Recycling – from waste to valuable resource
The volcanic Diabase rock used in our production is not a scarce resource, being present in large quantities in most regions. Every year the earth’s volcanoes and plate tectonics produce 38,000 times more rock material than is being used to make Rockwool stone wool. Land, however, is a scarce resource. Finding good locations for new waste disposal sites is becoming increasingly difficult and unpopular in our congested modern society. The Rockwool Group has thus invested intensively in recycling systems.
The Rockwool Group's project for reuse of residual products from other industries is supported financially by the EU's Life-programme
Reuse valuable resources
The cupola furnace used to make Rockwool products operates at temperatures of more than 1500ºC. This means it is ideal for substituting virgin raw materials, such as rock and fuel, with waste materials of a similar chemical composition. Today, the Rockwool Group turns more than 300,000 tonnes of ’waste’ into a valuable resource. This industrial symbiosis benefits the environment, our industry partners and the Rockwool economy.
Since 2001 the relative use of residual materials from other industries has increased by 5% which is positive. However 2004 was atypical despite a historic record in the absolute tonnes of reused residual material, the relative use per production unit decreased by 8%.
Less landfill waste
In the Rockwool Group’s internal recycling system, stone wool waste and residue materials from other industries are compressed into recycling briquettes that are melted and processed into new stone wool.
Over the years our investments in recycling facilities have been significant, and today three quarters of the Group’s stone wool waste is recycled. Gone forever are the old days when mountains of stone wool residue could be seen on the landscape.
By introducing the Group’s recycling technology into our most recently acquired factories, waste levels have been reduced considerably. Compared to 2001 the amount of waste to landfill has decreased by 13%, impressively since 2002 the improvements have actually been 38%. Stone wool residue is also used in other industries, for instance as raw material in bricks.
Numerous leaching analyses confirm that stone wool process waste and used products can be deposited without problems at ordinary landfill sites for mineral waste with low organic content.
