Displaying items by tag: Waste

El Salvador: LafargeHolcim subsidiary Holcim El Salvador has announced an alteration to the composition of its flagship product, Cuscatlán cement, developed in laboratories in France and Mexico. Strategic marketing manager Amalia Palacios said, “The new formula offers the end user higher quality and less waste, that is to say a yield of around 20% more for the same price, so that we are improving quality without an impact on the customer's pocket."

Zimbabwe: China-based Sino-Zimbabwe Cement Company and LiveTouch Invest, owner of Diamond Cement Zimbabwe, have acquired a six hectare site in the coal mining area of Hwange, Matabeleland North Province, and announced a planned investment of US$30m in the construction of a grinding plant which will grind clinker with waste materials from coal extraction to produce cement.

LiveTouch Invest had previously mooted the idea of a Zimbabwean clinker plant joint venture with South Africa-based PPC in July 2019.

Spain: Members of the Spanish cement association Oficemen have offered help to the government in the disposal of medical waste contaminated with the coronavirus, for which any kiln line with the right alternative fuel processing capabilities will be made available. Minister for Industry Reyes Maroto said that the plants will be used for waste’s elimination ‘only insofar as companies can continue operating.’

China: Huaxin Cement says that it has disposed of 55t of medical waste from coronavirus-infected hospitals in Wuhan province at its 3.4Mt/yr Yangxin cement plant in Hubei province. Xinhuanet News has reported that the plant’s precalciner and rotary kiln have safely processed the batch, from its delivery in sealed trucks, through the combustion of the waste and its packaging, into cement.

Vietnam: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build public private collaborations towards a circular economy for plastic waste management was signed in Hanoi on 19 February 2020. The agreement, the first of its kind in Vietnam, was signed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Dow Chemical Company Vietnam, Siam Cement Group (SCG), and Unilever Vietnam International.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Tuan Nhan said the average use of plastic per capita in Vietnam is not as high as that of developed countries in the world. However, with a population of nearly 100 million and an incomplete solid waste management infrastructure, plastic waste has been a big challenge for developing countries like Vietnam. It is likely that SCG will act as an off-taker of non-recyclable plastic residues, burning them as an alternative for fossil fuels in its cement kilns.