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International Seminar on Electronic Waste
UMICORE BRASIL
Ricardo Rodrigues
November 30th, 2010
 Umicore Group
 Umicore Brazil
The e-scrap recycling chain
 What to do in Brazil? South
America?
 Conclusions
Material technology company with focus on
clean technologies
Workforce: 14,000
> 70 industrial locations worldwide
Umicore structure
Umicore in Hoboken: processing 300,000 tpy,
+ 200 different types of raw materials
Recyclable products
By-products
Others
By-products
from nonferrous industry
Spent
Industrial
Catalysts
Electronic
Scrap
Spent
Automotive
Catalysts
Precious metal
bearing raw
materials
e.g. drosses from
lead smelters,
slimes from copper
industry,…
Industrial
catalysts from oil
refining &
petrochemical
industry
e.g. printed circuit
boards
end-of-life
car catalysts
e.g. fuel cells,
photographic
residues
Electronic Scrap
- Printed circuit boards (PCBs)
- Cell phones( handsets )
- Connectors
 Umicore Group
 Umicore Brazil
The e-scrap recycling chain
 What to do in Brazil? South
America?
 Conclusions
Umicore Brazil
 UPMR operates in BRAZIL with the following activities:
 Sampling & Assaying operation for SAC, SIC and JEWELRY SCRAP;
 Handling & Warehousing for E-SCRAP.
 UPMR structure is serving the South-American market;
 Umicore Group
 Umicore Brazil
 The e-scrap recycling
chain
 What to do in Brazil? South
America?
 Conclusions
Recycling chain
e-scrap
collection
dismantling
preprocessing
 Consumer  OEM’S separated components & fractions
 Corporative
 OEM’S
 SCRAP
 Institutions
DEALERS
 E-WASTE
management
 E-WASTE
companies
management
companies
 WASTE
 WASTE
management
companies
 Logistic
companies;
materials
recovery
 Cables;
 Plastics
 Aluminium
 Fe
 PCB’s
 Batteries
- etc.
recycled metals/
elements
Precious Metals +
12 types of different
metals
management
companies
 Recycling
companies
Who is a recycler?
• Every (serious) stakeholder in the chain is somehow a “recycler”.
• A waste management company or a pre-processor is not a recycler of
(technology) metals in the stricter sense, they prepare materials for final recovery.
• Many waste management companies have their roots in bulk waste & mass
metals (steel, copper, aluminium) and traditionally focus on mass throughput and
cost.
• Many scrap dealers and (global) traders raise the impression to do recycling.
Having “recycling pictures on the website or “recycling” in a company name is no
sufficient proof for real recycling.
• Only the metallurgical processes of Umicore type finally recover (isolate & refine)
the (technology) metals in a way that they can be fed back into the market. Their
success depends on the quantity & quality of the feed from the upstream chain.
The structures in the recycling chain need to adapt to
today’s requirements of professional, ethical and
transparent business execution.
E-scrap: Umicore’s focus material
E-scrap is a complex mix of:
 Ag, Au, Pd… (precious metals)
 Cu, Al, Ni, Sn, Zn, Fe… (base
metals)
 Hg, Be, Pb, Cd, As, Sb, Bi… (PIA
metals)
 Br, F, Cl... (halogens)
 plastics (combustibles)
Via Umicore Battery Recycling,
we also offer recycling solutions
for Rechargeable batteries (NiMH,
Li-ion, Li-polymer)
 e-scrap contains valuable metals &
resources & as such represents a
true surface mine, which must not
be wasted
 sustainable processing in
environmentally sound and robust
operations
High Tech & Economies of Scale
 Key for precious metals refining from complex materials
Umicore‘s integrated smelter/refinery at Hoboken/Antwerp
Collection
Dismantling
Preprocessing
Materials
recovery
ISO 14001 & 9001, OHSAS 18001
• Focus PM-containing secondary material, input > 300 000 t/a, global customer basis
• Recovery of 7 PM & 11 other metals: Au, Ag, Pt, Pd, Rh, Ru, Ir, Cu, Pb, Ni, Sn, Bi, Se,
Recycled metal value 2007: 3 Bn US-$
Te, Sb, As, In, Ga.
