Construction debris and e-waste recyclers team up

Green Energy Renewable Solutions has entered into a joint venture with eCycling USA to expand its Construction & Demolition Debris (C&D) deconstruction plans to include electronic and whiteware waste using a proprietary system developed in Germany. ECycling USA has already partnered with the German firm, called Adelman Umwelt GmbH, to implement 100 electronic waste (e-waste) demanufacturing and materials reclamation sites across the United States. Adelman currently has 60 plants operating throughout Europe.

Worldwide revenues from e-waste recovery were reported to be $8.5 billion in 2009 and are expected to grow to $13 billion by 2014. Currently, 3 million tons of e-waste is produced annually in the United States. Less than 20% of this amount is recycled and the annual amount will exceed 10 million tons by 2017.

Of the 3,321 U.S. recycling companies, only 78 provide some form of shredding, and none can process both e-waste and whiteware (e.g., refrigerators) at the rates that the eCycling USA/ Adelmann system can, as well as segregating the raw materials for sale in commodities markets, according to the two companies.

The Green Energy/eCycling USA site in Detroit is planned to be the model for planned U.S. expansions. In addition, the CEO of eCycling USA, Chuck Vollmer, is the founder of the Jobenomics national grassroots movement (Jobenomics.com). Jobenomics plans to create thousands of new Detroit small businesses related to Green Energy/eCycling USA operations, the announcement said.