EXCURSION TO REMONDIS

During our visit to Remondis, we gained insight into different departments of recycling. One example is the processing of metal slag. This involves recovering the residual materials in waste products such as metal slag and furnace breakage. Metal slag is the layer that settles on the liquid metal during the melting and alloying process. At the end of the process, this layer is discharged onto the blast furnace together with the still liquid metal.
The residual materials contained are, for example, nickel, chromium or molybdenum. These materials are used to add special properties to the pure material.
The furnace breakout is basically the refractory layer inside the furnace. During the alloying process, traces of the alloying materials are deposited on this layer due to the extremely high temperatures. 
Another area we visited on our tour of the plant was the recycling of old electrical and electronic equipment. A distinction is made between the categories of refrigerators, freezers, large household appliances, small electrical appliances and display screen equipment. 
This is due to the fact that although similar substances are found in many of the appliances, they all require a different dismantling process. One of the great challenges in this area of recycling is that electronic devices are getting smaller and smaller and therefore the dismantling processes require more and more effort in order to be able to process them in their pure form. However, a major problem with electronic scrap at the moment is that many people do not dispose of it at the recycling centre or in the retail trade but in household waste. However, if you take a closer look at the individual components of many appliances, you will see that many of them contain valuable raw materials such as iron, aluminium or copper. 
Further categories of recycling are for example the disposal of animal risk material, the associated production of biodiesel and, of course, plastic recycling. 

Thanks to Lena Tuxhorn for the insights and guided tour

remondis.de


text: Milan Behrens & Parinati Tamboli