High targets and ongoing challenges - Pakkausalan ...

METAL PACKAGING RECYCLING TARGET
ALREADY EXCEEDED
Metal packaging recycling in Finland
has already attained a rate of 50 per
cent. This result reflects the activity
invested by the industry and Mepak-
Kierrätys Oy. The rate achieved is twice
the 25 per cent rate set by the Council
of State and has already met the target
for 2008.
Besides his own organisation,
Mepak-Kierrätys Oy managing director,
Heikki Riste, also commends the
solid support obtained from PYR for
the result, as well as the entire packaging
chain and recovery firms.
“Our role is to organise the recovery
of metal packaging in Finland so that
the recycling target agreed on with the
EU is met – moreover, as cost-effectively
as possible,” says Heikki Riste,
describing Mepak’s operations.
The recycling target, stipulated for
metal packaging by the Council of
State decision, was 25 per cent in 2001.
That target was soon attained with the
recycling rate at present at 50 per cent.
The new target for 2008 of 50 per cent
has therefore already been attained,
but the target will probably be raised
after that. The producer organisation
for metal packaging, Mepak-Kierrätys
Oy, was established in October 1997.
The organisation represents the entire
packaging chain.
Kuusakoski Oy focuses
on metal
Some 2.8 million tonnes of recyclable
material passes through the firm, Kuusakoski
Oy, on a worldwide scale, including
plastic, fibre, car and electronic
scrap and scrap metal. In Finland the
company processes 800,000 tonnes of
metal scrap with 100,000 tonnes processed
at the Vantaa Seutula crushing
plant.
The figures affirm the characterisation
made by the Kuusakoski Oy
service manager, Risto Pohjanpalo, to
the effect that metal and its further
processing comprise the focal point
of the company.
Risto Pohjanpalo states that Kuusakoski’s
buoyant market areas at
present are the Far East, China and
Korea.
Logistics forms a major
challenge for recycling
A person has the natural desire to do
the right thing also concerning recycling.
Simplicity is critical in this matter.
So states Stena Metalli Oy business
director, Esko Mustonen. He further
emphasises the importance of logistics
in recycling, whereby the material
goes straight from the user to be processed.
He refers to the after-sales concept,
implemented by Stena Metalli, as an
example of an operator recycling scrap
cars.
“Collection of the products, recycling
and taking care of the remaining
waste is part of the service connected
to a product,” he says.
To optimise collection of metal
packaging suitable for recovery, among
other considerations, Stena Metalli en-
tered into a cooperation agreement
with Lassila & Tikanoja last year.
Metal scrap efficiently
recycled
“All the scrap we receive goes for sale.
We have not needed any special marketing
activities,” explains Riitta Jylhä,
adding that the family firm, Jylhän
Metalliromu Oy, based in Lapua, has
met growing demand for metal scrap
by investing in increased processing
capacity.
She names firms as the most important
sources of scrap, further stating,
“Waste management firms are also
important customers to us as well as
the farmers and private citizens that
provide us with scrap: small streams
grow into large rivers.”
Jylhän Metalliromu is also planning
to have its own in-house industrial
landfill. The company has been
able to sort coloured and non-rusting
metal pieces from non-magnetic
crushed waste in-house since its sorting
facility for coloured metals was
built in 2004.
PHOTO ANTERO AALTONEN
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