recycling for climate protection

Recycling for climate protection.

Reducing greenhouse gases – showing responsibility towards future generations.

2

ALBA Group-Recycling saves more than 7.7 million tons of greenhouse gases p.a.**Source: Fraunhofer UMSICHT

Fraunhofer UMSICHT The Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology (UMSICHT) is one of 60 Fraunhofer institutes in Germany. It performs research and develops applied process technologies for practical industrial use, thus playing a pioneering role in technical innovations in environmental, material, process and energy technology. Its main objective is to achieve a sustainable, environment-friendly improvement in the standard of living and to promote the innovatability of the German economy.

ALBA GroupThe ALBA Group operates in Germany and Europe as well as Asia and the USA with its two brands ALBA and Interseroh and around 200 subsidiaries and associated companies. Its workforce of about 9,000 turns over 3.2 billion euros a year, making the ALBA Group one of the leading recycling and environmental services companies worldwide. The operational activities of Interseroh concentrate on organising the take-back of packaging and products as well as on marketing scrap steel and metal, while those of ALBA focus on disposal services for municipalities, trade and industry, marketing of secondary raw materials, development and operation of recycling and production plants as well as development and implementation of facility services.

3

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

Speaking at the annual conference of the German Council for Sustainable Development in June this year, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) said our way of life and economic activities were no longer sustainable. Her conclusion on the results of the UN summit in Rio: “If we do not change our approach to the economy, we will deprive ourselves of our basis of existence.” Virtually no other head of state has ever formulated the need to change the way traditional sectors of our national economies work so clearly before.

No-one today denies that an economic system can only have a long-term future if it makes sparing and intelligent use of raw materials and is able to separate economic growth from the consumption of raw materials. This is particularly true for a relatively industrialised country with few natural resources such as Germany, which is increasingly reliant upon a reliable supply of raw materials. German industry also sees an adequate supply of raw materials as one of the top risks of the future. Waste is the main source of raw materials available to us and today the recycling industry already supplies the German manufacturing industries with raw materials worth around 12 billion euros every year. And growing. These materials would otherwise have to be imported at great cost.

One beneficial side-effect of the recovery of secondary raw materials from wastes is a significant saving in carbon dioxide, as attested for us for the first time in spring 2011 by the renowned Fraunhofer institute UMSICHT. Following an update to this study in autumn 2011, we are pleased to be able to present further results to you today: for the first time we consider savings not only in carbon dioxide, but in all greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons. The results are impressive: by reprocessing around 7.5 million tons of recyclable materials, the ALBA Group saved more than 7.7 million tons of greenhouse gases overall in 2011, corresponding to about one percent of the total German carbon footprint. You can find all further detailed results on the following pages. We wish you an interesting and informative read.

With best regards,

Management Board of ALBA Group plc & Co. KG

Dr Markus Guthoff Eric O. Mendel

Dr Axel Schweitzer

Joachim Wagner Martin Becker-Rethmann

Dr Eric Schweitzer

The recycling work of theALBA Group has been proven tomake an important contributionto climate protection.

Modern recycling and energy generation from wastes not only protect natural resources, but also the environment. They are one of the best methods whereby to reduce our carbon footprint and thus lessen the consequences of the greenhouse effect.

The ALBA Group verifiably saved more than 7.7 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2011 from reprocessing around 7.5 million tons of recyclable materials.

This present study compares the manufacture of aproduct from secondary raw materials with its manufac-ture from primary raw materials. A primary processis understood as a process in which products suchas paper, iron or energy are produced from primarymaterials. This includes all of the necessary logisticsprocesses. The secondary process describes theproduction of a product (e. g. plastic granules) andgeneration of energy from recycling materials(e. g. from waste wood).

Summary

The total output of greenhouse gases, also called carbon footprint, in Germany in 2011 amounted to around 917 million tons. The largest part was formed by carbon dioxide, followed by methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons. Like in a greenhouse, these gases trap the warmth of the sun in the earth’s atmosphere, thus causing climate change with the well-known consequences. While it is true that nature itself emits the largest quantity, it also helps to break it down again. The additional emissions simply overtax the eco systems. One of the answers to the problem of climate change is recycling.

