ReFood
| Refood GmbH & Co. KG
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|---|---|
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| legal form | GmbH & Co. KG |
| founding | 1991 |
| Seat |
Selm , North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany
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| Branch | service provider |
| Website | www.refood.de |
The ReFood GmbH & Co. KG is a subsidiary of Saria SE & Co. KG, in addition to Remondis and Rhenus one of the three divisions of the Rethmann -Konzerns. The company deals with the collection and recycling of kitchen and food waste, used cooking oils and food waste from food production and trade. ReFood operates a total of 20 logistics and production companies in Germany with a raw material turnover of around 500,000 tons per year (as of 2018), the company does not publish any current sales figures, according to media reports, sales in 2007 amounted to 80 million euros with a disposal volume of 350,000 tons .
Food recycling
In Germany, the feeding of heated food leftovers in pig fattening had a long tradition. Since November 1st, 2006 this feeding has been banned throughout the EU. Therefore, another recycling method had to be found for the collected food residues, which companies such as ReFood GmbH developed with a collection, transport, transshipment and recycling concept. This fulfills legal requirements, on the one hand, to collect food residues of all kinds in terms of epidemic hygiene and prophylaxis and, on the other hand, to produce electrical and thermal energy from this biomass using biogas production . Leftovers (unpacked and packaged) were and are being collected in retail stores as well as in canteens, cafeterias, small catering establishments, restaurants and hotels.
Company structure
In the ReFood plants, the collected materials are unpacked, shredded and further processed in accordance with the current EU regulation on animal by-products No. 1069/2009 and the related implementing regulation (EU) No. 142/2011. Our own vehicles are used throughout Germany to collect leftover food. Since ReFood can fall back on numerous capacities within the Saria and Remondis groups , there is always enough disposal capacity. In addition, the company's own biogas capacities are supplemented by fixed contractual relationships with approved fermentation plants .
Service and products
Collection vehicles pick up the filled food waste containers (waste bins 120 and 240 l) from customers in individually coordinated collection rhythms and exchange them for new, cleaned and disinfected ones. This system is used across the board because of the increased customer requirements for cleanliness and hygiene .
At all ReFood branches, the containers go through a fully automatic cleaning process after they have been emptied. The cleaning water from the container washing lines is fed to the process water, so that there is less environmental pollution.
Food and food leftovers are unpacked, shredded, pasteurized (70 ° C for 1 hour), degreased and then processed as homogenized (pumpable shredded) material, which is brought to the biogas plants by silo vehicle .
Lockable waste bins are usually used as a collection container for used cooking oils and deep-frying fats . Here ReFood has introduced a new type of container: the Oleo 90. In addition to a large filling volume (100 l or 90 kg), it is easy to handle (rollable with handles). The used cooking oils and deep-frying fats that are collected are used for the most part in the production of biodiesel .
For the sister company ecoMotion GmbH, they are centrally collected, melted, cleaned and centrifuged before delivery to the biodiesel plant. The last step in processing is sedimentation in settling tanks for several hours . The fats cleaned in this way are an ideal starting material for the production of biodiesel.
Plastic waste in the loop
Because the digester for biogas generation at the Schleswig sewage treatment plant is not being used to capacity, the Schleswig municipal utilities agreed with ReFood in April 2016 to deliver additional organic materials.
At least since the beginning of 2017, the plastic packaging from stored food was no longer separated, but everything was shredded together . Every year 15,000 tons of organic waste with "foreign bodies" were delivered. The supply contract between the municipal utilities and ReFood, which has now been published, clearly pointed out the presence of foreign bodies and also stated that it is the municipal utility's obligation to separate the foreign substances when they release the organic materials into the environment after the biogas has been extracted.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Location map on company website, accessed February 18, 2019
- ^ ReFood website: Renewable Energy. Retrieved February 21, 2019 .
- ↑ Stromtarife.de: ReFood GmbH - Strongly expanding business area of SARIA Bio-Industries from November 30, 2007
- ↑ ReFood website: Food waste disposal . Retrieved February 21, 2019 .
- ↑ ReFood website: waste grease disposal and grease recycling. Retrieved February 21, 2019 .
- ↑ Annette Bruhns: Environmental scandal: Why did the sewage treatment plant pump plastic waste into the loop? In: Spiegel Online . March 16, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed April 2, 2018]).
- ↑ Schleswiger Stadtwerke: Agreement between ReFood and Schleswiger Stadtwerke. April 2016, accessed February 21, 2019 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 41 ′ 42.8 " N , 7 ° 29 ′ 4.7" E