2024-07-09 11:39:00
A shared economy aims to reduce waste and energy use by using raw materials wherever possible and recycling them. Purpose: avoid resource depletion. The first episode of this series takes us to the northwest of France, in Normandy, to a metal recycling plant.
The Weeecycling factory, large gray hangars in the middle of Normandy fields and countryside, has taken over the shipment of chargers. The workers in the yellow-coats opened them one by one under the eyes of Serge Kimbel, the founder and CEO of the company. The machines are brand new,” put it in recycling while they still have all their work. These are old stocks that have never been sold “, he explained.
The company receives 15,000 tons of new, defective or (mostly) end-of-life machines per year. In the hangar, gigantic piles of old printers and even electronic circuits accumulate. ” Here, we will see a lot of IT and telecom equipment, everything that makes calculations for the machine. Desktops contain 90-95% of the essential metals of a machine », underlines Serge Kimbel. Essential metals correspond to metals for which the European Union (EU) considers that there may be supply problems. These include essential metals for energy conversion. These metals, This is what is valuable to our company and what we know how to change here. We are few in the world and the only ones in France who can extract precious metals from electronic cards. »
Up to 99% reduced CO2 emissions
The waste to recycle comes from Europe, but also from Africa or even Latin America. They are deboned, then the parts containing metals are ground. Then, they pass into a furnace to melt silver, gold, copper or even platinoids (used in car catalytic converters for example), which are then separated by chemical processes and finally purified to be resold in industry the.
Each kilogram of recycled steel now emits far less greenhouse gas than new steel. ” From one metal to another, the results are very different: for silver and platinoids, it is clear: 99.9% reduction », assures Serge Kimbel. Almost a thousand times CO2 is emitted for 1kg of recycled silver compared to new metal. And four times less CO2 for copper, according to the company’s calculations. Energy savings and the difference in greenhouse gas emissions are all the less negligible as the mining industry is one of the most polluting.
Increase in recycled copper
Weeecycling employs 140 people. The company, which has received support from France to develop its industry, plans to quadruple its production by 2030, especially of copper. There are enough opportunities, the company believes. On the other hand, we must improve the composition of metals, explains Serge Kimbel: “We have enough references and positive feedback from our customers to prove that our steel has a very low carbon impact, so it sells very easily. On the other hand, there is the complexity in recovering waste deposits in the face of sometimes significant international competition. This is one of the most important challenges for our business. » Today, due to the lack of sufficient recycling capacity, France is one of the main European exporters of used metals.
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