Innovative Waste Management Initiatives: From Cost Reductions to Circular Solutions and Emerging Challenges

Frank Langers, Waste Manager Hazardous Waste at Renewi

Frank Langers, Waste Manager Hazardous Waste at Renewi

In this article, Frank Langers discusses Renewi’s pioneering waste management initiatives and looks at the new and emerging technologies which are changing the face of the waste industry. He also talks about Renewi’s pioneering wastewater treatment, which includes the handling of water contaminated with PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), which is currently a much-debated subject. 

Frank, what are your experiences of successful waste management initiatives that have led to significant cost savings or environmental benefits?

A prime example is the treatment of a hazardous waste stream we receive from a global petrochemical company. Our work to improve how it is treated has resulted in a 50% cost reduction for them. This was the result of a pioneering collaboration between the company and Renewi, where I, as waste manager, worked alongside our dedicated materials support officer. 

This partnership has resulted in the detailed exploration of chemical processes at the plant, looking at how a specific hazardous waste stream was formed. This led to technical adjustments in their plant, reduced the loss of raw material (chemicals), and efficiencies created by two “new” waste streams that, when combined, reduced total costs in treating the remaining waste. This is an intensive process, broken down to every base chemical used in the plant. It gave the company new insights and meant a reduction in the loss of base chemicals and a significant saving.

I am also very happy to share another major collaboration between Renewi and DAF Trucks, a company committed to achieving a circular waste system. This means their waste is either fully circular or receives the highest standard of treatment. We are currently evaluating various hazardous streams and trying to find better solutions or ones that prevent these streams from being formed in the first place. In fact, we are working on their top ten waste streams, breaking them down piece by piece. This is intensive and microscopic work, and I am happy to act as a consultant for it. 

I am currently advising several large industries in their development of new recycling technologies. An example is the advisory role I am playing in developing a new plant for the chemical recycling of plastics via pyrolysis-based ‘slow cracking’ technology. My advice is geared towards identifying and explaining the characteristics of the waste and the consequences of disposal. This is being considered in the design phase of the new plant, and the goal is to create waste streams that are easy to handle and cheap to dispose of.  

I also play an advisory role in waste treatment for an oil upgrader in the Netherlands. A new installation is currently being built, which will improve pyrolysis oil produced from the chemical recycling of plastics to a refinable quality. 

My role is certainly varied, as I am also involved in the planning of a new plant in the Netherlands, which will be the biggest biofuel-producing installation in the EU when it becomes operational. As part of a Renewi team, I advise ensuring outlets are always available for difficult-to-handle waste, looking at the chemical status of the installation's end phases. This has already resulted in a huge financial saving on one waste stream. It’s currently in the design phase and will be built next year. 

“My advice to any company looking at the issue is to form an expert group of colleagues from various disciplines within your organisation to discuss new insights on substances of very high concern and what this could mean for your business.”  

I do the same for KOCH Technical Solutions and Ioniqa, who are developing a plant for upcycling all sorts of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), even coloured, via a depolymerisation process based on solvolysis. They will develop a plant where waste outputs will be easy to manage and cheap to dispose of - or have a value. 

Closer to home, due to my general materials knowledge, I advise several colleagues on a range of ‘Mission 75’ initiatives. Renewi’s programme will increase recycling rates to 75% over the next few years. We want to recycle more and better, investing in the latest innovations to produce high-quality, circular raw materials.

 What is that one notable emerging technology that is currently being explored or implemented in your recycling processes, and why?

At Renewi, we have several techniques under research for PFAS removal from wastewater in Belgium and the Netherlands. All technologies under research have their own strengths and limitations. Although these techniques remove all analysed compounds to some degree, there is currently no technology that gives satisfactory removal of all PFAS compounds. Currently, the number of PFAS compounds is > 15.000, and the count is rising as research grows, but we can only analyse a limited number now. 

What are some of the challenges in recycling electronic waste (e-waste) or hazardous materials for which current services cannot provide an optimal solution?

That would, in my opinion, be PFAS and other substances of very high concern in various types of waste (hazardous and non-hazardous). The challenges are the absence of analytic methods to analyse materials on specific compounds and their treatment or destruction limitations. Although our industry is working tirelessly to innovate solutions for these challenges, and additionally bound by regulation, it is not unthinkable that new future insights into the presence of substances of very deep concern in specific materials could limit the industry’s ability to recycle those materials. 

Would you give any advice, suggestions, warnings, etc., in terms of dos or don'ts to professionals in a similar role working in other companies in managing hazardous waste? 

Many producers have limited knowledge about their own waste. In general, you could say that if you explore A to Z in how a specific waste comes into existence, there is, in many cases, room for optimization. This can be a reduction in waste, avoidance of waste or avoiding certain compounds in waste so that treatment becomes cheaper or creates value. 

A good example is the one referenced at the start of this article, i.e., the very significant savings generated for the petrochemical company we are working with to help create efficiencies in their waste management. Importantly, If you have less loss of your base chemicals, there will also be a benefit for the environment. On this particular site, savings of raw materials surpassed the savings on the waste management side. Their collaboration with us gave us and them new insights.  

At Renewi, we have a group of experts – a discussion club, if you will, working towards a better understanding of substances of very high concern in waste. My advice to any company looking at the issue is to form an expert group of colleagues from various disciplines within your organisation to discuss new insights on substances of very high concern and what this could mean for your business.  

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