Primary process Secondary process

Timber harvest Collection

Transport Transport

Raw material processing Sorting/Recycling

Primary raw material production Secondary raw material production

Comparison taking cellulose production as an example

4

Forward-looking and international The study calculated savings in all greenhouse gases for the first time. If you consider that, for example, methane is 25 times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide, it is only logical and compliant with the state-of-the-art that the study should take this overall view. The study also responded to economic trends by following the path of globalisation of many customers. The study was extended to include the Group’s national com-panies in Austria, Poland and Slovenia in the overall examination, but due to national peculiarities, only the German substance flows are shown hereinafter.

Valid results through a conservative approach Materials such as paper or polyethylene can be recycledseveral times in principle. Metals can be recycledalmost indefinitely. However, all of the calculations arebased on only one circuit in the economic cycle so asto obtain comparable data. Consequently, each materialfraction only receives the greenhouse-gas quantity for one recycling process. Duplicate counts were avoided by an intensive comparison of Interseroh and ALBA databases.

The study drew up greenhouse-gas balances for theALBA Group for the following materials: metals, wasteelectrical and electronic equipment, plastics, light-weight packaging, paper, cardboards and boards, glass and wood as well as for the first time also wastes for recycling. Utilisation of household and com-mercial waste by the mechanical-physical stabilisation process (MPS) was also examined.

Summary

5

Working together – for a better future The German waste management industry makes an important contribution to reducing greenhouse gases. In 1990 the industry still emitted almost 38 million tons of gases harmful to the climate into the environ-ment. Today, by contrast, it actively spares the climate 18 million tons per year

A comparison of greenhouse gas emissions from production using primary and secondary raw materials shows that the activities of the ALBA Group saved more than 7.7 million tons of greenhouse gases or 0.8 % of total German output in 2011. To bind this quantity of greenhouse gas, you would need a European mixed forest of 7,700 km² – which would be about the size of South Tyrol.

Summary

n Quantity recycled n Savings in greenhouse gases

ALBA Group savings in greenhouse-gas emissions in 2011

10,000,000

1,000,000

100,000

10,000

1,000

100

10

1

Metals

5,29

1,60

6 t

2,82

7,12

4 t

Waste electrical and electronic equipment

111,

903

t

110,

091

t

Plastics

305,

088

t

318,

453

t

Lightweight packaging

366,

942

t

510,

041

t

Paper, cardboards,boards

645,

909

t

1,60

7,06

4 t

Glass

155,

621

t

526,

763

t

Wood

149,

412

t

419,

710

t

Mechanical- physical

stabilisation

208,

750

t

310

,599

t

Wastes for recycling

17,1

61 t

326

,536

t

6

Ecological backpack

Recycling and the ecological backpack The ecological backpack is the symbolic representation of the quantity of all resources used to obtain raw materials. It may seem impressive if about one ton of recycled scrap iron can replace a ton of steel from iron ore because greenhouse gas emissions are kept low and primary raw material is not used. This, however, only considers the audit area of Germany. The figures do not show the use of resources during extraction overseas, cleaning of the ore or shipping to the blast furnaces in Europe. They also do not show the use of water and air or earth and clearance movements and their additional impacts on the environment. If you add up the mass of all resources used from production through to shipping and then subtract the one ton of raw steel manufactured and the materials as well as the energies needed for recyc-ling, you obtain the so-called ecological backpack. This backpack is usually much bigger than the product itself and indicates how the environment was impacted to obtain the resources used.

The ecological backpack focuses primarily on the sour-ces of the resources. Use of them is decisive for how sustainably our available natural assets are managed and how freely coming generations will be able to decide about their use.

When a country like Germany imports raw materials, semi-finished products and finished goods, these inflows of substances bring with them ecological backpacks that have not yet been incorporated in domestic raw material consumption. This backpack is particularly big in the case of ores and metals.

