Australia | A plant that recycles mercury — a toxic substance normally stored in landfill — has been opened in Australia. The AUS$10 million CMA Ecocycle plant in Campbellfield in Melbourne's north will recycle mercury from lighting (fluorescent tubes and HID lamps) and dental amalgams. These are the two biggest sources of mercury pollution in Australia. The plant can recycle mercury from lights for 1.5-5% of the light's retail value. The mercury could then be locally reused, CMA Ecocycle general manager Dale Robbins says.

The Swedish-designed plant uses crush and separation technology. Glass, aluminium and other metals, along with phosphor powder, are separated and sorted. "The phosphor powder that contains mercury is then distilled, recovering 99% of the mercury," Mr Robbins says. According to CMA Ecocycle, Australia generates about 70 million waste fluorescent tubes and lamps a year, 99% of which end up in landfill.

Mr Robbins says federal and state government moves to replace incandescent lights with more energy-efficient alternatives underlined the need for recycling. It was generally accepted that fluorescent, CFLs and HID lamps were the most efficient forms of lighting and these would be increasingly used due to greenhouse gas pressures, he said.

The efficiency was gained by using small amounts of mercury. The mercury in fluorescent tubes, HID lamps and in CFL globes is completely contained in the bulb. Mr Robbins said the amount of mercury in a single globe did not constitute a serious health risk. "But the environmental cost of continuing to dump all that glass, metal and mercury is something that can and should be avoided," he adds.

Australia is years behind in this matter. ‘Canada, Japan, most of the US and all of Europe legislated against the dumping of this highly toxic waste some time ago,’ Mr Robbins said. He said the new plant had the capacity to recycle all end-of-life mercury from lights in Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia.

Acknowledgement

www.advancedrecycling.com.au