Vietnam: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build public private collaborations towards a circular economy for plastic waste management was signed in Hanoi on 19 February 2020. The agreement, the first of its kind in Vietnam, was signed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Dow Chemical Company Vietnam, Siam Cement Group (SCG), and Unilever Vietnam International.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Tuan Nhan said the average use of plastic per capita in Vietnam is not as high as that of developed countries in the world. However, with a population of nearly 100 million and an incomplete solid waste management infrastructure, plastic waste has been a big challenge for developing countries like Vietnam. It is likely that SCG will act as an off-taker of non-recyclable plastic residues, burning them as an alternative for fossil fuels in its cement kilns.

EU: Researchers from LafargeHolcim, Vicat and the Technical Association of the Hydraulic Binders Industry (ATILH), have called for harmonised European standards to enable the introduction of ternary cement blends such as CEM II C-M and CEM VI, which comprise clinker, limestone and supplementary cementitious materials, most commonly slag and fly ash, so that the European cement sector can lower its CO2 emissions. "It’s a very powerful short-term lever," said Fabrice Copin, director of the industrial process at ATILH.

The roadmap for achieving carbon neutrality in 2050, established by the industry in 2018, makes the development of new cements a priority. Placing low-clinker cements on the market could reduce the amount of CO2 emitted by 127kg/t, around 20% of the 656kg/t average in Europe at present.

With clinker factors of just 50-65% for CEMII / C-M, and 35-50% for CEM VI, Edelio Bermejo, director of research and development (R&D) at LafargeHolcim insists, "These cements are no longer at the R&D stage. They have been widely validated and we are ready to produce them, especially as their manufacture does not require modification of our facilities."

However, these new cements cannot be widely sold and used due to a legal deadlock at the European Commission level that hinders their approval, according to Xavier Guillot, the manager of standards coordination at LafargeHolcim. “To introduce them, the harmonised European standard which authorises their placing on the market must be revised,” said Guillot. “However, legal problems between the European Commission and the European Committee for Standardisation prevent the work from being finalised. The cement manufacturers are considering drafting a standard common to all member states, but which would be applied at a national level within each member state. We have to move forward to face the challenges we are asked to answer, namely reducing our CO2 emissions.”

One of the limits of CEM II / C-M and CEM VI cements is the availability of substitutes used to replace clinker which are clustered around other industrial sites such as steel plants and coal-fired power stations. "In the future, with an increase in the recycling of steel and possible relocations of steel mills, the deposits are likely to move away from our markets and to diminish,” said Laury Barnes, Vicat’s scientific director. “In addition, the current availability of slag will not cover all the needs for low-carbon cements. Likewise for the fly ash, which should become increasingly rare as the thermal power plants close.”

Barnes instead advocates calcined clays as a suitable replacement for slag and fly ash. "Clays are minerals found everywhere on Earth,” says Barnes, who, like Bermajo, advocates the use of LC3 cement blends being developed by a Swiss-Indian-Cuban consortium. These contain clay that has been heated to 800°C instead of slag or fly ash.

Australia: Boral has seen a 40% decrease in its profit during the first half of its fiscal year a period that ended on 31 December 2019. Its profit fell to US$90.4m for the period from US$151m a year earlier. Boral said that this was due to higher costs and weak housing activity in Australia and South Korea. It was also affected by the costs of transactions between its USG-Boral joint-venture partner USG and Knauf, which bought USG in 2019, along with its interest in USG-Boral.

Cuba: State-owned Cementos Cienfuegos has started to burn waste tyres in order to save on imported petcoke costs. Cuba is suffering a coal shortage due to reinforced economic sanctions led by the US.

The plant is using 130-150 tyres per day as part of a project that, in its initial phase, makes it possible to replace 5% of its petcoke requirements. Plant manager Ernesto Gálvez, explained the plant eventually aims to burn 400 tyres per day.