recycling – Page 3 – The OM Blog by Heizer, Render, & Munson

OM in the News: America’s Electronics Trash–and Mexico

Life and business revolve around electronic waste in this Mexico City neighborhood, much of it from the U.S. — Life and business revolve around E-waste in this Mexico City neighborhood, much of it from the U.S.

On the street here, in Renovación, a neighborhood in Mexico City, Jesus Gómez watches as 8 men and a woman sit in a circle under an intense sun, breaking two huge sacks of spent Motorola cable-TV boxes apart with hammers and chisels. They wrench out bits of copper, metal, and circuitry, with shards of metal and plastic flying everywhere. Gómez will find buyers for all of it.

Outside the workshop are more piles, and there are yet more in the street; the junk seems to pour in constantly, some of it from around Mexico City and a lot from much farther. Heaps are from Texas. “The gringos throw it out,” says Gomez’ partner. “We do the dirty work of breaking it apart.”

That’s the essence of Renovación. At one unlicensed workshop after another, adults and teenagers disassemble printers, monitors, and PCs. It’s hazardous work: Smash an old TV, and you risk spewing lead into the air. Crack open an LCD flatscreen, and you can release mercury vapor. Mobile phones and computers can contain dangerous heavy metals such as cadmium and toxic flame retardants. Mexican workplace regulations, like those in the U.S., require e-waste shops to provide such safety equipment as goggles, hard hats, and masks. There’s little of that in Renovación.

In much of the world, Renovacion couldn’t exist, writes Businessweek (Nov. 14-20, 2016). Business owners wouldn’t be allowed to employ people in those conditions. Twenty-five U.S. states have laws establishing what’s known as extended producer responsibility, or EPR. That means electronics makers must collect, recycle, and dispose of discarded equipment rather than allow it to enter the waste stream. But the lack of a formal, regulated recycling industry is one of many reasons Mexico has become a magnet for spent electronics. E-waste is a poorly tracked trade, but Mexico is the No. 1 importer of used and junked electronics from the U.S., taking in almost 129,000 tons a year.

Classroom discussion questions:

After reading the linked article, what has Dell done for EPR?
What are the ethical issues that arise in this situation?

OM in the News: The Silicon Valley of Recycling

The facility sorts out a 30 foot hill of debris daily

You won’t find San Francisco’s Pier 96 in any travel guidebook but it has become a must-see destination for visitors from Afghanistan to Vietnam. They’ve come to explore Recology — one of the world’s most advanced recycling plants, a deafening system of conveyor belts and sorters that, with the help of human hands, untangles a 30-foot hill of debris collected by trucks every day from across the city.

Foreign officials and others come here to pick up tips on how to handle their own mushrooming piles of garbage back home. As the world’s population grows, people are consuming more, creating more trash, and countries are looking for ways to deal with it that put less stress on the environment. Many are part of a growing movement sometimes called Zero Waste or the Circular Economy, writes The New York Times (March 29, 2016). It entails trying to eliminate tough-to-recycle items like flimsy plastic bags and also pioneering new ways to recycle or compost everything else. Despite strained recycling economics–caused by falling oil prices that has driven down the cost of new commodities, like plastic, and, in turn, the price of recycled materials sorted and sold by Recology–interest remains strong.

Today, San Francisco diverts 80% of waste away from landfills, putting it among the elite recycling cities. San Francisco also has a world-class reputation for its composting processes, which turns food waste into fine, coffee-like grounds that is sent to farms as fertilizer.

Although Supplement 5 focuses on corporate social responsibility, this article illustrates that sustainability is a government issue as well.

Classroom discussion questions:

What is the most difficult part of the process for Recology?
Explain the concept of the triple bottom line.

OM in the News: United Turns to Farm Waste for Jet Power

Airlines are under growing pressure to reduce carbon emissions and lower costs

“Sometime this summer,” writes The New York Times (June 30, 2015), “a United Airlines flight will take off from Los Angeles for San Francisco using fuel generated from farm waste and oils derived from animal fats.” For passengers, little will be different — the engines will still roar, the seats will still be cramped — but for the airlines and the biofuels industry, the flight will represent a long-awaited milestone: the first time a domestic airline operates regular passenger flights using an alternative jet fuel.

