MASTERS OF METAL RECYCLING Kuusakoski is a global leader in the recycling and refining of waste metals and plastics. Philip Yorke talked to Petri Halonen, the company’s CEO about its latest ‘green’ technology, its focus on the recycling of electrical goods and moving into new markets.
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ince it was founded in 1914, the Finnish company Kuusakoski has been committed to recycling natural raw materials. Recycling and refining waste metals in an environmentally friendly manner has also been a priority at Kuusakoski since it was first established. Therefore the company has a vast amount of experience in the recycling and refining of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, as well as stainless steel and more recently plastics. To meet the growing needs of today’s modern manufacturing industries, Kuusakoski continuously invests in new technologies to optimise the supply of its recycled raw products to the Far East, Europe, the USA and the Nordic countries. The extensive facilities at Kuusakoski enable it to produce recycled materials in both small and large quantities to the precise composition specified by its customers to suit their individual manufacturing requirements. 178 Industry Europe
Kuusakoski also provides its customers with advanced logistics systems and expertise to ensure that there are no interrupted material flows in production or in its worldwide delivery services. In 2011, the aggregate total volume of material being handled by the company was more than 2.5 million tonnes. Kuusakoski has more than 100 operational locations worldwide, of which 20 are in Finland, with others in Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, the UK, the USA, China and Taiwan. The consolidated turnover of the Kuusakoski Group in 2011 was almost €1 billion and currently the group employs more than 3200 people worldwide of which 1700 are employed in the recycling division. Today Kuusakoski is a global market leader that is capable of offering more dedicated, tailor-made solutions for its clients than many of its competitors. Kuu-
sakoski supplies secondary steel and aluminium ingots to foundries and steel mills worldwide, as well as exporting aluminium, non-ferrous and plastic scrap materials to international markets.
Recycling of electrical goods One of the most difficult and often most neglected areas of recycling is that concerning electrical goods. This involves more complex procedures than the recycling of many other products. At an early stage, Kuusakoski realised that this trend in demand was likely to continue and invested heavily in the design and manufacture of specialised, environmentally friendly technology to address the growing global demand. Hanonen said, “As an independent, family owned business we are able to be more flexible than many of our competitors and believe that we also have the edge when it comes to our advanced technology for
