Gypsum industry news

UK: A waste company has been ordered to pay Euro18,968 in fines and costs for illegally handling, storing and depositing wallboard. The case was brought by the Environment Agency.

In October 2012 approximately 60t of broken wallboard from Tawmix Timber Products Ltd was found tipped on a site known as Poppy's Field beside an old airfield at Winkleigh, Devon. The material was contaminated with construction and demolition waste. A special permit is needed to treat and store this type of waste. In July 2013 similar wallboard was illegally used to construct a new fence at Tawmix Timber Products' business premises at Unit 2, Winkleigh Airfield.

North Devon Magistrates' Court heard that Tawmix Timber Products was permitted to store, sort, separate, screen or crush waste wood at its site in Winkleigh. However, it did not have permission to accept gypsum based construction material such as wallboard, which requires specialist handling, treatment and disposal. The company had received advice and guidance from the Environment Agency on plasterboard and was aware it needed a 'variation' to its permit before it could accept this material.

"Wallboard should only be recycled and recovered by specialist companies," said Environment Agency spokesman Sue Smillie. "Tawmix Timber Products did not hold the necessary permits to store, shred and deposit this material. By accepting wallboard on Poppy's Field and depositing wallboard at its main site, the company was in breach of its permit."

Tawmix Timber Products Ltd was fined a total of Euro15,167 and ordered to pay Euro3713 costs for two offences under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2010, including the illegal storage and use of chipped wallboard at Poppy's Field and Unit 2, Winkleigh. The company pleaded guilty to both charges at an earlier hearing.

India: The Central Salt Marine and Chemical Research Institute (CSMCRI) has standardised and internationally patented a novel process of converting discharge emanating from soda ash and salt-making units into value-added products, including the extraction of far more gypsum than previously possible.

"A novel cost-effective process that helps derive three times more gypsum from the distellar waste, emanating from soda ash and salt-making units, using the Solvay Process for production, has been standardised and granted a US patent," said Dr Pushpito Ghosh, director of CSMCRI, which is based at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The new process has numerous process and environmental benefits for the processing of certain wastes, including the diversion of aqueous wastes from being dumped in the sea. It could also provide a new source of synthetic gypsum.