• Investments since 1997: 400 M €; Invest. for comparable green field plant: >> 1 Bn €!
• Complex processes, high recovery rates >> 95 % for PM, minimal waste
End-processors (“Recyclers”)
– Two approaches
Umicore
Au yield >> 95%
backyard recycling ► “low tech”
− High losses, few metals recovered only dramatic
environment & health impacts
− Typical for most Asian & African countries
Au yield ≈ 25%
integrated metals
smelting/refining
►“high tech”
+ high PM yields
+ special & base metals recovered
+ elimination of hazardous substances
+ high environmental standard
foto: EMPA/CH
 Umicore Group
 Umicore Brazil
 The e-scrap recycling chain
 What to do in Brazil?
South America?
 Conclusions
What to do in Brazil?
Recommendations Umicore
 Create legislative framework that promotes/facilitates collection
& recycling;
 Define reliable supervision of recycling standards;
 Determine reasonable collection and recycling targets;
 Develop and implement communication program, end-user
must be informed about what to do with e-waste;
 Assure organized collection first before thinking of next steps =>
If no collection => no recycling;
 Mobilising relevant EoL products for proper collection instead of
stocking, landfill or incineration.
What to do in Brazil?
Recommendations Umicore
Maximize the use of manual dismantling and minimize
mechanical pre-processing for complex products:
=> The more complex/interlinked the material, the
less selective are mechanical separation processes
and the higher are losses of precious metals by cosegregation
=> Do not underestimate the job creation potential of
(WEEE)-recycling (especially in collection and preprocessing)
What to do in Brazil?
Recommendations Umicore
 Transfer the informal sector to FORMAL instead of
excluding them + make use of their strengths (collection, preprocessing, …);
 Transparency in the information is a key component for the
evaluation of the program.
- Quantity of collected devices?
- Technical & environmental performance of pre-treatment?
- Final destination of output fractions?
- Quantity of metals/materials recycled?
 Preventing illegal exports by creating specific NCM for
relevant EoL products & increasing transparency in flows;
 Create a system to control the e-waste exporting companies;
What to do in Brazil?
Is there a need for a precious metals
smelter/refiner in Brazil?
 End-processing is crucial for final value generation & toxic
control;
 Recycling trace elements from complex products needs
“high-tech”, large scale processes which cannot be duplicated
in any country (=> need for economies of scale);
 End-processing technology/capacity available in Europe
(Umicore):
 Is sufficient to serve the Brazilian e-scrap market;
 Can return more metals / more money than local refining solutions can;
 Guarantees best environmental performance.
 Umicore Group
 Umicore Brazil
 The e-scrap recycling chain
 What to do in Brazil? South
America?
 Conclusions
Conclusions
 NATIONAL POLICY OF SOLID RESIDUES, must be seen as an
opportunity in respect to:
 job creation;
 reduce emissions;
 save energy and natural resources.
 Consider recycling chain as a complex, interlinked-chain:
 without collection, no recycling
 without a serious recycling partner, high metal losses & environmental risk
 Use strengths of Brazilian recycling society:
 Transfer the informal sector to FORMAL
 use manual labour to do focused disassembly of PCs & other complex
products
 limit mechanical pre-processing (“shredding”) of these to an absolute minimum
Conclusions
 For smelting/refining of complex (precious) metal bearing
fractions, make use of best available technology, also if this
technology is currently not located in Brazil;
EXPORTING is also an important tool to create revenues to
the country;
Umicore is the reliable, globally-active long-term partner
to process your precious metal bearing e-scraps
[email protected]
www.umicore.com.br
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.preciousmetals.umicore.com