Karsten Woidtke and Ulrich W. Husemann are looking ahead to the future. All aspects of their business should become more digital. Even more modern. And even more customer-friendly. Woidtke and Husemann are the managing directors of Entsorgungsbetriebe Essen (EBE), one of the many successfully run public private partnerships (PPP) that REMONDIS has been involved in for many years now. EBE is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
More modern, more cost-effective, more customer-friendly: those were also the reasons why those responsible at Essen city council decided to create a PPP for their waste management division 25 years ago. “The Stadtamt 70, as it was called back then, was responsible for waste management and street cleaning services until 1999,” Husemann explained during a meeting at EBE’s head office in Essen. This ‘Stadtamt 70’ was an administrative unit with a conventional mindset; a cost centre inside the administrative machinery of a large German city. “A lot of time was needed back then to make decisions,” Husemann continued. “Being set up as a private limited company enables us to be far more flexible and to react more effectively to changes on the market.”
Ulrich W. Husemann (l.) and Karsten Woidtke, managing directors of Entsorgungsbetriebe Essen (EBE)
The city councillors’ two main goals at the time was to have a more professional waste management business with less red tape. Within a short period of time, they had decided that they wanted to set up a private limited company as this would enable decisions to be made more quickly and create advantages in the areas of financing and procurement. What they did not want, however, was for the city council to continue running the waste management and cleaning services by itself. They wished to bring in a private-sector partner with the required specialist know-how to make the waste management and cleaning services in Essen more customer-friendly, more cost-effective and more efficient. After the council had transferred 49% of the shares to a private-sector partner, REMONDIS then became part of the joint venture at a later date after it had taken over this 49% share.
The public and private sectors: REMONDIS PPPs unite the best of both worlds
EBE is one of many very successful public private partnerships (PPP) that REMONDIS has been involved in across Germany since the 1990s. For the most part, the local authorities are the majority shareholders in these joint ventures. They normally retain a 51% share so that they have overall control as local political requirements always need to be taken into account in the day-to-day business of such companies. At the same time, REMONDIS injects the experience of the whole of the REMONDIS Group into the partnership.
Over three million euros of profits – and, of course, EBE’s local business tax contributions – flowed into the city’s public coffers in 2021 alone that could then be used to help renovate schools and finance the city’s public transport network.
The relationship between a private-sector company and a public-sector partner is not always easy. But even the best of marriages hit an occasional bump in the road. What is needed during such times is to talk to each other, to reach out to one another and to look ahead. This is precisely what REMONDIS and the City of Essen have done over the last 25 years. They have succeeded in creating an economically stable business that delivers customer-friendly and community-oriented front-line services that not only benefit the local inhabitants but the city itself as well: over three million euros of profits – and, of course, EBE’s local business tax contributions – flowed into the city’s public coffers in 2021 alone that could then be used to help renovate schools and finance the city’s public transport network.
Furthermore, EBE provides around 1,100 people living in Essen with a secure job at a good employer: “No matter how long our shift may be, we always have a smile on our faces,” sang refuse collector André Fuest at his employer’s 25th anniversary celebrations. This satisfaction among the workforce is also reflected by the high staff retention rate – something that can also be put down to the fair working conditions and good pay. “We pay our employees in line with the TVöD, i.e. the collective labour agreement drawn up for the public sector. That’s more than is paid elsewhere,” Husemann explained.
Focusing on the common good and on cost-effectiveness
As is the case with REMONDIS’ other PPPs, EBE did not achieve its economic stability by lowering costs but by systematically aligning its business to meet its customers’ needs. “Instead of running a company intent on simply cutting costs, we developed new fields of business. What additional services can we offer? Where can we do additional business in the city?” Woidtke said. “Our goal is to be the No 1 service provider in Essen for street cleaning, bin collections and waste management.” Additional business was created with the company’s subsidiary ESBE, which primarily focuses on the commercial and retail sectors. “At the end of the day, we wish to provide services that are clearly good value for money,” Woidtke stressed.
