PreZero, the environmental arm of Germany-based retail giant Schwarz Group, is steadily progressing its goal of closing the loops within the value chain through solutions for sustainable plastics management.
PreZero originated in 2009 under the name GreenCycle as a business activity to manage the Schwarz Group’s recyclables from Lidl, Kaufland and Schwarz Production. Today, it has grown into a waste and recycling management company that manages the waste collection, sorting, processing and recycling processes along the value chain, in Europe and North America. The company continues to grow at a rapid pace, adding new brands and making acquisitions, among others, of Suez Sweden. Following the completion of that transaction in December 2020, the company has started the integration process of the 50 sites and 1,100 new employees and has also changed the name to PreZero Recycling AB.
After the Schwarz Group put in place in 2018 its comprehensive REset Plastics strategy - designed, among other things, to reduce the amount of plastic used in its production and sales activities - the company has also worked to close the loop in other ways as well. Next to goals such as decreasing the amount of plastic used by the Group by 20% in 2025, and achieving 100% recyclable packaging by that same year, the recycling know-how within its PreZero business unit is now being applied to the development of new products.
“We promote the production of new products from packaging waste and offer them for sale in the retail divisions,” said Thomas Kyriakis, CEO of PreZero.
The packaging waste collected and sorted by PreZero is cleaned at two of its own recycling facilities in Europe and is then processed into regranulate. This reganulate is used to produce a range of household products made from at least 95% recycled plastic.
The products have been sold at Kaufland stores since the middle of January; since yesterday, they also became available from all Lidl stores in Germany. The assortment will be expanded in due course.