Sustainable recycling and alternative raw materials

Are you making the most of your alternative waste?

A sustainable society cannot afford for any useful waste to end up in landfill. Waste wood, process waste and most other waste can be put to better use, if you know how. At Stena Recycling, we see it as alternative raw materials. By this we essentially mean all waste that is not sorted as metals, plastic, batteries, hazardous waste, electronics, or paper and cardboard. When you work with us, you can rest assured that your waste always will be taken care of with the highest possible recycling rate, and always according to laws and regulations.

We receive and handle approximately one million tonnes of alternative raw materials every year. We are constantly developing our knowledge and methods to find alternative use for all your waste – and value-adding circular solutions without any landfill. This applies to everything from bio waste, process waste and textiles to scrap vehicle tires, demolition and construction waste, and more. We see this as one of our biggest and most important challenges.

Why choose Stena Recycling for your alternative raw material recycling?

1. Innovation

Thanks to our extensive experience and circular business mindset, we can help you find new ways to use your waste – whatever the material, whatever the volume.

2. Collaboration

Our large network of customers and partners enables us to find new creative combinations of waste producers and buyers.

3. Efficiency

Thanks to our efficient processes and logistics, we can make recycling profitable for a wider variety of waste.

Blomsterlandet and Alstrohm-Munksjö

Through an innovative collaboration together with Blomsterlandet and Ahlstrom-Munksjö, Stena Recycling has developed a climate-smart planting soil made of 100% recycled material. Peat, which is usually found in planting soil, is replaced by fiber mulch, which is a waste from the paper industry. The collaboration has created a more circular product.

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A pile of waste wood ready for recycling.

Waste wood recycling

The waste wood we collect is sorted into different quality classes and fractions. Undamaged wood pallets are separated for reuse while other qualities are crushed into chips. Metals in the form of nails and various fittings are removed and recycled. Some wood chip fractions are suitable for recycling as raw materials in the production of fiber boards. Other fractions are more suitable for energy extraction, and used as fuel in cogeneration power plants that produce district heating and electricity.

Mixed vegetable food waste ready for recycling.

Food waste recycling

Food waste includes food and animal by-products that are discarded – or intended or required to be discarded. Vegetable and animal fats are also included here. We collect food waste from logistics centers in the grocery trade, food production facilities, commercial kitchens, and supermarkets.

At our facilities or at our partners, packed and unpacked food waste is ground and refined into a substrate (slurry). The slurry is then transported to biogas plants where it is digested to biomethane gas. The gas is used as fuel for vehicles and in industry. The residual sludge is quality assured and used as fertilizer in agriculture, while the vegetable and animal fats are recycled as raw material for soap and biodiesel.

Glass recycling

Waste glass is very suitable for reuse and recycling. Using waste glass instead of virgin material (sand) can reduce energy consumption by 20% since glass melts at a lower temperature. Glass collected for recycling can include beverage bottles and jam jars as well as glass shelves, windowpanes, and windscreens.

The glass is sorted and separated from impurities like metals, plastic, and wood. Bottles, jars and windows are 100% recyclable, and can be recycled again and again, without any loss of quality. Other fractions are suitable for material recycling as raw material for glass wool, which is mainly used to manufacture insulation materials for house building.

Tangled textile strips ready for recycling.

Textile recycling

Textile recycling is a challenging task since most textile products are complex and composed of different materials. At Stena Recycling, we run several projects aiming to move textiles up the waste hierarchy. We collect and sort discarded textiles each year from fashion companies, furniture manufacturers, textile manufacturers, hotel chains, laundries and hospitals.

The textile is then divided into different fractions to meet the requirements from our recycling partners. We collaborate with several leading companies that innovate new technologies for textile recycling, in some cases right down to the polymer level.

Process waste from paper manufacturing ready for recycling.

Recycling of process waste

Process waste includes all by-products and waste from various manufacturing processes, typically in the pulp and paper, steel, and chemical industries. At Stena Recycling, we handle process waste mainly from the pulp and paper sector. We also handle inorganic materials from the steel industry, such as incineration slag and molding sand, which are suitable for material reuse.

In paper manufacturing, fiber mulch is a residual product that normally has no commercial use other than as cover layer on landfills. However, through innovative collaboration with two of our customers, we have developed a climate-smart soil for planting, where the organic ingredient – peat – is replaced by recycled fiber mulch.

Tires from end-of-life vehicles ready for recycling.

Recycling of tires from end-of-life vehicles (ELV)

At the end of its service life, a vehicle contains a considerable number of reusable components and recyclable materials, including the four rubber tires. We collect and sort ELV tires, which are then delivered to selected recycling partners. The recycled rubber can be used to replace some of the virgin material for producing other rubber products. Tires are also ideal to fuel the high-temperature process when manufacturing cement, where the steel cord is also used as raw material in the process.

Red grapple lifting a scoop of waste for incineration.

Energy extraction from waste for incineration

Even using the best recycling technologies available today, there are still some waste fractions that preferably should be used for energy extraction. This also includes substances and materials that are not suitable for circularity and should be destroyed. This fraction – waste for incineration – is used as fuel in cogeneration power plants that produce district heating, district cooling, and electricity.

The waste for incineration that we handle is distributed only to those plants where a safe handling of residues after incineration is ensured. The flue gases, fly ash, and bottom ash are cleaned so that no pollutants or other hazardous substances are emitted. The ash is then recycled as raw material for use in, among other things, concrete production.

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