Scholz and Hongqiao start recycling park

The German-based Scholz Recycling Group and China Hongqiao have recently agreed upon a joint venture to establish a recycling park in Binzhou, China.

The recycling industrial park in Binzhou, a city of over three million inhabitants in Shandong Province, will process more than 200,000 t of aluminium scrap and 50,000 end-of-life vehicles per year. With the recycling project, the Chinese aluminium group Hongqiao, the world’s largest producer of primary aluminium, is expanding its supply of secondary aluminium, while Scholz is contributing its recycling know-how to the joint venture by designing the plant.

Zhang Bo, chairman and chief executive of Hongqiao, remarked on the joint venture: “We collaborate, not only because we have matching strengths and technologies, but we coincide in our ideologies to pursue green and sustainable development as well. Rooted in the manufacturing industry, we are to recycle industrial waste, to take advantage of our strengths and values in the circular economy, and to contribute more to our society’s green and sustainable development.”

Rafael Suchan, chief executive of the Scholz Recycling Group, said: “China’s green growth development plan based on a circular economy and the country’s aim to become carbon neutral by 2060 are of great benefit for the environment – and hence, also for our company Scholz. Having a highly innovative partner like China Hongqiao enables us to accelerate the ambitious goals to facilitate a well-functioning recycling market in China.”

Scholz will now bring in its processing know-how for the layout and construction phase. The core components are an end-of-life vehicle shredder and an aluminium shredder. Both lines will be combined with the latest separation process technologies to feed the joint venture’s remelting plant, which converts scrap into ingot material for Hongqiao. The next steps will also include the setup and expansion of a local trading team in China to ensure that recycled high-quality aluminium is available in sufficient quantities.