Steel recovered from old factories, installations, or even submarines can be hard to reuse.

What makes this material a burden for recyclers is the toxic substances that may taint it – asbestos, mercury and heavy metals such as led, cadmium and chromium-6. The norm in the Netherlands was to landfill steel contaminated with asbestos, resulting in a waste of recyclable materials (and unnecessary emissions of CO₂). But since 2021, the Dutch government banned the landfilling of this waste thanks to Purified Metal Company’s (PMC) innovative system.

Yes, because PMC became the first company in the Netherlands to propose a circular, innovative idea: destroy or neutralise the hazardous substances contaminating the steel through heat and air purification systems. To make this happen, PMC asked Renewi to collaborate and bring this idea to an industrial scale.

Renewi accepted and made available its logistical network to collect and bring contaminated steel to PMC’s site, its marketing and communication departments to promote PMC’s system, and connected PMC with potential clients in its network.

The result? PMC has now a unique process worldwide that saves valuable raw materials, money and carbon emissions. This is an outstanding achievement that wouldn't have happened without each other's support. So, how did the collaboration between Renewi and PMC start?

Meet Nathalie!

Nathalie van de Poel, Co-founder and Commercial Manager of PMC, joined us today to tell you more about this partnership.

And how did Renewi help you in developing your project further?

"Before beginning our collaboration, Renewi helped us realise that we needed to have a strong business case, faith, and to believe in each of our steps. That helped to put our feet on the ground and succeed. Once PMC convinced Renewi, we established a commercial agreement, and Renewi became partly responsible for marketing, communication and acquisition. I learned a lot from them, such as how to communicate your idea or market it. They really helped and supported me in that way, by also getting us in touch with their large network of clients."

And what did PMC bring to Renewi?

"Renewi had little knowledge of recycling hazardous waste into a new product before the start of our cooperation. That’s why I trained Renewi's sales forces about substances of very high concern [so called SVHCs, ed.] and how we process them at PMC."

What else can we expect from this cooperation in the upcoming future?

"We're working on something new together, but I can't say more about it now. What I can say is that we expect to make the purification of contaminated steel a standard in Belgium and the Netherlands. We can prevent lots of steel to be landfilled and instead recycle it in secondary raw materials to advance the circular economy."