With up to 40.000 tonnes of industrial and commercial waste coming in every year, Icelandic environmental services company Terra needs to run a smooth and effective operation. 

Terra is dedicated to recovering and reusing as many of the incoming materials as possible. So, after the company receives its waste from thousands of companies across Iceland, it is sorted thoroughly. 

Every year, about 15.000 tonnes of recyclable materials are extracted, packaged, and shipped to customers, leaving up to 25.000 tonnes of residual materials behind. 

As Terra's ambition is to leave nothing behind, Terra decided to explore the possibilities of extracting even more materials for recycling through even more rigorous sorting so the leftover materials did not end up in a landfill. 

They found, however, that the business case was not strong enough. The cost of extracting more material would be far higher than the income they could get from the materials. 

So, the Business Development team at Terra decided to change course. Instead, they chose to produce refuse-derived fuel, which can substitute coal and oil in incineration plants to produce electricity or hot water for domestic heat.

To begin production, they needed an industrial waste pre-shredder that could reduce the size of the remaining 20.000—25.000 tonnes of waste and one that could do so with a uniform grain size output. 

Electric drive significantly reduces operational costs

Arngrímur Sverrisson, responsible for Business Development at Terra, started to research shredder options. He already has first-hand experience with the M&J Recycling brand, and after meeting M&J Recycling's Area Sales Manager for Iceland and hearing about the then newly launched electric pre-shredder, the M&J P250e, Arngrímur soon stopped considering other shredder brands. 

"We chose the P250e simply because it is electric. It was the only electric pre-shredder for our waste type on the market, and with it, I can save up to half of my energy consumption compared to using a hydraulic shredder. That is a significant improvement of our business", Arngrímur explains.

Whereas others might have felt more at ease buying a hydraulic shredder, as the technology has been used for so many years, Arngrímur had no concerns being a brand-new type of pre-shredder:

"With a Technology Management and Marine Engineering background, I have been used to electrical engines on ships since '89, so buying a shredder with an electric drive did not worry me at all."

Site visit with live action made the difference

However, being able to get an electric shredder was not the only deciding factor for Arngrímur. For him, M&J also stood out from other European brands because it's Danish and because Arngrímur was able to see the P250e shredder in action in Denmark before investing in it:

"It was essential for me that I was able to see the pre-shredder first. You can buy shredders from many places, but having the opportunity to see it in action made the difference to me. It enabled me to see how the shredder performs as well as hear another customer's experience with it", Arngrímur states and continues:

"Personally, it also mattered to me that M&J Recycling is a Danish brand. I got my degree in Denmark and can speak the language, so communication with the M&J team went smoothly."

Effective production with maximum output

The powerful pre-shredder was commissioned in November 2023 and now plays an instrumental part in Terra's new waste treatment line that covers sorting, size reduction, and baling.

A simple process that enables Terra to produce high-quality RDF in a limited space and easily ship it off to its customers in Sweden.

"I am very pleased with the P250e. It's a very good shredder, and it does the job as expected", says Arngrímur and finishes: 

"To produce RDF of the required quality, we need to mix different waste types, and we are now learning how to do that in the best way and how to load the shredder to exploit the shredder's high capacity fully. The better we are at mixing the waste and loading the hopper, the better the flow of materials".  

With the new RDF production line in operation, Terra is as close to their ambition of leaving nothing behind as possible. Approximately 95 % of the incoming waste in the Reykjavik area is recycled or used in waste-to-energy, leaving only a small amount of non-recyclable, non-shreddable materials behind.

About the company: 

Terra is a leading waste management company that services companies across Iceland. Much of Terra Environmental Services' operations are related to the circular economy, and the company has dedicated efforts to prevent resources from becoming waste, to process materials properly, reuse, reproduce, recycle, and minimize waste to landfill. 

By shortening driving routes when collecting waste, using more fuel-efficient collection vehicles, and focusing on minimizing the use of resources, Terra's environmental policy goes beyond the company's operation and extends to its customers.