Cooperation for northern expansion
The partnership between ZAK (Zentrale Abfallwirtschaft Kaiserslautern) and the REMEX Group has been in place since 2013. At the time, the aim was to build a landfill on top of an existing landfill in the Kapiteltal valley. Now the landfill site is being expanded by 14,800 square metres to the north-west, creating an additional storage volume of 865,000 cubic metres.
However, the planned landfill area was occupied by the waste transfer facility. A new location had to be found and created for this facility. Household waste incineration ash was used for this purpose. ZAK and the companies commissioned by it are responsible for this measure. The materials are supplied by REMEX.
Challenging terrain
The new transhipment facility will be built outside the landfill body on a water-impermeable surface. For this purpose, the area on which the hall will stand had to be prepared. But that’s not all: a sloping plot of land measuring up to 24 metres had to be backfilled. As a result, the entire site fill had to be not only sufficiently load-bearing, but also resistant to settlement. The requirement was that the entire site must not only be sufficiently load-bearing, but also resistant to settlement. The specifications for the soil mechanical properties of the fill material were high. In addition, the material had to be homogeneous both on the steep slope and in the course of the large-scale site fill in order to avoid different settlements on the surface.
Secondary construction material
As the lowest construction level is sufficiently far above the highest groundwater level, incinerator bottom ash classed HMVA-2 according to the German Secondary Aggregates Directive was permitted. REMEX SüdWest GmbH supplied the quality-controlled HMVA-2 ash from March 2024 to September 2025. In total, 160,000 tonnes of 0/32 mm grain sized material stemming from the processing plant in Mannheim was transported to Kaiserslautern.
The next steps
With the completion of the 8,500 m² plateau, the space for the new waste transfer facility has been created. Its erection has already begun, along with work on connecting it to the ZAK infrastructure. Once this has been completed, the old facility can be demolished and the capacity gained can be developed for landfill purposes, extending the life of the 90-hectare landfill site by four years.
The cooperation between ZAK and REMEX for the expansion of the Kapiteltal landfill site ensures a functioning waste disposal infrastructure in the region based on resource-saving and sustainable construction materials.
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