VDMA Printing and Paper Technology Association asked its member companies to share their plans, solutions, and challenges in the “Circular Competence” interview series. What can the industry do for the environment?
Frankfurt – Erich Kollmar, along with his brothers Martin and Philipp keep the family-run Bellmer Group on an upward trajectory. Its success is due to its advanced plant technology, which allows for efficient paper and pulp production, water treatment, and closed-loop processes.
Are you using waste prevention and recycling in your own production process?
You can. As a company that has very high levels of vertical integration, disposing costs are the only reason we have to separate and return all residual materials to their original material cycles. In this area, resource protection and cost reduction are closely linked. We have been working to reduce the number of materials that we use, such as stainless steel, for over a decade in order streamline our processes. It is also easier to seperate by type.
What Circular Economy solutions are you able to offer your customers
Our plant technology permits water cycles in many industries. The largest market is components and complete systems for solid-liquid separation in paper, cardboard and packaging. This is where optimizing the production process can help increase recyclate ratios. We are also successful in 60 other industries and applications. Be it wastewater treatment on merchant ships or cruise liners, temporary water treatment at Olympic villages, or removal of stone polish from process water for gravestone production. We offer customers the possibility of converting or refurbishing their existing plants. Our teams work closely with customers to determine which components need to be replaced, and which are still in their useful life. These parts will still be in use. These projects also teach us how to optimize the design of new parts to make them easier to recycle or, even better, to repair with minimal effort rather than having to replace them. This helps us to create design guidelines and material selections that will help us move closer towards the circular economy. These are not small changes. When combined with the right material, decentralised permanent oil lubrication bushings can save a lot of lubricant over centralised lubrication. The design of components made from the solid material in special machine construction can be modified so that they do not need to be replaced entirely in the event of damage. A simple change to an adapter will suffice. This contributes to resource and energy efficiency. These optimisations are supported by our engineering teams. Bellmer has been following a master plan of continuous improvement for many decades. Regularly, we look at our solutions and talk about how to improve them. This is where sustainability and environmental aspects play a key role.
What does this mean for your research and development, and cooperation with customers and material suppliers?
There are exciting new partnerships emerging. One example is the collaboration with a Dutch manufacturer who makes boards from recyclates. He hopes to make durable advertising signs, as well as pressboards for trade fair construction or furniture industry. These are easily recycled because there is no glue. The first plant is running at its full capacity. The company is currently building another one. We are contributing our separation technology. Our research and development has been focused on resource efficiency and material cycles. The whole system is considered and we work to reduce the amount of materials and components used. Ecological, economic, and social considerations are all directly intertwined.
Is there an increase in the global demand for Circular Competence or is it more regional?
Many clients are more open to environmental arguments and care about sustainability. They do not always consider the total cost to own the machine before making an investment decision. It’s not always about the price of the purchase, but about how long the machine will last. More customers will be willing to pay higher prices for more efficient solutions, the more developed the market. Even in highly developed markets, we see that many players are more concerned about appearances than reality. Greenwashing continues to be a problem. However, overall, investment in clean technologies is increasing.
Regulation is often the driving force behind environmental protection. Do the Circular Economy’s framework conditions allow for the entry of the Circular Economy?
In many cases, I believe that limiting the focus to CO2 is a poor idea. Because it depends too heavily on where the system boundaries are drawn, whether a product or service is environmentally friendly. There is no gain if electric vehicles are powered by coal-fired electricity. German CO2 emissions are likely to drop if the steel is not made in Germany, but instead imported. It is not important to know how modern a steelworks or what energy sources they use, but it is crucial for global balance. To be able to see the whole system, rather than focusing on individual components to satisfy our consciences, we must take a holistic view. This can become too complex at a global scale. And the more complicated the system is, the more opportunities for those who are more interested to make quick money than in long-term solutions. It is important to have measurable, comprehensible and global-applicable parameters that are monitored for compliance. It is possible to attribute an ecological footprint to a metre worth of welding seams or to a kilowatt engine power that is oriented toward the most efficient process available on the market. This cannot be compensated for any other way. This is the only method to ensure that environmentally-friendly and climate-friendly solutions are quickly found their way onto the markets. But, complicated regulations that are unilaterally imposed can create unintended distortions. They actually weaken those who invest a lot of energy, time, and money in the development of clean technologies.