The pursuit of a circular economy to address the global waste issue is driving a growth of the recycling industry and an increasing complexity in its demands. Environmental services providers and waste management companies need sorting facilities capable of processing the high volumes required efficiently while produce outputs of the high quality needed for recycling. When planning the construction of a new plant or upgrade of an existing one to meet these requirements, selecting the company for designing and building it is a critical business decision.
The importance of timely commissioning
A key factor in the selection is the company’s ability to work to the agreed schedule and complete commissioning on time.
“The material sorted at our facility is connected to contracts with fixed starting points,” explains Tristan Merk, Project Manager at environmental services provider PreZero Recycling. “Due to this fact, it is very important that the scheduled milestones will be reached. If the construction or the commissioning period isn’t on time, we risk problems with our customer or losing the contract.” David Aguado Teruel, Technical Director at Griño Group in Spain agrees: late delivery on the project would have “a very negative effect, because the delay has a direct impact on the viability of our business plan and commitments, and our ability to deliver our services to our customers and public administrations.”
Stadler is well aware of the critical importance of timely commissioning, as Carlos Manchado Atienza, International Sales Director at Stadler explains: “The implications of a delay for our customer are serious: we are talking about losses in the thousands of Euros for non-recovered material and fixed costs already contracted – and this is without taking into consideration landfill costs.” Ventura Montes, Catalonia Waste Treatment Plants Manager at PreZero Spain, adds: “For a packaging plant, we could face monthly costs of some 350,000 Euro for alternative waste treatment arrangements and around 400,000 Euro in lost opportunities. For a larger facility, such as an urban waste treatment center, it could be some 350,000 Euro a month in fixed costs plus around 2 Million Euro in lost sales.”
“That’s why we study the schedule of our work very seriously,” says Carlos Manchado Atienza. “Stadler is recognized not only for the quality of our products and our expertise, but also for our seriousness in the start-up and punctuality in project delivery.” Ventura Montes agrees: “One of Stadler’s strengths is that not only do they always deliver on the agreed date, but usually they are even a few days early. Every time we contracted Stadler for the construction or upgrade of plants, commissioning has always been on time and very few adjustments were required after installation.”