This additional income is also used for the company’s core business (i.e. the service agreement with the City of Essen covering refuse collection and street cleaning services), which means that it also benefits the city’s local inhabitants. “We offer Essen’s residents a special service. We provide them with a full range of services that guarantees all volumes of residual waste will be collected – something that is particularly important considering demographic change,” Woidtke continued. What’s more, EBE has increased the number of households that have a wheelie bin for old paper. It has, therefore, become much easier for many local inhabitants to separate their old paper from the rest of their waste.
Cherry picking at its best: choosing what’s best for the local market
In many cases, EBE is only able to offer the services it does because it is a company owned by a public sector partner and a private sector partner, making it part of two corporate groups – the REMONDIS Group on the one hand and the City of Essen with its many municipal firms on the other. “Here at EBE, we can choose which solutions and services make sense for our business,” said Woidtke explaining the advantage of a PPP.
Just one example here is the LooperCollect service for collecting old textiles, which EBE launched together with REMONDIS and NEUE ARBEIT GmbH (a non-profit organisation run by Diakonie Essen) at the beginning of September. Essen’s residents can book a collection appointment online. The textiles are then picked up either by the Diakonie employees or by EBE in their electric vehicles. These used textiles are then pre-sorted by NEUE ARBEIT, washed and/or repaired if necessary and then sold in one of Essen’s five social department stores for a low price. Clothes that are not suitable for resale are further processed into raw materials or sold on the international market. “One of EBE’s tasks is to collect old textiles in Essen and so we were more than happy to work together with LooperCollect as well,” said Husemann. Cherry picking at its best.
EBE, however, not only benefits from having REMONDIS as its shareholder but also from the City of Essen’s own group of companies – including when it comes to finding qualified staff. University graduates, for example, spend time at various joint ventures owned by the City of Essen – something that sees them working for several months at EBE as well. The same is true for the ‘high potentials’ that start working at REMONDIS. “If it weren’t for the networks that these two large groups have, these young, highly qualified people would probably not consider working at our company,” Woidtke believes.
Digitisation delivers fair, resident-friendly waste management
Over the past 25 years, EBE has trained around 300 apprentices in a wide variety of professions. If the company is to continue developing its business, however, then EBE also needs highly talented people that it is unable to train itself.
This has meant that digitisation is becoming increasingly important at EBE. “We launched an ID system at the beginning of the year that makes the fees fairer,” Husemann said. To enable this modern, digital identification system to be used, EBE’s approx. 220,000 grey, brown and blue bins were fitted with small transponder chips and barcode stickers. These allow each bin to be allocated to a specific address. The ID information is scanned, read and recorded by a device when the bins are emptied. This data is then transmitted to EBE. “Thanks to this new system, we can now measure and demonstrate the quality of our services,” Woidtke concluded.
Essen’s residents have been able to use a further digital service for a few weeks now: as part of its ‘digital recycling centre’ project, EBE is testing a recycling point that can be used with an app until 10pm. Users can download the ‘MAEX’ app developed by REMONDIS Digital, sign up to the service and then book a time slot to hand over their recyclables outside the normal opening hours. “This free service is particularly convenient for working people as it gives them greater flexibility as to when they can hand over their recyclable materials,” Husemann commented. EBE plans to test this project for six months to see how the residents embrace and use this service. The first few weeks were certainly very promising.
Both Husemann and Woidtke are convinced that digitisation will continue to change waste management logistics in the future – making it more digital, more modern and more customer-friendly. And both EBE managing directors believe that this is what waste management will be like in Essen in the future as well. Essen’s mayor Thomas Kufen congratulated the company on its 25th anniversary and reiterated his belief that EBE has a strong future ahead of it in his welcome speech: “Let us all continue to work together to create a town that is clean and a great place to live in!” These are words that we most definitely agree with.
Here’s to the next 25 years of EBE!
Essen’s mayor Thomas Kufen at the opening of the digital recycling centre
Image credits: image 1: © EBE, Freepik: hannazasimova; images 2 – 5: © EBE
