Sustainability

The global sustainability challenges require joint efforts from business and government. In the autumn of 2015, the UN member states adopted 17 goals for sustainable development until 2030. Solberg Industri AS will contribute to the achievement of the UNs global goals for sustainable development. Our sustainability strategy focuses on three goals:

• Responsible consumption and production
• Decent work and economic growth
• Climate action
  
  

Solberg industri AS is an active driver for developing products and solutions based on sound sustainability principles, through reuse and circular business models.

Green Dot 

Solberg Industri AS is a member of Grønt Punkt Norge AS (“Green Dot Norway plc”), which reinforces our commitment to environmental responsibility. We pay for used packaging to be collected and recycled.

Through this system, significant amounts of packaging materials are recycled every year. It saves energy and helps develop a more resource efficient and sustainable society.

Quality Assurance

We work hard to deliver products and services that meet customer expectations.

To ensure continuous improvement and targeted focus, we have ISO certified our systems for quality and environment:

NS-EN ISO 9001:2015 (Quality management systems)

NS-EN ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental management systems)

Circular Economy

Recycling of chemicals

Used chemicals can produce significant economic and ecological benefits. Traditionally, such substances are deposited subsequent to the production process.
By utilizing used chemicals in new ways, they become a resource rather than an environmental problem and a spending item in the budget.

In line with the UN's Sustainability Goals, Solberg Industri has for the past 20 years developed expertise in the recycling of chemicals.
Sustainability Goal # 12 "Sustainable consumption and production" is about doing more with fewer resources. The purpose is to achieve more environmentally friendly management of chemicals throughout their life cycle.
The amount of waste should be reduced, through prohibition, reduction and reuse.

Through new and innovative ideas, we contribute to the reuse of chemicals. This is about circular economics, where we make sure resources stay in the economy for as long as possible.
In this way, unwanted costs and extra work can become a source of income by other manufacturers using your used chemicals in their production. This manufacturer may experience reduced costs through access to this raw material.

Solberg Industri AS is one of the pioneers in Norway for the recycling of chemicals. Here are two examples of highly successful projects.

The challenge: Recycling of phosphoric acid

The company specializes in producing aluminium foil for capacitors through a complicated chemical engineering process. In production, large amounts of expensive 75% phosphoric acid are used, which results in almost 800 tonnes annually of used phosphoric acid with a concentration of 50%.
The used acid was classified as special waste and deposited at NOAH Langøya. For the company, this was a heavy expense.

Solberg Industri AS saw the opportunity and got involved in the problem. We first negotiated with the Norwegian Environment Agency to have the waste classified as a product. With our market knowledge, we were able to find customers who could use 50% phosphoric acid.

For the company, this means millions in annual savings, and the business is still going after 20 years of operation.

The challenge: Recycling 5500 tonnes of sulfuric acid

The company uses large quantities of sulfuric acid 96% in a drying process. This results in 5500 tonnes of used sulfuric acid 77%. The sulfuric acid was neutralized with sodium hydroxide solution and then released to sea. This is a very costly process, with the loss of large amounts of sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide.
The normal market product for sulfuric acid is 96%, a mildly corrosive product. The challenge arises when the concentration drops to 77%; the acid then becomes very corrosive and "eats" acid-resistant steel. The acid is thus very difficult and expensive to handle.

In this case, Solberg Industri AS used its market knowledge and found a customer who saw significant advantages in using a slightly weaker acid in its production. Both companies are now saving large amounts annually by exploiting the opportunities that lie in extending the use of sulfuric acid.