Bernard
FAVORY
has been involved in the recycling industry for almost 30 years.
He is IPAQ’s Executive Officer and promoter. Alongside his
professional duties, he was also the President of Cyclem, the
national union for the glass recycling industry, the President
and promoter of the Glass Section of the BIR (Bureau of
International Recycling) and FERVER (European Federation for the
Glass Recycling Industry). Since 1998
Bernard FAVORY
has been the President of FORMAREC, the FEDEREC (National
Union
for the Recovery, Recycling and Valorization Industries)
training programme, for he finds it important to prepare now
tomorrow’s recycling industry leaders.
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In
which terms would you describe IPAQ as a unique company ?
IPAQ
has been one in a very few companies in the recycling industry
to hire a large majority of female workers (95%). In the
beginning, we chose to do so because of our lack of equipment
and we needed abilities which are considered as typically
feminine. We would sort glass and waste manually, and we needed
operators with great finger dexterity and concentration. We
naturally chose to hire women. With better technologies and
equipment, the operators worked in better conditions and they
gradually became quality control operators, team managers,
loader drivers, plant managers… Our criteria have not changed
since, as the latest recruiting campaign for IPAQ Béziers
shows. There are 14 positions, and we recruited 14 women.
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Could you tell us more about your brand new plant in Béziers?
We
decided to set up the new plant in Béziers, within the O-I (Owens-Illinois)
site because it was the only furnace which was not supplied with
cullet by a glass recycling plant. This caused important transport
costs. The new IPAQ plant which will be inaugurated in June has a
number of particularities. Cullet (recycled glass) will be
delivered straight to O-I’s silos on a conveyor belt. We don’t
need a truck anymore to deliver it: this is unique in
Europe
. Furthermore, the new plant is equipped with a dry-process rotary
kiln for the glass powder, and this equipment is also unique in
the glass industry. The kiln will eliminate moisture and all
organic residues that otherwise would give off carbon dioxide in
the furnaces. O-I should incorporate some glass powder into the
burden together with cullet. The glass powder will also be
provided to a glass wool company.
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Have you tried to run the new facilities yet?
Yes
we have. We started on May 15th and the results of the
tests are really good, especially in terms of quality.
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What is the estimated local container glass pool for IPAQ Béziers ?
We
estimate that about 60 000 to 80 000 tons of raw
container glass will be collected in Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur
and Languedoc Roussillon each year. We wish to have it developed
substantially.
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Will
you have IPAQ Béziers certified with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001
standards like the two other
plants ?
Of
course. We plan to have the plant certified with the ISO 14001 (Environment
Management System) standard in June 2009 at the most. It will be
soon followed by the ISO 9001 (Quality Management System)
certification. Besides, we are in contact with Béziers
metropolitan community to make our plant an industrial place of
interest to be visited.
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What
are IPAQ’s next challenges to come?
Our
2009 targets deal with IPAQ Lavilledieu : we are planning to equip
the plant with the latest technologies to make it even more
efficient. In 2010, we should re-build IPAQ Izon to get a total
processing capacity of 160 000 tons up to more
than 300 000 tons per year. Furthermore, we should equip with
colour sorting machines. I also have another project about setting
up a glass powder crushing unit…
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