Skamol makes constant efforts to recycle and reduce waste in our production - from waste of raw materials to waste of energy. Ways of recycling waste materials comes from new and creative thinking, and finding new uses - both internally and externally.
One of our large areas of raw material wastage occurs in the cutting of boards in our calcium silicate and vermiculite production. In order to reduce waste, we have developed new methods so that the leftover material can be almost fully reused in new systems.
Today, boards of calcium silicate are regarded as an established part of our system portfolio. As it happens, calcium silicate is the result of a previous research project looking into possible reuses of the waste product ‘microsilica’ from the silicon industry. Skamol participated actively in helping to find new uses for the product and won an international award for a innovative system that combined it with moler to produce an insulation board.
Skamol has put a lot of research into the further development of our own calcium silicate boards. The result is a portfolio of unique insulation systems, which - in relation to its weight - is one of the strongest systems on the market and a systems that we continue to find more uses for.
Another example of recycling of a waste product has been carried out in cooperation with a Danish horseracing track. The track has used the excess grit that comes with our supply of vermiculite raw material in the trotting track. The grit has the unique property that it never gets hard – contributing to a softer ground. In addition, the vermiculite grit has a draining effect on the racetrack.
Another out-of-plant example is a current project for the use of moler dust in the agricultural sector.
At Skamol Branden, Denmark, we had a lot of surplus heat from our production process. Knowing the way private homes on the island of Fur nearby were heated, we undertook and implemented a project to channel our surplus heat to these homes.
The process of preparing to channel the surplus heat from or plant, digging down pipes across the fjord and making all the preparations at Fur, went on for more than a year.
Now almost all households connected to the heat network are supplied with virtually all the heat they need and at a low price.
