Confusion about recycling when the heat lights burned out – New Technology

After six months with the new rules is confusion about what to do when the heat lights burned out. In the metal container at the recycling station, they are not welcome anymore.

Environmentally Conscious candle-lovers know that you should peel off the small metal piece that holds the wick in aluminum cup after the light has burned out. Otherwise, the aluminum is not being utilized. But all consumers who followed the instructions and left the lights to recycling must acquire new procedures.

Until last spring tea lights were classified as packaging and would therefore left in the metal container at the recycling station. But in April, a new interpretation of the EU Directive for the producer: nightlights treated since then with memorial candles, which has never been classified as packaging. This means that the candle producers no longer pay a fee to the FTI, Packaging and Newspaper collection, to cover the cost of collecting and recycling the cup. Therefore, heat lights are no longer welcome in the container for cans and caviar tubes. Since last spring, it is rather municipalities that are responsible for collecting tea lights.

– Some municipalities have been active with details , and in most cases they have chosen to receive cups in the general metal recycling at the recycling centers. But other municipalities have been less active, so the information has unfortunately not reached out fully yet, says Annica Dahlberg, Director of Communications at the FTI, packaging and newspaper collection.

How many who travel with them their old candle to the recycling center or landfill as it is popularly known, is unclear. Annica Dahlberg think some old tea light still end up in the FTI’s container. Then the aluminum is recycled as before. The problem is that the bill does not end up with nightlights producers, but the producers of packaging. Despite the fact that the aluminum is sold there will be a cost of a few cents per kg to collect and recycle the metal. According to previous estimates, sold the 300 million tea lights each year in Sweden, so many submitted incorrectly so the total cost is palpable.

– Our mission is to help producers to meet producer responsibility so that the law is written. If the heat lamps provided to us harbors the cost of caviar tubes and other packaging, and ultimately it is the consumer who must pay, says Annica Dahlberg.

For the environment is the worst option is still to throw the cups in the garbage bag. When the garbage bag is burned burn even aluminum is up, and that means a big waste of energy because it takes much more energy when aluminum nytillverkas compared to when it is recycled.

The wick holder shall poked away because it is of iron, while the cup is of aluminum. In the recycling process the iron stuck on magnets, and if the wick holder is firmly in candle wax in the bottom so also follows the aluminum cup with steel recycling. When the iron is then melted down so thats aluminum up and you lose the possibility to recover it.

Subscribe to Ny Teknik free newsletter!