Project description

Title: Co-processing of Waste Materials in Cement Production
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Supraregional, various countries of Asia, Latin America and North Africa
Partner: Holcim AG
Overall term: 2005 to 2009

Context

Many developing countries and countries in transition frequently lack adequate means of disposal for hazardous and municipal wastes. Waste materials such as used oil, automobile tyres and plastics are often either disposed of at illegal waste dumps or burned, sometimes even as fuel for baking ovens. Low-temperature combustion, however, releases dioxins, furans and other toxic substances – hence constituting a serious environmental problem and health hazard.

Holcim, the world's second-largest producer of cement, is forging ahead in exemplary manner with the use of such waste materials as sources of energy for cement production. Incinerating them at very high temperatures in a cement kiln – an approach referred to as co-processing – constitutes an environment-friendly option for disposing of hazardous and municipal wastes.

Objective

GTZ and the private sector partner Holcim are improving waste management in selected countries of Asia, Latin America and North Africa. The cement industry is increasingly employing hazardous waste as an alternative fuel. Guidelines for environmentally sound co-processing produced in a previous development partnership with the same private partner are being internationally publicised and implemented.

Approach

In all participating countries, the strategic alliance has stimulated dialogue between government agencies, the private sector and civil society. Stakeholder dialogues are helping to expand acceptance of co-processing and to promote its implementation. In collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, the alliance devised a training kit with which to illuminate the advantages, as well as the risks, of co-processing. By way of practice-oriented training courses, environmental authorities and other relevant stakeholders are being enabled to approve and monitor co-processing at cement factories.

Morocco, South Africa, Indonesia, Chile, El Salvador and the Philippines have either implemented the guidelines or are in the process of doing so. The guidelines are now binding at all cement factories operated by the private project partner Holcim. As documented by parallel studies, implementation of the co-processing guidelines has improved waste management in Chile, El Salvador, Indonesia, the Philippines and Morocco.

A website dedicated to this cooperation arrangement makes the experience gained with co-processing and improved use of resources in cement production globally accessible.

Results achieved so far

The guidelines on co-processing of waste material in cement production, as elaborated by Holcim and GTZ, are now in use in numerous developing countries and countries in transition. They have been translated from English into seven other languages. Drawing on these guidelines, the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal has drafted globally binding technical guidelines that are to be put to the vote in 2011.

Further information

• Local website of the project
  http://www.coprocem.com