals. These technologies are various combinations of comminution and separation processes, using differences in shape, colour and the physical properties of the comminuted materials. There is a view (Havlik et al. 2010) that the process of shredding PCB waste causes losses of precious metals, which, due to the form in which they occur (contacts, wires, ceramic components in multilayer capacitors), pass into the dust fractions. Mechanical impacts on components rich in precious metals result in the formation of small-sized particles that pass into the dust fractions or, thanks to the adhesion phenomenon, settle on the elements of other fractions. In order to counteract the loss of precious metals, there is the manual removal of elements with a high content of precious metals. The manual disassembly of PCBs, however, requires knowledge of the board structure and incurring the costs of manual work. Another method for recovering precious metals from PCBs is to convert the precious metals into a char by pyrolysis. The purpose of pyrolysis is to get rid of organic compounds and concentrate the material into copper and accompanying metals. The material, after pyrolysis, is dark and brittle; it is easy to distinguish the metallic components in it by their characteristic metallic gloss. The char, along with lead, is then melted with refining salts (NaNO3, NaOH, NaCl), in order to maintain the appropriate proportions. The char is then crushed in a vibrating mill and the dark matrix, after grinding, is removed by a set of sieves placed on a vibrating machine, thanks to which the remaining metallic part remains on the sieves (Fig. 1). Many companies, despite a willingness to develop a method for the complete processing and management of scrap metal, are not able to take up such a challenge. The way forward, for such companies to acquire appropriate knowledge and the appropriate tools, is the transfer of ready-made, technological and technical solutions by purchasing a ready, complete technological line. There are many innovative projects in Poland that respond to such market demands. For many plants, it will be easy to access "know how" in the field of processing polymetallic scrap waste, including PCBs, by purchasing a complete solution in the form of a ready technological line. The Recycling of Secondary Waste… 723 Fig. 1. Macro-photography of material rich in Cu and precious metals The Polish recycling industry, which recovers metallic fractions from printed circuit boards, does not specify any so-called "waste stream", which is a stream with more clearly defined dimensions, density and chemical composition. Typically, this is done in such a way that all PCBs, consisting of about 70% plastic, are subjected to the pyrolysis process. The pyrolysis process of PCBs should take place at a temperature of 780°C, while the non-uniform composition of PCBs causes that the process takes place at a much higher temperature, i.e., 1,100°C, so much higher than it should. Therefore, on the one hand, solutions are sought to effectively separate materials from metals while, on the other hand, solutions are sought in order to define a specific waste stream, from which nonferrous metals can be selectively recovered and then standardize it. Therefore, the authors of this article have attempted to solve the research problem by removing elements rich in non-ferrous metals from the surface of the scrap and categorising them by type, shape and size, as detailed in the article. 730 Maciej Wędrychowicz et al. Woźniak, W., Nawrocki, W., Stryjski, R., Jakubowski, J. (2017). 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