Janusz Kozyrski
Chief Executive Officer of Strzeblowskie Mines of Mineral Resources in Sobótka
1. Who are you? Please introduce yourself and your function in your company in few lines.
Janusz Kozyrski, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer of Strzeblowskie Mines of Mineral Resources in Sobótka. Main activities of my company consist of mining, processing and sales of mineral resources.
2. Explain your company circular actions in few lines.
Circular Economy is from its assumption minimizing the extraction of raw materials and using generated waste in the production processes as intermediates and raw materials in other production processes. As a company extracting and processing mineral resources, by assumption should be assigned to work in extract-process-sell configuration in linear economy model. Nevertheless, we have been observing for several years that it is not so clear. As an example, I can mention the fact that we work, extract and produce without waste. Everything that is created in our production processes is used again in other production processes, e.g. formed pressed sludge created in the production of split, granite aggregates is used as an intermediate to the production of the sanitary porcelain industry. When it comes to reducing the use of raw materials, we can boast of recycling. Recycling, which is based on the fact that from our company feldspar porcelain products, sanitary porcelain, as a result of usage and manufacturing defects are formed ceramic cullet. Once this cullet was transported to landfills, today it is brought to us, we process it, grind it again and as a raw material it returns to the production of sanitary porcelain. This is the basic two elements that we can define as our activities in a circular economy.
3. Is Circular Economy model more of a challenge or a chance to make new, innovative products for your company?
I think that such a model is both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is that in order to be able to implement the idea of CE one must be prepared for significant investments, which in turn entail money, because it would not be possible to carry out, for example, recycling without new technological lines. It would not be possible to use the waste material for the production of sanitary porcelain industry if it was not pressed. Unfortunately, these devices are very expensive. Answering the second question whether it is an opportunity - it is an opportunity, because as a result of manufacturing new products we can get an increase in revenues. So I think it is both a challenge and an opportunity. Thank you very much.
