Best practice

“We are very proud of our waste trains that run from Naples and Rome to Køge, Herning and Aalborg. The end recipients are combustion plants such as ARGO in Roskilde, ARC in Amager and Affald Plus in Næstved,” says Head of Sales Thomas Vestergaard, who is responsible for many of these transports.

The reason for these many waste transports is that Denmark and Sweden use combustion plants that burn waste to produce energy-efficient district heating. Many of the new plants in Denmark are very large, and there is insufficient domestic supply of waste to fuel them.

Thomas Vestergaard notes that it is quite natural to question the environmental friendliness and wisdom of transporting waste. It would be most environmentally friendly to incinerate waste locally. But at the present time, many places in Europe do not have the technology or infrastructure in place to take advantage of this solution. 
 

In addition to transporting waste to the many combustion plants, demand for waste is also growing among various Danish factories.

“Many companies currently use coal or other fossil fuels, but they have begun a green transition to reduce their carbon output. If you get the right plastic, you can actually use it with wood chips and other materials. Aalborg Portland has begun receiving industrial waste that they use in their cement oven, and we have started servicing another customer who produces LECA balls. They need 30,000 tonnes of waste for their oven. So there are many companies that want to begin this transition now – and we can help them with the transport of waste, which is also known as bio-energy,” says Thomas Vestergaard.
 

• “If the shipper has compressed the waste into large bales, it is very heavy. Fortunately, we are experts in transporting heavy cargo. These bales are transported from the train wagon to the end recipient by special lorries with a built-in roller floor. At the delivery site, the bales are rolled out the back of the lorry.
• “Other shippers cannot produce such compact bales, so their waste is transported in open-top containers on our wagons. These containers are then transported to the end recipient by lorries that can tip out the waste.”