Federal Minister for the Environment Dr Norbert Röttgen visits the Lippe Plant for informal discussions.

Lünen. Federal Minister for the Environment Dr Norbert Röttgen visited the REMONDIS Lippe Plant in Lünen on Tuesday 24 August 2010. Accompanied by a delegation from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Conservation and Nuclear Safety, he discussed environmental and energy policy issues and the implementation of the new Law on Life-Cycle Management with REMONDIS Board Chairman, Ludger Rethmann, and a number of managing directors from the REMONDIS Group. 

Federal Minister for the Environment Dr Röttgen took this opportunity to learn more about the high performance of the water and environmental service sector. After a brief tour of Europe's largest industrial recycling centre, the ministerial delegation discussed the current and future division of tasks within the German environmental service sector with Ludger Rethmann and the managing directors present. The background to this discussion is the draft bill for the new Law on Life-Cycle Management which must have been implemented by the end of this year.

During the discussion, Ludger Rethmann underlined, in particular, that there was still much untapped potential in the area of kerbside collections of biowaste for composting and digestion and called for a significant increase in the number of households connected to the corresponding collection systems. In order to promote climate and resource protection in Germany and to conserve natural landscapes such as peat bogs, REMONDIS believes it is necessary to set ambitious targets and to ensure that these are strictly implemented with the help of the private sector. The introduction of the biowaste bin throughout the whole of the country could, alone, have a further savings potential of around 300,000t of CO2 equivalents. 
The special features of the biodiesel market were also discussed in connection with climate protection and the problems of fine particulate emissions. Further volumes of CO2 could be reduced if biodiesel were to be used more intensively and promoted through targeted political measures. Second generation biodiesel does not present competition to food production as it is primarily produced from waste animal products. Furthermore, fine particulate pollution is reduced when biodiesel is used as this alternative fuel does not emit fine particulate matter when burned.  

Joining the Federal Minister for the Environment Dr Röttgen and REMONDIS Board Chairman Ludger Rethmann in the discussions were Unna district administrator, Michael Makiolla, Dr Helge Wendenburg and Dr Andreas Jaron (undersecretaries) from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Jens Spahn MP, Wilhelm Jasperneite, chairman of the CDU party in the district of Unna as well as the REMONDIS managing directors, Herwart Wilms, Aloys Oechtering and Dr Robert Figgener (SARIA).    

Background information

Since the beginning of the nineties, the site of the former aluminium plant in Lünen has been transformed into something completely new thanks to the initiative of a North Rhine-Westphalian, privately owned family business which has achieved this change with a great deal of energy, high level of responsibility and an exemplary willingness to invest in the site. Over the years, it has changed from being a site for waste management to being a location for genuine recycling activities, for recovering raw materials for the state's economy, a production site for new high quality products made from recycled materials as well as the headquarters of one of the fastest growing service companies within the European water management sector.

The RETHMANN group employs a total of approx. 40,000 people.  
1,289 of these are trainees and apprentices. The three sister companies of the RETHMANN Group, REMONDIS, RHENUS and SARIA, can, therefore, be found among those companies offering the highest number of vocational places in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

REMONDIS is one of the world's largest privately owned water and environmental service providers and serves more than 20 million people. Via its branches and associated companies, REMONDIS is active in 21 European countries, in China, India, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand. REMONDIS employs approx. 18,800 people.
1,400 people alone are employed at the Lippe Plant in Lünen.

REMONDIS Aqua GmbH & Co. KG is the leading German provider of contracting solutions within industrial water management and has already implemented numerous industrial projects with partners such as MAN, BASF, Henkel, etc. Recently, REMONDIS Aqua has, in particular, enjoyed international growth with wastewater projects in Spain, Poland, India, Russia and Turkey and currently provides its water management services for over 9.5 million people.

Further informationen:

REMONDIS SE & Co. KG
Michael Schneider
Marketing &amp, Corporate Communication
Brunnenstraße 138
44536 Lünen
T +49 2306 106-515
E-Mail