The word ‘Scandinavia’ alone conjures up images of incredible natural beauty with untouched wilderness and endless forests. The Nordic countries have been pioneers when it comes to environmental protection, and that entails a lot of work in order to pass on to  future generations a clean world where natural resources are still available and waste is transformed back into valuable new materials. One such company that is hard at work ensuring this is the case is the region’s largest waste management company, RGS Nordic, based in Denmark.

The company recovers more than 4.8M/t of waste and soil annually at over 28 sites in Denmark and Sweden. It also operates the largest commercial wastewater treatment plant in the northern region located at the coastal town of Stigsnæs. The enormous amount of solid waste is a colourful mix of municipal, industrial and mixed construction waste, bulky waste, green cuttings and waste wood, which must be processed prior to subsequent recycling or energy recovery. To manage the different materials efficiently and flexibly, the company has since 2015 relied on Austrian company Lindner’s solid but versatile shredders. The fleet comprises of  10 ‘Urraco’ shredders, consisting of six of the 95 DK type and four compact Urraco 75D’s, one of which has a purely electric drive, all designed for working in tough conditions.

Jan Glerup, managing director of RGS Nordic, explains why the company has almost a complete football team of mobile shredders in operation: “We looked at several machines from different manufacturers, but there are two things that made us choose the Urracos. Firstly, we process a lot of different materials in large quantities. Everything from green cuttings to mattresses to mixed construction waste, which can be very diverse itself. What we need are machines that can be used flexibly without major retooling; machines that can handle even tough materials without any issues and deal with occasional non- shreddables without any major damage. That’s also incredibly helpful during peak times. When times get tough, we can simply reassign one of the Urraco’s and be ready for action at the push of a button. 

“Secondly, our facilities need to operate at all times. We expect the machines to be robust, and the cleanly welded, solid twin shaft system has proven to be just that. But it is at least equally important for us to have easy access to rapid service support and Lindner’s after sales team and our regional contact, Komi Contractor Supply (KCS), have an impressive client centred approach. We recently commissioned the ninth and tenth Lindner Urraco. I think that says it all.”

The subsequent recycling paths are, however, just as varied as the materials produced. Depending on their composition, the shredded fractions that are reduced in volume are used for subsequent recycling processes, composted or recovered as sources of energy, for example, to supply the Danish city of Copenhagen with heat and electricity.