Recycling plays a leading role here because the expense for waste disposal is avoided, recyclables replace primary raw materials in the economic cycle and last, but not least, resources are spared overall in the global supply chain.

Although the methods for calculation need further deve-lopment and standardisation, they still point in the right direction for recycling management, a direction also being followed by the German Federal Environment Agency.

Questions for Dr. Hartmut Pflaum –Head of the Resource Management Division at the Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT

Why is it so important to look at the sources of natural resources?

Germany imports many important resources, for example metal ores, phosphate and graphite, today at a rate of 100%. Without a working global trade in resources, industrial production as in the last 60 years would not have been possible in Germany at all. The global trade, however, shows us how dependent we are on the availability of the resources and their prices. On top of this, every import hides the related environmental impacts at some other place in this world.

What do we mean by the concept of “sustainable raw material management”?

Put bluntly: disposal management was yesterday, recycling management is today. A start in sustainable raw material management can produce economic, ecological and social progress for a growing world population in the future. The aim of sustainable raw material management is to use substances at all levels of production and consumption processes as best pos-sible. The central task here is to achieve a holistic view including all input and output streams and to develop sustainable substance stream management systems.

=

1 ton aluminium

Up to 19 tons of ecological backpacks for aluminium

(abiotic material intensity)

7

8

Metal recycling profits froman almost constant quality of thesecondary raw materials.

gases compared to production of primary material – an outstanding savings effect. The lower emissions from the activities of the ALBA Group alone lay at about 2.1 million tons in 2011. This value corresponds to the quan-tity of greenhouse gases bound by a European mixed forest larger than 2,100 km² in size – or about the size of Luxembourg.

Ferrous and non-ferrous metals count among the non-renewable raw materials. Among the most important non-ferrous metals are copper and aluminium, and steel in the case of ferrous metals. Apart from the economic and ecological impacts of mining under increasingly difficult conditions, recycling of these materials has become a necessity alone because of their limited resources. The study examined the reduction in impact on the climate from recycling of the metal fractions aluminium, steel and copper. These are usually sorted scraps that can be recycled infinitely often practically without any loss in quality. With around 2.8 million tons of recycled ferrous and non- ferrous metals and savings in greenhouse gases of almost 5.3 million tons, the ALBA Group made a substantial contribution in this field.

AluminiumAround 60 percent of the approximately one million tons of aluminium produced in Germany in 2011 came from recycled material. Aluminium is still the front runner when it comes to savings in greenhouse gases through recycling. At around 10.64 tons per ton of recycled ma-terial, the ALBA Group saves more than 87% greenhouse

Metals

Steel The worldwide production of steel in 2011 amounted to 1.5 billion tons, of which Europe accounted for 177.4 million tons. The share of secondary raw materials in this volume worldwide lay at 44.2% and in Europe at 55.6%. Steel recycling in the ALBA Group also produces a good climate balance: around 1.16 tons of greenhouse gases per ton of input material or 68% of the greenhouse-gas

emissions of the primary process are saved by it. Therefore, by recycling more than 2.5 million tons of scrap steel, the ALBA Group reduced greenhouse-gas output by around three million tons in 2011. To bind this quantity of emissions, you would need a European mixed forest around 3,000 km² in size – a little bigger than the island of Tenerife.

CopperCopper occurs as primary raw material mostly bound in ore, albeit in very low concentrations: processing requires huge quantities of energy. Today about 33.8% of processed copper worldwide stems from the recycling of scrap copper, with the figure in Europe being even higher at 44.8%. Energy and other environmental impacts are therefore also reduced to a considerable extent.

This means a substantial savings in greenhouse gases of 2.59 tons is achieved per ton of copper through recy-cling, corresponding to 60% of the primary process. The ALBA Group saved a total of 276,000 tons in greenhouse gases from copper recycling in 2011. To bind this quantity of emissions, you would need a European mixed forest around 276 km² in size, corresponding to an area a little smaller than the city of Dortmund.

