Most visitors of Fiskars Village, our birthplace in southern Finland, notice two prominent buildings on the riverbank, each with a striking red-and-black brick exterior. The mill and granary, built in 1898 and 1902, respectively, were constructed from a combination of traditional red bricks and unique black bricks. The secret ingredient of these black bricks was slag, a smelting byproduct created by the blast furnaces of the ironworks.
While the makers of those slag bricks probably did not know it, they were already participating in the circular economy and applying the same principles we use today. Often connected to reusing, sharing, renting, and recycling products, the idea behind the circular economy is to extend the lifecycle of materials and optimize material usage.
The circular economy is one of the main themes of our sustainability efforts. We aim to reuse or recycle all the scrap material generated by our manufacturing facilities, leaving no waste to be disposed of into landfills.
Salvaging a skyscraper of waste
Occasionally, an item produced in one of our factories does not pass our rigorous quality inspections. Until recently, our ceramic factory in Thailand sent broken and rejected ceramic products to certified landfills – but then we found a novel way to turn that waste into opportunity. Coincidentally, we reached the same solution that was applied in Fiskars Village more than a century ago: bricks.
After careful investigation, our team in Thailand found a suitable partner for the ceramic waste — a local factory agreed to invest in rebuilding their facility and new machinery to accommodate the requirements of crushing rejected and broken ceramic waste. After processing, the material is used by the factory as a component in refractory bricks.
The first shipment to our crushing and recycling partners was sent in 2018. Today, over 360 tons of waste is recycled annually – redirecting materials roughly equal to the weight of the Empire State Building from landfills every year!
The process reduces waste generation, while also benefiting the local economy by turning the material into new goods. This is an extraordinary example of how a single intelligent solution can serve our value chain, our people, and our planet, all at the same time.
READ MORE:
- Our sustainability
- Sustainability report 2018
- Fiskars Village
