The Technical and Economic Considerations for Extracting Metals From Ash at Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Facilities: Go or No Go!

The past few years have produced significant variations in the U.S. economic climate. In turn, the revenues from the extraction and sale of both ferrous and non-ferrous metals from WTE plants have experienced wildly positive/negative swings in value. The revenue from sales of these metals and the capital costs for the process installation directly impacts financial payback, and answers the simple question: “should we do this project?” Some key criteria will be discussed: source reduction and curbside recycling and their impact on metals yield (projected vs. actual), plant size and “economy of scale”, and operating and maintenance costs. This paper will review six recent and planned metals recovery projects in the U.S. Technologies and scopes of work include simple addition of metals recovery equipment, complete systems and buildings at existing facilities, and planned systems and buildings at new facilities. The paper will summarize the criteria for metals revenue and project costs, which determine whether the project is a “Go” or a “No Go”.