For years, biofuels have been seen as an important part of the solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. And airlines, with their concentration around airports and use of the same kind of fuel, have been seen as a promising customer in a biofuels industry. Airlines have every reason to adapt, not only to reduce pollution but also to lower what is usually their biggest cost: jet fuel.

United is announcing a $30 million investment in one of the largest producers of aviation biofuels, Fulcrum BioEnergy. Fulcrum has developed a technology that turns household trash into sustainable aviation fuel that can be blended directly with traditional jet fuels. It is building a biofuel refinery in Nevada, and has plans for 5 more plants around the country. The technology can cut an airline’s carbon emissions by 80% compared with traditional jet fuel.

United’s deal is one of many that airlines are making. Alaska Airlines aims to use biofuels at least at one of its airports by 2020, and Southwest just announced it would purchase 3 million gallons a year of jet fuel made from wood residues. Last year, British Airways joined with Solena Fuels to build a biofuel refinery near Heathrow Airport. The airlines seem to have little choice. Unlike automakers, they cannot turn to other options like electrification.

Classroom discussion questions:

1. Why is sustainability so important to the airlines?

2. What other measures can airlines take to become “greener”?

Good OM Reading: Global E-Waste Reaches New Levels

The amount of global e-waste — discarded electrical and electronic equipment — reached 41.8 million tons last year, according to a new United Nations University report (April 20, 2015). The report provides an unprecedented level of detail and accuracy about the size of the world’s e-waste challenge, ongoing progress in establishing specialized e-waste collection and treatment systems, and the outlook for the future.

The bulk of global e-waste in 2014 (almost 60%) was discarded kitchen, laundry, and bathroom equipment. Personal information and communication technology (ICT) devices — such as mobile phones, personal computers, and printers — accounted for 7% of e-waste last year. The-waste comprised:

12.8 million tons of small equipment (such as vacuum cleaners, microwaves, toasters, electric shavers and video cameras);
11.8 million tons of large equipment (including washer/dryers, dishwashers, electric stoves, and photovoltaic panels);
7.0 million tons of cooling and freezing equipment;
6.3 million tons of screens;
3.0 million tons of small ICT equipment; and
1.0 million ton of lamps.

This e-waste represented $52 billion of potentially reusable resources, yet little of it was collected for recovery, or even treated/disposed of in an environmentally sound manner. Less than 1/6 is thought to have been properly recycled or made available for reuse. While e-waste constitutes a valuable “urban mine” — a potential reservoir of recyclable materials — it also includes a “toxic mine” of hazardous substances that must be (but too-seldom are) managed with extreme care.

The report estimates that the e-waste discarded in 2014 contained 16,500 kilotons of iron, 1,900 kilotons of copper, and 300 tons of gold as well as significant amounts of silver, aluminum, palladium, and other potentially reusable resources. It also contained substantial amounts of health-threatening toxins such as mercury, cadmium, chromium, and ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons. Just two countries — the US and China — discarded 1/3 of the world’s total e-waste.

This valuable report contains several graphics about the recycling process that you can use when teaching Supplement 5, Sustainability in the Supply Chain.

OM in the News: Recycling Tech Waste

Responsible recyclers try to dispose of as little material as possible and reuse anything that still works

Maybe you replaced old electronics over the holidays or you’re just sweeping out the old and ushering in the New Year. Trying to recycle your old technology the right way is becoming easier by the day, writes The New York Times (Jan. 1, 2015). Stores like Best Buy and Staples now offer programs to take back old gadgets and recycle them. Still, most old devices end up in the trash. Americans alone throw away 2-3 million tons of electronics yearly according to the EPA. With the life span of devices shrinking (the average phone is replaced every 18 months) the problem is growing worse.

The toxic waste from all those tossed gadgets causes terrible damage to soil, water and people. And the U.N. calls electronic waste the “fastest growing waste stream in the world.” The recycling industry first began moving toward more responsible practices about 10 years ago, but the mission had changed from purely recycling to a greater emphasis on intercepting usable tech. If you recycle for raw materials, you get a portion of that product. But if you can reuse a cellphone, that’s the most environmentally beneficial of all.

