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The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) is calling on politicians, businesses and the public to join forces and support its initiative, KlimaExpo.NRW, to tackle the challenges of the energy transition (switching from fossil fuels to renewables) and to make the adjustments needed to prevent climate change. Over the next eight years, this initiative will be showcasing exemplary projects – that are doing precisely this – to as large an audience as possible.
The objectives behind the NRW government’s ten-year initiative are not only to provide a prominent platform to present the wealth of expertise, technologies and processes used across North Rhine-Westphalia to combat climate change but also to make them known beyond the state borders. The waste management sector has also felt a deep commitment to protecting our climate and natural resources for many years now. In order to drive forward this goal, therefore, a number of stakeholders within the industry decided to found “Klimaschutz durch Kreislaufwirtschaft e. V.” [Recycling to prevent climate change], a non-profit organisation primarily made up of waste management associations and many waste management and recycling companies based in NRW. REMONDIS, of course, was one of the founding members and is also on the board. The aim of the organisation is not only to support KlimaExpo.NRW as a partner but also to ensure the sector itself creates its own momentum to spur on the project. Providing a united front, it will be focusing on promoting measures to slow down climate change.
The organisation’s inaugural event took place in SASE’s exhibition hall in Iserlohn on 15 June under the patronage of the NRW Minister for the Environment, Johannes Remmel. Mr Remmel also held the keynote speech, during which he highlighted the contribution made by the recycling industry towards preventing climate change. Moreover, the organisation was named an ‘official partner’ of KlimaExpo.NRW. Attended by around 100 people from the worlds of business, politics and water management, the event officially launched the future collaboration work between the stakeholders.
The project to optimise organic waste recycling activities in the district of Coesfeld has already been added to the list of officially recognised KlimaExpo.NRW projects. RETERRA, one of the leading businesses processing and recycling biowaste in Germany, opened its biogas plant on the grounds of the compost plant in Coesfeld last year. Dr Heinrich Dornbusch, senior managing director of KlimaExpo.NRW, explained that this project had been singled out because it not only meant that fewer fossil fuels were needed as the biogas was fed into the natural gas network but also because the systematic use of the energy and material contents of the organic waste had helped to reduce waste charges. “This is a particularly positive aspect as we have been able to demonstrate that environmental protection can go hand in hand with cost savings,” Dr Heinrich Dornbusch concluded.
REMONDIS is intending to submit further projects to the KlimaExpo.NRW to demonstrate other ways of combating climate change.
(from left to right) Thomas Patermann, VKU NRW, Deputy Chairman of Klimaschutz durch Kreislaufwirtschaft e.V., Hartmut Haeming, INWesD, Treasurer of the Association, Dr Heinrich Dornbusch, CEO of Expo Fortschrittsmotor Klimaschutz GmbH, Johannes Remmel, Minister for Climate Protection, Environment, Agriculture, Nature Conservation and Consumer Protection for NRW, Ernst-Peter Rahlenbeck, Chairman of the Association, Wolfgang Jung, Managing Director of Expo Fortschrittsmotor Klimaschutz GmbH, at the inaugural event in Iserlohn