BRAMPTON, Ont. A capital investment of $3 million and the hiring of 20 new employees will allow NORANDA to open the first Canadian recycling facility for electronic hardware. The new 7,635-m2 facility 30 km north of Toronto should be up and running this summer.
NORANDA RECYCLING is being created in response to the increasing volume of end-of-life electronics in this country. Unwanted hardware will be recycled in a manner that conserves resources and promotes sustainable development. Moreover, recycling keeps toxic metals out of landfills. The plant will have a monthly capacity of about 450 tonnes of discarded hardware from manufacturers, businesses, governments, and municipalities. Material from Brampton will be shipped to the Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., for further processing and metal recovery.
"Noranda has made considerable investments in developing a sustainable recycling business," said Noranda Recycling plant manager Cindy Thomas. "With a growing social and environmental concern over the rising volume of waste sent for disposal in landfills, very few organizations have invested in the technical and environmental infrastructure required to recover metals in an environmentally sound and globally competitive manner.
"The versatility of Noranda's metallurgical process, combined with its strong network of suppliers has been key to Noranda's growth as a metal recycler, said Brent Chertow, president of Noranda's Canadian copper and recycling business unit. "The Brampton facility will strengthen Noranda's position as North America's leading recycler of electronic materials and as the recycling partner of choice."
Noranda and computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard jointly operate two similar recycling plants in California and Tennessee.
Recycled metal now accounts for about 15% of the feed for Noranda's Canadian copper and recycling business unit, according to the company's web site at www.noranda.com. The company is the world's largest recycler of electronic components and a major source of secondary copper, nickel, gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and lead.
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