Stockholm (NordSIP) – Leca Danmark A/S, a Randers-based company that develops, produces and sells Leca light clinker, a stony residue building material made of clay which, when burned, turns into small porous balls with a hard surface, is investing DKK100 million to make its product environmentally friendly.
“Leca’s goal is to become a much more sustainable company,” Jesper Schmidt, Leca Project Manager, told TV2 News Østland.
The small brown Leca balls are used in flowerbeds, floor structures, roads, drainage solutions and insulation material, as well as for raw materials. The investment is intended to replace the burning of coal, which emits a lot of CO2 in the production of the small balls, with waste wood.
“We would like to replace coal and instead use waste wood,” says Schmidt. “The wood here is considered to be CO2 neutral. This project will allow us to reduce our total CO2 emissions by 50 per cent. This corresponds to the CO2 emissions of 7,500 people,” he explains.
Leca currently burns 30,000 tonnes of coal per year.
Climate researcher Aksel Walløe Hansen of the Niels Bohr Institute is not convinced, however. “He [Schmidt]’s not pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere,” Hansen said, pointing out that the DKK100 million investment does not help diminish climate problems, citing the importance of where the wood to be burned comes from.
“The question is which wood is being burned. It is not immaterial where the wood is procured from or what happens to the ecosystem as a result.”
Schmidt parries the accusation with the response that the wood is mainly recycled: “This wood is primarily from the decomposition of buildings and from recycling stations, where we deliver our waste wood as private individuals.”
“I am very excited and I have been working on this for many years,” Schmidt said, who started work on the project seven years ago.
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