Recycling on the Rise

It’s never been easier to recycle cutting tools, which produces both cost savings and environmental benefits.

Courtesy of All images: Sandvik Coromant

While many individuals see recycling as its own reward, the costs of running a recycling program can sometimes be hard to justify. Recycling cutting tools, however, is an easy way to reduce costs throughout the supply chain while benefiting the manufacturing industry and the environment. And, in recent years, it has become easier for machine shops to participate in tool recycling programs.

Sustainability and Recycling

During the past 20 years, sustainability has grown from a fledgling concept to a philosophy that helps shape the actions of many companies. On the most basic level, sustainability involves using resources in a way that will not negatively impact future generations’ ability to innovate and flourish. Many initiatives related to sustainability revolve around minimizing waste and increasing recycling to offset the effects of consumption.

A Sandvik Coromant display promoting the benefits of cutting tool recycling.

The rapid modernization of enormous emerging markets has made sustainability even more important. India and China together account for about 37 percent of the world’s population. As these countries and others develop, their middle classes will explode and increased standards of living will create tremendous demand for products from nearly every industry. This demand can dramatically affect prices for a broad range of resources.

Cutting tool recycling has various immediate and long-term benefits. Eliminating waste, by definition, reduces consumption of resources and helps companies cut costs. Recycling expands material supply. Also, recycling processes typically require less energy and produce less pollution than those used to create virgin materials, whether through mining or other means of production. This further reduces costs and limits the environmental impact of manufacturing operations.

What’s in Them?

Before making a case for recycling cutting tools, let’s examine the relevant materials. Because of its combination of hardness and toughness, cemented carbide is used to produce 75 percent of inserts and other cutting tools for the global market. First developed in the 1920s, cemented carbide is made up of tungsten carbide and cobalt.

Tungsten ore is subjected to mining, chemical and heating processes to render the naturally occurring mineral into a usable form. China accounts for 79 percent of the production and 33 percent of the consumption of the metal. Worldwide, 58 percent of tungsten is used to produce cemented carbide.

About 80 percent of the world’s cobalt supply is produced as a byproduct of either nickel or copper production operations. Used across a much broader spectrum of applications, only 12 percent of global cobalt consumption is for wear-resistant alloys, including cemented carbide. The amount used in cutting tool production is still significant, though. 

Historically, prices for tungsten have remained relatively constant, though that has changed dramatically during the past 6 years. From 2004 to 2008, tungsten prices quadrupled, to about $18 per pound. They dropped to about $11 per pound in December 2008 and in August were about $13 per pound (see tungsten price chart on page 62). Cobalt prices have been volatile for a much longer period, ranging anywhere from $7 per pound to a recent high of $40 per pound. In August, the price of cobalt was about $18 per pound (see cobalt price chart on this page). 

Recycling Processes 

Two well-established processes account for the vast majority of cemented carbide recycling. In the first, scrap is sorted and cleaned before being combined with zinc in a vacuum furnace. This process breaks down the material to the point where it can be pulverized and up to 98 percent of the powder, composed of tungsten and cobalt, can be reclaimed. Typically, 40 percent of the powder is used in new cutting tools and the remainder is used in products such as wear parts and mining tools. 

A chemical process can be used to reclaim elements individually. It requires more energy than the zinc process, but also has a higher recovery output, allowing 100 percent of the recycled material to be used to make new cutting tools. A chemical-process facility is less environmentally friendly because it produces byproduct chemicals that must be safely disposed of. Additionally, a chemical-process facility typically costs twice as much to build and is slightly more expensive to operate than a zinc-process facility.

In the context of inserts and other cutting tools, recycling provides substantial environmental and economic benefits. Internal calculations by Sandvik Coromant, based on international standards, have shown that production of tools from recycled material consumes up to 75 percent less energy than production from virgin materials. It also reduces CO2 emissions by roughly 40 percent. No comprehensive studies have been undertaken to determine how cutting tool recycling impacts chemical consumption and water pollution, but it widely accepted that these areas benefit as well.

There is no difference in quality between cutting tools made from recycled or virgin materials. Most Sandvik Coromant customers are not concerned whether the tools they buy are made from recycled or virgin materials, though some consider tools made from recycled materials superior because of their positive impact on the environment. A very small percentage perceives these tools as inferior, due to misperceptions about recycled goods.

Recycling Program

One example of a cutting tool recycling program is Sandvik Coromant’s Coromant Recycling Concept (CRC), launched in 1996. During its early years, the program met with limited success. In 2002, the Sandvik Group, parent company of Sandvik Coromant, established a corporate culture program focused on the core values of its organization. Among other concepts, this included “fair play,” a commitment to principles such as maintaining high ethical standards and taking responsibility for the environmental impact of the company’s actions. This initiative revitalized the CRC.