To be certified, recyclers that collect e-waste have to show that they’ve tried hard to reuse products that come in — not just stripping them down and selling off individual parts, but trying to resell an entire phone, computer, printer or game console. The second level in the recycling hierarchy is to find parts and components that can be reused in other products. Touch screens can be sold to toy makers, for example, or circuit boards can be used in other computerized devices. And if the entire item can’t be sold, recovering heavy metals like gold, palladium and other raw materials inside electronics is a form of “urban mining.”

Classroom discussion questions:

1. Relate this article to the Triple Bottom Line discussed in Supplement 5.

2. How can electronic companies design and produce for sustainability?

OM in the News: Recycling and the New Ford F-150 Truck

Scrap from the F-150 is shredded and shipped back to suppliers to be turned into new sheets

Ford’s decision to build a lighter-weight pickup truck using aluminum body-panels has been billed largely as a way to achieve better fuel economy, reports The Wall Street Journal (Dec.17, 2014). It is also a recycling play. The 2015 F-150, perhaps the most important vehicle to hit Ford dealerships in decades, goes on sale this month. By the time a new truck exits the factory and heads for the showroom, it will have left behind $300 worth of scrap aluminum on the plant floor.

That scrap is collected, cleaned, and sent back to the aluminum plant on the same trucks that delivered it fresh—creating what CEO Mark Fields calls a “closed loop” that helps offset the expense of building its best-selling vehicle with a material that is far pricier than steel. “Every single scrap of aluminum is reused,” says Fields.

Every day, 50 semi tractor-trailers drive out of Ford’s F-150 plant in Dearborn, Mich., with thousands of pounds of shredded aluminum, scrap that was stamped out of 6-foot-wide aluminum rolls used to make F-150 body panels. Only 60%-65% of a roll is actually used in the stamping process because many body panels have big holes, such as windows. Ford installed systems to separate the six different aluminum alloys it uses and return them to mills in Iowa or New York, to be turned back into aluminum sheet for delivery to its Dearborn stamping plant. Ford’s aluminum recycling system, installed as part of a $359 million overhaul of the Dearborn factory, allows the company to recoup up to $300 a truck, helping offset about 20% of its higher production costs.

Classroom discussion questions:

1. Why was an aluminum F-150 a big risk for Ford?

2. What is a “closed-loop” system?

OM in the News: Sustainability and the Ford F-150 Truck

“Bucolic upstate New York is an odd place to be building the future of the U.S. auto industry,” writes Forbes (Nov. 24, 2014). Yet here, in a factory that makes aluminum cans for the beverage industry, workers are gearing up for a crucial role in the launch of the next generation of America’s bestselling vehicle.The Novelis plant is the birthplace for Ford’s innovative new F-150 pickup, 700 pounds lighter–and thus more fuel-efficient to meet government requirements–because its steel body panels have been replaced by lightweight aluminum. The stakes could not be higher. The F-150 pickup is Ford’s crown jewel, generating $20 billion in revenue annually and 40% of its annual profits.

Novelis, the world’s largest aluminum recycler, showed Ford how it could afford the switch to higher-priced aluminum (adding about $750 per truck) by using recycled scrap instead of buying virgin aluminum mined from bauxite. Together they created an innovative supply chain that allows Ford to recover a big chunk of its aluminum costs by selling the scrap back to its suppliers and reusing it. The rest of the industry is watching closely. Tough new fuel-economy laws require automakers to double their fleetwide average to 54.5 mpg by 2025.

Here’s how it works: When a vehicle body panel is stamped, about 40% of the metal winds up as scrap. Instead of gathering up all the various metal scraps from its stamping plants, Ford installed pneumatic scrap-handling equipment that will separate the aluminum alloy on conveyors and deposit the scraps in dedicated containers. Novelis contracted a fleet of 150 trailers to ship the scrap back to its plant for reprocessing. The scrap is then melted in a 2,000-degree furnace. Once the molten metal is ready, it is cast into massive 30,000-pound ingots for subsequent processing. It’s then ready to be rolled into sheets 1/16 of an inch thick and shipped in giant coils back to Ford’s stamping plants, where the process begins anew.

