We are working at full speed to promote technologies and protect our environment: Silent Green, the prototype version of a refuse collection vehicle powered by natural gas and electricity, can be seen on the streets of Frankfurt am Main. © FES Frankfurter Entsorgungs- und Service GmbH

Frankfurt am Main residents will continue to be able to count on a whole range of stable and reliable environmental services for decades to come – thanks to the renewed award of 49% of the shares in Frankfurter Entsorgungs- und Service GmbH (FES) to REMONDIS. Since 1997, the Public Private Partnership (PPP) FES between the City of Frankfurt am Main (51%) and REMONDIS (49%) has been a familiar face to residents of Germany’s fifth-largest city, which is home to more than 700,000 residents and attracts roughly 6 million business travelers and tourists each year. And this success story will now continue on until 2040 - confirming REMONDIS's commitment as an industrial partner.

Since its inception, the PPP has achieved a lot from the universal roll-out of a separate bin for biodegradable materials and new automotive engineering to the installation of new innovative facilities. Over the next 20 years, the partnership will continue to focus its efforts on the city, its residents, the environment and the company. Along with providing high-quality urban cleaning and comprehensive recycling management services, we will remain fully dedicated to using innovative vehicle technology and generating renewable energy. Last, but not least, we have made sure that the city's residents will pay stable fees in the years ahead.

Left: FES keeps Frankfurt's roads clean. / Right: FES is hard at work when winter weather hits too. © FES Frankfurter Entsorgungs- und Service GmbH

As a reliable employer that creates and retains jobs, FES has made and will make continuous improvements to its customer service and services for the city on the River Main. FES - and thus REMONDIS - has helped to strengthen the region as a business destination for years now. We are not resting on our laurels, either, and are building on what are already rigorous environmental, social and technology standards for the future. After all, as Frankfurt am Main's famed son Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, "One does not travel in order to arrive, but for the sake of travel itself." We look forward to traveling together with the City of Frankfurt am Main for another 20 years.

Above: REMONDIS helps recycling to take flight at Eindhoven Airport.

It’s full speed ahead for REMONDIS in a partnership with a new customer: we have been providing best-in-class services to Eindhoven Airport in the south of the Netherlands since July 2020. Royal Schiphol Group, which owns the airport together with the Province of Noord-Brabant and the Municipality of Eindhoven, selected REMONDIS because of our sustainable recycling strategy and many years of experience and expertise in this field.

Left: The "Klara" is hoisted into position near Lake Sedlitzer. © LWG / Right: A second clean-up vessel, the "Barbara", hard at work. © U.Mertens

LWG has been operating the "Barbara", its own clean-up vessel that neutralises mine pit lakes in preparation for future use, since 2011. Furthermore, since this year LWG has also been responsible for operating a second ship, the "Klara", owned by our customer LMBV Lausitzer und Mitteldeutsche Bergbau-Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH. Both ships are making significant improvements to water quality by placing many tonnes of lime products below the water's surface to bring the pH level to a neutral level of 7.0. A number of lakes are being remediated with the help of both the "Klara" and "Barbara". The goal is that tourists can flock to the shores of these formerly polluted waters and enjoy the natural beauty of this impressive region once clean-up work has been completed.

Above: An artist’s impression of the proposed REMONDIS Clean Energy & Resource Recovery Precinct.

REMONDIS has more good news to report on the other side of the world. Our proposed clean energy and resource recovery complex in Swanbank, Australia has been declared a coordinated project by the Queensland Government, which means that REMONDIS will now undergo a thorough environmental assessment process that includes stakeholder and community engagement. The assessment process is another opportunity to provide the community and government with the many benefits the project will deliver. The complex is proposed to be home to a whole host of recycling and processing facilities from composting and plastic recycling to anaerobic digestion. The centerpiece of the Swanbank project will be an AUD 400 million Energy from Waste (EfW) facility that can convert 500,000 tonnes of refuse unsuitable for reuse or recycling into 50 MW of baseload clean energy each year - enough to power up to 50,000 average Queensland homes. The project will create more than 200 jobs during construction and up to 70 new jobs locally once the complex is up and running. We will continue to follow the progress of this project and keep you up to date on the latest developments.

Above: Waste2Water Technologies & Aquasoil Recycling are now part of the REMONDIS family.

Elsewhere in Australia, REMONDIS has welcomed new members to our family: Waste2Water Technologies (W2W) and Aquasoil Recycling. W2W processes non-hazardous liquid residues and has facilities in Somerton in the north of Melbourne, while Aquasoil Recycling provides mud disposal services for non-destructive digging and drilling operations in the same suburb. The new additions promise to unlock growth by expanding REMONDIS’s range of services and treatment capabilities in the liquid residues market in Victoria.

Above and bottom left: REMONDIS's team in Belarus has done a great deal to advance recycling in the country over the past decade. Bottom right: The PPP marks its inception ten years ago.

