For industries dealing with raw material such as steel or other metals, the quality of raw materials is absolutely critical. If material streams originating from waste are not sufficiently transparent to prove the same level of quality, it is very challenging to compete with virgin raw materials. Especially when current pricing models fail to account for the true environmental cost of virgin materials.
– As a producer, you know exactly what quality you get from virgin raw materials. For recycled materials to be able to compete with virgin raw materials, all actors in the value chain must understand the importance of precise sorting, says Jonas.
Plastics is one example where sorting is common, but not granular enough. Plastic waste often arrive in mixed fractions which are difficult to sort, making it challenging to recycle at a sufficiently high quality. The collected plastic cannot compete with the much cheaper plastic from virgin material and becomes worthless.
– Ideally, I would like for the people recycling their plastic packaging from last night’s dinner, to think of it as the packaging that will be wrapped around their dinner next week. Perhaps that could trigger the necessary behavioural changes, says Jonas.
The solution to challenges like this lies in understanding the entire value chain – from product design to recycling. Working with both upstream and downstream customers makes Ragn-Sells uniquely positioned to influence transparent flows of high-quality recycled material.
– Continuously improving our sorting routines means that we can trace materials much better. This means that we can guarantee our upstream customers that the waste they hand over to us is recycled correctly, and our downstream customers a quality level in recycled raw materials that increasingly can replace virgin materials in new production, says Jonas Wäneskog.
