Die REMONDIS-Welt der Nachhaltigkeit
REMONDIS' World of Sustainability
De REMONDIS-wereld van de duurzaamheid
The whole notion of sustainability will be a lost cause unless we take action here and now to conserve our planet's natural resources. Future generations and today's developing countries will only be able to enjoy prosperous lives if steps are taken right now to counteract the growing shortages of raw materials. For us – being one of the world's leading recycling, service and water companies – there can be only one goal: to tackle this problem and lead by example. Why not join us on this path?!
Everyone agrees that global warming must be limited to 2°C – or preferably 1.5°C – if we wish to prevent our ecosystem from being irreparably damaged. Large areas of woodland in Germany are dying as the country suffers ever longer periods of drought. Pussyfooting around is not going to stop climate change. Some major action needs to be taken. And not just switching from fossil fuels to renewables but from virgin to recycled raw materials as well. We are showing how this can be done.
The Lippe Plant in Lünen is not only a high tech site, it is also an important project for combatting global warming. The various activities carried out at the site help to cut carbon emissions by 488,000t every single year. For a forest to have the same effect, it would need to contain 37 million trees. Certainly a lovely place to take a walk in but perhaps not an ideal place for creating 1,400 jobs.
People searching for an argument in favour of plastics recycling need look no further than at our seas and oceans. Vast areas of waste are floating around in them and are so big that they can even be seen from space. This problem, however, can only be solved on Earth – with more responsible consumer behaviour and systematic plastics recycling.
Talking the talk but not walking the walk? Not at REMONDIS. It goes without saying that our all-encompassing view of sustainability also includes us being sustainable ourselves. This covers all aspects of our business – from the energy efficiency levels of our head office buildings, all the way through to ensuring that all our locations adhere to our high social standards, no matter where in the world they may be.
Every company tries to make a profit. And things are no different at REMONDIS either. For us, however, money is always a means to a good end – which is why a large part of the profits we make is invested in developing new and innovative recycling processes and technologies. Helping to preserve our planet’s valuable natural resources.
Sustainability is not a state or a condition but an ongoing process. First and foremost, sustainability is team work. Which is why we cooperate closely with experts and research institutes that also feel strongly about conserving our planet’s natural resources and preventing climate change. Such work always leads to new approaches and innovations.
Wherever we see an opportunity to drive forward the notion of sustainability and to fix it even more firmly in the minds of people, then we are there, full of passion and enthusiasm for the cause. This covers a whole range of activities – from educational projects, to acting as advisers, to supporting universities.
Everyone is talking about the scarcity of raw materials and about sustainability. But what exactly is behind it all? We decided to do some research to find out what it’s all about – so that we could put together some pages with the most important background information for you to read.
Recycled raw materials are raw materials that have not been extracted from nature – such as ore and crude oil – but have instead been recovered from old products. For example plastics and metals from end-of-life vehicles. Recycled raw materials are produced by separating the different kinds of recyclables according to type and then processing them so they can be returned to production cycles for reuse. This is carried out in plants that have been specially developed for this work and that use a variety of technologies depending on which type of recycled raw material needs to be produced. In principle, every raw material that has been extracted from nature and been used to make a product can be transformed into a recycled raw material. The efforts required to do this, however, differ from material to material as well as from source to source. It is, for example, easier to recover iron from old railway tracks than it is to recover individual kinds of plastic from complex composite systems.
One way to promote the production of sustainable recycled raw materials is to systematically implement the principles of ecodesign
There really is no alternative to recycled raw materials. A quick look at the amount of raw materials currently being consumed by industrial countries really drives this point home. If all of the countries around the world were to consume as many raw materials as Germany, then we would need almost two planet earths to cover their needs. What’s more, with the world’s population growing exponentially and the global per capita consumption of raw materials steadily increasing, there is no getting round the fact that the way we are currently behaving means we are effectively heading straight towards a brick wall. Without recycling, our natural resources will continue to be used at an ever faster rate and supplies will gradually run out. We have no choice but to turn to recycled raw materials. It must become standard practice to use recycled raw materials in products and everyone – from manufacturers, to consumers, all the way through to the recycling sector – must promote and support this development.
To find out more about just how finite our natural resources are (and read an infographic), go to shortage of raw materials
To produce the same amount of copper, 25 times more virgin raw material is needed than recycled raw material
Recycled raw materials offer a whole number of benefits. Besides the obvious ones – that they make good business sense and are better for the environment – these also include social and ethical aspects. Especially if the subject of recycled raw materials is seen globally and in its entirety.
In 2018, REMONDIS brought out a special issue of its customer magazine dedicated entirely to the subject of recycled raw materials. Read the online version here
If there is one thing recycled raw materials don’t have, it is a problem with their quality. We have stringent environmental and quality standards in place when we produce our recycled raw materials and these standards are often higher than those required for virgin raw materials. These are not, therefore, ‘second-best’ or of a lower quality but the same raw material that, depending on the material stream, can be recovered in the same quality and reused again and again. This is especially true today for metals (e.g. iron, aluminium and copper), natural products (organic materials) and water. No matter which material it may involve, REMONDIS has comprehensive expertise of recovering and recycling raw materials thanks to its many innovations and patents.
As far as production processes are concerned, it makes absolutely no difference whether a raw material is used for the first time or whether it has been recovered for reuse
Materials that are ‘downcycled’ also meet the highest requirements no matter what they are used for during the different stages of their life cycle. This is guaranteed as the recycling sector is able to assess the quality of the incoming materials and produce bespoke recycled raw materials using formulas that meet their customers’ specific industrial applications. This is referred to as cascade use. It is, for example, no problem to recycle plastic several times and use it to make different products each time. To begin with, it is a high quality children’s toy and then, later on, versatile plastic film. The same is true for old paper. Paper has a number of life cycles – from being a glossy catalogue, to becoming a newspaper, to being used to make kitchen roll. It is both our mission and our task to continuously develop innovations and further advance technologies to make sure that the quality of the recovered raw materials is kept as high as possible.
In principle – from a technological point of view – practically everything can be recycled. Different conditions, however, make it more difficult or easier to recycle materials. Recovering the individual components of a complex composite material is, for example, time-consuming and expensive as they first have to be separated from each other. Large investments have to be made in technologies and plants to be able to produce recycled raw materials. If there are not enough customers willing to buy recycled raw materials, then it might mean that it is simply not profitable to recycle certain products and this work is not carried out. This may be a shame for the environment; it is, however, an economic reality. All the more reason, therefore, for setting up political framework conditions to counteract this dilemma. For example, by creating subsidy programmes to make it more worthwhile for companies to invest in recycling technologies.
At the moment, 85% of the materials used to manufacture products in Germany are based on virgin raw materials. A figure that is much too high as far as sustainability is concerned. REMONDIS has calculated that CO2 emissions could be reduced by 60 million tonnes simply by doubling the volumes of recycled raw materials used by German industrial businesses from the current low figure of 15% to 30% (a figure that could certainly also be improved on). As a comparison: for the transport sector to achieve a similarly impressive result, the number of planes, vehicles, ships and trains being used would have to be reduced by one third. The only way to increase the use of recyclates, however, is to have recycled content mandates. This means that companies would be obliged by law to use a minimum amount of recycled raw materials when manufacturing products and, in particular, packaging. Only then can recycled raw materials really become competitive and make a greater contribution towards conserving our planet’s reserves of raw materials.
Being one of the world’s leading recycling, service and water businesses with over 30,000 employees, everything we do revolves around sustainability. We ensure that the environment is protected and that natural resources are conserved in over 30 countries across four continents.
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