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REMONDIS’ operations in the Berlin district of Neukölln began back in 1995 when the company set up two recycling plants there. One of these facilities is still being used today as a secure data destruction centre. The second plant was, at the time, the first dismantling centre for treating cooling appliances and e-waste. Other company units have been relocated to Neukölln over the years, including a photographic film recycling facility in 2002. A new paper sorting plant was commissioned in 2012 and has been responsible since then for recovering and recycling old paper from the Greater Berlin region so that it can be returned to production processes – making an important contribution towards preventing climate change. During a visit to the site, Borough Mayor Dr Franziska Giffey and Lutz Wedegärtner, a managing director at REMONDIS, took a look back at the facility’s successful track record over the last three years.
The sorting plant in Berlin is one of the most modern of its kind in Europe
Every year, the paper recycling operations reduce carbon emissions by over 75,000 tonnes
Since it was set up in 1995, REMONDIS’ Neukölln site has become of the most important industrial recycling centres in Germany thanks to its state-of-the-art recycling facilities. In 2011, REMONDIS and Berlin Recycling, a fully owned subsidiary of BSR, founded the joint venture “Wertstoff-Union Berlin GmbH” which then invested 10 million euros to build Germany’s most modern paper sorting facility at the Lahnstraße location in Neukölln. Since then, 20 new jobs have been created. Using a two-shift system, the plant is able to sort 120,000 tonnes of waste paper every year to supply the paper industry with high grade products. The waste paper comes from commercial businesses, retailers, industrial firms and private households. The volume of paper processed is more or less equivalent to the amount of paper that could be produced by using all the trees in the Grunewald forest near Berlin. All in all, these paper recycling operations reduce carbon emissions by over 75,000 tonnes.
During her visit to the site in October, Borough Mayor Dr Franziska Giffey underlined just how important the operations were as they created a win-win situation for the environment and for the regional economy as a whole: “We are proud to have REMONDIS and its modern, innovative and sustainable business in our district, which not only has a positive impact on Neukölln but on the whole of Berlin. 60 % of the paper generated in Berlin is sorted here at the Neukölln site and then returned to production cycles. The facility has not only generated new jobs, it is also helping to protect the environment.”
REMONDIS: 20 years in Berlin-Neukölln – a success story for the city, the local inhabitants and the environment.
Further investments have been made at the site since the paper sorting facility began operations. A new WEEE dismantling centre will soon be commissioned. REMONDIS’ Berlin-Neukölln industrial park employs a total of 500 people, whose everyday work is helping Berlin and the surrounding districts to achieve their sustainability goals.
(from left to right) Clemens Mücke, responsible for promoting trade and industry in Berlin, Lutz Wedegärtner, Managing Director at REMONDIS, Borough Mayor Dr Franziska Giffey and Martin Aweh, Branch Manager at Rhenus Data Office, during a tour of the Lahnstraße site in Berlin Neukölln