At the family-owned, Padborg-based company Harm Mammen & Sønner, Claus and Steffan have noticed the increasing demand for knowledge about waste separation. With the new waste separation scheme, both private citizens and companies are forced to increase their waste separation practices. And they come to Harm Mammen with lots of questions.
When asked if they can sense a tension over the coming waste separation scheme in Aabenraa Municipality, their answer is:
“Yes, definitely! We are understaffed. We are trying to adjust to the new legal requirements. We are really busy right now, and the new waste separation scheme will force us to think out of the box’.
They often get questions such as: ‘What do we need, and how do we separate our waste correctly?’ Therefore, Harm Mammen has produced a set of information material they can send to the companies that come to them for help. The well-known smiling rubbish bin on the side of the refuse lorry has become something of an all-rounder, capable of sorting the rubbish into the right bins.
Due to the new waste separation scheme, Harm Mammen need to empty more bins, which will take more time and more staff.
Figures for Harm Mammen & Sønner
At the time of writing, the company has a staff of 39 and 19 vehicles, including both container and tow lorries. In the words of Claus Mammen, ‘A container lorry is not enough; you also need a tow lorry’. Tow lorries are used to lift underground waste at blocks of flats into a container lorry as well as in construction sites, and at Harm Mammen, the demand for tow lorries increases when construction does. Harm Mammen began as a refuse collection company back in 1980, and refuse collection continues to be one of its key activities.
But today, it is not enough to have the staff and vehicles for refuse collection. 30 per cent of all refuse collection in Aabenraa Municipality must now be undertaken by electric vehicles. Therefore, Harm Mammen has ordered a fleet of new container lorries, three of which are electric Mercedes lorries, which they expect to receive in December 2023. At the moment, Harm Mammen is therefore working on getting authorisation for charging stations which can supply the new electric vehicles with power.
While they wait for the new electric vehicles to arrive, the company focusses on the new waste separation scheme and the waste management of local companies. If you and your company have questions regarding waste separation, you should ‘Call Mammen’.
