Fridge recycling venture for Bavaria

Germany – Electronic waste processor Stena Technoworld has built a recycling facility, capable to convert 360,000 refrigerators per annum.

The German division of the Scandinavian recycling conglomerate has setup the plant in Lauingen, outside Munich, in ‘record time’.

‘We offer customers the best technology available and achieve a high level of material recovery. Environmentally harmful freon gas is taken care of in an extremely secure closed system,’ says Staffan Johansson, CEO of Stena Technoworld GmbH.

According to the company, it is Europe’s most modern facility for refrigerator recycling. It is claimed that more than 97% of the material in refrigerators is recycled; the rest is refined into fuel.

Stena Technoworld has facilities in Wangerland, Langhagen and Baumholder, where large quantities of refrigerators and other electronics scrap from the German market are recycled.

In Lauingen in Bavaria, one fourth of the facility has been built and has been operating for just five months. From the first day, the facility has been running at full capacity, which is 360,000 refrigerators per year.

Each recycled refrigerator creates a significant environmental benefit and makes it possible to avoid up to 2,200 kilos of carbon dioxide emissions. The process prevents leakage of gases that are extremely detrimental to the environment. Recycling reduces society’s need for new raw material from oil, forests and mines, which would lead to higher carbon dioxide emissions.