Veolia Facility Recycles Nearly Four Million Lamps in its First Year
The state-of-the-art facility processed 3,750,000 mercury-containing lamps since opening.
SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): This month, Veolia North America’s Ontario lamp recycling facility is celebrating the completion of its first year in operation. The state-of-the-art facility processed 3,750,000 mercury-containing lamps since opening, equivalent to 545,000 kilograms or the weight of nearly 3,000 average-sized Canadian ice-hockey players.
While the plant’s primary purpose is to provide lamp-recycling services for customers across Ontario and other Canadian provinces, various electronics and mercury-bearing wastes can also be handled for customers as appropriate.
“As technology advances, we continue to disassemble recyclables like light bulbs and reclaim valuable resources from these materials,” stated Bruce Rintoul, Canada West senior vice president at Veolia North America. “Any hazardous materials in these items are responsibly handled and prevented from entering the waste stream. Through their dedicated efforts, our Pickering team is finding better solutions for lighting and electronic waste, and developing ways to minimize any environmental impact.”
As industry, commercial business, communities and residents of Ontario work to comply with provincial regulations banning lamps from landfill disposal by 2020. Veolia’s lamp recycling facility provides a sustainable, circular economy solution to responsibly manage these wastes within Canada.
Veolia Pickering’s equipment is able to crush and separate expired mercury-bearing lamps like compact fluorescents into three components: metal, glass and phosphor powder. Ninety-nine percent of the glass and metal wastes are recycled locally by Veolia. The mercury-bearing phosphor powder is transported to Veolia’s Port Washington, Wisconsin, facility for retorting and recycling.
This year, Veolia has been participating alongside Canadian stakeholders and Environment and Climate Change Canada in supporting the Minister of the Environment’s National Strategy for Safe and Environmentally Sound Disposal of Lamps Containing Mercury Act. In addition, Veolia serves the lamp recycling needs of Ontario by being an approved processor for the Recycling Council of Ontario’s Take Back the Light program.
Courtesy: https://wasteadvantage.com