Governments and enterprises all over the world are paying attention to the circular economy and believe that it is an industrial system which can assist in realizing the dual advantages of environmental sustainability and economic growth. Furthermore, a Taiwanese company has been gradually developing this system.

The circular economy is a type of recoverable and renewable industrial system, and currently this model is becoming a key industrial policy with is being closely watched by governments all over the world. In addition, Europe is the leader of this model, and Taiwan is currently in the process of developing these industrial systems.

The visiting delegation was led by Environmental Protection Administration Minister Lee Ying-Yuan and included related Taiwanese government officials and environmental protection-related Taiwanese enterprises. In addition to UWin Nanotech, Da Fon Environmental Technology, Chung Tai Resource Technology Corp., China Steel, Solar Technology, LCY Chemical Corp., Miniwiz Co., REMONDIS Taiwan Co., Evonik Taiwan Ltd., and Greengroup together visited the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark.

While delivering a speech at the EU Headquarters in Belgium entitled “Innovative Eco-friendly precious metals extraction technology – will be trillion market business” Kenny Hsu, Managing Director of Uwin Nanotech, emphasized that precious metal recycling from e-waste is indispensable to the circular economy and is full of abundant business opportunities. According to the results of their implementation of these technologies, UWin Nanotech bring a “Big data” concept of recycling and estimates that each year the handling of e-waste can yield over a trillion in value of precious metals.

Furthermore, in contrast to the mainstream recycling procedure currently used around the world which employs a burning method, UWin Nanotech utilizes a wet soaking process, which neither produces exhaust fumes nor toxic substances. At the same time, the capital needed for investment is very economical, which makes it the current optimal solution for carrying out precious metals recycling.

Kenny Hsu also stated that traditionally precious metals recycling enterprises have had to construct incineration plants, which is an investment of up to $100 billion and a tremendous economic burden. In addition, there are still the problems of waste and resource consumption.

On the contrary, the wet soaking process only requires setting up a basic wastewater treatment system, and the required investment costs are low. More importantly, the procedure does not produce toxic fumes and does not utilize any toxic materials, making it the optimal choice for the development of the global circular economy.

(TR/ Phil Sweeney)