Press

23. March 2018

RIGK at IFAT 2018: silver jubilee, international consulting, multinational outlook spanning many kinds of packaging materials

[Translate to English:] Hände Kreislauf
25 years of RIGK – 25 years of living out the circular economy (all images © RIGK)

Wiesbaden, March 2018 – Under the slogan "Sustainability in action", RIGK is focusing its presence at IFAT 2018, which will take place from 14 to 18 May in Munich, on reporting its 25 years of successfully living out the circular economy and cross-sector cooperation with representatives of other organisations, for example under the umbrella of BiPv, the German industry initiative on product stewardship. RIGK's booth will also showcase the ongoing growth in its activities both in Germany and abroad, in particular in Romania and Chile.

CO2 equivalent to an area of forest the size of Dresden

RIGK is very visibly celebrating its 25 years of existence at its IFAT booth. By joining together the links in the value chain, RIGK has for the last quarter century been making a major contribution to ensuring that used plastics packaging and plastics are turned back into valuable raw materials. The CO2 equivalent provides a clear measure of the success it has had in reducing environmental impact. The bottom line is that its collection and recycling of used plastics from industry, commerce and agriculture have saved the same quantity of this greenhouse gas as an average mixed forest the size of the German city of Dresden (329 square kilometres) absorbs each year from the atmosphere – more than 330,000 tonnes.

Siluette Dresden
The quantity of collected used plastics from industry, commerce and agriculture have saved the same quantity of CO2 as a mixed forest the size of the German city of Dresden (329 square kilometers) absorbs each year from the atmosphere.

With 28 staff at its Wiesbaden headquarters and 60 staff worldwide, RIGK is operating eight recovery systems in this anniversary year, trading in plastics and providing worldwide project-based consultancy. Guided by the principles of customer focus, careful management of resources and transformation towards living out the circular economy, RIGK works together with some 58,000 customers and over 1,100 suppliers and partners across Germany.

Outlook spanning sectors and packaging materials

At present, RIGK sees itself increasingly focusing on circular economy issues which span sectors and materials, as evidenced by its membership of organisations such as EPRO (European Plastics Recycling Organisation) and BiPv, the German industry initiative on product stewardship. Other BiPV members include two further operators of producer-funded packaging recycling systems, Gebinde-Verwertungsgesellschaft der Mineralölwirtschaft mbH (GVÖ, return system for mineral oil cans) and Kreislaufsystem Blechverpackungen Stahl GmbH (KBS, recovery service for industrial metal packaging). This means that visitors to RIGK's booth will be able to catch up not only with members of RIGK's team but also with BiPv representatives and discuss common problems and solutions which span both organisations.

Promoting recovery and recycling in Romania and Chile One focus of

RIGK's presence at IFAT is on the increasing significance of its international activities. These include project-based activities for customers in Russia, France and Spain together with subsidiaries founded in Romania and Chile which are assisting with setting up and implementing recovery and recycling systems both locally and in neighbouring countries.

RIGK has been working on recovery and recycling in Romania for ten years now. Founded back in 2008, RIGK Romania (RIGK SRL), like RIGK in Germany, operates its own recovery systems from its office in Bucharest to collect packaging and plastics not only from agriculture but also from industry and commerce and ensure that they are sustainably recycled. RIGK SRL operates two local warehouses with facilities for compressing and shredding packaging. Fifteen members of staff provide advice not only to industrial, commercial and agricultural customers but also to industrial and commercial end consumers about anything to do with the disposal and recycling of waste, including individual solutions such as the recovery and recycling of films, FIBCs (Flexible Intermediates Bulk Containers) and seed dressings and other expired agricultural chemicals.

RIGK Chile SpA with its head office in Santiago is the only provider of consultancy services in Chile to combine international experience in collecting and recycling plastics with a good understanding of the specific requirements of the local plastics market and industries. This ideally suits it to providing advice regarding the circular economy and statutory requirements. It assists with the development of disposal and recovery systems and supports pilot projects. These activities include an analysis of the impact of Chile's Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law on local companies, the compilation of life cycle analyses and the evaluation of packaging in terms of "design for recycling". In this way, RIGK Chile helps its customers get a head start on the path to a circular economy in their country. One ancillary activity is the import and export of secondary raw materials. In late March this year, RIGK Chile S.p.A. won a public call to tender relating to the recovery and recycling of agricultural plastics, in which RIGK's expertise will help to optimise the current disposal situation in a predominantly agricultural region.

RIGK is advising on the implementation of disposal solutions to establish a circular economy in Chile.

As a certified specialist company, RIGK GmbH organises, on behalf of its licensees (fillers, distributors, traders and importers), the recovery of used, empty packaging and plastics from its German customers and arranges the safe and sustainable recycling of these materials. In addition, the company provides advice on the development of individual recovery and recycling solutions. RIGK is represented on an international level in Romania and Chile. RIGK's Romanian subsidiary similarly recovers and recycles used packaging and plastics in Romania. RIGK Chile SpA advises local industry on establishing systems and implementing statutory environmental and recycling requirements. The shareholders of RIGK GmbH are well-known manufacturers of plastics and packaging. RIGK GmbH has been a member of EPRO since 2006, where it established the working group for the recycling of agricultural plastics waste. RIGK is the joint organiser with EPRO of the International Recycling Forum in Wiesbaden which will take place for the third time in 2019.

More Information:
RIGK GmbH
Claudia Hoese
Marketing and customer support
Friedrichstr. 6, 65185 Wiesbaden
Tel.: +49 611 308600-12, Fax: -30
hoese@rigk.de; www.rigk.de

Editorial contact and voucher copies:
Konsens PR GmbH & Co. KG
Dr. Jörg Wolters
Hans-Kudlich-Straße 25
D-64823 Groß-Umstadt
Tel.: +49 (0) 60 78/93 63-0, Fax: -20
mail@konsens.de; www.konsens.de