MAKING THE MOST OF WASTE METALS Kuusakoski is a global leader in the recycling and refining of waste metals and plastics. Industry Europe looks at the range of ‘green’ technologies on offer from the company.
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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. 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. The company 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 and USA, China and Taiwan. 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. Kuusakoski 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. A company spokesperson 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 processing ferrous and non ferrous metals. Today our main focus in geographical terms is the US market where we are now well established in Chicago and Philadelphia. We are looking at the big picture for recycling there and in particular we have invested heavily in new technology for the recycling of electrical goods, where we see a global increase in demand. This is an area where we have a clear technological advantage. We have also recently opened a sales office in China, but most of our recycling operations are carried out at our major plants in Sweden, Finland, Russia, Denmark, UK and the USA. “As we go forward we are aware that the market is becoming more and more crowded due to the fact that it is a financially attractive market to be in. This is mainly because it is likely to continue to see strong growth for the foreseeable future. However, growth in the mature markets has now stabilised and it is the emerging markets, where recycling is still in its infancy, that the main growth will come Industry IndustryEurope Europe 255
