Lithuania: Finnish-owned Lithuanian recycling services company Kuusakoski saw its revenues grow by 21% year-on-year to Euro32.5m in 2014. Its annual profit doubled to approximately Euro0.29m.

The company's performance has improved amid changes in the scrap metal purchase market, in particular the bankruptcy of Liepajas Metalurgs in 2013 and the exit of one more company from the Lithuanian market in 2014, Paulius Juska, according to Kuusakoski CEO Verslo Zinios. In 2015, Kuusakoski expects the waste tyre collection business to fuel its growth.

"We hope that Akmenes Cementas will resume burning waste tyres at its cement plant this year. If that is the case, we could supply tyres to the facility. It would enable us to increase the quantities of tyres that we collect and to generate more revenues from car service centres for the collection of old tyres and their supply to the disposal facility," said Juska.

Colombia: Cementos Argos innovation vice-president Camilo Restrepo has persisted with a project to use waste tyres as an alternative fuel in Colombia. Some 120,000 - 130,000/yr tyres are wasted in Colombia.

Cementos Argos is already using waste tyres as fuel in the US and Honduras and says that the same will be done in Colombia. It put forward its plans to local associations and has been discussing these for five years. Cementos Argos could use 60,000 - 70,000t/yr. Its kilns will have to be adapted at cost of US$5 – 20m each. It will start with its unit in Rioclaro, where tests are underway already. The plant can use 15,000 - 20,000t/yr of waste tyres.

India: Cement companies that operate in East Jaintia Hills District, Meghalaya State face a precarious situation due to a ban imposed by National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the extraction and transportation of coal. As coal is a major fuel used by the cement plants in the region, its non-availability threatens to close the plants.

"Coal demand from cement plants is huge and if there is no supply, all the cement companies will have no other option but to shut down their plants," said a representative at one of the cement plants affected by the ban. He lamented that the NGT court had lifted the ban on transportation of the assessed and extracted coal for transportation to Beltola District, Assam State, only. "However, the cement plants in East Jaintia Hills have not received any coal due to the non-availability of a weighbridge in the district," he said. "Approximately 2000 - 2500 trucks are seen transporting coal to Assam every day."

US: The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has granted approval for Lafarge North America to use scrap plastic and asphalt shingles at its cement kilns in Alpena, Michigan State.

Lafarge had requested to be allowed to burn additional fuels in the five cement kilns at its cement plant. Prior to receiving approval to use plastics and shingles as a fuel, the company had used coal, petroleum coke, clean wood and non-halogenated polyethylene and polypropylene as fuel. In its application, Lafarge said that it could use nearly 140,000t/yr of plastics, more than 82,000t/yr of wood and 54,673t/yr of shingles as a replacement fuel for the coal and coke.

Lafarge was issued a permit in 2012 to install technology to allow for a trial burn of shingles in the kilns. The permit required Lafarge to conduct stack testing for emissions of concern from the combustion of shingles. The emissions testing demonstrated that the emissions were less than what Lafarge had originally estimated, according to the DEQ.

Following analyses conducted by the DEQ, staff concluded that the proposed project would comply with all applicable federal air quality requirements and with all of the Michigan DEQ Air Quality Division regulations. The staff concluded that the project, as proposed, would not violate the federal policies.