9

Metals

Savings in greenhouse-gas emissions in 2011 through recycling of ferrous and non-ferrous metals in the ALBA Group

That corresponds to the annual amount of greenhouse gases bound by a mixed forest of 5,300 km² – or about the size of the Eifel,a mountain range in Germany.

5,291,606 tTotal savings in greenhouse gases

Aluminium 2,093,333 t Copper 276,091 t Steel 2,922,182 t

Aluminium 7 % Copper 4 % Steel 89%

2,827,124 t Quantity recycled

Aluminium 196,839 tCopper 106,521 tSteel 2,523,764 t

== Aluminium 40 %Copper 5% Steel 55 %

Eifel

In keeping with the idea of sustainability, the ALBA Group does not have waste electrical and electronic equip-ment recycled abroad, but runs its own WEEE recycling plants inside Germany under strict technical and legal conditions. Our prime concern here is responsibility for our employees and the environment. The hazardous substances that develop during recycling are filtered out with modern technology.

Apart from plastics, we recover ferrous and non-ferrous metals as well as precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum. The UMSICHT study shows that the ALBA Group achieved average savings of 1.02 tons in greenhouse gases per ton of waste material through recycling of electrical and electronic scrap. The old material is recycled in four different collection groups

Recycling waste electrical and electronic equipment is today seen as a source of tomorrow’s raw materials.

Waste electrical and electronic equipment: collection groups and categories of the ALBA Group

* Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment

** Per ton of old material *** Reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions compared to primary production of the individual fractions in percent

Large electrical appliances Large domestic appliances such as washing machines and spin driers (without refrigerators)

Savings: 1.22 t greenhouse gases**; 68%***

Refrigerators and deep-freezersRefrigerators Savings: 1.03 t greenhouse gases**; 60%***

Video display units TVs and monitors Savings: 0.36 t greenhouse gases**; 60%***

Small electrical appliances Small domestic appliances such as toasters, shavers, vacuum cleaners and mobile telephones

Savings: 1.44 t greenhouse gases**; 69%***

The EU has set new standards with its amendment to the WEEE* Directive and has bound all member states to recycle 65% of the quantity of electronic articles sold by the year 2019. As a leading environmental services company, the ALBA Group began recovering valuable resources from waste electrical and electronic equipment through clean recycling even before the WEEE Act came into force.

10


11


Savings in greenhouse-gas emissions in 2011 through recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment in the ALBA Group

= =A mixed forest that could bind such a quantity of greenhouse gases every year would need an area of 112 km², which is about the size of the city of Graz.

Large electrical appliances 9%Refrigerators 17%Video display units 31% Small electrical appliances 43%

110,091 t Quantity recycled

Large electrical appliances 10,411 tRefrigerators 18,587 tVideo display units 33,811 t Small electrical appliances 47,282 t

Large electrical appliances 11 %Refrigerators 17 %Video display units 11% Small electrical appliances 61%

111,903 tTotal savings in greenhouse gases

Large electrical appliances 12,664 tRefrigerators 19,217 tVideo display units 12,045 t Small electrical appliances 67,977 t

Graz

Trade and industry demand innovative solutions for the recycling of plastics.

Polyethylene (PE) Polyethylenes are a group of plastics used, for example, as foils, containers or fibres and for injection moulding parts such as tubes or toothed wheels. Using modern processes, PE can be recycled multiple times without problem; per ton of material, around 0.67 tons of greenhouse gases are saved by the ALBA Group, which is a reduction in emissions of 48 % over the primary process.

The ALBA Group therefore saved a total of more than 111,000 tons of greenhouse gases through recycling of PE plastics in 2011.

Although there has been a steady increase in material re-cycling in Germany since about 2003, energy recovery, in which only the energy bound in the plastic by crude oil is used, still dominates slightly. Processes that first recycle the plastic material to enable re-use are much more sus-tainable. The carbon footprint is then much more positive than with energy recovery alone.

