Olaf Fennis - Manager Engineering at Renewi 

Olaf Fennis is an environmental technologist with twenty years' experience in the waste industry and has been with Renewi since April 2021, where he now holds the role of Manager Engineering. "A few years back, I was asked to set up my own engineering team within Commercial Waste. We are currently working on projects involving large technical components. This takes a lot of engineering work to be successful," Olaf says. "We are looking for people who fit our business. You have to be used to conceiving, developing and assessing large process installations, being creative and collaborative." 

Technical projects require creativity and collaboration 

Within Team Engineering, it is largely about creativity and collaboration. "Consider, for example, a plant that turns concrete blocks into granules, a complete sorting plant that extracts various types of wood, rubble, plastic and paper from industrial waste, or upgrading an existing unpacking line for out-of-date materials. They are often existing techniques, but it is precisely by creatively combining different parts and working together that makes this so high quality." 

Smarter waste sorting with Artificial Intelligence 

"Another project we are working on is automating sorting work processes through Artificial Intelligence. With a team of specialists (engineers, data and IT specialists), we establish a vision of what we want to achieve and how we will achieve it. We then work out a complete roadmap, including conducting tests that demonstrate the (im)possibilities." 

Renewi's distinctive approach in Tech & Engineering 

Renewi stands out from competitors in thinking ahead. "I am convinced that we are stronger in conceptual thinking: from customer at the front end, to suitable technical installations, to customer at the back end and the associated collaboration with colleagues who interact with customers who ultimately buy our products rather than others. And future-proofing that approach." 

Working at Renewi: engineers with a passion for sustainability and technology 

What makes working at Renewi fun is the space to follow your passion. Whether it's your passion for sustainability or simply engineering. At Team Engineering, freedom is created for engineers to engage with engineering in an innovative way with a view to the future of making more and more products from waste. 

Growing within Renewi: from trainee to project manager  

There are also opportunities for advancement. A great example of this is Ruud van der Vrande, who once started as an intern and is still at Renewi today. In fact, he is working on the implementation of his own project to use advanced technologies to process even more plastics into new raw materials at even better quality. Currently one of the most important projects within Commercial Waste that began with the simple question: 'How can the plastic recycling process be improved?'