Prices are for concentrate in USD per ton of WO3—tungsten oxide powder—each ton containing 7.93 kg of tungsten. USA represents average prices on the U.S. spot market per Platts Metals Week, and Europe represents average prices on the European spot market per Metal Bulletin.

Sandvik Coromant established a global work group to manage the CRC. The group sets regional goals and price levels for recycled materials in each geographic market, ensures adherence to applicable laws in countries where the program operates, manages promotional campaigns and organizes the vast reverse logistics network required to effectively recycle cutting tools (see chart on price of cemented carbide on this page).

As part of the Sandvik Group, the CRC has access to three regional recycling facilities. The Chiplun, India, facility, built in 2007, specializes in zinc-process recycling. Wolfram Bergau, a Sandvik-owned company in Austria, operates a chemical-process recycling plant. In the U.S., Sandvik Coromant contracts to provide chemical-process recycling at a Pennsylvania plant. As a general practice, recyclable cutting tools from North and South America are processed in Pennsylvania and those originating from Europe or Asia are processed at the facilities in their respective continents.

By far the biggest challenge of implementing the CRC has been establishing the logistics required to collect used tools. The pre-existing supply chain was built expressly to deliver new tools almost anywhere in the world within 24 hours. Maintaining such a high standard from the perspective of turnaround times is costly, but it helps manufacturers avoid downtime. When collecting used products for recycling, no such advantage exists to cost-justify such speed. As a result, the CRC formed global consolidation points to collect and send 40,000-lb. shipments by boat, rather than use the existing supply chain, which is based on making smaller shipments via air. 

In addition to having dissimilar timing requirements, the CRC supply chain was subject to different regulations. Within Canada and the U.S., used tools are legally considered products. In Europe and some Asian nations, used tools are classified as waste, causing their handling to be subject to a varying array of separate, stringent regulations. Achieving compliance with these diverse requirements required tasking each Sandvik Coromant country manager with following, understanding and complying with local regulations. While most similar programs focus solely on the largest markets, the CRC services every country in which Sandvik Coromant conducts business.

Other challenges faced by the program include accommodating sporadic rates of accumulation. Each participating company’s output fluctuates considerably, based on issues ranging from the types of parts being produced to the overall health of the economy. Another challenge is sorting and inspecting materials to be recycled, as it is common for manufacturers to accidentally mix steel or ceramic goods with cemented carbide. To overcome this, each national collection point maintains manual visual inspection of incoming materials, as well as automated sorting facilities that incorporate various technologies to separate usable materials from unusable ones. 

The CRC is run as a cost-neutral segment of Sandvik Coromant’s operations. In other words, the recycling side of the business strives to achieve a break-even point, rather than independent profitability. The goal of the program is to recycle 50 percent of the cemented carbide tools sold by Sandvik Coromant. 

This goal was achieved in 2008, but slipped back to 43 percent during 2009, as economic conditions required focusing on other areas, both for Sandvik Coromant and its customers (see chart on the amount of cemented carbide collected in the U.S. on page 63). For year-to-date 2010, the Coromant Recycling Concept is on track to reach a rate just short of the 50 percent target.

How to Participate

Realizing the complexity and challenges companies already face in their day-to-day operations, participation in CRC has been kept as simple as possible. Upon notifying Sandvik Coromant of a desire to take part in the program, a manufacturer receives an assortment of collection containers. Yellow buckets that hold 10 lbs. of material are provided for placement at each machine. Depending on the volume of tools used by the manufacturer, the buckets are emptied into either a 44-lb.-capacity plywood box or 500-lb.-capacity barrel.

Once a collection receptacle has been filled, a quote and shipping authorization number can be obtained via phone. The shipment is picked up and, 2 to 3 weeks following receipt by Sandvik Coromant, the manufacturer receives a check for the materials collected.

The CRC is not the only recycling option available to manufacturers. Kennametal Inc., Latrobe, Pa., for example, offers a program that provides a comparable level of convenience and many of the same benefits. Many manufacturers will even find that local scrap yards accept cemented carbide products. Any shop looking to benefit itself and help the environment by recycling its tools should look for a partner with high levels of transparency and a strong commitment to the industry and sustainability. CTE

About the Author: For the past 4 years Lars Hallberg has been international manager for the Sandvik Coromant Recycling Project. Prior to his current position, Hallberg has held various international management positions with Sandvik Coromant. Earlier this year, Hallberg retired from the company and now works as a sustainability consultant. Contact him at +46 26 251177, +46 730 228803 (cell phone) or by e-mail: l.hallberg@telia.com. For more information on the CRC, call (800) SANDVIK, visit the “About Us” section of www.sandvik.coromant.com/US.