Recycled rubber in NGI's production
As a part of NGI's sustainability initiatives, we have been looking into our own waste products. One of our waste products is surplus vulcanized rubber from the molding process. When molding rubber, there is a 10% surplus.
This accumulates to approximately 20 tons of waste rubber per year, which is sent to an incineration plant.
We are currently testing if this waste material can be recycled in our own production of new machine feet. The vulcanized rubber is frozen and ground to a fine powder, which is mixed into the new rubber used for production.
We have successfully constructed a foot made with 50% recycled rubber that complies with the same mechanical standards as the original machine foot. We are still looking into ways of improving the visual appearance of the foot with recycled rubber and whether it is possible to use the recycled rubber again and again.
Assuming that 60% can be used we will reduce the annual emissions by 60%.