On 22 March 2024, the Minister for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, Leonore Gewessler, paid a company visit to two companies in the Müller-Guttenbrunn Group. Together with members of parliament Helga Krismer-Huber and Dominic Hörlezeder, Gewessler visited MGG Metran and MGG Polymers in Kematen an der Ybbs to gain a personal impression of the current challenges facing the Austrian recycling industry. The two plant tours focussed in particular on the current technical status of separating and recycling non-ferrous metals and plastics. 

Firstly, MGG Metran Managing Director Gunther Panowitz gave a tour of the plant and reported on the wide range of technologies, some of which MGG has developed itself. For example, metals such as aluminium, copper, chrome-nickel, brass, etc. are recovered from shredded old electrical appliances and old cars. Minister Gewessler is impressed by the innovative strength of the MGG companies: "The resources on our planet are limited. That's why it's really great when waste is turned back into valuable raw materials. The Müller-Guttenbrunn Group works with a great deal of innovation and passion in this area, and I was able to see this for myself. The future belongs to the circular economy." 

Recycling pioneers in Kematen an der Ybbs

The tour then continued to the MGG Polymers plant just a few hundred metres away, where Managing Director Günther Höggerl informed the Federal Minister how high-quality post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastics such as PP, PS, ABS and PCABS are obtained from plastic waste in Kematen in one of the most modern plastics recycling plants in the world.

These recycled plastics can be used to produce durable goods and "green" products (new electronic devices, office supplies, automotive equipment, etc.). This closes the recycling loop and turns waste into valuable new secondary raw materials, or as Höggerl summarised it: "We give plastics a second life! That is pure sustainability!"

Major challenge: specifications, laws and guidelines 

The Environment Minister's visit was no coincidence, as MGG CEO Christian Müller-Guttenbrunn explained: "After all, the Müller-Guttenbrunn Group has been working very well with the Ministry at various levels for many years. After all, the aim is to tackle the common challenges in the areas of specifications, laws and guidelines for recycling in an environmentally sensitive manner on the one hand and in a practical and sensible way for the recycling industry on the other. It should be noted that most recycling issues cannot be viewed at a national level, but must at least be considered at a European level." 

Following the plant tours, the MGG team had an intensive dialogue with Minister Gewessler, during which current challenges and problems were discussed.