Our portfolio company Green Group – 2021 in Review
In 2021 we focused on growing Green Group’s influence in the Central Europe region, while navigating a global raw materials crisis, commodities scarcity, and logistics and supply issues, as well as an energy crisis. Despite this, Green Group successfully demonstrated itself to be a robust, mature and essential business with ever-growing regional significance.
Resource management is now both a challenge and an opportunity for global economies. The company’s business model is well positioned to deliver circular economy solutions as well as enhanced levels of social and environmental sustainability, as they focus on creating national closed loops where waste is locally recycled and transformed into new materials. This approach improves logistics by shortening transportation routes and reducing carbon emissions, boosting performance and creating economic opportunities by capitalising on the value of waste as an important local and renewable resource.
Overall performance
COVID-19 pandemic impacted all major divisions of Green Group (PET recycling, electric and electronic waste recycling, glass recycling and industrial waste management), but in different ways.
PET recycling division – Green Tech and Green Fiber – processing annually over 150.000 tons of PET waste, is benefiting from rising demand for recycled PET, while navigating challenges posed by an increase in raw materials prices and lack of availability due to ineffective collection systems. The division registered a 45% YoY increase in rPET volume, a 3% increase in fiber volumes, and an overall volume increase of 7% for all recycled products.
GreenWEEE recycles and gives new life to electric and electronic waste. The company registered a 40% turnover increase on 2020, aided by a rise in prices for metals reclaimed by the recycling of cables, while overall recycled quantities recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Another milestone reached by Green WEEE was recycling more than 200,000 flatscreen TVs since the launch of the first dedicated flat panel display recycling line in Central Europe in 2020.
The glass recycling division saw steady performance, as business continued in line with the financial results and recycled quantities from the pre-pandemic years. GreenGlass transforms over 200 million glass bottles into billions of premium quality cullet products each year. This saves more than 15,000 tons of CO2 – the equivalent of around 1,000 trips around the world by plane.
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