Page 64 from: October 2013
64 October 2013
Open-air show
‘like the
real thing’
The biannual Recycling Aktiv
open-air show held at south-
west Germany’s Baden Airpark is
widely known as the ‘ultimate’
live demonstration experience for
both recyclers and machinery
manufacturers. With tropical
temperatures and a 15% upturn
in exhibitor numbers, this year’s
event certainly set some new
records.
Visiting the Recycling Aktiv exhibition grounds this year felt like nosing around
a scrap yard in the desert heat. On an early Sep-
tember afternoon, the temperatures at Baden
Airpark – a former military airport near Karls-
ruhe in the south-west Germany – climbed as
high as 34 degC. There was plenty of dust and,
moreover, plenty of noise.
All around, major recycling equipment manu-
facturers such as Lindner, Doppstadt, Hammel
and Sennebogen were powering up and show-
ing off their latest innovations, with giant
shredders, balers and grapples taking care of
cars and trucks, while strippers demonstrated
how to fillet 200mm diameter copper cables.
First held in 2007, the Recycling Aktiv open-air
show has become the ‘ultimate’ demonstration
stage for both recyclers and machinery manufac-
turers. ‘This is like the real thing,’ confirmed a
recycler from the north of Germany, adding that
‘no other live event in the business comes close’.
This is exactly what the German organiser of
this bi-yearly event, Geoplan, was targeting
with its ‘moving instead of standing still’ two-
in-one show concept, combining the worlds of
recycling and civil engineering.
Loads of scrap
To make a success out of a live demonstration
event like Recycling Aktiv, you obviously need
loads of scrap – and so some 800 tonnes of steel
scrap, 300 cubic metres of plastics, 250 cubic
metres of paper, 4500 tonnes of demolition
waste and 500 tonnes of wood had been trans-
ported to the Baden Airpark.
As for other facts and figures for this year’s
event, a total of 65 000 square metres of exhibi-
tion ground provided the stage for 229 exhibi-
tors and 281 brands, of which almost two-
thirds are active in the recycling sector. There
was an overall upturn of 15% in exhibitor num-
bers compared to the 2011 event.
Geoplan’s managing director Friedhelm Rese
calls such an increase ‘quite an effort, taking the
R E C Y C L I N G A K T I V By Martijn Reintjes
Austrian recycling machinery manufactu-
rer Lindner pleased the audience with a
live demonstration of one of its latest
mobile shredders.
Somthai Wongcharoen (centre) with two of his staff from Thai recy-
cling company Wongpanit.
Major brand names showing off ‘high performance’ grapples.
p00_Recycling Aktiv.indd 64 03-10-13 09:58
