Circular solutions for a more sustainable water future

For businesses operating in circularity, there is simply no way around water.

Sewage water, running from every household, is rich in resources that can be harvested with technologies developed by our innovation company EasyMining. As we extract phosphorus, nitrogen, and metal salts from the sewage, we counter the unsustainable demand for virgin production while preventing eutrophication.

Collaborating with others to collect the sludge released into the ocean by fish farms, we put the raw materials and energy contained in the sludge to new use while safeguarding the coastal marine environment.

Water remains one of our most important industrial assets. We need it to cool equipment, separate raw materials mixed in waste, wash materials, and make them flow from one part of a facility to another.

With its ability to move chemicals, water has taught us to be watchful. Leachate and runoff from landfills and other facilities need to be closely monitored to make sure that we stay in control of what leaves the grounds, protecting nearby bodies of water and local sewage systems. We work constantly to develop new methods for capturing not only desirable elements in water, but toxins as well.

Climate change increases the pressure on us. It turns up the intensity of heavy rainfall, affecting the risk of flooding, which might carry unwanted substances out of control. Hotter summers and more intense thunderstorms mean a higher risk of fires having to be doused with large quantities of water, counteracting our efforts to keep stockpiles out of contact with fluids. The problem is amplified further by the increasing number of fires at our facilities caused by lithium batteries being disposed of incorrectly.

Today, centuries-old truths about abundant water resources no longer hold. Water needs to be regarded as a finite resource, to be protected and valued, and as a make-or-break part of any business plan.

This is also why we are active where legislation and regulation on water are shaped. We are represented on the board of Water Europe, working for innovative, sustainable water management. In 2025, our former CEO Lars Lindén spoke at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice about the urgent need to curb emissions of chemicals like PFAS into the seas, and Pär Larshans, Chief Sustainability Officer at Ragn-Sells Group, presented circular solutions for water and nutrient management at the UNFCCC conference in Addis Ababa. At the inaugural EU Water Resilience Forum, Ragn-Sells was the only company representative invited to share knowledge on how circular solutions can boost water resilience.

At Ragn-Sells, we have our feet in the water everywhere.

This article is based on content from the Ragn-Sells Group Sustainability Report 2025. Learn more about our sustainability work in the full report.