UFH and REMONDIS to build recycling facility for cooling appliances

Lünen. Dr Helmut Kolba, managing director of UFH-Holding, has announced today that a recycling facility for cooling appliances is to be built in Kematen/Ybbs in Lower Austria. UFH-Holding is to hold a majority share (51%) in the newly established company, UFH Re-cycling GmbH. REMONDIS Electrorecycling GmbH is participating in the project as a strategic partner and holds a 49% share in the company - Kolba commented: “This joint venture with the world’s fifth-largest recycling business will break the monopoly on this market. From 2009 onwards, cooling appliances will be recycled at low cost in the new plant using state-of-the-art technology - and our customers will profit from the prices which will be around 50 percent lower than those charged by the previous monopolists.” This is also a pioneering project as far as environmental issues are concerned with UFH being the only domestic collection and recycling system that is also active itself within recycling thus closing the value-added chain for cooling appliances to the producer. Gerhard Jokic, managing director of REMONDIS-Electroecycling GmbH stressed that the realization of this project with UFH-Holding will mean that a further important milestone will have been achieved in the European development of REMONDIS’ e-recycling activities.

The decision to build this recycling facility was reached as a result of the increasing demand for secondary raw materials such as copper, iron, aluminium and - especially since the WEEE Directive came into force in August 2005 - the rapidly growing volumes of collected waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). In 2006, the annual volume of WEEE collected in Austria increased to 7.65 kilograms per inhabitant; EU rules stipulate that 4 kilograms are obligatory. According to the forecasts, approx. 65,000 tonnes are expected to be collected in 2007.

The volume of the recycling facility project will amount to around 7 million euros. Construction work is due to begin in Kematen/Ybbs in 2008 and the plant is expected to be put into operation in 2009. Around 25 employees will work at the new plant in three different shifts and process approximately 300,000 cooling appliances a year. This is the equivalent of an annual recycling volume of around 12,000 tonnes.

About REMONDIS
With its 17,000 employees, REMONDIS AG & Co. KG, a company based in Lünen/Germany, is one of the world’s largest privately run water and environmental service companies. REMONDIS runs its own plant network of over 500 facilities and has branches and affiliate companies in 21 European countries as well as in China, Japan, Taiwan and Australia. Each year, REMONDIS collects almost 25 million tonnes of recyclable and residual waste, processes the materials in state-of-the-art facilities and feeds the raw materials back into the economic cycle.
REMONDIS Electrorecycling GmbH operates a total of eight dismantling centres for waste electrical and electronic equipment across Europe. Besides being active in Germany where it has five plants, REMONDIS Electrorecycling GmbH can also be found, for example, in Troyes France and in Lodz in Poland. Different kinds of state-of-the art recycling technology is used to process the various material flows.

<link http: www.remondis.de>www.remondis.de
<link http: www.remondis-electrorecycling.de _blank>www.remondis-electrorecycling.de

About UFH
UFH Holding GmbH, which owns UFH Re-cycling GmbH, is based in the City of Vienna. UFH Elektroaltgeräte Systembetreiber GmbH and UFH Altlampen Systembetreiber GmbH are also part of the umbrella company and are market leaders in Austria for collecting and recycling waste electrical and electronic equipment. In 2006, UFH had a turnover of 9.9 million euros with its 14 employees and served 815 customers. 

<link http: www.ufh.at _blank>www.ufh.at

Further informationen:

REMONDIS SE & Co. KG
Michael Schneider
Marketing &amp, Corporate Communication
Brunnenstraße 138
44536 Lünen
T +49 2306 106-515
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