Thanks to advanced process technologies, the ALBA Group is already able to recycle 70% of the materials from the plastic wastes it processes. Old material is used to make new, high-grade plastics, whose quality can even surpass that of the initial materials.

More and more companies are converting their operations to sustainable, resource-saving and efficient production. Not only due to political pressure, but also out of their environmental awareness and for competitive reasons because reducing costs and improving productivity play just as an important role as the efficient use of resources and heat recuperation.

Plastics

Polypropylene (PP)Polypropylenes are versatile and used for a variety of purposes from household packaging and textile fibres to high-stress products such as car batteries and crash helmets. Pure polypropylene can be recycled almost any number of times. The savings lie at 0.62 tons per ton of material. The ALBA Group therefore saves 52% of the emissions of the primary process.

The total savings of the ALBA Group in PP plastics lay at more than 3,200 tons of greenhouse gases in 2011.

12

13

Plastics

Mixed plastics Mixed plastics arise in all fields of the disposal industry. Next to the separately collected fractions of PE, PP and PET, they comprise a variety of other plastics.

Recycling of them by the ALBA Group saves around 0.66 tons of greenhouse gases per ton of material, which means a 66 % lower emission compared to the primary process. In 2011 the ALBA Group was able to reduce the carbon footprint by almost 14,600 tons in this field.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) PET is known as the material for disposable bottles and other foodstuff packaging. The plastic is, however, also used for other purposes, for example in fleece fabrics for breathable sport and leisure clothing, airbags, seat belts and allergen-free pillows. The recycling of PET by the ALBA Group enables savings of more than 1.41 tons of green-house gases per ton of material, which corresponds to a reduction in emissions of 67% over production from primary resources.

The total collection rate for all PET bottles put on the market lay at 51% Europe-wide in 2011 – in a third of the countries the rate lay even higher at more than 70%.

In 2011 the ALBA Group achieved total savings of more than 176,000 tons of greenhouse gases through recycling of PET.

Savings in greenhouse-gas emissions in 2011 through recycling of plastics in the ALBA Group

= =This results in an annual binding of greenhouse gases for which a mixed forest of 306 km² in size would be necessary – an area a little smaller than the city of Cracow.

PE 52 %PET 39 %PP 2 %Mixed 7 %

PE 36 %PET 58 %PP 1 %Mixed 5 %


PE 111,156 t PET 176,119 t PP 3,218 t Mixed 14,595 t


PE 166,411 tPET 124,656 t PP 5,167 t Mixed 22,219 t

Cracow

New sorting technologies makelightweight packaging moreand more attractive as a resource.

14

Lightweight packaging

Lightweight packaging, or LP for short, are materials that are collected in the “Yellow bin”or “Yellow bag” in Germany, mainly tin foil, aluminium, composite drinks packaging, othercomposite materials on a paper basis and plastics. So-called same-substance non-packaging such as plastic toys or cooking pots are also collected in the “Gelbe Tonneplus”.

The main challenge with this material flow lies in thereliable, efficient separation of the material fractions.

In the field of recycling of lightweight packaging, the ALBA Group not only operates its own sorting plants, but also licences materials through the Dual System Interseroh. The Dual System Interseroh ensures that volumes put on to the market are collected, sorted and returned to the material cycle. In the study, the quantities recycled by ALBA* on behalf of the Dual System Interseroh were separated strictly from the rest and considered only there. The resultant carbon footprint relates in both cases to the savings achieved over the complete recycling process.

All materials collected together with the lightweight packaging including materials thrown into the wrong bin were considered. The activities of the ALBA Group in this field saved greenhouse-gas emissions of almost 367,000 tons in 2011.

ALBASavings of around 0.52 tons of greenhouse gases per ton of material were thus achieved across the complete recycling process for the materials sorted by ALBA. This led to a 63 % reduction of the emissions compared to the primary production of the individual materials. With a total quantity of more than 312,000 tons of sorted LP, ALBA’s work thus contributed to savings of almost 162,000 tons of greenhouse gases in 2011. The mixed forest compari-son results in an area of 162 km².

