Using Mid-mix technology to make construction material - Yunirisk only company in Serbia to recycle hazardous industrial waste

(Photo: Yunirisk.com)

December 31, 2015, the European Union will put a ban on cross-border waste flow which means on countries will have to deal with their own waste on their own territories.

Serbia is a signee of a ban on cross-border waste flow. However, at this moment, the facility of the Yunirisk company is the only one in Serbia dealing with hazardous industrial waste recycling and it has been estimated that the number of these facilities should be much higher.

In 2008, in former Rakovica-based car motor plant, 21. maj, Yunrisk company set up a section processing a wide range of both industrial waste which presents a historical pollution and the one which is generated in regular industrial production, Slobodan Arandjelović, an Environmental Manager at Yunrisk says for eKapija.

- In our Rakovica-based section, we treat some 500 kinds of waste in solid, fluid, paste and muddy condition – Arandjelovic points out.

Otherwise, Yunisrisk is a 100% owned by Swiss capital. The headquarters is in Geneva and it has been operating in Serbia as of 1995 and as of that moment the company has been operating in the field of environmental protection.

Mid-mix technology

In the beginning, Yunrisk in Serbia was only dealing with consulting and engineering and as of 2004 the company is operating in the field of so-called applied ecology.

- That year, we started implementation of mid mix technology for the hazardous industrial waste treatment. It is a physical-chemical process which, through different physical-chemical reactions, transfers input waste to neutral which is then no longer hazardous for the environment – a collocutor is explaining.

(Photo: Irina Milošević)

As a final product, mid-mix has only neutral and steam which is condensed and returned into process. This technological process is known in EU countries and belongs to BAT (Best Available Techniques), which implies techniques and technologies which have the lowest negative impact on environmental.

- Neutral found its purpose in construction. Concrete and brick products and surface for road construction is made of it and it is also used as an additive to solid industrial fuels, in the production of asphalt, briquette… - Arandjelovic says.

Mid-mix facility which is the only facility for asbestos-cement material treatment in placed in Rakovica-based section. It employs 25 people.

- There are very few mid-mix facilities in Europe. Apart from the one in Rakovica, there is in Slovenia, Croatia while the largest one is in Barcelona. It is interesting that three to five kinds of waste are treated in other facilities while we are processing a couple of hundred – a collocutor of eKapija explains.

New sections in the next few years

It has been estimated that Serbia needs some seven regionally – distributed facilities of this kind so that it would decrease transport costs and reduce the transport risk factor.

- The first project refers to a Kovacica-based section whose construction Yunrisk should start by the end of 2014. We are also planning to expand these sections in central and western Serbia in the next five to six years – our collocutor is announcing.

(Photo: Irina Milošević)

Production plan outperformed

Yunirisk took part in this year’s Energy Fair in Belgrade where it presented its products and business results in the current year.

-In the period from January 1 to September 1 this year, we generated a production scope equal to the overall production in 2012, which means that by the end of 2013 we will be out target our plan – Arandjelovic points out.

Among their partners in Serbia, Yunirisk points out: the Electric Power Industry of Serbia, NIS, Elektrovojvodina, Fiat, Beogradske elektrane, Sirmium Steel, Ball packaging Europe, Henkel, Bambi, DPC, Tarkett, Tetrapak, Dijamant.

I.M.