Law 20,920 to promote recycling and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) establishes, among other aspects, the guidelines that must begin to be applied for an adequate implementation and start-up of waste management systems (WMS). This way, each company that generates hazardous and non-hazardous waste must take charge of its environmental footprint, managing and evaluating it in a sustainable way.
Some will be able to comply with the goals independently, depending on their size and capacity. However, many others will have to resort to outsourcing this service, ensuring a task with all the experience and professionalism required in the field and, in addition, will also reduce the costs associated with this management.
As an interesting fact, we can detail that “today Chile generates approximately 23 million tons of waste per year; 13 million correspond to non-hazardous industrial waste, 8 million are residential and 620 thousand tons are hazardous industrial waste”, explains Juan Andrés Salamanca, Hidronor's Regional Development Manager.
In regard to waste management, the executive highlights the progress in the traceability and, safe and proper final waste disposal which we now have in Chile, and alerts that "to minimize its generation and increase its recovery” continues to be their challenge. In this respect, he details that in the matter of hazardous waste, the recovery and reuse rate fluctuates between 5% and 8%.
Confronted with this need, Hidronor represents an excellent alternative in the market, since it has more than 25 years of experience and national coverage in the implementation of comprehensive solutions that contribute to the revaluation, recovery, recycling treatment and final disposal of hazardous and non- hazardous waste.
As a contribution to EPR, the company mixes used lubricating oils with other waste with calorific value to produce alternative fuel, which is then sold to cement industries that use it in their kilns. In the case of batteries, the company manages about a thousand tons per year which are transferred to the only recovery plant, located in Calama, that exists in Chile. These batteries are disassembled and used to manufacture anodes for large-scale mining.
De igual modo, Hidronor brinda el servicio de valorización de aparatos eléctricos y electrónicos, recuperando metales preciosos con los que cuentan estos equipos, como oro y plata, que luego son exportados, y otros más comunes como el hierro usado en la industria siderúrgica. Además, en sus plantas pueden recibir materia prima proveniente del desarme de pilas. “Aquí hay un potencial de negocio de valorización bastante importante y la ley REP puede ayudar a esta valorización”, asegura Juan Andrés.
Regarding the generation of containers and packaging (one of EPRs two priority products besides tires), the executive highlights "at a national level almost one million tons are consumed per year, only 8% is recycled and more than 15 thousand tons of hazardous waste that has a recovery or reprocessing potential is generated. In this respect, we at Hidronor are valuating nearly a thousand tons of HDPE, PVC, LDPE and other plastics per year, subjected to cleaning and decontamination processes. Then, a part of these are crushed to be commercialized in the national or foreign market, and the other part is returned to the companies to be reused”.
In relation to the management systems, he also raised a few doubts regarding the roles of the different actors and the area to be used by the companies that transport, treat or value waste. From the Ministry of the Environment, Guillermo González recalled that GISs are only administrating entities that will hire services to the companies that provide them, which the Law denominates managers.
With all of the above detailed, the services offers which Hidronor provides to companies is clear so that they can start their actions in order to meet the valuation goals required by the EPR regulations of our country.