Interseroh Dual System The Interseroh Dual System led to average savings ofaround 1.04 tons of greenhouse gases per ton of licensed material** in 2011 for lightweight packaging. Since the Interseroh Dual System collected and recycled a higher quantity of LP in 2011 than was licensed, the savings factor was adjusted upwards. With a licensed quantity of around 198,000 tons of LP this means total savings of around 205,000 tons of greenhouse gases, corresponding to the greenhouse gas capture of a European mixed forest covering 205 km².

* Also on behalf of other system operators.** Related to a sorted lightweight packaging ton, the value lies at around 0.52 tons of greenhouse gases per ton of material.

15

Lightweight packaging – Gelbe Tonneplus

Gelbe Tonneplus The “Gelbe Tonneplus” is a further development of the “Yellow bin” that was successfully introduced by ALBA, for example, in Leipzig. Same-substance articles of metal,plastic and composite materials are collected in these along with packaging.

There is a positive economical and ecological effect inasmuch as all of the recoverable materials from the “Gelbe Tonneplus” can be processed in existing sorting and recycling plants.

The “Gelbe Tonneplus” system on the whole leads toa better collection of dry recoverable materials andold electrical equipment: around 6 kg of additionalrecoverable materials are collected per inhabitantand year. The potential greenhouse-gas savings rise by around 30 % per inhabitant and year compared to conventional LP collections commensurate with this positivebalance.

Increase in quality through best sorting technology The purity of plastic products from recycled materials is determined to a significant extent by the quality of sorting. The ALBA Group runs its own sorting plants for lightweight packaging and other material fractions. The computer-aided technique of NIR separation on the basis of infrared light is the most modern technology of its kind currently available in Europe.

A unique process called Recycled-Resource has been developed to enable comprehensive material recycling of used and sorted plastics.

Recycled-ResourceIn this innovative process various types of recyclates are manufactured from old plastics: in the first stage Recythene* is produced and in the second Procyclen*. Recythene is a sustainable plastic granulate that can be admixed or processed in suitable applications. It can also be processed further to make the new-material substitute Procyclen. Thanks to the latest process tech-nology, the materials gained in this way – high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polyethylene (PE) and polystyrene (PS) – have a constant high quality.

Recycled-Resource therefore closes the material cycle on an on-going basis: from licencing of the plastic packaging in the Dual System Interseroh, collection in the Yellow Bin, sorting and processing to compounding and support in the production of new products and packaging.

16

Lightweight packaging – Closed loop

* Registered trademark.

Recythene

Material collectionHigh-quality packaging and products

As raw materials supplier, we close material cycles with Recycled-Resource.

Procyclen

RecytheneThe sustainable granulate for admixing with industrial materials or production of simple products boasts a high level of purity and dryness. The product is especially suitable for extrusion and injection moulding applications and comes in the colours black and grey.

17

Lightweight packaging – Closed loop

** The calculation of greenhouse-gas savings relates for the period 2011 exclusively to conventional collection with the Yellow Bin or Yellow Sack.

ProcyclenThe recipe for this new-material substitute can be custo-mised with regards to fluidity, impact strength, stiffness as well as UV and heat resistance. It comes in certain colour ranges in the RAL colour system. The compounds are tailored exactly to the specific requirements of the cus-tomer and are used mainly in injection and blow moulding production processes.

This innovative recycled plastic won the BHB Special Award in the category “Sustainability” in 2012.

Savings in greenhouse-gas emissions in 2011 through recycling of lightweight packaging** in the ALBA Group

= =Dual System Interseroh 39 %ALBA 61 %

Dual System Interseroh 56 %ALBA 44 %

A mixed forest able to bind an equivalent quantity of greenhouse gas annually would be about the size of the city of Dresden, namely 367 km².


Dual System Interseroh 197,837 t ALBA 312,204 t


Dual System Interseroh 204,963 t ALBA 161,979 t

Dresden

Recycling the classic materialspaper, cardboards and boards profits from modern processes.

