Climate certificate from Initiative ERDE for RKW Agri Michelstadt

Recycling of agricultural films saves CO2

Michelstadt/Germany, March 25, 2021 - In 2020, RKW Agri in Michelstadt, together with the other companies in the ERDE initiative, saved more than 30.000 tons of CO2 by collecting and recycling agricultural films. The company has now received a climate certificate for this. RKW Agri is a co-founder of the Erntekunststoffe Recycling Deutschland (Initiative for recycling of agricultural plastics in Germany) - ERDE - initiative and is committed to environmental and climate protection in the area of agricultural films.

The initiative offers farmers to take back used films and nets and feed them back into the recycling cycle. In this way, together with other manufacturers involved in the initiative, RKW Agri actively contributes to improving the climate balance and protecting our environment.

“It's nice to see that most of these goods flow back into the economic cycle. In the past, for example, silage film, round bale nets and other harvest plastics were partly incinerated in fields, disposed of with residual waste or even in landfills, ”says Stefan Kwiatkista, Manager Business Development Agriculture, RKW Agri Michelstadt.

Recyclates can be used very well with agricultural films in particular. This creates a material cycle that not only reduces waste, but also conserves resources and ultimately reduces additional CO2 emissions.

The collections are currently organized at 531 collection points and almost 1,900 mobile collections across Germany. In the past year, all companies involved in the ERDE initiative returned a total of 26,500 tons of agricultural film to the value cycle, or the equivalent of 30.3 tons of CO2. This corresponds roughly to the amount that around 2.2 million trees bind in one year.

It is results like these that show that engagement pays off. RKW takes sustainability seriously and, as a plastics manufacturer, is aware of its special responsibility with regard to climate and environmental protection.

About the RKW Group

The RKW Group is an independent, privately owned company headquartered in Mannheim, Germany and one of the world’s foremost manufacturers of excellent film solutions. RKW is the market leader in the areas of hygiene and agricultural films, films for the beverage industry and packaging for powdery goods. In addition, the company makes films and nonwovens for medical applications, for the chemical and converting industries as well as for the construction sector. RKW’s sustainable films enable its customers to improve the daily life of consumers all over the world.

In the fiscal year 2019, RKW generated total sales of EUR 831 million. About 3,000 employees process 352,000 metric tons of plastic materials at 19 locations around the world. True to the corporate slogan "When excellence matters", the company, which was founded in 1957, offers outstanding performance in terms of quality and service. Respect and reliability are the core values of RKW and form the basis of the company’s success.