Sidenor has been awarded the European Environmental Prize, Spanish section, by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment. In the category of “Process towards Sustainable Development”, Sidenor has been recognized for its innovative initiative of developing an ambitious optimization project for the recycling of refractory waste and the reduced use of critical materials, in line with EU priorities.
It is worth noting that, before this project was developed, only 7% of refractory waste were recovered and the objective was to reach 50%. The success of this initiative has led to a much higher level of recovery and, by now, Sidenor is recovering 94% of the waste. This major step shows, once more, Sidenor’s commitment to sustainable development and respect for the environment.
Over one year, a working group established a wide plan of action which included the systemisation of waste recovery, the determination of the relevant internal and external logistic flows and the study of potential flow managers. This initiative has enabled systematic recycling of the residual bricks of ladle furnaces, for example in fake walls, recovery of refractory waste such as “piedra banquete” in oven repair, as well as recovery by means of external waste managers.