The world population uses an average of 57 kilograms of paper per person and year, a European around 167 kilograms and a German about 243 kilograms – and this in spite of the increasing use of electronic media. A total of 22.6 million tons of paper, cardboards and boards were manu-factured in Germany in 2011, with about 71% of it stemming from waste material. By increasing the use of recovered paper, the German paper industry has succeeded in reducing the specific environmental load. The use of recovered paper also protects our forests, which play an instru-mental role in binding greenhouse gases.

18

Good sorting is also a prerequisite here for high-quality recycling. Thanks to modern processes, the ALBA Group is able to separate the main fractions by purely mechanical means.

Compared to other materials, emissions from paper pro-duction are low. However, the consumption of both water and energy is much lower in the production of paper fibres in a recycling process than in primary production. When comparing the balances, it is mainly transportation for collection and delivery to paper mills that bear an impact in the secondary process.

Paper, cardboards, boards

74812

19

Paper, cardboards, boards

The savings in greenhouse gases for the business units of the ALBA Group lay at an average of 0.40 tons per ton of old material in 2011. This corresponds to a reduction of 79% compared to the primary process. In achieving these savings, a total of 1.6 million tons of paper, cardboards and boards were recycled and the carbon footprint reduced by almost 646,000 tons of greenhouse gases.

Apart from the general paper, cardboards and boards collection system, the study also considered the recycling of kraft paper sacks by REPASACK. REPASACK, a member of the ALBA Group and the market leader in the industry, runs its own special and sustainable take-back system with a recycling plant that is unique in Europe. Kraft paper sacks in their various forms are to be found everywhere in industry where they are used for seeds, chemicals, animal feed, flour and countless other purposes. Due to their first-class recyclability, they count among the most environment-friendly forms of packaging.

Savings in greenhouse-gas emissions in 2011 through recycling of paper, cardboards and boards in the ALBA Group

1,607,064 t Quantity recycled

= =A mixed forest of 646 km² in size would be needed to bind a comparable quantity of green-house gases annually – an area, therefore, that is a little bigger than the city of Zagreb.


Zagreb

Old wood can also be recycled, e. g. to produce chip-board, though only higher quality woods can be usedin this case. Woods of a lower quality or old wood thatis contaminated with pollutants are recycled by meansof pyrolysis or similar methods.

The savings in greenhouse gases by the ALBA Grouplay at around 0.36 tons per ton of waste material in2011. Overall the ALBA Group recycled around 420,000 tons of waste wood, whereby the carbon footprint could be reduced by more than 149,000 tons of greenhouse gases.

Thanks to tried-and-tested processes, wood and glass can be recycled efficiently and sustainably today.

The recovery of fuels with neutral carbon-dioxide balance and recycling of wood are an important contribution to climate protection. Waste wood serves as a CO2-neutral fuel in climate-friendly energy supply: the carbon dioxide released during energy recovery was previously bound in the wood in a natural way by photosynthesis. About two million tons of wood undergo material recyc-ling in Germany every year, which corresponds to about 20% of the volume of processed wood.

20

Wood

Savings in greenhouse-gas emissions in 2011 through the recycling of wood in the ALBA Group

A mixed forest of 149 km² in size, or an area corresponding to the size of the city of Maribor in Slovenia, would be needed to bind a comparable quantity of greenhouse gases annually.



Maribor= =

Old glass is an ideal secondary raw material thatcan be recycled without problems. New bottles canbe produced almost completely from shards with noloss of quality. One prerequisite is an optimum purityof the fine granulate that can be used with no furtherprocessing by the glassworks. The old glass sortedand processed by the ALBA Group satisfies the highestof requirements. The eliminated impurities arealso recycled: the ALBA Group forwards them to theprocessors of the relevant materials from where theyare returned to the raw materials cycle.

The ALBA Group recycled a total of around 527,000 tonsof waste glass* in 2011, achieving a reduction in pollution of the atmosphere of almost 156,000 tons of greenhouse gases. The savings lay at around 0.30 tons per ton of old material and correspond to a reduction of 92 % in comparison to primary production.

