The facility has a production area of approximately 11,000 square metres, where around 200 employees process up to 35 tonnes of used textiles and shoes per day. Capacity will be gradually increased to 450 employees and 100 tonnes per day. Since 2016, Soex has invested several million euros in this new building in the new Hamriyah Free Zone.
“Our new sorting centre in the United Arab Emirates gives us the opportunity to process the quantity of goods collected around the world while maintaining high quality standards and taking advantage of shorter transport routes,” says Soex Managing Director Axel Buchholz. This was only the first step though. From 2019, Soex intends to implement recycling projects in addition to sorting in Sharjah. “Extracting secondary raw materials from used textiles is a central task for our company. For this reason, we are developing and implementing new recycling methods with the aim of maximising recycling in line with our zero-waste philosophy,” explains Buchholz.
Soex is responding to international collection volumes and increasing cost pressure by opening a second sorting centre. However, investments will continue to be made in the Wolfen location. “Our German sorting and recycling centre in Wolfen will be converted by summer. The aim is to optimise the sorting processes in order to improve the quality of our products and keep the capacity stable despite changing from a three-shift to a two-shift system. The number of employees will not be affected by these measures. On the contrary, we are currently looking for additional personnel,” says Buchholz, explaining the conversion activities at the German Soex location.
