Pressing for Climate Protection

Fewer transports mean less CO₂ emissions

This means that more compressed packaging waste fits on the previous dumpster footprint than before – 36 of the 350 to 400 kilogram bales, to be exact. As a result, the waste has to be picked up much less often. “We’re reducing the number of transports by 80 percent to 20 percent,” says Christopher Stiglmeier, HSE Officer, Mixing Facility Weinheim.

From an economic perspective, this eliminates both the rent for the containers and the majority of the collection costs. “The press will pay for itself in just a few years,” Stiglmeier has calculated. In terms of sustainability, less transport trips mean less CO₂ emissions. In addition, the new contractor guarantees that the waste paper will be brought directly to a nearby paper mill to be recycled instead of incinerated.

Cleaning instead of burning

Speaking of incinerating, that is also the usual destination for oil-contaminated solid waste, especially rags that are used for cleaning in the mixing plant. This has come to an end. The new approach is to clean instead of burn, which a textile service provider is implementing at our mixing plant with its own reusable cleaning cloths. “Now there are 13,000 reusable rags in circulation at our plant. As a result, we were able to significantly reduce our oil-contaminated solid waste, which was classified as hazardous, to less than a quarter of the previous amount,” reports Stiglmeier.