Novelis’ goal is to have 70% recycled content in its automotive sheet by 2020, up from 10% five years ago.

Classroom discussion questions:

1. Why is the switch to aluminum a big risk for Ford’s F-150?

2. What are the advantages of this process?

OM in the News: The Environmentally Friendly Paper Cup

Starbucks has been serving in paper cups for years

Jamba Juice, McDonald’s, and several other food chains are starting to serve their drinks in paper cups. Drinks stay just as hot and cold in new doubled-walled paper cup as in the old non-biodegradeable foam variety. The paper industry likes it a lot too. Demand for paper cups is growing 5% a year. Environmental concerns from consumers and new bans on plastic foam in more U.S. cities are prompting food chains to make a switch, reports The Wall Street Journal (April 11, 2014).

Jamba Juice said last year it would adopt paper cups for its smoothies and other cold drinks “to improve our environmental footprint.” McDonald’s is replacing plastic-foam cups with double-walled McCafe paper cups at all 14,000 McCafes across the country. The company says it is trying to be more environmentally conscious and cut costs on trash. Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. has said it is testing paper cups. These companies join Starbucks, which has been using paper for years.

Environmental advocates say paper is easier on the environment than plastic foam because the latter tends to break up in landfills and then is mistaken by animals for food. Plastic foam is difficult to recycle unless it is kept clean and separated from other types of plastics—so many plants in the U.S. don’t take it. It isn’t biodegradable.

Paper cups are slightly more expensive than foam. Extras like double walls for insulation or plant-based lining to make it compostable add to the price. While the paper cups cost a few cents more, McDonald’s says it will make up the difference in the trash. Most of the chain’s waste is paper-based– wraps, fry cartons and Big Mac boxes—so paper cups can go into the same trash bin, and eventually into recycling bins.

Classroom discussion questions:

1. Why is McDonald’s switching from foam to paper cups?

2. Why are plastic foam cups a concern to society?

OM in the News: Where Does Your Old CRT or TV Go When it Dies?

Old TVs waiting for recycling in Philadelphia

Last year, inspectors from California’s hazardous waste agency were visiting an electronics recycling company for a routine review when they came across a warehouse the size of a football field, packed with tens of thousands of old computer monitors and televisions. As recently as a few years ago, broken monitors and televisions like those were being recycled profitably. The big, glassy funnels inside these machines — CRTs — were melted down and turned into new ones. But flat-screen technology has made those monitors and televisions obsolete, writes The New York Times (March 19, 2013), decimating the demand for the recycled tube glass used in them and creating a “glass tsunami” as stockpiles of the useless material accumulate across the country.

Small changes in the marketplace can suddenly transform a product into a liability and demonstrate the difficulties regulators face in keeping up with rapid shifts. The growing stockpiles, much of which contain lead that has zero economic value, find few buyers. The bulk of this waste is being stored, sent to landfills or smelters, or disposed of in other ways that are environmentally destructive. Instead of recycling the waste, many recyclers have been illegally storing millions of the monitors in warehouses. Each CRT includes up to 8 pounds of lead.

In 2000, there were 12 plants in the U.S. and 13 more worldwide that were taking old TVs and CRTs and using the glass to produce new tubes. Now, there are only 2 plants in India doing so. Although the larger solution to the problem is for technology companies to design products that last longer, use fewer toxic components and are more easily recycled, the industry is heading in the opposite direction. CRTs have been largely replaced by flat panels that use fluorescent lights with highly toxic mercury in them.

The federal government, among the world’s largest producer of electronic waste, disposes more than 10,000 computers a week, some of which are dumped illegally in developing countries.

