Recycling Centre Ostschweiz sets new standards with innovative processing plant
With the new type of processing plant, the Recycling Centre Ostschweiz (RCO) is becoming even more innovative. The wet-mechanical plant makes it possible to recycle an even wider range of residues from the construction industry and thus return them to the material cycle. In this way, the RCO is making an important contribution to sustainable construction.
A new soil washing plant has been built at Niederstettenstrasse 28 in Niederstetten near Wil SG. With the fully automated plant, RCO now also processes contaminated construction waste and returns it to the building materials cycle as high-quality materials. RCO expects about 200,000 tonnes of processed building material per year that can be reused in this way. This means that more than 500 single-family homes could be built each year from sustainable building materials.
Washing instead of landfilling
The wet-mechanical processing plant replaces the dry-mechanical plant that has been in operation for about two decades. “With the soil washing plant, we can now accept and process materials that previously had to be landfilled. This includes, for example, contaminated excavated materials,” says Samuel Graf, a member of the RCO board of directors. “This not only saves valuable landfill space, but also conserves natural gravel resources.” The materials are then widely used in civil engineering, for example as sand or gravel for concrete production.
Taking building materials recycling to the next level
The state-of-the-art process technology sorts, classifies and doses the various material components. “In addition, pollutants and foreign substances can be removed efficiently, which ensures a significantly improved quality of the products,” explains Stefan Eberhard, Delegate of the Board of Directors. “The building materials produced in this way are of high quality and conform to standards – this is also demonstrated by our company building.” This consists to a very large extent of recycled building material and serves RCO as a showroom to visually demonstrate the many advantages of sustainable building materials to customers and the public.
About the R CO
The RCO was founded in 2018 by the two companies Holcim Kies und Beton AG and Zürcher Kies und Transport AG. With their joint know-how, Holcim and Zürcher are driving innovations in building materials recycling, closing material cycles even more consistently and serving the eastern Swiss market with high-quality building materials.