What happens to your old ghettoblaster, pressure washer or vacuum cleaner after you take them to the recycling centre?

Manufacturer responsibility is an important tool for achieving a circular economy. El-Kretsen has a nationwide collection and recycling system for electronics and batteries.

Collecting materials from recycling centres for further processing at El-Kretsen's pre-processors requires a lot of transport. El-Kretsen enlisted the help of TransportRådgivarna to procure carriers that could offer a high level of service.

El-Kretsen offers services for manufacturers responsible for managing electronics and batteries on the Swedish market. They are Sweden's largest manufacturer responsibility organisation with a nationwide collection and recycling system. They have agreements with all Swedish municipalities where they are responsible for collecting and transporting materials from the recycling centres to a facility for dismantling and pretreatment for recycling.

We are talking about large quantities of e-waste from around 600 recycling centres in all of Sweden's municipalities, which is around 140,000 tonnes in one year.

Procurement of transport and contact with TransportRådgivarna

We have procurements every few years, as we have many different fractions to be transported,’ says Lars Ellingsson, who is responsible for business development and logistics at El-Kretsen.

When El-Kretsen contacted TransportRådgivarna, they wanted help with a procurement of carrier suppliers. They wanted help with compiling statistics to get a good picture of the current situation, create good tender documents and access good contacts on the transport side.

It turned out that TransportRådgivarna had exactly the tools we needed to make fair comparisons between the different tenders,’ Lars continues. ‘The goal was not only financial, but also to find better service and wise environmental thinking. Often, service is more important than the last cent.

Transport in reverse
One thing that sets El-Kretsen's transport apart from many others is that it works by picking up materials at specific locations and driving them to its own terminals, as opposed to operations where goods are picked up at a terminal and dispersed outwards.

This means that they are trying to find suppliers who can see El-Kretsens' goods more as return goods and thus be able to integrate their transport into their own logistics. If they succeed, they can have an impact on both the environment and costs.

The procurement process - from statistics to signed contract

We created a timetable together. Then the work began to produce statistics and documentation that we provided to TransportRådgivarna. Everything from how often the pick-ups should take place at each location, to volumes, etc.

TransportRådgivarna then compiled all the material and created a solid enquiry document that was sent out to a number of carriers. When the responses came back, it was time to start comparing. A few were selected and booked for meetings where they had to explain certain issues. Then there was some negotiation before finalizing the deal. These meetings also included representatives from TransportRådgivarna to provide support and advice along the way, all the way to the signing of the contract.

The aim of the project

The objective was probably highest in terms of finding a high level of service, but in many cases it is linked to the fact that you also get a financial gain from it. It's just a matter of finding the right supplier. And yes, we have achieved the savings we expected on both occasions that we have used TransportRådgivarna in recent years.

Long-term relationship between TransportRådgivarna and El-Kretsen

Christine Pelacchi is TransportRådgivarna's Head of Sweden and contract manager for the co-operation with El-Kretsen. ‘We have had a long-term relationship with El-Kretsen for many years and have been involved in several procurements. Here we have a collaboration that really shows how TransportRådgivarna can be a long-term partner to our customers. We have had the privilege of getting to know El-Kretsen's business well and have thus found an effective collaboration together that has optimized the processes and provided recurring good and sustainable results,’ says Christine.

‘When the need for procurement and contract optimization has arisen, El-Kretsen has continuously gained access to TransportRådgivarna's resources in the form of dedicated people in the roles of Project Managers and Analysts, as well as TransportRådgivarna's analysis tools. The fact that El-Kretsen has such good expertise about their customers, their industry and their requirements for the logistics chain makes the collaboration exciting and developing also for us as their partner in logistics,’ Christine continues.

About El-kretsen

El-Kretsen offers a range of services aimed at producers, services that realise and simplify the management of producer responsibility. El-Kretsen also offers the collection of electrical waste and batteries and the reporting of all types of hazardous waste.