With extreme heat shattering the national temperature record for England and the United Kingdom this past July, it was already going to be an unforgettable month. For Geminor UK, however, July also brought an unprecedented demand for materials for recovery and recycling, both domestic and for export, said Senior Account and Development manager, Oliver Caunce.
During that month, the company handled over 46,000 tonnes of waste - a company record for July volumes, and an increase of 75 percent from July 2021.
Established in Norway in 2004, Geminor is an international recycling company focusing on refuse-derived fuel, solid recovered fuel, recycled waste wood, hazardous waste for energy recovery, and paper & cardboard, plastic, and other types of waste for material recycling in the European market.
From the total volumes handled in July, 10 393 tonnes of waste wood, RDF - refuse derived fuel produced from combustible components from domestic and business waste, including biodegradable material and plastics, that are shredded, dried, baled and burned to produce electricity - and MSW were delivered to UK facilities. The export reached a total of 35 885 tonnes, which included RDF; SRF, or solid recovered fuel, which is an alternative to fossil fuel produced from mainly commercial waste including paper, card, wood, textiles and plastic; and waste wood being supplied from Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and England. Geminor loaded 11 bulk vessels from 6 different ports during the month of July.
In comparison, Geminor handled 6 319 tonnes for UK facilities and 20 101 tonnes for export in July last year.
The surge is primarily related to the need for energy security for this coming winter, explained Caunce.
“The European and Nordic WtE plants are preparing for the prospect that some economies may go into recession and have less local waste available. Any means of energy production that is not linked to Russia is therefore favourable at the moment. The markets that are normally off during summer, such as Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, are now busy taking material to store for the coming winter.”
He added: “There has also been significant disruption to the German waste market due to geo-political and macroeconomic factors. This has motivated some receivers to import through summer due to future uncertainty over supply.”
He said he expected this demand to continue into the autumn.
“We will be monitoring the market closely as we are moving into a more unpredictable period. Developing our supply chains and supplier bases will be important in to the effort to provide enough material for energy recovery and recycling all over Europe this coming season.”
Spiking demand leads to record processing volumes at Geminor UK