Discussion questions:

1. If you were in charge of sustainability in your firm, how would you deal with discarded computers?

2. Relate the issue to life cycle assessment (see Chapter 5).

OM in the News: Companies Pick Up Used Packaging and Recycling Cost

The New York Times (March 25, 2012) reports : “A growing number of large food and beverage companies are assuming the costs of recycling their packaging after consumers are finished with it, a responsibility long imposed on packaged goods companies in Europe and more recently in parts of Asia, Latin America, and Canada.” Called “extended producer responsibility”, this is another sustainability task for OM managers to handle as they address the design-to-disassembly decisions (Chapter 7). There are 3 causal factors:

First, “Environmentally conscious consumers are demanding that companies share their values,” says Starbucks’ director of environmental impact. Second, financially strapped local governments are looking for ways to shift the costs of recycling onto someone, and companies that make the packaging are logical candidates. And third, it is now cheaper to recycle some products (like aluminum cans) than it is to make them from virgin material. (Shredding, melting, recasting and rerolling used aluminum into new can sheet saves 95% of the energy it takes to make it from raw ore).

Company-sponsored recycling efforts are voluntary in all states, except Maine, at this point in time. But a few big firms are going full-speed ahead. Coca-Cola has a stated goal of recycling 100% of its N. American cans and bottles by 2015 and 50% in the rest of the world. Coke is also trying out nonpetroleum-based packaging material. Dasani and Sprite come in PlantBottles that are 30% plant-based and can go through the same recycling process as oil-based containers.

Starbucks’ goal is to have recycling bins in all its stores in 3 years (it is at 18% right now). It asks customers to throw their cups in the bins, from which they are turned into napkins and new cups. Stoneybrook Farms collected 11 million no.5 yogurt cups last year at collection bins placed in Whole Foods stores. The cups are turned into toothbrushes and razors!

Discussion questions:

1. Why are grocery chains opposed to mandated packaging recycling?

2. What role might Walmart play in the trend?

OM in the News: Recycling Hits the Airplane Industry

In Supplement 5, we point out that the auto industry recycles more than 84% of cars scrapped each year. The new Mercedes S550 sedan is designed to be 95% recycled, years ahead of the EU standards that take effect in 2015. In general, auto manufacturers now design in such a way that materials can be easily reused in the next generation of cars. The same can not be said of the commercial airplane industry.

But the latest Businessweek (March 3-9, 2012) points out that sustainability is now on the minds of airlines for a variety of reasons. Older planes are being disassembled for their parts at an increasing rate, and the average age of planes has dropped by a third, to 18 years, over the past decade and a half. Rising fuel prices have made kerosene-guzzling old-timers unpopular with carriers. (Fuel makes up about 30% of operating expenses). United, which burns $25,000 of fuel every minute, is thinking of grounding the dated Boeing 737-500 and 767-200ER jets from its 1,200 plane fleet.

Older planes such as these used to end up in developing countries from Mexico to Indonesia to Kenya, where they found a home after being retired by Western carriers. But prodded by safety and environmental concerns, more and more countries are choosing new over used planes. Production of single-aisle jets, the most widely used type in the industry, is now at an all-time high. This leaves no shortage of cadavers to be recycled for parts.

Especially popular are engines coming off A320s and 737s.The turbines that house rotating parts (such as disks or blades that operate at 2,700 degrees F) require routine replacement and can cost $4.4 million new. Recycled disks and blades drop the price in half. Since an engine off the older 737-700 can be used in the newer 737-800 model, economic obsolescence has fueled the airplane recycling industry.

Discussion questions:

1. Why is the life cycle of airplanes getting shorter?

2. Why is recycling a major issue for operations managers?

OM in the News: Shipping Our Batteries to Mexico for Cheaper Recycling

When we discuss the 3R’s of Sustainability in Supplement 5 we emphasize how important it is to build sustainable production processes. But the lead article in The New York Times (Dec.9,2011) asks what really happens when our American car battery industry claims to have the highest recycling rate for any commodity–97% of the lead is recycled–and most states mandate that stores take back old batteries. It turns out that spent batteries we turn in are increasingly being sent to Mexico, where their lead is usually extracted by crude methods that are illegal in the US, exposing plant workers and local residents to dangerous levels of a toxic metal.