It’s time to celebrate at REMONDIS Minsk too as our Public Private Partnership (PPP) marks ten years in business. Taking the size of the city Minsk into account, this joint venture is REMONDIS International's largest PPP. A lot has changed since the first refuse collection vehicle bearing REMONDIS’s logo hit the streets of Minsk on 1 October 2010. REMONDIS has invested EUR 7.5 million in the joint venture with the City of Minsk (49 per cent stake) during the past ten years. Since its inception, REMONDIS Minsk has worked hard to roll out modern collection systems with upgraded infrastructure and new cutting-edge refuse vehicles and has commissioned facilities to recycle a number of material streams in the Belarusian capital. As the country’s sole PPP in the municipal services sector, REMONDIS Minsk is also helping to shape recycling and materials management throughout the Republic of Belarus. From the very first day, REMONDIS has endeavoured to implement our high standards in Belarus and has played an active role in fostering green growth in the country.

Above: REMONDIS makes sure that mercury is kept safe at all stages of the transport and treatment process. 

In the second issue of the REMONDIS International Newsletter this year, we reported on a project to ship 8 tonnes of mercury-containing material from Guatemala to our state-of-the-art facility in Dorsten, Germany. After looking at the shipment itself in the last issue, we want to continue the story by exploring what happens to this material once it arrives in Dorsten.

In the first step of this process, the mercury-containing material enters a rotary kiln to distil materials containing mercury and thus separate metallic mercury from the feedstock. In a vacuum mixer, the metallic mercury is then stabilised into non-hazardous mercury sulphide (HgS), which is subsequently sent to salt mines for long-term storage. REMONDIS also uses a vacuum tube kiln to distil material containing hydrocarbons and mercury, primarily serving customers in the oil and gas industry. You can learn more about the ins and outs of this technology on the REMONDIS QR website.

REMONDIS provides safe and environmentally sound disposal of metallic mercury and mercury-containing refuse for all kinds of companies all over the world. While 20 per cent of this business is within Germany and 50 per cent within the EU, some 30 per cent of our customers are located elsewhere globally in industries from oil, gas and chemicals to mines and recycling companies. We are also in constant contact with supranational organisations like the UN. REMONDIS handles all kinds of mercury-containing materials like catalysts, activated carbon, soil, sludge and batteries in compliance with the Minamata Convention and the EU Mercury Regulation – putting our expertise to work for a safer world.

Transdev employees Matt Carter, General Manager of Asset Management in Western Australia (left), and Nathan Chircorp, Western Australia Facilities Manager (right), talk about the partnership between Transdev and REMONDIS in Australia.

In the last issue of the REMONDIS International Newsletter, we reported on a recycling partnership between the sister companies Transdev and REMONDIS in Australia. We interviewed two colleagues from Transdev - Nathan Chircorp, Western Australia Facilities Manager, and Matt Carter, General Manager of Asset Management in Western Australia - on how the partnership is going and what noticeable improvements Transdev has experienced in its day-to-day operations since the two companies started working together with some impressive results so far.

1. How have you found the service REMONDIS has delivered so far? Is there any aspect of delivery that you are particularly pleased with?

The service REMONDIS has delivered since onboarding with Transdev in Western Australia in Early 2020 has been exceptional. The knowledge and expertise that the REMONDIS team displays on a day-to-day basis is second to none and enables both parties to achieve their goals in both an efficient and collaborative manner. This knowledge has also enabled Transdev WA to better understand its refuse streams in more detail and identify ways to reduce refuse and work towards reducing our carbon footprint as a business. It was at the height of the COVID pandemic in WA that we transitioned to using REMONDIS. This presented many challenges due to the constraints that remote working and limited contact presented. However, Transdev and REMONDIS were easily able to address all areas of works and smoothly transition with no areas for concern thanks to the expertise and professionalism displayed by both parties. This resulted in a positive impact to our recycling management processes from day 1 of the contract.

2. What are some of the main improvements you are seeing on site? Describe the before and after.

We have seen many improvements on site since our relationship began, from process streamlining through to increased refuse compliance capabilities. Most notably we have been able to significantly decrease our landfill refuse deposits from 85% to 11%. This means that 89% of refuse produced from Transdev WA is now recycled and managed in more appropriate recycling streams. This aligns with Transdev’s commitment as a major operator in public transport, in which we are naturally engaged in the fight against global warming and maintaining a sustainable environment. It takes no extra discretionary effort to segregate refuse at the source and now our people have a greater understanding of refuse minimisation, improving our environmental footprint and reducing cost. Together we’re making a difference and this reflected by the shift we’ve seen with our staff since implementing changes to how we manage our refuse. With the team at Transdev WA proactively applying these changes, it is easy for us to quantify the impact we are having.

3. Give us a little background as to why you think this has been a great initiative.

This has been a great initiative due to the many aligning values and industry experience shared between both REMONDIS and Transdev. Companies such as Transdev are driven by their core values and it is imperative in a partner company that these values are shared and understood. Being able to achieve what we have during the unprecedented circumstances of this year fills us with the greatest confidence that moving forward we can continue to build and develop the partnership we have created.