Detroit a wake up to recycling

Having spent the best part of the last few months in the US establishing our California base and extolling the virtues of our world-renowned technology to the Yanks at the AHR Expo, I've come to appreciate just what a small world it really is.

So you can understand my surprise to read on the flight home that the US auto industry has taken our lead and is turning its attention to recycling its products – cars – and melting aluminium scrap to use in new car manufacture.

It's a familiar story because it's one we have been passionate about for the past two years as we've put in place a manufacturing policy which sees our units feature light-weight aluminium which is cheap and relatively clean to recycle. We expect that eventually, old 3C units will make new ones. Why? Because melting aluminium scrap costs about a tenth as much as smelting aluminium from bauxite due to the lower energy required. It just makes sense to use less virgin materials and recycle instead.

For us, these mono-materials also offer other benefits – including reduced corrosion and higher durability – it's a no-brainer!

In the US, the $22 billion car-recycling industry is finally waking up. Cars are beginning to be built with their "end-of-life" in mind – and no wonder with an annual supply of 14 million old cars ending up in scrap.

A company in Detroit who recycles car metals is now looking at the other components – the non-metals that make up over 20% of a car – and turning those into energy via gasification.

Of course, we thought of that last year…

Grant Hall
Managing Director