Interzero – with a consistent circular economy approach for a world without waste

Berlin/Cologne. Interzero is the name of a new international group of companies from Germany. The name Interzero stands for innovative, sustainable and customised recycling and circular management – increasingly digital – and all from a single source. Interzero’s vision is a world without waste. Recycling important recyclables and using recycled raw materials provide customers with clear ecological and economic advantages. In addition to complying with increasingly stringent government regulations on resource conservation, they also provide clear added value in both industry-orientated and end-user-orientated markets and secure access to important raw materials.

New era as an independent company

“With the imminent separation from the ALBA Group, we’re beginning a new era as an independent company committed to a ‘world without waste’”, says Dr Axel Schweitzer, shareholder and chairman of Interzero. “Our new name explains exactly what we do: We provide our Zero Waste Solutions internationally to enable the transition from a linear to a circular economy – and we call it Interzero for short.”

Under the leadership of shareholder Dr Axel Schweitzer, Interzero is being re-formed based on the core of the Interseroh Group. After it is completely reorganised, Interzero will have approximately 2,000 staff in 10 European countries. The company is fully focused on the “Circular Economy” and generates a turnover of around one billion euros within its current structure.

“The foundation of Interzero, with its headquarters in Cologne, Germany, is based on more than 30 years of experience of our staff and executives within the circular economy as well as long-standing customer relationships in many different industries – from construction, consumer goods, food trade to food and automotive manufacturing. This broad set-up, combined with a strong focus on digital platforms and their related innovations, makes the difference for our customers. With our set-up that focuses on know-how and process design and is thus new for the industry, we still have a great deal of plans,” explains Dr Schweitzer.

Clearly defined core competencies

Our group of companies consists of three strategic pillars:

• Sustainable circular solutions – analogue and digital – are the responsibility of our Interzero Circular Solutions (ICS) division. Our experts develop customised circular concepts that aim to avoid waste or use waste for new applications. This means that they organise global return systems for packaging, products, and materials of all kinds for our customers. They also develop and operate complete recycling solutions for companies and provide comprehensive consultancy services for waste prevention according to Design for Recycling.
   
• Our Interzero Plastics Recycling (IPR) division stands for comprehensive expertise in plastics recycling, and is the market leader in Europe. The division is a leader in innovation, covering all recycling processes and technologies, from intelligent collection systems and high-tech sorting systems to recyclate production and chemical recycling. This includes five high-tech sorting plants and developing and operating three in-house recycling and production systems for extracting and marketing high-quality raw materials for recycling.
   
• The connecting element between both areas mentioned is the dual system Interseroh+. The innovative feature of this “recycling alliance” targets all companies that want to both fulfil their legal obligation to licence packaging, and also take responsibility themselves for closing recycling and raw material cycles.

Digitalising recycling processes and providing digital platforms as well as a nationwide network of service, disposal and recycling partners complement Interzero’s offer.

Innovation, research and development – as service for customers

Another overarching element of Interzero is innovation and research as services for its diverse customers. At this point, it is worth highlighting the company’s own competence centre for plastics recycling. It is the only state-accredited research facility in the EU specialising in developing and analysing recycled plastics. Our competence centre thus sets standards throughout Europe in implementing uniform quality standards and helps Interzero’s customers to test packaging of different materials for their recyclability to improve it. Our experts in Maribor examine the materials and the design of the packaging, and also examine, for example, its practical sortability. Positive results are certified by the “Made for Recycling” label, that companies are allowed to print on their packaging to help consumers come to their own decisions. Interseroh+ has developed this test method together with the bifa Environmental Institute, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging IVV has tested and confirmed it.

Enormous back wind from business and society

With our new set-up, Interzero is the right partner for our customers to manage recycling processes with smart solutions and to transfer them from linear structures to raw material cycles. Our colleagues are committed to our customers’ sustainability goals, alongside our firstclass know-how and high levels of dedication. We’re benefitting from the enormous back wind from business and society for our Zero Waste Solutions. This is an excellent basis and the right time to consistently achieve our vision of a world without waste,” says Dr Schweitzer.

Free use of the attached picture is authorised, provided the source "Interzero" is acknowledged.

PDF Download