European Aluminium¡¯s Packaging Seminar reveals useful facts about Mallorca¡¯s recycling system

The recently ended annual Packaging Seminar of the European Aluminium, in Mallorca was a success. Held every year, September, the event provides the host country with the opportunity to give an insight into their specific recycling and recovery challenges. This year’s seminar was no exception either. Organized by the Spanish aluminium packaging recycling organisation Arpal, the event provided a fascinating insight into the recycling and waste management challenges that the island faces, and the solutions they have adopted to deal with those issues.

Mallorca being essentially a tourism-driven economy faces huge swings in waste volumes throughout the year which pose various challenges. To deal with them the island government had long adopted a ‘zero waste to landfill’ strategy and awarded the contract for management of solid municipal waste to TIRME. The project involves materials recycling for multiple waste streams including dry recyclables like aluminium beverage and aerosol cans, aluminium foils and containers etc.

The TIRME Environmental Technologies Park in Mallorca encompasses the Energy from Waste (EFW) plant which includes an incinerator bottom ash (IBA) treatment process. To the delegates visiting annual Packaging Seminar aluminium packaging recovered from IBA, which is now the main recycling protocol within the UK’s PRN system, was of particular interest. It has been found to have significant impact on aluminium’s recycling performance in the waste dataflow figures published this year.

Mallorca seminar threw light on newer technologies that are making a valuable contribution to the already established sorting system.  These include lighter materials, such as aluminium foil wraps and composite packs, and some ‘less easy’ to collect for recycling, for example from some commercial and ‘black bag’ waste streams.

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