Upcycling and the circular economy: keeping your business safe

The upcycling and recycling sector faces unique challenges in an increasingly complex insurance market. Insurance conditions are becoming tighter, premiums are rising and some risks are growing harder to insure. Our experts understand these realities and will work with you on strategic and innovative solutions to make your activities insurable.

Fire insurance

Companies that upcycle or recycle are at greater risk of fire due to self-heating of stored waste, batteries, gas cylinders and other hazardous materials. According to BARPI (the French Bureau for Analysis of Industrial Risks and Pollutions), 80-90% of incidents in the waste sector are fire-related. As well as ordinary fire damage, the fire insurance policy also covers related risks such as environmental damage due to malfunctioning filtration systems and explosion damage.

Loss of profit insurance

A fire or other incident at your recycling centre often has far-reaching consequences. As well as material damage, there are operating losses due to downtime, and contractual penalties may have to be paid to customers.

Loss of profit insurance is essential for businesses, because it covers lost revenue and additional costs. This includes compensation for:

• Loss of revenue for a predetermined period of installation downtime
• Additional costs of alternative waste processing
• Contractual penalties for breaches of processing contracts
• Reputational damage if incidents have a public impact

Environmental liability isurance

Companies in the circular economy typically work with potentially hazardous substances and are at risk of causing environmental contamination. Environmental liability insurance protects you against third-party claims and remediation costs. Cover is provided for both acute contamination (for example, due to a fire or explosion) and gradual contamination that is only discovered over time.

Machinery breakdown insurance

Recycling equipment such as shredders, presses, sorting machines and conveyor belts is vital to your business operations. Machinery breakdown insurance protects against unexpected damage to these valuable installations. Consequential financial loss can also be covered. This is especially advisable for machinery on which your processing process depend.

Don’t yet have a comprehensive fire prevention policy for your company? Policy outdated? We’ll be happy to design a policy together with you, taking account of:

• Risk audits of all operating sites
• Detection and extinguishing systems (infra-red detection, automatic water cannons)
• Maintenance policy and traceability of critical installations
• Training and simulations for personnel
• Business continuity planning

Our technical experts will identify specific risks such as self-heating of stored materials, risks relating to batteries and gas cylinders, vulnerabilities in filtration systems and fire load and spread. This assessment guides the risk prevention approach for all your sites and takes all fire prevention requirements into account.

We like to make things as easy as possible for you. VanbredaConnect is our online customer platform that meets your digital expectations. It enables you to manage your policies online 24/7 and to submit and track claims. Simple and transparent.