About us

Our markets

Van Gansewinkel Groep is international with operations in France, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary in addition to its Benelux domestic markets. But even in countries where Van Gansewinkel Groep does not have its own branch operations, customers are still supported with on-site waste management services, organizing and implementing international tack back systems and the associated recovery of raw materials.

Van Gansewinkel Groep is driving further expansion and broadening its activities in the Benelux domestic market. Ultimately, the company aims to deliver all of its services to, and develop a second home market in Central and Eastern Europe. "We want to apply our knowledge of waste and environmental solutions in the different European countries where we operate," says Yves Luca, the Board Director responsible for Van Gansewinkel Groep’s international operations. "We can see our customers in those countries benefiting from our sustainable solutions."
Furthermore, Van Gansewinkel Groep – via a supervisory model - also wants to expand its activities in countries where they are not active themselves, but where customers are looking for waste management services. Van Gansewinkel Groep will, if appropriate, continue to develop the associated recycling activities themselves or with partners.

France

In France, Van Gansewinkel Groep is active in waste collection and recycling. In 2009, approximately 70,000 tonnes of waste was collected mostly made up of paper, cardboard, plastics and wood. Van Gansewinkel France aims for a balanced mix of waste streams and is looking to expand the number of streams collected over the coming years. The Van Gansewinkel collection company has two branches in the Lille region and plans for growth, both organic as well as through acquisition. With three branch operations and a volume throughput of 370,000 tonnes Maltha Glasrecycling is a major industry force, particularly in the south of France and, in recent years, there’s been a major drive on quality improvement. In northern France, Coolrec has several processing lines for recycling of electrical and electronic equipment,

Hungary

In the autumn of 2008, Maltha acquired the Hungarian glass recycling company Humán Szerviz, representing Van Gansewinkel Groep’s first footprint in the country. From Hungary, Maltha aims to sell more glass cullet to Central and Eastern European glass producers.

Portugal

Maltha has been in Portugal for over fifteen years. Located in the heart of the country, the company delivers around 150,000 tonnes of clean glass cullet as raw material to the glass industry annually. In recent years, Maltha Portugal’s plant has been modernised and capacity significantly expanded, providing important supplies to the Iberian Peninsula.

Poland

Van Gansewinkel collects household and commercial waste in Poland and more than 200,000 tonnes of waste was collected in 2009. Van Gansewinkel employs 240 people and offers a growing number of customers a consistent solution for their waste issues. The company considers giving a second life as raw material to as much waste as possible a real challenge. We have been active in the Polish market since 1998, particularly in the south of the country and, in addition to our headquarters in Kraków, Van Gansewinkel also has offices in Olawa, Ruda Slaska, Legnica and Tarnów. Over the past decade, Van Gansewinkel has achieved an average growth rate of 20 per cent in Poland.

The Czech Republic

As a waste service provider and raw materials supplier, Van Gansewinkel has been active in the Czech Republic since the mid 1990s. Today, approximately 330 people work from five locations, collecting household and industrial waste and separating paper, glass, plastics and drinks containers. These streams are processed into new raw materials and, under the name Sugal, Van Gansewinkel converts waste into sustainable energy.

In the Czech Republic, Van Gansewinkel has a majority interest in Petka CZ and every year this company processes more than 4,000 tonnes of PET bottles (packaging for soft drinks and other liquids) into PET flakes. This raw material is mainly supplied to the fibre industry. Petka’s objective is a Cradle to Cradle methodology – where any new PET bottle is derived from an old one.

Van Gansewinkel Groep also has a logistics centre for white and brown goods in the Czech Republic that provides the company with logistics services for the Czech bulb return system.

In 2009, investments were made to expand the Horní Benešov landfill site. With a capacity expansion over an area of 2.1 hectares, Van Gansewinkel Groep expects that the supply of waste in the region could be met over the next fifteen years. The landfill site is suitable for all types of waste and a portion of the site has the potential to be used for organic waste composting.

In the Czech Republic only 10 per cent of waste is incinerated and, because of the country’s very low incineration capacity, a lot of waste still goes to landfill. The acquisition of landfill serves as a step toward our ambition to eventually invest and increase the Czech Republic’s incineration capability.

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