The new circular economy company Syklo aims to become a major player in its field in Finland

Oulun Energia is addressing climate change mitigation by incorporating its circular economy business into a new company, Syklo. The ambition is both strong growth in the circular economy business and to invest heavily in the development of new innovations nationally and internationally.

From the beginning of June, Oulun Energia will transfer its circular economy business to its newly established company Syklo, which will recycle waste into valuable raw materials. The business transfer enables to pursue a greater share of the Finnish circular economy market and to invest in the development of new solutions to improve the rate of recycling and re-use of waste. 

Syklo currently includes Oulu sorting plant, which represents the latest technology, the waste service solutions for Oulu ecopower plant, and various innovations enabling the circular economy. Syklo will invest significantly in reducing the carbon footprint of construction waste and material and in developing bio-based products that bind carbon. There will be no change in the ownership base in connection with the business transfer.

“Syklo is an important part of our overall strategy to mitigate climate change and to be a leader in the circular economy, where our technological expertise is top class, also by international standards. Our ambition is to grow outside the Oulu Region and to use new innovations to develop existing circular economy operations. Waste recovery is currently more important than ever for the future of the energy industry and our planet,” says Juha Juntunen, CEO of Oulun Energia, which owns Syklo.

“The circular economy will ensure there are enough raw materials to go round in future. We need to ¨get rid of “use and throw away” culture, since we need to be able to use materials longer and ultimately use them at the highest possible degree of processing. We’re excited to work with our partners to create a profitable, sustainable future with help of the circular economy,” explains Teemu Koskela, Managing Director of Syklo, who was earlier Circular Economy Director at Oulun Energia. 

Syklo has Finland’s most efficient waste recovery rates

Syklo offers businesses Finland’s most efficient, waste reception, treatment and processing services, making the circular economy easy and financially viable. The ambition is to increase the recycling and re-use rates of trade and construction waste through solutions aimed at closing the cycles of materials and through re-using low-value bio-streams to create products that bind carbon.

For example, construction and demolition waste in particular is a huge problem in the construction industry and significantly increases the carbon footprint of the industry. The sorting plant that opened in Oulu in 2020 and which will now become part of Syklo is, however, able to recover almost all construction industry waste. Materials suitable for recycling will be sorted from the waste and the remainder will be processed into SRF (solid recovered fuel). This will significantly reduce the need for fossil fuels and virgin biomasses.

Similar rates of recovering construction, demolition, trade and industrial waste components are not reached in Finland at this scale. Syklo aims to save 100,000 tonnes of GHG emissions each year.

About Syklo

• Syklo’s circular economy system comprises the waste sorting plant in Rusko in Oulu, the provision of waste service solutions for the Laanila ecopower plant in Oulu and, together with our network of partners, development of ash and slag utilisation.
• Syklo’s waste treatment service will receive a total of 260,000 tonnes of waste each year.
• The advanced waste sorting plant in Rusko in Oulu treats 100,000 tonnes of waste every year. The waste consists of construction and demolition waste as well as trade and industrial waste.
• The waste sorting plant sorts waste into materials suitable for recycling and the remainder, around 40-50%, is made into SRF (solid recovered fuel). Just 5-20% of the waste unsuitable for recycling at the sorting unit is incinerated.
• Syklo will receive municipal waste from some 300,000 people. The Laanila ecopower plant uses the waste for district heat, industrial process steam and electricity energy. The amount of energy produced by the Laanila ecopower plant would heat around 20,000 detached homes each year.

For more information, please contact:

Syklo
Teemu Koskela, Managing Director
Tel. +358 50 400 8721
teemu.koskela@syklo.fi