Waste: Waste disposal giant Remondis is growing strongly

Whether it’s plastic, glass or scrap metal: Germany’s largest recycling company, Remondis, has grown significantly due to higher raw material prices. Sales were 12.6 billion euros last year and thus around ten percent higher than in 2021, Remondis said in response to a dpa request in Lünen near Dortmund. That was even more than a doubling within six years.

One reason for the increase in sales in 2022 is higher prices. These, in turn, were possible because the non-recycled alternatives were quite expensive. The family business does not publish the profit. The number of employees rose last year by around 1,000 to 41,000.

The business areas of Remondis include refuse collection, sorting and processing plants, power plants and services related to the topic of circular economy. This is about the reuse of raw materials through recycling, such as plastic. The company from North Rhine-Westphalia is the market leader by a clear margin, and one of the major competitors is Prezero from Neckarsulm in Baden-Württemberg. The company, which, like the Lidl discount chain, belongs to the Schwarz Group, brought in 3.9 billion euros last year.

Hope for more recycling

According to Remondis, the prospects are positive and it hopes that the legislature will take a tougher approach in the future in order to increase the use of recycled materials in industry. “German industry currently covers only 14 percent of its raw material requirements from recycled materials,” says Remondis spokesman Michael Schneider. This proportion should gradually be increased to 30 percent. This in turn would strengthen climate protection because less CO2 is released when using recycled materials.

Remondis spokesman Schneider also sees the state as having a duty. “The procurement volume of the public sector is huge, but the proportion of recycling hardly plays a role in the purchases.”