Recycling NPE2012 recycling programme keeps industrial scrap out of landfill

During the five days in April that NPE transformed the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) in Orlando, Florida, into a virtual manufacturing city, none of the many tons of industrial scrap generated by exhibitors went to landfills, according to the OCCC and show organiser SPI.

Related Companies

Society of Plastics Engineers European Office

DIPROFIL Diamantprodukter AB

Final figures provided to SPI by Maine Plastics Inc., the official recycler for NPE2012, indicate that the production scrap generated by machinery operated on the show floor by 56 exhibitors participating in the NPE Recycles programme amounted to 260,208 lb (118 tonnes), more than double the total for NPE2009. In 2009, the programme had 45 participating exhibitors.

See: Design award winners named at NPE

A rule set by SPI required that scrap produced during NPE2012 by exhibitors not participating in the NPE Recycles programme could not be disposed as waste. These exhibitors were responsible for having their process scrap delivered to the OCCC loading dock for sorting off-site.

Large quantities of post-consumer solid waste (413 tonnes) also were generated at the show, according to the OCCC. All of it was recycled except for 72 tonnes of food waste.

In addition to having more participants and recycling more scrap than in 2009, the 2012 NPE Recycles programme collected 67% more scrap per exhibitor, noted A.J. Janosko, SPI’s director of trade show operations. “Individual exhibitors generated more scrap during NPE2012 than in 2009 chiefly because they had more machines operating on the show floor,” Janosko said. “The economic and logistical advantages of exhibiting in our new venue in Orlando, along with the improved business climate, encouraged equipment companies to invest more in their booths, resulting in what SPI called ‘The Return of the Machines’.”

SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association

Washington, DC, USA

www.plasticsindustry.org

(ID:34348150)