Sutco Recycling Technik: Nothing goes to waste

While environmental campaigners and waste-conscious politicians have encouraged recycling, the actual impact of re-using waste material on the environment can sometimes be quite damaging. There is often a considerable carbon footprint that emerges from the process of recycling, from the energy consumed, the emissions put into the air and the traffic created through transportation.

Such inefficiencies can be avoided through tight controls and partnerships across the supply chain – something that German-based recycling firm Sutco Recycling Technik has perfected. Speaking to The New Economy, Sutco’s Darren Davis explains how the methods they have put in place have meant greater efficiencies and reduced costs for clients.

Although Sutco itself specialises in the manufacture of treatment and sorting plants for waste management companies, the process by which it recycles materials means it can offset the emissions it generates. Davis says: “We try to get as much recyclable material as we can through the process, from the start right the way to the finish. Although we’re probably a burden at one end, we can off-set it at the other end by what we’re producing.”

Environmental impact
The range of materials that Sutco are capable of recycling is vast, allowing them to cater for many different types of client. While metals and plastics can be processed, Sutco is also capable of recycling organic material, which can be put to use in other ways. As Davis says: “We can produce recyclers that can process different types of materials: plastics, ferrous metals, non-ferrous metals, aluminium and different grades of paper.

“We can also process an organic-rich material that can then go for composting. We have a partnership with another company, where we do the frontend sorting and they do the anaerobic digestion (AD) side of things. So we can produce a compost and from that we either get a biogas or other electricity produced.”

The obvious advantage of generating energy from waste is that it allows Sutco and its clients to power other industries, as well as bringing down the carbon footprint associated with the initial recycling process: “It means we can produce a refuse-derived fuel (RDF) from the waste that’s left, so that can then go into a waste or energy plant. Or if you’re looking for a high-grade solid recovered fuel, we’re building plants at the moment to go into the cement industry, so they’re not using the fossil fuels to generate the heat to run the kiln: they’re using waste.”

Davis says that the company is seeing a lot of interest from clients looking to harness secondary fuels: “There’s been a lot of interest in it. It depends on the product. There’s a lot of food waste that’s going into it. A lot of wet AD for the agricultural side as well, which is producing electricity and a material at the end that needs disposing of, which can be used as some kind of fertiliser. On the dry side, it really depends on the end user. We can produce compost or a landfill covering, and so it really depends on individual customers’ requirements.”

Recycling for big and small
Sutco’s clients include some of the biggest waste management companies in the world. The company is spread across Europe and around the globe, with subsidiaries covering different regions. Davis explains: “We’re used by the big waste companies in the UK – including Veolia, Shanks and Viridor – and around Europe. We have Sutco UK, which deals with the UK and Ireland. Then there’s Sutco Iberica, which covers Spain, Portugal, Brazil and across Latin America. Sutco Recycle Technik covers Germany, and Sutco Polska covers Poland and Eastern Europe.”

While the bigger firms account for most of Sutco’s business, they are able to work with smaller, local firms: “We also cater for family run, smaller waste firms. We can help local waste management companies as well as the big firms. It’s really the small- and medium-sized waste management companies that are really looking at the RDF production, and recycling as much as they can from landfill.”

A considerable advantage that the company has is its place within the structure of the LM Group of companies. The group includes Ludden & Mennekes, which is one of the leading providers of pressing equipment as well as transportation of recyclable material and waste. There is also unoTech, which provides baling equipment that secures the materials at the end of the recycling process.

Davis says these relationships mean they are able to cater for the entire recycling chain: “We’ve got all bases covered, with the transport, the processing, and the baling taken care of. Each company deals with different arms and parts of these waste management companies. We’ve got links to people in the field, on the ground, and right up to board level. We cover a wide spectrum within the waste management industry. “

Different customers, different needs
Although the company is able to cover the many aspects of the recycling process, they are aware that all clients are different, and so catering for their individual needs requires a certain level of flexibility. Davis says: “Every customer is individual and there’s no off-the-shelf design that fits. Wherever you go, waste changes and the customer’s needs are slightly different. We have to work in a close partnership with each individual client to come up with the best solution that’s going to give them an efficient plant and the maximum return for their end product.”

Sutco expects to continue serving the many different facets of the recycling industry, and while there is an ever-increasing emphasis on re-using the many abundant materials around the world, the company will strive to deliver the best service they can. They are constantly looking to the future and researching ways in which they can enhance their equipment so that they are able to deal with the demands of the different materials that need to be recycled.

As Davis says: “The design of our equipment has evolved over the years so it’s efficient and can deal with the rigours of different materials. It’s about using and adapting the equipment to see different ways you can get better quality material out of it and results from it.”