Hauke Harders, founder and managing director of Soil & Construction Waste at NordBau 2023: "Recycling of mineral waste is THE most important process"

LECTURA is currently at the NordBau 2023 trade fair reporting on news from the world of construction machinery. Listen to our live report from the Start up Stage 2023, this time with Hauke Harders from Boden & Bauschutt about the fair, industry trends and the company itself.

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Aleksandra Jastrzab: Mr. Harders, as a start-up company, what do you think about trade fairs, do you prefer to meet your customers in person or virtually?

Hauke Harders: One is of course a bit torn, because on the one hand we are of course a digital company, work completely remote even with all our colleagues. We do have two points of contact in terms of offices, where we also meet, but we are actually completely remote. That's why our approach is to do a lot virtually, but on the other hand, in the construction and waste management industry, personal contact is still extremely important. So, we also like to travel to the customer's site, or the customer comes to us to present our solution.

AJ: How important is the process of recycling mineral waste?

HH: It is the most important process. Mineral waste represents the largest waste material stream in Germany, with over 220 million tons, and therefore has the greatest impact on the climate. Just the logistics behind it have an enormous impact. But the whole issue of recycling has now also been given a slightly higher profile by the new Substitute Building Materials Ordinance. The new legislation simplifies recycling, and disposal, i.e., landfilling, is to be made more difficult.

AJ: How exactly does the matching algorithm on your platform work?

HH: You have to think of it this way, we have 16 federal states in Germany that have not managed to come up with uniform regulations by July 31, 2023. On the contrary, there are some federal states that have made common regulations via the so-called "warehouses". But there are guidelines, for example, in Baden-Württemberg, in Hessen, there is even the Dortmund installation list, with the installation values. So, we have approximately, as of July 31, 2023, 30 different lists, which take place around storage and in the area of landfilling. Additionally, the substitute building material regulation was put on top of these lists. Theoretically, since 01.08.2023, everything is uniformly arranged and regulated, but due to the transition period, it is so that until 2031, at least in theory, but also partly in practice, the whole thing runs in parallel. In the end, the person who has to dispose of something must find the right disposal point. It's a very complex, manual process so far, emails are sent back and forth, chemical analyses have to be read, sample collection protocols have to be read, and we're trying to standardize that. There are about 1500 individual values, in the chemical area alone, and then the information from the sampling protocol is added. That is what the matching algorithm matches. I have a material that has a certain chemical load, and I can look up which collection points are allowed to accept it.

AJ: What would you like to achieve at NordBau 2023?

HH: We want to meet as many new customers and partners as possible that we don't know yet. We want to meet the partners we already know in person again, exchange information, inform them about our news. And in the end, win new partners as well. Although we just said Boden und Bauschutt GmbH, we are a GmbH und CO. KG with shares. We did that because we have a so-called cooperative similar approach. This means that we are gradually issuing new shares to companies in the sector, which can then participate in our company in a small way and thus support these companies as a large community.

AJ: Thank you very much for talking to us today.

HH: Thank you for your time.

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