Now the company is hoping that more manufacturers of aerosols and fillers within the industry will use its Loughborough plant for disposal of out-of-date and surplus canisters.
Hazardous waste legislations cover the handling of waste aerosols but do not currently call for them to go through a process where gases are captured.
De-Pack managing director Catherine Crouch said: “We do consider this the best route for end-of-line aerosols. Sending them to a shredding process may be slightly cheaper and is a licensed process. Our argument is that we are using best available technology.”
The company says that at its plant, compaction and gas-liquid separation technologies are used to handle the aerosols and this means that no emissions are released to the atmosphere. “Each aerosol component, the metal, liquid and gas and all associated packaging is recycled or reused as an energy source,” said Ms Crouch.
The firm is handling only a small volume of aerosols from the domestic waste stream where some waste companies may bulk these up. However, the canisters are normally sent through a can recycling route when recycled to recovery the metal scrap.
Figures released by De-Pack show that in 2006 it recovered 180 tonnes of steel, 45 tonnes of aluminium and prevented 50,000 litres of aerosol propellant gas and VOCs being released to atmosphere which were subsequently for energy generation.
Register for free to comment