Berlin. The recycling service ELECTORETURN from Deutsche Post and ALBA Group contributes to climate protection and the preservation of resources. This is shown by a new study of the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology (UMSICHT).
According to the study, the ALBA Group, one of the world’s leading environmental services providers and recycling specialists, saves approximately 16.22 tonnes of primary resources per tonne of small electrical devices collected via ELECTRORETURN, a weight comparable to approximately 13 medium-sized vehicles. At the same time, emissions of climate-damaging gases decrease by approximately 550 kilograms. This is equivalent to the emissions that result from driving about 4,000 kilometres in the average passenger car – or all the way from Berlin to Barcelona and back again. In total, ELECTRORETURN thus has an annual saving potential of up to 273 tonnes of primary resources and 9 tonnes in greenhouse gas emissions.
“Many small electrical devices are still not recycled after use. In most cases they are incinerated or they remain at home in drawers or cellars or in storehouses, without being returned or passed on,” says Manfred Fahrner, an expert in electronic scrap recycling at the ALBA Group. “ELECTRORETURN contributes to increasing the quantity of devices used, thus making – as is now also scientifically confirmed for the first time – a crucial contribution to the protection of resources and the climate.”
“With ELECTRORETURN, we offer consumers an environmentally friendly and convenient solution for the disposal of their waste equipment,” says Jens Terboven, Vice President of Letter Communication Additional Services. “Our green logistics are the perfect foundation for this and they are complemented optimally by the ALBA Group as a partner for environmentally friendly recovery to produce a holistic solution for return logistics and recycling.”
About ELECTRORETURN:
The joint electronic scrap recycling project of the ALBA Group and Deutsche Post has existed for more than five years. Since February 2012, consumers have been able to download a free shipping label at www.electroreturn.de and thus recycle their mobile phones and other small electrical devices that no longer work that fit into a (maximum-size) envelope, such as shavers, postage-free. Simply placed into the nearest letterbox, these envelopes then go to ALBA Electronics Recycling GmbH, the electronic scrap recycling specialist within the ALBA Group. At its location in Lustadt, Rhineland-Palatinate, the equipment is crushed in the company’s own, officially controlled machines and the material recycled so that data can no longer be read out.
Since March 2016, the Deutsche Post DHL Group has offered an expanded recycling shipping service for waste electrical equipment up to 31.5 kilograms. Within the framework of this service, dealers can contractually agree the use of ELECTRORETURN to fulfil the requirements placed on them by the amended Used Electrical Equipment Act and then supply their customers with post-paid shipping labels for letter and package shipments. After the waste equipment has been packed, it goes from the nearest letterbox or the nearest Deutsche Post DHL receiving office straight to ALBA for recycling. In addition, Deutsche Post and ALBA Group organise for dealers the ascertainment of the data required to fulfil the legal notification obligations and assume the communication of this data to the competent authority.
About ALBA Group:
With its two brands – ALBA and Interseroh – and a total of about 7,500 employees ALBA Group operates within Germany, Europe and Asia. With an annual turnover of approx. 2.2 billion Euros (2015) ALBA Group is one of the leading recycling and environmental services companies as well as raw material providers worldwide. In 2015 alone ALBA Group saved almost 5.9 million tonnes of greenhouse gases compared to primary production and at the same time about 51.8 million tonnes of primary raw materials through its recycling activities.
Further information on ALBA Group can be found at <link http: www.albagroup.de>www.albagroup.de. All press releases of the ALBA Group may be subscribed to via RSS feed at www.albagroup.de/presse.
About Deutsche Post:
Deutsche Post is Europe’s largest postal service provider and the leader in the German letter and package market, with a leading position in international correspondence. With its strong Deutsche Post brand, the company is further expanding its status as “The post for Germany”. The portfolio ranges from standardised products to environmentally friendly and customised solutions for private and business customers in the areas of letter communication, dialogue marketing and package transportation. With its approximately 175,000 employees, Deutsche Post will continue to advance the connection of physical and electronic communication, thus expanding its position as a comprehensive service provider for secure, simple and reliable communication.
Deutsche Post is part of the Deutsche Post DHL Group. In 2016 the group generated a turnover of more than 57 billion Euros. Further information can be found at <link http: www.dpdhl.de en>www.dpdhl.de/en.
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