Reuse and recycling
How many mobile phones have you gone through in recent years? Do you remember what you did with your old mobile phone when you bought a new one? This might seem like a strange question, but for us it is not strange at all. After all, 200 mobile phones contain enough gold to make one wedding ring. In our eyes, a mobile phone is therefore not waste. It is a product that contains valuable raw materials. That is why we are doing our best to collect products like these and to reuse their components.
For example, raw materials may serve to manufacture a product that is used by a consumer and then thrown away. A waste-to-product company such as Renewi can recover the end-of-life product, take it to pieces and then recycle the parts in a variety of ways. The 'reclaimed' material can then pass further along the chain and end up at a manufacturing company that will make a different product from it, which will be used by a consumer, thrown away, and the cycle continues. Naturally, some processes are shorter, such as the processing of waste in a mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) system which produces a secondary fuel, for direct use by consumers interested in reducing their carbon footprint.
Significant investment in the ATM waste treatment plant has positioned Renewi well to transition thermally treated soil (TGG) into gravel, sand and filler.
Waste is valuable
We can recycle paper 7 times. Glass can be recycled endlessly. By recycling 1,000 kilos of rubble we can prevent the carbon emissions generated by a car travelling from Amsterdam to Paris and back again. These are just a few examples of recycling, but this is what we do every day and these are the results. And, to be frank, reuse and recycling should also be something you do every day, because the more you know about the value of waste, the more effectively you will separate it and the less waste you will ultimately have left over…. and the less you will have to pay for.
At Renewi, we take our place in the waste hierarchy to increase our recycling and reclamation rates and achieve more sustainable methods of waste management. To measure our progress in this regard, we can look at the speed with which we recycle or reclaim the waste. This is now one of our top priority long-term goals in the area of sustainable entrepreneurship.
Give waste a second life
Here at Renewi we help you to think in terms of waste streams so that you can separate your waste and present it separately for collection, enabling us to then reuse and recycle it. And, more importantly, so that together we can prevent waste. Waste streams – like paper and cardboard, foil and glass – are valuable. The more you know about sorting, reusing and recycling, the more waste we will be able to give a second life.