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Béjar
defends the benefits of recycling for the environment
and for the competitiveness of the cement industry
The executive chairman
of the Cementos Portland
Group, Juan Bejar, who is
also the chairman of the
Oficemen employer’s
association and Fundación
Laboral del Cemento y el
Medio Ambiente (CEMA),
defended the use of
non-hazardous waste as
fuel at the cement
factories, the so-called
waste-to-energy concept,
thanks to its positive
impact on the environment
and the sector’s
competitiveness.
Béjar spoke on 30 October at the inaugu-
ral session of the II Fundación CEMA Con-
ference, held in Madrid under the theme
“Recovering waste as a guarantee for the
future”. He was accompanied at this first
session by the secretary of State for the
Environment, Federico Ramos de Armas,
and the secretaries general of MCA-UGT
and FECOMA-CCOO, Manuel Fernández
“Lito” and Fernando Serrano Pernas, res-
pectively.
The executive chairman of Cementos Port-
land Valderrivas underscored the importan-
ce of recycling as an essential aspect for
achieving efficient waste management and
to ensure the survival of the cement sector
since it enables this industry to reduce the
cost of energy, which accounts for 40% of
total costs, and to increase competitive-
ness “Without energy recycling, our indus-
try has little chance of survival”, he said.
He also expressed the sector’s concern
for the trend in the electricity tariff which,
with the new legislation, could increase by
about 16%, which would, in turn, widen
even more the difference in costs in Spain
in comparison with neighbouring countries.
With regards to environmental issues, the
executive underscored that the use of was-
te as fuel at cement factories is “harmless”
since, among other factors, the characte-
ristics of cement furnaces which reach very
Juan Béjar, chairman of Cementos Portland
Valderrivas, Oficemen and Fundación CEMA
high temperatures over a prolonged period.
He also mentioned that the waste that is
used for this purpose is treated previously
by authorised government agents.
The executive chairman of Cementos Port-
land Valderrivas emphasised the fact that
recycling reduces the volume of waste at
landfill sites thereby reducing methane
emissions and the use of non-renewable
fossil fuels which generate CO
2
emissions
to air.
He stressed that in 2011 60% of urban
waste generated in Spain ended up at lan-
dfill sites in comparison with 6% in Scandi-
navian countries and 0.5% in Germany.
The Spanish cement industry has invested
nearly 400 million Euros in recent years to
enable their facilities to generate energy
from waste. In 2011, 22.4% of fossil fuels in
Spain were replaced with waste at cement
factories in comparison with 11% in 2009.
This is equivalent to the annual energy con-
sumption of 517,000 households, although
at quite a distance from the levels reached
in countries such as Holland or Germany
where this figure is 80%.
During his speech, the secretary of State
for the Environment emphasised the need
for managing waste as “resources” and re-
minded the audience that in 2011 energy-
to-waste processes made it possible to re-
duce CO
2
emissions by 12%, equivalent to
752,000 tons.
The secretary general of MCA-UGT spoke
on the current difficult situation of the ce-
ment industry in Spain and stressed the
competitive advantages derived from the
reduction of energy costs.
Along these lines, the secretary general of
FECOMA-CCOO called for an energy policy
that does not erode the competitiveness of
the cement industry.