The rising flow of batteries is the result of strict new EPA standards, making domestic recycling more difficult and expensive. (The allowable lead levels have dropped by a staggering amount in the past 3 years and cost of compliance is about $20 million per plant). So about 20% of batteries (20 million) are being legally shipped to Mexico this year (up from 6% since the new EPA rules), with many more smuggled across covertly. “Along the border, where US vigilance focuses on drugs and illegal immigrants, there is little effort to staunch the flow”, writes the Times.

Whereas lead battery recyclers in the US now operate in sealed, highly mechanized plants outfitted with scrubbers, the vast majority of Mexican plants just break the batteries, releasing the lead as dust and emissions. Spent batteries house up to 40 lbs. of lead, which can cause high blood pressure, kidney damage, abdominal pain in adults, and serious neurological development in children. Lead pollution remains in the ground for decades. The EPA says it “does not inspect, monitor, or verify the Mexican facilities.” Adds a Dallas recycler: “We’re shipping hazardous waste to a neighbor ill-equipped to process it and we’re doing it legally, pretending it’s not a problem.”

Discussion questions:

1. Do your students view this as an ethical dilemma?

2. What other harmful products do we ship abroad for recycling, and why?

OM in the News: Recycling Leftover Hotel Soap?

Ever wonder what happens to leftover soap and shampoo at hotels like Sheraton, Westin, Marriott, and Hilton? USA Today (April 26,2011) describes how a non-profit organization called Clean the World recycles used soap for distribution in developing countries and homeless shelters.

Most bars of soap, about a million, are thrown out each day by US hotels. But Clean the World, and other groups, are taking in 1.6 million pounds of soap a year through agreements with about 1,000 hotels. Clean the World charges hotels 65 cents a room to clean and redistribute soap and shampoo bottles. It has built recycling centers in Orlando, Las Vegas, Toronto, and Vancouver. Soap is sterilized in its plants and reformed into 2-ounce bars.

In the past 2 years, Clean the World has distributed more than 8 million bars of soap in the US and 40 countries, including Haiti, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and India. Its efforts have diverted 550 tons of waste from landfills. “Each day, 9,000 children die from diseases that can be prevented by washing with soap”, the organization says.

Sustainability in hotels is a topic we discuss in both Ch.5 and Ch.7. Here is a good example to bring to your students.

Discussion questions:

1. Why doesn’t every hotel practice this recycling strategy?

2. How else can hotels be “green”?

OM in the News: Recycling Water–“From Toilets to Tap”

I have held off on blogging about USA Today’s cover story (March 3, 2011) for a week because of the yuk factor. Your students will moan you when you bring up the title “From Toilets to Tap”, but sustainability is an important OM topic (which we treat in Chapters 5 and 7). And as the article says: “Water is going to be the oil of the 21st century”.

Clearly something needs to be done. One-eighth of the world (884 million people) still lacks safe drinking water…and its not just in remote/poor regions. Singapore, dependant on Malaysia for the strategic resource of water, has built recycled wastewater plants that now serve 1/3 of its people. Orange County, CA (which has to import water from the northern part of the state and Colorado), uses treated wastewater to serve 1/5 of its 2.4 million residents. The Northern Virginia suburbs of D.C. use purified sewage for 5% of the area’s drinking water.

But other parts of the world, from San Diego to Australia, have had to back away from recycling plans amid public outcry. “The gross out factor is a big barrier”, admits a UC prof. Despite the nickname —“toilets to tap”–only about 10% of household wastewater comes from toilets, while the rest is from showers, sinks, and laundry. And the resulting water is often cleaner than what you would buy in a store, as the EPA’s standards are very strict.

Here is briefly how it works: first microfiltration traps bacteria; then reverse osmosis blocks salt, drugs, and viruses; and finally, ultraviolet light and hydrogen peroxide kill organics. Besides alleviating drinking water shortages, the technology is used for recycling in factories (see our video on Frito-Lay’s sustainability), for agriculture, and it means less waste discharged into the ocean.

Discussion questions:

1. Why is recycling water an OM issue?

2. What are the advantages of this method of reclaiming wastewater?