Heraklith® beats zero waste to landfill target

The Heraklith® Wood Wool Division has achieved Knauf Insulation’s For a Better World commitment to send zero waste to landfill by 2025, two years ahead of the target.

It has involved a lengthy process of looking at every waste stream and working with Heraklith’s waste disposal companies to develop new ways to recycle the materials.

A major landmark was when the plants at Simbach and St. Egidien in Germany found an effective way to recycle more than 1,700 tonnes of scrap generated from the manufacture of Heraklith® Wood Wool multilayer panels in 2019. The Rock Mineral Wool sawdust from these panels is now sent from Simbach in Bavaria to St. Egidien in Saxony to create new products.

In 2022, new equipment was developed at the Simbach plant to compact scrap Wood Wool and EPS dust into pellets enabling the waste to be used by other companies in recycling processes such as substitute fuel.

The final challenge was to find a way to avoid landfilling Wood Wool residue dust from the Heraklith® plant in Zalaegerszeg, Hungary. Following extensive testing to ensure the material could be composted, it is now used as soil for use in applications such as landscaping.

“Now we do not need to rely on the goodwill of companies to treat our scrap but have more options for it to be reused or recycled. It took many small steps over a long time, but we have finally achieved the exceptional result of sending zero waste to landfill,” he said.

You can read more on this achievement and Knauf Insulation’s For a Better World commitment on the Knauf Insulation website: https://www.knaufinsulation.com/zero-waste-to-landfill-landmark