”After the verification process we declared 82% of waste recovered in our headquarters in Spain with 0.82% subjected to heat treatment with energy recovery”
Circularity strategy
In 2021 we approved a Sustainability Strategy that includes circular economy objectives in order to achieve that by 2025 more than 75% of our waste, both hazardous and non-hazardous and generated in factories around the world are recoverable. In Spain, at the end of that year, 56% of the waste generated in its nine industrial centers was being recovered.
However, we decided to set as a goal an ambitious improvement project by 2024 in order to ensure that our centers located in Spain, in the regions of Asturias, Galicia and Andalusia, improve the conditions of segregation, recycling and final management of their waste. The fundamental idea was to arrive at the end of that year with sufficient guarantees to face an external and recognized verification of the year 2022, where the path of WINDAR towards “Zero Waste” was evident, that is, where more than 80% of the waste generated and managed was being recovered thus avoiding its sending to landfills.
In this way, in 2023 the process began so that the management of our waste was verified by an external third party and acquired the category of Zero Waste. To do this, we have had to prove documentarily that once sent to final treatment by an authorized manager, these have not been burned or deposited in a landfill (discharged to the ground, water or air), so that they do not impact the environment or human health in a negative way
The formulation of the Zero Waste to Landfill declaration issued to us by LRQA, has been carried out taking into account the ISO 1729: 2019 Standard, with the aim of providing assurance that the waste data presented have been calculated considering the UL ECPV Zero Waste to Landfill standard.
The result of the verification carried out by LRQA revealed a declared ratio of 82% of the waste recovered during the year 2022, with 0.82% of waste subjected to thermal treatment with energy recovery, meeting the established objective.
From this moment WINDAR initiates an annual monitoring of the evolution of this declaration in order to keep it updated. We will also begin work on extending this process to international plants.
Impact on the SDGs
Currently, the generation of waste has an extremely critical impact on the environment, as well as on people’s health. Thus, the impact generated by waste is reflected in the Global Objectives (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda, made relevant through SDG 11 on sustainable production and consumption, fitting into what we will call “circular economy”. This objective seeks to decouple current economic development from the degradation suffered by our environment through the improvement of efficiency in the use of resources and the promotion of more sustainable lifestyles. It raises the urgent need to reduce waste generation and manage it properly and efficiently.
On the other hand, it is also reflected in SDG 12 on the resilience of our cities and communities. In this case, the aim is to make our cities safer and more inclusive, that is, more sustainable and waste management directly impacts their goals.
WINDAR RENOVABLES