We are leading the transformation to circularity
Ragn-Sells has an important role in the shift towards a circular economy. Customers’ requirements relating to the quality of recycled materials are getting tougher, while collection customers want to their waste to be traceable, as well as new applications being found for it. With a significant focus on materials and customers, digital services, extensive experience and innovative solutions and partnerships, Ragn-Sells is leading the transformation to circularity.
Ragn-Sells’ business area Recycling collects and recycles waste, as well as directing recycled materials onward into new processes.
– Of course, recycling different materials isn’t new to us: it’s something we’ve been doing for many, many years. What makes it more complicated now is that there are new types of material on the market, while the regulatory requirements and grades of material recycling are increasing,” says Jon Lille-Schulstad, Material Sales & Trading at Ragn-Sells.
Downstream and Upstream Customers
Susanne Stenmark, Production Development at Ragn-Sells, explains that there are two types of customers that the organisation has to take care of.
– We have the customers from which we collect material (upstream) who no longer need the materials we collect from them. We also have downstream customers who receive these materials and make something new out of them. At the same time our upstream customers are increasingly making greater demands relating to the traceability of waste they dispose of through us.
– Upstream customers are more and more interested in what happens to their waste during the next step because they want to be more sustainable and have to be able to report back to their shareholders and society as a whole. The key for us is to be efficient, to handle large volumes and to ensure we can track material,” says Anders Kihl, Strategy and R&D at Ragn-Sells.
Putting customers first
Successfully changing the flow requires a tremendous customer focus - and a particularly strong understanding of existing and new customer requirements.
– The world is currently undergoing a lot of changes, and we are seeing that our customers want to be part of the circular economy. The most important thing is to make it easy for the customers and to ensure that everyone at Ragn-Sells - no matter where we work - puts the customer first and takes responsibility for providing our customers with a great experience,” says Bente Sørum, Sales and Marketing at Ragn-Sells Norway.
– Furthermore, we want to be at the forefront of everything related to digitalisation so that we can keep in touch with our customers on their own terms. We to provide them with solutions to their problems by optimising their waste management. Customers are increasingly eager to make use of self-service solutions and do things by themselves,” says Bente Sørum.
Big Focus on Materials
When recycled materials move on into new processes, it is especially important that their quality is guaranteed.
– Quality requirements will increase substantially in future as our recycled materials enter new circular processes. This will mean it is very important that we can supply the right quality at the right time - which is what our downstream customers want,” says Susanne Stenmark.
– Our key role is to collect the right materials of the right quality, combine these with other similar materials and ensure that the quality is sufficiently high,” Anders Kihl adds.
Innovation and Cooperation Important
In order to enhance the degree of recycling to ensure that materials can be made into new products and to support other initiatives that help the environment, Ragn-Sells is working on an ongoing basis to develop new, innovative solutions and partnerships that bring together different industries. Examples of this include Älskade stad and Highway to el.
– We are constantly looking for new solutions from our industrial customers and in the market as a whole to see whether we can find new applications for waste-based products,” says Jon Lille-Schulstad.
Experience is Advantageous
The fact that Ragn-Sells is a major group with extensive experience is a clear competitive advantage.
– We’re a large player, and we have a long and proud past in the recycling business. What we are now seeing in the transformation to a circular economy is that the manufacturing industry wants to replace virgin raw materials with recycled or renewable materials. In order to do so, they need large volumes of materials, so being a large supplier is a clear competitive advantage,” says Anders Kihl.
– We have fantastic expertise at Ragn-Sells, both in terms of logistics and the incredible bank of knowledge relating to materials that we have built up over the years. Going forwards, this means we will be able to drive forward change and remain a powerful player,” says Susanne Stenmark.