July 6, 2017 by Steve Eminton

AEB Amsterdam snaps up van der Meij

The energy from waste firm, AEB Amsterdam, has announced the appointment of Herman van der Meij as its new business development and sales manager.

A six month programme of works is taking place at the AEB Amsterdam energy from waste facility

Herman van der Meij has joined AEB Amsterdam

Mr Van der Meij joins AEB after leaving Viridor Resource Management earlier this year, where he held the post of managing director.

AEB is thought to be the world’s largest energy from waste company and is a significant importer of residual waste in the form of RDF from the UK. The Dutch plant handles about 1.4 million tonnes of waste per annum.

Manchester

And, the company indicated this week that it is positioned to” help” metropolitan areas, such as “Manchester” in terms of waste treatment. The comment comes against the background of the Greater Manchester Waste Development Authority looking to step away from its long-term residual waste contract with UK waste management firm Viridor.

Jeroen de Swart, chief executive of AEB Amsterdam said he was pleased to welcome Mr van der Meij to the company.

He said: “Herman has an extensive experience in the waste and recycling sector in various countries. He has designed and implemented some highly successful and innovative strategies in the field of recycling of old paper, cardboard, glass, ferrous and non- ferrous metals, plastics and their sales in the English, European and global markets. At AEB we can certainly make use of his knowledge, networks and skills.”

Jeroen de Swart who has said AEB will continue to offer waste solutions to the UK

Separation

In terms of AEB’s current development, Mr de Swart said that from November this year, the company’s Amsterdam site will include a “a high tech separation installation for residual waste, on one single location.”

And, he pointed to recycling work being undertaken emphasising that the circular economy and recycling is important to AEB. “We are rapidly expanding our recycling and sorting activities. It is our mission to enhance the circular economy by producing energy from waste and by recovering more raw materials from waste for recycling.

With regard to the UK, the chief executive said that AEB will continue to offer to solutions to the “waste issue in the UK and we will still be active in this field. In the near future we will be able to offer new solutions, that are even better for the environment as well. Our high tech separation installation for instance separates residual waste into waste streams that can be processed and used again in production of goods.”

The AEB Amsterdam energy from waste plant

Metropolitan

Going forward, Mr de Swart said that AEB will “keep on providing waste solutions. We offer these solutions for the Amsterdam metropolitan area. We’re confident we can help other metropolitan areas as well, such as Manchester. Not only in waste-to-energy- solutions but also in recovering raw materials from waste.”

2018

In a strategy plan for 2018, AEB says it will recover four times as many raw materials from waste (from 58,000 tonnes to 228,000 tonnes by:

Separation of household waste (20 kilotons of plastic)
Processing of minerals from bottom ash (150 kilotons as sand/gravel replacement)
Pilots for helping Amsterdam and regional municipalities with more recycling: Smarter collection (via coloured bags, more reuse of bulk waste)
Processing of waste flows separated at the source