Berlin. Through its recycling activities, the international raw materials supplier and environmental services provider ALBA Group is making a significant contribution to safeguarding resources and protecting the climate. This was the conclusion arrived at by experts at the Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT in their recent study ‘resources SAVED by recycling’. According to the study, ALBA Group saved more than 48.3 million tonnes of primary resources in 2014 alone by recycling around 6 million tonnes of material. Over the same period the recycling specialist also saved around 6.6 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve a similarly positive effect on the climate, the number of cars on German roads needs to be reduced by around 3.7 million.
Through its recycling activities the ALBA Group is helping in the effort to achieve the targets set by the federal government as part of the resource efficiency programme ProgRess. The aim of the programme is to double resource productivity in Germany by 2020 compared to 1994. However, if the negative trend seen over the last five years continues, the target could be missed by as much as 40 per cent, according to a preliminary progress report by the Federal Environment Ministry. The Fraunhofer scientists have shown in their current study that an integrated recycling economy can turn this trend around.
Dr Axel Schweitzer, Chairman of the ALBA Group plc & Co. KG: ‘With international demand for raw materials rising and with primary resources becoming increasingly scarce, it is vital that we recognize the raw material that is already in circulation as our most important source, and that we make full use of it. In the long term we need to break the link between global growth and resource consumption. The results of the Fraunhofer study show that we are already holding the key to securing a sustainable supply of raw materials and can set the course for improved resource efficiency.’
Dr Hartmut Pflaum EngD, Head of Resource and Innovation Management at Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT: ‘With the aid of the method we developed in-house, we can make exact models of the recycling processes of the ALBA Group in all the material flows under examination and compare that with the raw material costs of primary production. The remarkable result of our ‘primary’ against ‘secondary’ comparison was that recycling always wins. From a scientific perspective that is not only a step forward for the environment but also a milestone for the recycling economy and, ultimately, for society as a whole.’
To ascertain the savings in resources, the scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT looked at the material flows of metal, old electronic devices, paper/cardboard, glass, lightweight packaging, plastics and wood. You can read the results of the ‘resources SAVED by recycling’ study in the ALBA Group information portal www.resources-saved.com.
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