On a rather grey and overcast day I was driving on the A15, which quickly changed into the N15, in the direction of the Maasvlakte. Right in the economic heart of the Netherlands. What struck me was that what I saw was a combination of large windmills, intended to generate clean energy and chimneys where, although filtered and catalysed, smoke and steam were emitted, which lingered under the low-hanging grey clouds. A rather special image. So special that I took a picture of it.
When I looked at the picture later on, it was no longer that special. I was on my way to our business location on the Dintelweg, or Innovation Plant as we call it on our website. Since the beginning of 2018, we have been occupying 10,000 m2 of business premises there, where we can further expand and modernise our business activities. Because if you want to be innovative, you have to modernise. Fortunately, our partners and clients also ask for modernisation, because (metal) waste is no longer the product it used to be. At the inception of A&M Recycling in 2003, we were primarily a waste collector.
Now, 16 years later, a relatively short period of time, we are primarily a socially responsible partner, providing total peace of mind for our clients and suppliers. Our production activities, for example, are no longer just about sorting different types of waste streams. Our clients are increasingly asking whether their waste streams or parts thereof may be suitable for reuse. Pure recycling. Was the term "circular economy" not invented for this? We took this into account when designing and constructing the site, our Innovation Plant. In the office, an extraordinary modern presentation and instruction room and on the terrain a modern disassembly and assembly hall, with canteen and changing rooms, where people with a distance to the labour market can work under supervision and guidance.
A fairly innovative process within the world of recycling, providing total peace of mind for our clients. A fun fact is that we have a moss wall in the presentation room. A plant that turns nitrogen into oxygen, a process you can't see, but is happening nonetheless. So actually, the more instruction and presentation in the room, the more clean oxygen will be generated. If I tell you that mosses are regarded as primitive land plants that originated earlier in evolution than ferns, and that the first land plants are believed to have been liverworts, of which 475 million year old fossils have been found, how relative is innovation?!