Terraklinker's environmental commitment
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The actions that Terraklinker introduces to reduce the environmental impacts caused by the factory in its surroundings involve applying a number of preventive measures and good environmental practice.
Terraklinker is aware that the application of those good practices is an improvement for the environment and for the health of its employees, collaborators and customers. Therefore, we are committed to respecting and complying with the European standards regarding Integrated pollution prevention and control, as well as all applicable Laws, regulations, standards and emission values that are specified in the Integrated Environmental Authorization (IEA).
Both issues are the basis of current environmental legislation that seek to minimize polluting emissions from industries in order to avoid the environmental impact of the productive processes.
Terraklinker takes into account the Best Available Techniques (BAT), the economic cost, the installation, the location and the specific environmental characteristics to develop a number of measures to be taken into account to reduce the environmental impact in areas such as hazardous emissions, recycling of materials or water and energy-saving.
Those are some of the Best Available Techniques that our company applies:
- The use of raw materials which are 100% natural, without additional synthetic chemical components. Terraklinker klinker is only composed of clays from quarries near the manufacturing plant located in Castelserás in the province of Teruel.
- The emission of diffuse dust particles is avoided during the thorough handling of raw materials used in the manufacturing process as well as during their storage. We operate with particulate aspiration filters which are finally completely recycled into the clay composition.
- All the waste which is generated in each production stage is reused in the clay composition. Its recycling is guaranteed 100%.
- We take care of thermal utilisation: in the cooling phase of the kilns, residual heat is sent to the dryers in order to avoid energy consumption and emissions that the hot air generator in the dryers would produce.
- Efficient use of water, using it in the extrusion process in an automated way to shape the pieces, it later evaporates in the dryers; therefore we can guarantee that in the manufacturing processes no industrial wastewater discharges are generated.
- Despite the fact that the manufacturing of ceramics needs to consume energy and that this process also involves the generation of waste and the emission of carbon dioxide, Terraklinker has managed to significantly optimize this manufacturing process, reducing gas consumption in the kilns, through efficient heat recovery systems with air exchangers, taking advantage of hot air as combustion “oxygen” of the burners; in addition we use state-of-the-art materials in the internal cladding of the kilns, thereby achieving a more efficient combustion.
- For the health of the employees of the manufacturing plant and by means of soundproofing techniques, we take care to avoid excessive sound levels in each of the ceramic manufacturing stages.
All those measures promoted by Terraklinker make our manufacturing process respectful with the environment; the result is a high-quality ceramic which doest not generate toxic emissions and has a positive effect on the environment. Its only two basic elements, water and clay, together with a completely controlled thermal process, make our product a highly valued sustainable material with excellent technical-aesthetic performance. Let´s not its high thermal inertia which makes it act efficiently as a heat regulator. It is a healthy material as it does not transmit odours or bacteria. Likewise, its use in interiors allows to create pleasant and comfortable environments with good heat conduction, which allows to make profitable the money invested in heating.
On the other hand, since the factory of Terraklinker-Gres de Breda is located near the clay quarries, the transport footprint in environmental terms is minimal; unlike most of the porcelain industries our plant does need to bring raw materials from distant places.