Having the right specialist training is just one factor for achieving success in the recycling sector (find out more here). Possibly even more important is expanding and deepening this knowledge in professional practice – the more years you put in and the broader your experience, the better. We also see recycling almost as a global phenomenon, which for us means: understanding and creating international networks, finding the best transport options, establishing good logistics and much more. However, we also see ourselves as an international partner to our clients, with a focus on important principles such as environmental sustainability, economic efficiency and fair play – a mission that we would like to fulfill in our work for you, too.
Our Work in Action
How does this inform the actual work we do? Let us show in the simplest way possible. Here are four real-life examples from our day-to-day business. For the purposes of discretion and confidentiality, we have anonymized the names of the companies. However, we would be happy to provide more details about this cases upon request. We hope that the following case studies demonstrate the breadth of our operations and competencies as a company. After all, reliable recycling requires a professional partner.
Case Study I (Austria)
Company A from Upper Austria, a packaging materials manufacturer, were having difficulty finding a suitable recycling partner for their recyclable plastic waste (sleeves, plus cut-offs from the manufacturing process). Company A still does a lot of production by hand, with small volumes. As a result, over the weeks more and more materials were piling up, with no responsible way of disposing of it. Company A contacted us via our homepage and asked for our assistance. We visited the company at their site in order to get a really good idea of the situation (taking photos, examining the materials, establishing the quantities of waste, etc.). After analyzing their requirements, we contacted our partner in the Czech Republic, who helped us to establish a very suitable disposal option, allowing us to solve the problem both quickly and effectively. Company A is now one of our key clients.
Case Study II (Europe)
Company B, based in Switzerland, produces high-quality granulate. With this production process, however, there is always some residual waste (some of which is relatively large), which is then very difficult to recycle due to its highly specific properties. That’s where we came in. Company B has been contacting us regularly for years now with inquiries about specific materials, asking us to take on further processing. We generally try to avoid thermal recycling (i.e. incineration) in order to be more environmentally friendly and cost-effective. Our last business case in 2018 involved PBT combined with ASA, which is extremely difficult to reuse – and we had 100 metric tons of the stuff to find a use for! No mean feat! With our partner in the Netherlands we managed to find a good solution in this case as well, and the difficult waste material was able to be recycled. Recycling that makes sense!
Case Study III (SGK in Global Operations)
Company C from Austria manufactures winter sports equipment. A residual by-product of the production process is a polyamide film which is very difficult to process This film is extremely high quality, but it cannot simply be extruded back into new plastic because there are too many different types of plastic contained in the material. This was another case in which the main aim was to find a successful solution for recycling the difficult material without resorting to thermal recycling. And with our partner in Hong Kong, that’s exactly what we did: after very careful segregation of the materials, they are granulated and are then able to be extruded. The new material produced – what’s known as ‘regranulate’ – is now ready to be reused. And so the cycle is closed.
Case Study IV (Complex Requirements for Recycling)
Company D, based in Vienna, processes a wide variety of materials for the automotive industry and various other technical applications. The processing method (specifically, the changing of materials required), produces residual materials in the form of clumps of plastic. In the past, these clumps have been shipped to Asia for reprocessing. However, due to the import restrictions in China, this is no longer possible. Because there weren’t any suitable partners for this procedure outside of China, Company D would have had to shred the clumps and send them for thermal recycling – a very labor-intensive process which also reduces the usability of the material. We needed to find an alternative! Together with our partners, we did a lot of research and finally found a solution that would allow us to turn the clumps back into granulate. Conclusion: The clumps are turned back into granulate, which can then be reused for processing. Again, the cycle of materials is closed.
Good Recycling Requires Experience
We hope that these case studies have given you an insight into how we work. We have found that successful recycling requires a lot of specialist knowledge and even more practical experience. The fact is that the requirements to be met are becoming more and more difficult – both here in Europe and internationally. So count on us to manage your recycling!