No matter whether for single-use returnable bottles or for sorting stations in post-checkout zones, customers find lots of collection systems in Lidl and Kaufland stores. These facilitate the first step of a functioning circular economy: the collection of recyclable materials. Together with our environmental services provider PreZero and the whole ecosystem of the companies of Schwarz Group, we have a unique opportunity to cover all necessary steps of the circular economy ranging from collection to sorting to recycling.

Thanks to state-of-the-art collection and sorting systems, secondary raw materials can be reintroduced into the recycling loop. This is a core objective of the companies of Schwarz Group and a significant component of our “REset Resources” holistic circular economy strategy, and in particular, the REcollect action area. By using our ecosystem to secure urgently needed resources, we want to be a part of the solution and not of the problem. Our goal in the REcollect action area is: “By 2030 we will collect and recycle the same quantity of recyclable materials as we bring into circulation with our private-label packaging and our household leaflets.”

We are working on this with numerous measures. As such, our environmental service provider PreZero takes care of the collection, sorting and recycling of waste from both industry and the private sector, such as lightweight packaging. With our “Road to Zero Waste”, we collect and sort group-wide waste and recyclable materials from stores and logistics centers as well as from administration and production locations. In our stores and markets, we offer customer-oriented return systems for recyclable materials, and via PreZero Dual, we organize the legally required return and recycling of packaging materials.

In order to consistently drive the circular economy forward, we are making targeted investments into forward-thinking technologies. Battery recycling is a prime example of this and it significantly strengthens the REcycle and REcollect action areas of our joint circular economy strategy. After all, the processing of old batteries is also important for a functioning circular economy. Car batteries, batteries from e-bikes, tool batteries, household batteries – they all contain rare raw materials such as lithium, cobalt or nickel, whose recycling conserves valuable resources.

Since PreZero is already successfully involved in the collection of batteries, the next logical step is the purchase of the battery recycler “RE.LION.BAT. Circular”. As such, in Meppen in Lower Saxony, PreZero is operating the most modern and largest facility of its kind in Europe.

Details about the facility:

• Annual capacity for up to 30,000 tons of old batteries (permission for 60,000 tons)
• Technology: CO2-optimized thermomechanical process
• Efficiency: More than 98 percent recovery rate of the valuable black mass (lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite)

By setting ambitious goals for the collection and recycling of recyclable materials and promoting innovative methods such as battery recycling, Schwarz Group is making a key contribution to European resource sovereignty.