About 4 million tons of container glass were produced in Germany in 2011, around 63 % ofwhich came from recycled old glass. This high share was supported by better and bettersorting and separating methods. Even the smallest grains of glass measuring only 5 millimetres were collected and impurities such as ceramics or wrong colours were reliably eliminated.

21

Glass

*Also on behalf of other system operators.

Savings in greenhouse-gas emissions in 2011 through recycling of glass in the ALBA Group

Converted to a mixed-forest equivalent, an area of 156 km² or a little smaller than Brussels would be needed to bind the same quantity of green-house gases annually.



Brussels= =

Mixed commercial wastes also have a recycling and climate-protection potential.

The primary aim of recycling of sortable mixed commercial wastes is to recover the fractions that can undergo mate-rial recycling. To this end, wastes for recycling are passed on to sorting facilities in which the materials are separa-ted by highly effective separation techniques. The parts that cannot undergo material recycling also contribute to climate protection as they are used as substitute fuels in cement factories or in efficient incineration plants outside the ALBA Group. This minimises the use of, for example, coal to generate energy.

The ALBA Group achieved greenhouse-gas savings of more than 0.05 tons per ton of waste for recycling in 2011. Overall, more than 326,000 tons of wastes for recy-cling were recycled, resulting in a reduction in the carbon footprint of more than 17,000 tons of greenhouse gases.

The German Closed Substance Cycle and Waste Management Act defines the avoidance of waste as top objective, and in second place their material recycling or recovery of energy from them. In contrast to pure residual waste, in other words waste for disposal, wastes for recycling are reusable.

Wastes for recycling

22

Savings in greenhouse-gas emissions in 2011 through wastes for recycling in the ALBA Group

A mixed forest of 17 km², or an area about the size of the german island of Spiekeroog, would be needed to bind a german corresponding quantity of greenhouse gases annually.



Spiekeroog= =

23

Production of climate-friendly fuels by modern process technology.

The substitute fuel produced by MPS (55% of the quanti-ty) is used energetically for combustion with other fuels in cement factories or power stations and replaces mainly high-polluting lignite. The advantages of the MPS process are, among others, the production of fuels appropriate for their particular uses in a constant quality and short processing times. Up to 98% of residual wastes can be used to make them. The dominantly biogenic component of more than 70% of the carbon in the substitute fuel means the fuel has a high level of CO2-neutrality.

The ALBA Group’s MPS plants saved 0.64 tons of green-house gases per ton of household waste and around 0.87 tons of greenhouse gases per ton of commercial waste. Overall, the savings in greenhouse gases in Berlin in 2011 amounted to more than 208,000 tons.

Mechanical-physical stabilisation (MPS) is a method to recover substitute fuels fromdomestic and garden wastes and is regarded as the most innovative ecological wastetreatment method. The ALBA Group has built two of Europe’s most up-to-date MPS plantsfor environmentally compatible and economical waste treatment in Berlin and is alsoresponsible for marketing the products.

Mechanical-physical stabilisation (MPS)

Savings in greenhouse-gas emissions in 2011 through MPS in the ALBA Group

A mixed forest of 209 km² or about the size of the city of Amsterdam would be needed to bind an equivalent quantity of greenhouse gases annually.

= =310,599 t Quantity recycled

Household waste 271,610 t Commercial waste 38,989 t

Household waste 87%Commercial waste 13%

Household waste 84%Commercial waste 16%


Household waste 174,875 t Commercial waste 33,875 t

Amsterdam

Dat

e 09

/12

Contact

ALBA Group plc & Co. KG Bismarckstraße 105 10625 BerlinGermany

INTERSEROH Dienstleistungs GmbH Stollwerckstraße 9a 51149 CologneGermany

[email protected] www.albagroup.de/en

recycling for climate protection

Documents

raw materials worth

consumption of raw materials

alba grouprecycling

alba groupthe alba group

recycling industry

alba focus

german industry

brands alba