A chance encounter in Lanzarote

Barbara and I are on our annual winter break in the Canary Islands, this year on the volcanic island of Lanzarote. As well as relaxing for 10 days I am also starting to think of preparation of an article on the challenges of metal recycling, something which we will hear much about at Sustainable Minerals '18 in June.

So it was ironic that, while strolling along the Playa Blanca seafront this morning we should bump into an old student of mine, Mark Wolle, who graduated in mineral processing from CSM in 1978. Born and raised in our home town of Falmouth, Mark is CEO of E3 Recycling Ltd in Port Talbot, Wales, which specialises in WEEE, computer recycling and PC disposals.

Always a hands-on mineral processor, Mark told me of some of the practical problems of recycling metals and plastics from WEEE using standard mineral processing machinery, such as DMS and shaking tables. Although there are marked density differences between metals and plastics, one of the major problems is associated with the irregular shapes of pulverised particles, but the company is about to commission a new plant which they hope will overcome many of the hurdles.