Stena Metall, University to Research Recycling Innovations

Recycling research being conducted on behalf of the Stena Metall Group, headquartered in Göteborg, Sweden,  and Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg is focusing on ways to reduce waste and increase reuse.

The research has resulted from a professorship in industrial materials recycling that Stena Metall established with the university in 2007.

From left, Stena Metall’s Christer Forsgren and Christian Ekberg of Chalmers University.“The professorship comprises a number of projects in an array of areas that reflect society’s development: recycling of batteries from electric cars, plastics, new electronic products with rare metals and so on,” says Christer Forsgren, head of technology and environmental science at Stena Metall. “Our research ideas have generated several patent applications and garnered attention internationally. In addition to improved recycling, we are working to reduce the amount of waste produced and increase reuse.”

Forsgren says nine postgraduate students are participating in the research project, which has the goal of “devising sensible ways to recycle the products being consumed at an accelerating rate by society.” Several research foundations are currently involved in the projects, which focus on applied research on the recycling of metals that are currently being overlooked.

Christian Ekberg, professor of industrial materials recycling at Chalmers University, says the professorship and its related research has brought together expertise from around Sweden. “The key is being able to profitably and safely recycle the enormous amounts of material that circulate in society,” Ekberg says. “Far too much of the waste that is still being incinerated or ends up in landfills could be recycled.”

According to Stena Metall, the need for research became more apparent as sustainability became a major global trend. Toward that end, Forsgren observes that effective research is a prerequisite for a sustainable society. “Stena Metall alone recycles more than 4 million tons of recyclables per year. If all this material isn’t recycled and instead is replaced by new raw material, CO₂ emissions would increase by nearly 10 million tons.”

The Stena Metall Group, one of Sweden’s largest privately owned businesses, operates more than 250 locations in Europe and the United States.