Displaying items by tag: Environment

Russia: Italy-based Buzzi UniCem subsidiary SLK Cement has concluded an environmental agreement with the Sverdlovsk Oblast Ministry of Energy and Housing and Communal Services for the co-processing of solid municipal waste at its 1.0Mt/yr Sukholozhskcement plant. AMF Online News has reported that the transition, part of a nationwide government initiative called simply ‘Ecology,’ entails a modernisation of the kiln line, which the company says will be commissioned in 2023 or 2024. SLK Cement general director Andrei Immoreev said that alternative fuels use will not only increase production efficiency, but will also contribute to solving the environmental problems of the region.”

Germany: Switzerland-based LafargeHolcim subsidiary Holcim Deutschland has publicised further details of its plan to make its low-CO₂ concrete, EcoPact Zero, carbon neutral. It has partnered with German bog rewetting specialist MoorFutures to offset the remaining CO₂ from the reduced-emissions production process of EcoPact Zero concrete. LafargeHolcim has purchased a climate protection certificate from the company, which in return is restoring enough peatland in Königsmoor, Schleswig-Holstein, to capture 1t of CO₂ for every Euro64 it receives. MoorFutures says “Peatlands are the most effective CO₂ stores on Earth.”

Ireland: The Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has won its case against Quinn Cement over the latter’s violation of emissions laws. The Impartial Reporter newspaper has reported that an EPA monitor recorded 36 breaches at Quinn Cement’s Ballyconnell plant between 5 October 2018 and 7 October 2018. The plant was also emitting four times the legal hydrogen chloride on 5 February 2019. Following its subsidiary company’s guilty plea, Quinn Industrial Holdings said via a spokesperson, “Though independent assessment confirmed there were no material environmental impacts arising, best practice environmental safety procedures were followed and production ceased on each occasion. Since then significant work and expenditure has been completed to prevent a recurrence.” The Cavan district court fined Quinn Cement Euro2000.

Australia: The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has issued a US$9800 fine and a clean-up order to Boral for damage caused by a discharge of slurry from its Maclean concrete plant. The Daily Examiner newspaper has reported that a member of the public alerted the body to the spill, which issued from a storm drain into the Clarence River, on 15 October 2019. EPA north regulatory operations director Karen Marler said that the slurry ‘appeared to have been discharging from the Boral plant for some time prior.’ She said, “Subsequent EPA inspections confirm the clean-up and actions taken to improve plant operation were effective.”

Cyprus: Vassiliko Cement has bagged the Environmental Protector gold award for the second consecutive year at the Pancyprian Environmental Awards for Organizations and Businesses 2019. The event was held at the Cypriot Presidential Palace by the Cyprus Centre for Environmental Research and Education (CyCERE), the Environment Commissioner’s Office, the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) Agricultural Faculty, the Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB), the Association of Cyprus Tourist Enterprises (ACTE), the Business and Professional Women of Limassol (BPW) and the volunteers’ network Together Cyprus. The company said that its “key aim is to promote environmental practices across all aspects of its activities, in order to protect the communities where it operates, achieving sustainable development.”

UK: Tarmac has marked the UK’s national squirrel day (21 January 2020) by renewing its commitment to conservation at one of England’s rare red squirrel habitats: its Harden quarry in Northumberland. Harden quarry manager Gareth Williams said, “The team has set up a feeding station and has been working to monitor the number of visitors.”

Two Tarmac employees are trained squirrel wardens and are responsible for keeping track of the resident red population.

Belgium: Cembureau, the European Cement Association, says it will undertake a review of the targets set out in its 2050 Low Carbon Roadmap (2013/2018) in order to align the industry’s efforts with the carbon neutrality objectives contained in the European Green Deal published in December 2019. Following this reassessment, the association says it publish a revised low-carbon roadmap setting out the key role of cement and concrete in the circular economy and a path to achieving carbon neutrality along its value chain in Europe by 2050. Cembureau expects the revised roadmap to be published in early spring 2020.

“As an industry we are determined to ensure that we play our part in helping Europe to meet its emissions reduction targets. With concrete, our industry has a sustainable building material that is uniquely positioned as an essential enabler of the transition to a carbon neutral society,” said Cembureau’s president Raoul de Parisot.

US: The Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC) has awarded Conservation Certificates to Cementos Argos’ 1.5Mt/yr integrated Newberry plant in Florida and 0.6Mt/yr Atlanta grinding plant in Georgia. Cementos Argos has installed a bat roost at the Newberry plant and planted bee and butterfly gardens with bird boxes for year-round resident bluebirds. The company said that the certification signals its ‘long-term commitment to managing quality habitats for wildlife.’

US: The attorney’s office of Harris County in Texas filed a lawsuit against Sesco for alleged public safety and environmental violations following multiple complaints to the Harris County Pollution Control Board about dust. Piles of debris in an outdoor area of Sesco’s Houston cement terminal may have caused high dust levels in and around the facility and high pH levels in water located nearby. Houston Business Journal conjectured that the stockpiles might consist of surplus cement being stored unlawfully. Sesco stands accused of operating two silos and three hoppers without proper environmental clearance. Inspections in 2019 uncovered set cement in storm drains at the facility.

China: Three cement plants in Dali, Yunnan province with a combined capacity of 5.0Mt/yr and belonging to Dali Cement (Group), Dali Hongshan Yunnan Cement and Hongta Dianxi Cement have ceased all functions except the packaging of existing cement in order to stop polluting the area of Erhai Lake. The shutdown was mandated by the City of Dali and Dali Economic Development Zone authorities in mid-2017. Xinhua Net newspaper has reported that the removal of kilns is underway and that demolition on all three sites will have been completed by 31 May 2020. The companies will be permitted to construct plants of corresponding capacities at allotted sites elsewhere.