Worthless waste or valuable secondary raw materials? “Garbage” is a central environmental problem. For one, it depletes limited resources. For another, some types of waste pose a serious threat to wildlife, for example, plastic bags or synthetic micro particles that end up in the oceans. And last but not least, improperly disposed waste can introduce dangerous substances into the environment.
Waste management has a high degree of environmental relevance at our headquarters in Obereisenbach. All waste is collected by local waste management companies and properly disposed of, or it is brought to a collection station by VAUDE employees with documented proof.
Residual waste is our "problem child" – at VAUDE it consists primarily of production waste from bag manufacturing that cannot currently be recycled. For one thing, these amounts are quite low on an industrial scale. In addition, coated synthetics are not a single material and therefore present a real challenge for recycling.
VAUDE had a waste potential analysis carried out by experts in order to reduce waste and to ensure the most environmentally friendly form of waste disposal possible. The results of this are being gradually implemented.
We have set ourselves the goal of reducing waste at our Manufaktur production site per ton of production output of finished goods. (Base year 2016, since this is the first time that we could collect the data for the Manufaktur waste separately). For 2016 it was approx. 0.19. More at "Company goals – our company is climate neutral".
A percentage of material waste (polyethylene and polyamide) from products at the Obereisenbach site is collected separately and given to a recycling company.
In addition, we are currently working on the issue of upcycling – making new products with an equivalent or higher value than the value of the waste materials. The goal is to reduce our residual waste volume by upcycling. Read more at "Upcycling“
Several tons of waste were created between 2013 to 2016 at our Tettnang site during the construction phase for the remodeling of the office building and the new construction of the Manufaktur production facility.
Since completing the intensive reconstruction of the office building in 2014 and 2015, the amount of residual waste has once again declined.
