CO2 Savings

The Müller-Guttenbrunn Group companies are recycling some 850 Thousand Metric Tons of various metals and plastics per annum. The majority of the metals consist of ferrous metals, aluminium, copper and stainless steel.

The contribution of the Müller-Guttenbrunn Group saving energy and reducing CO2 emissions is huge if compared to the production of primary (virgin) products. To give the best example – the amount of energy to produce aluminium from scrap is only 5 % of that of the production from bauxite and per MT of recycled Aluminium some 3.5 MT of CO2 emissions are reduced compared to the production of primary aluminium. So, one Metric Tonne of recycled aluminium represents close to half a year of CO2 emissions of an average European. Another example: the production of secondary ferrous metals results in energy savings of approx. 16% and CO2 emission reductions of close to 1 MT per Tonne compared to the production of steel directly from ore.

The Müller-Guttenbrunn Group companies recycle an amount of materials that result in energy savings of approximately 50% and CO2 emission savings of some 1 Million MT’s of CO2 per annum compared to primary materials. These CO2 emission savings represent the emission of a European city of 130 000 inhabitants.

For further information about energy and CO2 savings we can refer to the paper Report on the Environmental Benefits of Recycling – Prof. Sue Grimes, Prof. John Donaldson, Dr . Gabriel Cebrian Gomez – Centre for Sustainable Production & Resource Efficiency (CSPRE) that was commissioned by BIR (see download section)